c/hairdressers

Warning: My area's water quality is ruining bleach jobs

I gotta tell you all about a big problem in my neighborhood. The water here is super hard with minerals. It's making bleach jobs go totally wrong, like uneven or brassy. My buddy at a local salon had clients come back with orange streaks just last month. Another place fixed it by adding a water filter to their system. If you work around here, test your water or use a product to balance it. Seriously, don't skip this or your clients will be mad.

My salon's seen a spike in men asking for texture perms

Men are choosing textured styles much more now.

The time a client asked me to cut her dog's hair

Had the weirdest thing happen last week. A regular client brought her little fluffy dog in and straight-up asked if I could give it a trim while she got her highlights done (I'm serious). I had to gently explain that's not really in my wheelhouse, and also probably against health codes. It got me thinking though, I've had a few people lately ask about pet grooming or even kid's first haircuts as a package deal. Feels like the whole 'pampering' idea is expanding way past just people hair. Maybe it's just my area, but it's a funny shift to notice.

My trip to Japan showed me how they layer hair differently, it's so much faster lol

Why does nobody talk about how long some color processes actually take?

Had a client come in for a vivid purple dye job last week. The pre-lightening alone took over two hours to get to the right level, and the color deposit needed extra time to set. We ended up pushing back my next appointment cuz it ran so long. Now I block out way more time for any fantasy color requests.

The time a parrot copied every snip sound I made

It cheered for each clip like a tiny coach!

PSA: I discovered a way to maintain shears at home that actually works

Turns out, a quick pass on a leather belt every month does the trick. My cuts have been smoother since I started doing this.

Rant: Overuse of heat tools at the mall salon is frying hair

I keep seeing clients with brittle ends from that place. Maybe warn people about too much flat ironing.

That moment a shy regular went for a drastic layer change

I gently pushed her to try layers instead of the usual trim, and she left beaming. Some say we should always suggest new ideas, others believe it's better to just follow requests. How do you handle this?

Sorting my spice rack at home clicked with how I group my perm solutions

I was organizing my kitchen spice rack over the weekend. It hit me that sorting spices by use is like how I should arrange my perm solutions by strength. Now at the salon, I've redone my cart so all the mild perms are together, and the strong ones are separate. It's cut down my mix-up time and made clients happier. Sometimes a simple home task can give you a fresh eye for work.

Frustrated with myself for ruining a bob by not sectioning properly

One messed-up haircut showed me that sectioning is key.

Hot take: Salons skipping sanitizer between clients are reckless.

I saw it happen at a shop down the street. It's basic safety and they're ignoring it.

Warning: I thought thinning shears were a cheat until a mentor showed me their art

For the longest time, I saw thinning shears as just a quick fix for bulky hair. Then I watched a seasoned stylist use them to blend layers with such subtlety that it looked completely natural. What's one thing you were wrong about in your early days?

A year of perfecting food-based hair treatments paid off this week

So, I've always been fascinated by how kitchen staples can double as beauty products. It began when I ran out of deep conditioner and used mashed banana on a whim, which was messy, but my hair felt great. That got me thinking, and I started testing combinations, like yogurt for moisture or coffee grounds for volume, though I admit some early attempts were more like culinary disasters. I even got some skeptical looks from clients when I first introduced these natural masks, but I kept at it, adjusting recipes based on how their hair responded. After a year of tweaking, I finally have a set of treatments that clients genuinely love, with one regular this week saying her hair hasn't felt this healthy in years. It's a small milestone, but hearing that feedback really validates all the experimentation. It just goes to show that sometimes the best solutions come from outside the traditional salon shelf, you know?

After trial and error, I nailed the tension comb technique for precise cuts.

It completely changed how I approach layered styles.