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Like I've said in the past, you know, one color line just does not completely encompass all of the specific little things that, you know, we could put together to create the ultimate toolbox.
But for certain situations now first, I wanna talk about your back bar.
You know, we start the fading process instantly as soon as we take that color client over to the sink.
Now I've I've said for years and years, and if you've been in my classes, you know, no name on a tube of color makes you a better colorist, no name on a tub of bleach, no name on it. We have to be educated as to what we're doing so we can work it out through our head, you know, in the common sense sort of way, the chemistry sort of way, and the creative way. So we have all of these things going on at the same time. But as soon as we take that client over to the sink to rinse her hair, we are fading our color. First off, hot water, rinsing hot bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
We should be doing as cool as she can stand because for all the time and money we just spent putting that color on and her sitting processing, we want to make sure it's in, it lasts, we don't have fading. Fading being the number one reason we lose a color client. We gotta start from minute one as soon as we're taking down that color. Cool water, cool water. Then we shampoo it.
If you do not have a pH balanced shampoo, and I mean pH balanced four point five to five point five to our hair because shampoos can run crazy high in pH. We're gonna take out some more color. Not to mention, why are we shampooing out color that we are trying to get in? It's never made any sense to me. It's not common sense, it's not logic and it's not how the chemistry works. So we have to do it right there. We have to start getting better right there.
So we start better there. What we do as soon as we take down color, what we use for styling products on that fresh color, you know, make sure we have pH balanced styling products four point five to five point five, alcohol free styling products because alcohol is such a big color killer. What we do after that with the blow dry, our flat irons, flat irons and hot tools. Worst thing you can put on fresh color, it will alter your color a level to two.
Okay. So we're we're fading it like crazy before she even gets home and God knows what she's doing at home. What products she has? Does she take hot showers? How much hairspray is she using every day? And when it fades, they don't blame any of those things, they blame us.
So we gotta start doing this better from beginning to end. So there is a product that I feel very strongly about that's gonna save so much of this for us and it's this one right here.
If you can see it, this is h e d retain.
Retain is a conditioner that lathers.
Genius.
Genius for us as stylist and colorist. So at the sink, soon as we take her to the sink and we start rinsing with this cool water as she can stand, we need to use a conditioner.
A conditioner is more acidic than shampoo. So we're really starting to try to bring, the hair back to its pH level.
You know, it's going to help start bringing it back down. It's been high because we've had an alkaline product on it and we need to close it down so we can trap the color inside and stop the fading really right from the very minute that we're doing it. Cool as she can stand and we use this. This at your back bar.
Conditioner starts to little bit of lather, it's gonna clean off anything stuck on the outside. So the cool water starts to bring it down, the conditioner starts to bring it down and then we're just kind of rinsing off lightly anything stuck to the outside or the cuticle of the hair. That's all we wanna do. We don't wanna do hot water and then shampoo it and pull all this color out. It's crazy we're doing so much fading right then.
For the fashion clients, for the ones who do like hot showers, for the ones that are doing all the wrong things at home.
This is a great take home product for people who are fading and constantly complaining about their fading. They should be doing this at home. They might alternate this product with their shampoos. Shampoo one day, use this next.
Shampoo one day, use this next. It's going to save their hair from fading. Perfect example, you buy a new shirt, you wash it every day. It's going to fade.
And the shirt's fabric is going to wear down as you shampoo as you wash it every day. But if you could do, you know, wash it one day and wool light the next and wash it one day and wool light the next, think about how much more miles that shirt will get. The color will stay longer. The fabric will hold up better.
And this is exactly what this product is. It's going to buy time to their hair and hair color. This is also a great product for people who don't like to wash every day. They like the second day look better.
You know, they wash their hair and they they can't do anything with it for a couple of days. This is a great alternative to those people who don't like to shampoo every day.
All of our fashion colors, our reds, our coppers, all of those colors that tend to fade more.
And really it's not that they actually fade more. It's just when they do fade, the color changes so drastically from a brown just fading a little bit to a red just fading a little bit. The the the visual effect of that seems so much greater with the fashion colors than it does with the with the browns. This is a great product for them.
So as a as a professional aspect of what you're doing in the salon at the sink, taking down your color and for them at home. If we can cut the fading just a bit for them, make it last just a little bit longer, we're not gonna have so many clients going over the counter for color because they're aggravated. They spend all the time, they spend all the money, and it doesn't get through to the next appointment and they're getting aggravated and frustrated. So halfway between that when it looks like hell and they're in the supermarket, they're gonna grab a box.
They're watching it on TV and in commercials and they're seeing it all the time. We gotta change a little bit of what we do, really follow through. Really make good client notes when you're doing the the consultations. Asking them, does the fading bother you?
And if it and if she's like, yeah, I can't stand it. Send her home with this. If it's a client who's saying, no, not really. It doesn't seem to bother me at all, then we don't need to do all of the craziness.
But at least we need to know how to target, how to fix, and solve some of these problems. But this is a, a product that needs to be in the toolbox.
You're taking down any of your color, this is the way to go. This is also available in back bar size. And it is the perfect thing back there that to take down your color. Now with that said, let's talk about lightener.
Lightener is not color.
Lightener is a chemical that we lightened hair with. I absolutely wanna shampoo that out. I absolutely wanna rinse it and shampoo out the lightener. But I'm not taking out color while I'm doing it. It's two very specific things. Two very different specific things. One is you're taking out color and one is you're just washing out the chemical.
This is for taking down color, taking taking out color at the end.
Lightener, use shampoo. So understanding what you're doing when you're doing it, which product to use when you're doing it, it's not a lot. It's a very simple thing. Once your toolbox is set up, you have all the specific things you need for all of these situations, and it doesn't break the bank.
You don't have to buy ten thousand things. Your back bar shouldn't look like a a store with, you know, twenty bottles back there. There should only be a couple of things back there that you need specifically. This is one, a good purple shampoo, a good clarifying shampoo, and a good everyday conditioner.
That's it. That's your back bar and you're going to use them for specific things being trained in it. And it's amazing when you get such a good grip on your toolbox, what you're doing that day, which tools you need for that specific client because it shouldn't be the same for everyone.
We have to stop this one size fits all thing.
That's what, you know, hairdressers who put on hair color do. One size fits all. Colorists have a toolbox and we understand exactly what we need, for each specific situation.
This is a great one. You cannot go wrong with this at your back bar, and retailing it to clients who are having issues with fading or their hair is damaged or they have sensitive skin or, you know, the shampoo bothers them. There's so many things out there that this can take the place of. It's amazing tool.
There's not enough of them out in the market for us. Love this one, h e d retain. Make sure you get it. For a full understanding and a full class on all this, go to the library.
Watch Legally Blonde.
We go through all of these different products, all of the tools that we need for blondes for the things that we're doing.
This one right here, love it. Take it home. Try it. You'll love it.