Jeffdavidsonhair's Blog

This Blog Has Moved

jeffdavidsonhair — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:12:35 +0000

My blog has moved

All new updates can be found on my website at
http://www.portlandpearldistricthairsalons.com/blog/

Tribe Wins Best Design

jeffdavidsonhair — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:05:30 +0000

This weekend in Las Vegas the North American Hairstylist Awards (NAHA) show was held. The salon I work at “Tribe Hair Studio” won the best salon design category this year.

Tribe owner Wendy Farajami had the stations, desk, furniture, and retail area custom built to her specifications. Our 10 station space features: giant light filled windows, local art, two floors, tall full length mirrors, imported Italian salon chairs, 25 foot ceilings, all in a clean white industrial package.

People often ask me how I found Tribe Studio. Before relocating to Portland from Los Angeles, I visited some of the local salons in the area to see if I could find a place I would feel comfortable in. Tribe had a perfect blend of great design, friendly educated staff, and comforable atmosphere. When I first entered the space, I knew I had found my new home. As a colorist I appreciate the natural light that flows through the window onto the clients hair.

Francine with Pink Hair

jeffdavidsonhair — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:34:36 +0000

When you go into a resturant in Los Angeles, there is a good chance that the person serving your food will be a model slash actor. When you go out to eat in Portland, chances are pretty good that your server has some funky style. I walked into my new favorite local eatery Navarre, to find my sever Francine with some really rocked out pink hair. Not only did she have it colored pink, she had dimensional highlights to boot. She put a big blue flower in there to add even more fun. Francine, my wife and I would like to thank you for remembering our son’s name after having met us only one other time, and providing us with some of the most friendly service Portland has to offer.

If you are in East Portland you should check out Navarre resturant on 28th. They serve up delicious small plates of food with interesting fresh ingredients. They also have a cook in the kitchen that likes to parade my son Milo around the kitchen as if he threw the winning pitch at the world series. If your child starts screaming it’s head off, Francine knows how to create a makeshift rattle out of a small take out container.

See you next week.

Post-It Note

jeffdavidsonhair — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:38:14 +0000

She walks in. She’s in her mid twenties, attractive, blonde, blue eyed, with perfect skin. When she was in last time for color, she showed me the picture of Resse with the short eyebrow skimming bangs. I agreed that the bang would look great on her face. Today she brings me the same photo. This time she has a small yellow Post-It note attached to it. She looks up at me “I have some questions” she says. I listen closely, as I glance down at the Post-it note that reads as follows:

- eyebrows or above
- Hip, not mommy
- Bald temples?
- Boys?
- longer on edges

I take her questions one at a time. First, I agree that the bangs should hit at about the eyebrows. Question two, I take a small slice of bang in the front and show her the difference between a bang that is modern vs something that might look a bit out of fashion. Question three, “No one will see your bald areas around your hair recession” I say. Then she drops the Question four “If I cut these bangs, will guys still want to ask me out? I haven’t had bangs since junior high.” She says. I’m thinking to myself that I could shave her bangs and eyebrows both off and she could still get a date. “Yes, guys will still ask you out” I reply.

I cut off the first 10 inches as she closes her eyes. I spend a good ten minutes working on the bangs. I take them up a quarter inch at a time. I stop every now and again to pull the length into a ponytail to see how they will fall when she pulls her hair back. Then I blow dry her face to get the small dry hairs that have lain to rest on her eyelashes. I finish and they look great. Her face is opened up and she smiles.

Twilight Boy

jeffdavidsonhair — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:32:33 +0000

I got an email from reader Sam from Indio, California. It reads:

Dear Jeff,
Can you tell me how I can get my hair to look like the guy on the movie Twilight? I tried gel but it made my hair stiff and crunchy. What would you suggest? Also if I have cool hair like his do you think Kristen Stewart would hook up with me?
Sam
Indio, Ca.

