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

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.