How do I find a good haircutter/colorist?

I got a question from reader Stephanie who asks “So, for all of us who don’t live in Portland and have to accept the fact that you can’t cut our hair, how can we find a really good stylist/colorist? I mean really good. And, don’t tell us to find someone whose haircut you like and ask them who does it because it doesn’t work in Indiana.”
Stephanie no one thing can tell you, for certain, that someone is good unless you are working in a salon with that person and you know what you are doing. There are exceptions to every rule. I have taught students that come right out of beauty school that have amazing natural talent and I have seen people who have been very uncoordinated work hard and eventually become great. There are, however, a combination of things to look for when trying to find someone new to do your hair. The more of these items you can check off, the more likely you are to find a good stylist. Orlando Pita, for example, has done Madonna, Gweneth Paltrow, half of Hollywood and probably every Supermodel working has never had any formal training. I sat in on two classes with him and he is just a natural artist. If you listen to rule number one as gospel you would lose an amazing talent so consider this a rough draft.
1. Your stylist should have formal training. You can always inquire about your stylist’s education. Someone who attends the local beauty academy and does not continue his/her education will often leave you disappointed. Look for hair cutting education from: Toni & Guy, Vidal Sasoon, Bumble & Bumble, Aveda, Jamison Shaw, Paul Mitchell etc. If your stylist travels to attend classes it generally means they are serious about their craft and are willing to keep their skills honed. Someone who came from a formal apprenticeship can also be good since they learned more hands on.
2. Your stylist works in a salon that has a website. On that website the mission statement of the salon details something to do with education. If the focus of the salon is education related find someone in that salon that teaches the education. They are the technical and creative engine that keeps a staff fresh. Chances are they are going to know what the hell they are doing.
3. Find a salon that carries a high end product line. Kerastase, Bumble and Bumble, and Shu Uemura usually will only partner with top salons. You can check their website and find out if anyone near you carries those lines.
4. Your hairstylist should have some personal style.
5. Your stylist has had at least a few years behind the chair.
6. When having a consultation look for someone who shows interest, asks you questions about your hair (not just “so what color?”), and has a few ideas of their own.
7. Without risking your hair you can always book a blowout or just have a consultation with someone before they cut/color you. From there you can ask them lots of questions. Most stylists provide free consultations to new clients. If you don’t feel it’s a good match thank them, take a card, go home and try someone else.
8. You can read reviews on yelp.com.  Yelp is a cult for beauty lovers.
9. It might take a few bad stylists to find a good one. When I was an apprentice, my mentor sat me down and told me that if I was going to be sucessful and charge 100 bucks for a haircut I was going to have to be better than 4 out of 5 stylists.
10. Find someone from L.A. who left clients so that he could to move to Portland to start over from scratch, charge half as much and blog about it (okay I guess that requires a plane flight for most of you…)
Good luck on your search
For more about me www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com

Susan Boyle Makeover

I opened up the Oregonian the other day to a story about Susan Boyle and her new $57 dollar makeover. After gaining instant fame on the show Britains got talent, Susan became an overnight sensation. She was mocked for her busy eyebrows, grey hair, and dowdy clothing. It appears she decided to step it up a bit. She colored her hair and started sporting some designer duds. The article goes on to say that her change has sparked a global debate over the nature of beauty. Apparently not everyone is happy with the change.
Who are these people? Susan, I say good for you and your new look. This is $57 dollars well spent. If you watch the reaction to her on YouTube they laughed in her face before she even started singing.
Susan it’s time to come clean, did you read my post from two days ago and decide to change your hair??