Well Sam there are a few ways to go about getting the Rob Pattinson look. First things first, just stop with the gel altogether. Get yourself into a good Pomade. Use something like Bumble & Bumble Sumo Tech, or Osmo Shaper. Look for something with a matte or low shine finish. Take a big clump and work it through your hands. Run your hands through your hair. Make sure you get some product between your fingers so you can get some separation. Style with your hands. Working the product into dry hair as opposed to wet can make it easier to see and control. It also avoids the crispy wet look. Twist a few pieces up and your done. When you get a haircut tell your stylist you want a cut with lots of texture.

I think the above scenero should work for most men since it is easiest. If you find that isn’t working you can try this:…….First move to Los Angeles. Go to a lot of Parties in the Hollywood Hills. Smoke a few packs of cigarettes a day. Stop showering. Stop washing your hair. Throw away your conditioner. Sleep with models. Go to the gym and work mostly abs. Run your filthy vampire hands through your hair a lot. Get a really nice German car. Make sure it’s a convertable. Drive to Malibu with the top down and stick your head out the window. Park the car on the PCH take off your clothes and jump in the cold ocean water. Follow this up with Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray. Drink a fifth of Jack and drive to the Malibu Hills. Your hair should look almost right. At that point you can call Kristen Stewart and see what she says.

Let me know if this works.
Good Luck

Short Layers

jeffdavidsonhair — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:20:40 +0000

I checked out this months Elle magazine. They have a women in rock issue with Gwen Stefani on the cover. Flipping through the pages, I found an interesting similarity in hairstyles between the above shot of Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and Joan Jett and the Runaways. This retro style looks like a bob with a long tail on the back. It’s interesting to see how really short layering was used on longer hair in the 70′s & 80′s.

This decade, these styles saw a small revival by young hipsters in areas like Williamsberg, Brooklyn and Silverlake in East LA. For a period of time in LA this was known as “the Silverlake Mullet”.

Robin Goes P.B.B.

jeffdavidsonhair — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:07:53 +0000

I once worked with this guy named Edward Morgan.. Edward was obsessed with blondes. He had three goals for every woman that sat in his chair.
1. She should wear her hair long
2. She should have a great blowout
3. She should color her hair blonde
Edward had just come from Beverly Hills, where he played Johnathin Antin’s assistant on the second season of Blow Out. For him there was no other color to have in your hair. Edward and I once flew from LA to Baltimore
to attend a class on red hair coloring. Edward spent the entire class telling the world that he didn’t have one red client. When the CEO of the Goldwell Hair color company showed up in the red color class and asked if there were any questions from the stylists attending the class, Edward asked the guy point blank why Goldwell doesn’t make a bleach specially made for baliage blondes. There is a certain kind of woman, who wants a certain kind of blonde. When a woman walks into the salon with a designer handbag and giant Channel sunglasses on and sits in Edward’s chair she will say something like “Edward…..can we go really really blonde?!”
After this Edward might take a stroll over to the color room. If I was in there I would ask him something a typical stylist might say, such as “So, what do you have going on?” That’s when he would bust out his signature
phrase “I’m making her party bitch blonde” he would say. “Party bitch blonde” was reserved for the girls that didn’t want any warmth. No gold, No lowlights, just super blonde.

Today I had Robin in my chair. Robin is a self proclaimed “picky bitch”. She told me before I even started “Oh Jeff I’ll tell you if I don’t like it.” Today she wanted to be P.B.B. Edward would have been so proud. I did manage to sneak one small lowlight into the front of her hair. Midway through putting the foil in the front, she called me out. “Are you putting a lowlight in the front?!!!!!!” I told her that I was just putting my personal tag in her fringe. She calmed down after I assured her I would get her really blonde. After I finished the color she wanted to put the big sunglasses on for the blowdry so she could look like Wendy. This week she is working as a fitness model. She will be ready to party when the camera snaps.

for more about me visit www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com

Redken Amazing Color DVD

jeffdavidsonhair — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:22:44 +0000

Some things in life make you stop and say to yourself “that’s amazing”. Maybe if David Blaine decided to wash down a bottle of pain killers with a few Redbulls, hang himself upside down for a long period of time wearing nothing but a suit of ice. David would do this for a week or two. The whole time he might drink nothing but his own recycled bodily fluid for an audience of curious onlookers. Then he would emerge from the ice suit, tired, broken, and crying like a great big dehydrated baby. He would be comforted by some Supermodel and she would look back at him and say “Amazing!”.

