Have you ever experienced this: you go to the salon so excited to get your hair colored, and you walk out liking it but not loving it because it just wasn’t quite what you wanted? You’re not alone! This happens all the time and the reason why is because YOU, the client, didn’t walk into your appointment fully prepared to ask for exactly what you want.
Here’s what you need to do – it’s quite simple really. Ready for it?! BRING PICTURES. LOTS OF THEM. Scour magazines and celebrity images, and bring them with you to show your stylist. Then be ready to explain WHY you like the color or cut. Why should you prepare like this?! Because not all descriptive hair terms are created equal. ‘Honey’ or ‘caramel’ or ‘ash’ or ‘blonde’ or ‘deep brown’ mean totally different things to you and to your stylist. And ‘bangs’, ‘lots of layers’, a ‘shag’ or ‘rock n’ roll’ also have completely different meanings. To you, ‘rock n’ roll’ might mean Joan Jett; to your stylist, that might mean Gwen Stefani.
Several hair appointments (and stylists) back, I told the colorist that I loved her blonde and wanted to look exactly like her. Since we had a similar base color, she applied her own highlights formula to my hair. It came out ashy and looked gray. It wasn’t her fault. I didn’t use any other pics, nor any other descriptive language like “I prefer golden.” My fault. And I should know better! I was a stylist!
So here’s what I did this time around at my new salon (Mary Todd in Cabbagetown, Atlanta). I’ve been watching The Good Wife for a few months now, and Christine Baranski’s character has the most beautiful warm blonde that I’ve been trying to get back to. I pulled up a good 6 or so pictures of her color and scrolled through all of them a few times with my stylist. AND I used the words ‘warm’ and ‘golden’ to explain why I liked her look. That let her know that my idea of warm and golden was Christine Baranski. We were on exactly the same page before she even mixed the color. And I got exactly what I wanted.
Try it next time you go to the salon! You’ll be glad you did!
P.s. looking for inspiration to finally get bangs? Or how about affordable haircare?