$900 Scissors

Today the Hikari Scissor factory sharpening envelope showed up in the mail today. Those who have worked with me long enough can tell you for certain that I am a full on scissor geek. I have either just purchased new shears or I am in the process of planning a purchase. My current baby is the 7″ Hakari Cosmos. They retail for $900 bucks. It’s quite possible I’m crazy. You can cut with them all day every day for about six months and they stay razor sharp until you need to send them for sharpening. This is great for precision haircutting and rather unfortunate when you occasionally sever the knuckle on your middle finger. Talk to most old time stylists and they can show you their battle wounds running up and down the middle and pointer fingers of their opposing hand.
“There is nothing like having the right tool for the job” is the mechanics creed. I find scissors no different. My last salon was designed by what was quite possibly a hobbit. The shelf space was two feet from the floor. In order to reach my tools I had to bend down right in front of my clients to reach them. To avoid this I wore a blue collar style scissor pouch attached to a belt around my waist. This gave me sort of a gunslinger look while I worked….
My current obsession is the Hakari “dragon”. The dragon was designed exclusively for dry haircutting techniques which are all the rage with Japanese hairstylists. I watched the videos of dry cutting techniqes with these shears and they totally rocked my world. I had an opportunity to try them in action during my last cutting class with KMS. They were spectacular. The scissors are hand made using metal that is folded and pounded the same way samarai swords are. They cost $1400. Should you be so inclined to purchase the dragon for me, I would be quite happy to give you a free haircut for life. I will even throw in a complimentary photo of me cutting your hair with the dragon. I’m nice like that.
I have a few razors as well. I like to use them now and again for loose texture. Often clients are frightened of the razor. In the wrong hands a razor can murder your hair. Then again so can scissors. It’s not always the quality of the tool, but the skill of the person using it. One time I executed a beautiful graduated bob on my wife’s grandmother with scissors I purcased for $2.99 at Walmart. If I did two of them that day I would have ended up with carpal tunnel.
On a non scissor related note I would like to issue a big congratulations to my Salon owner Wendy of Tribe Hair Studio. As I am writing this she just found out our salon was nominated for “best salon design” at this years NAHA (North American Hairstyling Awards). We are one of five salons in North America. She and Mehdi will fly to Vegas in July for the awards show. The link to Tribe is on my website at www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com

Maybe you should change your hair

Back in 1988 I walked into Azuree hair salon in Glendale, Arizona and I said to my stylist Debbie “I want you to cut a big shelf in the back of my head”. Late 80′s saw a rise to heavy weight lines in haircutting as well as the start of people carving lines and designs in the sides of heads with razors. Debbie made sure that I had that perfect mushroom look that I was going for. The one where the hair falls right into shelf, with the hair below it scissor over combed up into a short fade. The sides expertly carved out with a razor so that you could see the lightning bolt on the side of my head, even if it only lasted a week until the bald hair grew in.
It was fortunate for everyone who had to speak to me that this style didn’t last. It was soon followed up with the overly gelled Richard Greco “Booker” look, then the unwashed Eddie Vedder, then the Jason Priestley, then the stringy Anthony Kedis, and so on. I was young, but my style evolved.
I once listened to a radio show where a woman who claimed to be a “fashion expert” sounded off on women who were out of style. She said that you could tell what era a woman peaked in by looking at her clothes and her hair. Sometimes life catches up with us and we get stuck in an era or a look. If you look at past pictures of yourself over the last 10 years and you see the same cut and the same color you could be stuck in a rut. Often times it’s not the client but the hair stylist working on them has just become bored. That’s why I often time take weeks out of my year to take classes and study. I NEED you to change your hair!! Why? I’m gonna break it down.
1. Your boyfriend/husband/guy at the office/pool boy etc. will probably take notice. I am fortunate enough to be married to a very hair adventurous wife. She in turn doesn’t mind getting free hair styles. She has seen every cut and color under the sun. Every now and again I change her. “Who’s that hot new brunette I’m with?, oh yea that’s my wife”
2. You gain an opportunity for reinvention. Hair change can have a snowball effect for many women.
Get some new makeup. Buy that jacket. Why because now you’re the chick with the hot bob!
3. You allow the opportunity for self expression.
4. Because it’s fun.
visit my website at www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com

Messy hair

Before leaving Santa Monica for Portland I was told by a coworker of mine that I was going to be doing a lot of “wash and wear hair” when I moved to the Northwest. The theory being that people in Los Angeles blow dry and people in Portland somehow refuse to make friends with their hot tools.
A few years back everyone was blowing it out straight and full with a slight bend on the ends to accentuate layered styles everyone was wearing. Then women started getting bored and texture was back!! Not too much. Just enough to get your curling iron working, just as long as you only curled the bottom half leaving the other half straight. Perm rumors started circulating. “Jeff I want it like straight but curly you know?? Like kinda curly but like straight too..or just like kinda just make me look like Blake Lively m’ kay”. My point is hair was moving toward the direction of being “styled”.
Now Chris McMillan (the guy responsible for Jennifer Aniston’s Rachael) shows up in this months April Allure talking about how the best looks in hair don’t use and heat at all. He says that hairstyles without heat usually look a lot “sexier”. Generally I find that Allure has some of the best hair advice of most of the beauty magazines. Most of the tips they give are pretty solid. I think that Chris has missed the mark here. He says after a haircut he often skips the blowdry and tossels it into shape. $500 bucks for a haircut and no blowdry. Sounds a bit lazy don’t you think? At least he advises them to use some product.
Maybe next month no heat, no product, no comb, no makeup, pajamas. As a matter of fact I don’t think I’m getting out of bed this morning. It’s the “hot new look”