Last night, after Catherine went to sleep, I checked out the “Amazing Color” DVD by Redken. It’s part of a two DVD collection that came with some Shades EQ hair color I ordered. I have yet to finish the disc. It was narrated by a small Asian dude with flat ironed hair and a piercing going through his face. He was dressed head to toe in black. I reviewed all of the laws of color and hair texture chapters. I have yet to get to the amazing part. I did find the DVD a nice review of color basics. I look forward to getting to the really juicy stuff later in the week. That way when you come and sit in my chair, and you say “I want you to do something AMAZING!” I won’t have to put on a suit of ice.

For more about me visit www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com

Wendy Gets Wavy Extensions

jeffdavidsonhair — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:56:28 +0000

This morning Wendy looked at me and said “Jeff, I want a big hot mess on my head”. About 15 minutes after I finished up with Diane’s extensions last week, Tribe Hair Studio salon owner Wendy had me order a set for her. She wanted the wavy version. I had never worked with wavy extensions before, so I was really excited to try them out. I was surprised to find out from my distributor in Los Angeles that this style is not very popular.

Once again I ordered a two different colors of hair. One set matched her natural color. The other set was highlighted a few different colors to add contrast. This set came “precut” since the wavy version is difficult to cut. After I finished with the install I only needed to cut a few inches off of the bottom.

She started out with a basic one length bob with baby fine hair. In the end she ended up with a wild mane of full wavy hair. I had her put her sunglasses on while I put the hair in. This way, I can insure that the extension hair does not interfere with her ability to wear glasses.

Wendy has been doing hair for over twenty years now. She has tried a number of different extension systems. The Nordic Hair has been her favorite so far. Once I finished with them Wendy said “Now you can never leave me”. That’s not difficult since Wendy runs such a great salon. We are now stuck together like peas and carrots.

For your entertainment I have also included this SWEET shot of my son Milo’s Earnie doll. This morning at breakfast I was looking at Earnie and wondering who came up with this crazy puppet hair style. It’s like….. Marine jarhead meets Ricky Martin.

For more about me visit www.jeffdavidsonhairstylist.com I

Full Head of Nordic Extensions

jeffdavidsonhair — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:58:35 +0000

“I have bangs in the back of my head” She said to me during our first conversation. Diane had been to several hair stylists around the Portland area. With each passing visit her hair got shorter and shorter. She read my blog and decided to pay me a visit. We discussed options for fixing her haircut. Most of these involved her waiting a period of time for her hair to grow out while I just trim the ends. Growing out a bad cut can seem like forever. Diane decided the best course of action was to get some extensions to ease her through this process.

I snapped a few photos of her hair and called up my distributor in Los Angeles. We talked at length on her color and the best combination of hair colors to match what she had going on. I ordered two packs of Nordic Hair. One was a medium brown. The other was a lighter multi dimensional highlighted look. The hair out of the package was 18″ long. Since Diane had really short layering in her hair to begin with, we decided it best to cut a good bit of length off of the extensions. After I cut the Nordic Hair it fell about two inches longer than her natural hair. She will wear these for the next 6 weeks. At which point I will take them out, treat them, and then they go back into her hair.

Most people think of extensions as just a way to get long hair. For a majority of clients this is why they choose to do this. For other people like Diane it more important to fill in certain areas to make the hair appear more full. If the layers on her natural hair were a bit longer, she would have been able to wear a much longer style with the Nordic Hair. I think she chose a great length to grow her hair out with.

****I have included two photos of her with shorter hair (her natural)
one photo of extensions before cutting
two photos with her finished and cut Nordic Extensions