Red Head

She comes in and she wants me to color her RED. It’s her second time in my chair. First time with a client is a bit of a get to know you. Often times it’s just about building that trust. When they come back satisfied, that’s when the fun begins. She has a small black laptop. “Do you mind if I show you some pictures?” She asks. She has 4 inch natural ash regrowth and some old highlights busting through the midshaft.
She doesn’t know it yet but I love pictures. Certain stylists shy away from pictures. It’s usually either A. They do what they want and they don’t care what the client wants or B. They look at the picture and they can’t pull it off. Bring on the pictures! If a client brings me a picture 95% of the time it’s a celebrity. This was the exception. I got a few celebrities and a few non celebs. Enough to get the idea of what she is going for. “do you want it to whisper or scream?” I ask. From our consultation I gather that she wants a subtle red but nothing to flashy, natural, and she wants something warm. She has milky white skin, big beautiful blue eyes, and freckles. In a nutshell she was made to be red. I play it conservative lifting her base up one level with a copper natural and I add a dash of natural in the formula to counter act any orange underlying pigment that might show through. Rise it off. Looks good, really good actually….but it could be better. I layer on another coat of semi perm copper to give her some shine and add a dash more copper. I like to work reds in layers to add dimension even with a traditional single process. I cut a short Jen Garmer side swept fringe. I keep the layers long and classic with a slight face frame She has this great eyebrow arch on one eye. I had the bangs sweep away from so we could show it off. When we were done I thought she looked a bit like Jessica Stam. To maintain she needs a color safe shampoo or possibly a red tinted color shampoo and conditioner. . Marcia Cross told me she used to use Goldwell true copper shampoo. We carry Bumble and Bumble color support so I would suggest that a few times a week. I blew it out with a medium round brush and flat wrapped the fringe with a Paul Mitchell 413 brush. Finish the ends with a dab of brilliantine. It’s a shame she’s moving to Seattle I love doing reds. She wears it well.

Thoughts from a Portland Hair Stylist

What is it about baby fine hair? I had a new client today. Baby fine hair. My wife has it, my kid has it, and today my new client had it. If you have baby fine hair this is what you will tell me. “Jeff I want as much volume AS POSSIBLE.” Even though you didn’t have to tell me this. I already know.
We talked about extensions. That’s an option. We talked about Bumble and Bumble hair powder. That can help. It’s kind of like colored baby powder. It comes in an aerosol can and you spray it on your roots. It does three things. It changes the texture of your hair so that you can get more volume. You don’t have to wash your hair as often, as it absorbs the oils from your scalp. This means you get an extra day out of my blow dry. It can color in your roots if you are grey and in need of a touch up. Most of all it gives you VOLUME. That’s what the fine hair client wants.
I re colored her hair.
I blew it out with a small barrel round brush with B & B Thickening Spray on the roots for some nice volume. Then I sprayed some Does It all Styling spray on the root area and backcombed it. I had all these 1″ sections of hair sort of standing up. Then I went in with a smoothing brush and smoothed the outside of the sections. This gives lift at the root but still a polished look in the mid shaft and ends.
She loved the color and the style but I think most of all she liked the fact that I wasn’t a drug addict like her previous guy. Next Saturday I am going to tackle the cut. It’s a graduated bob with a hole in the outline and problems with uneven sections and a general lack of technical precision. I don’t think fine hair needs a lot of texturizing personally. I prefer a straight line traveling guide section for precision cuts. If I do any texture it’s from the inside out as opposed to point cutting from the outside of the cut in. I find that it leaves your line in tact and results in a better grow out. Starting at the mid shaft of the hair through the ends I remove a small amount of hair working my way sideways down the shaft. It keeps the architecture of your graduation true to form.
The shame about Portland is I give her a monster blowout and the rain starts right as she leaves. See you Saturday.