Does it really matter?

Ok let’s get real for a few moments,

I’m going to explain to you why I am so strict on which home-care my clients use.

Now I understand some of you other hair dressers may not agree with what I do, and i'm OK with that, this is my journey which may not be the same as yours and that's OK we are all entitled to our own journey in our career.

This is how we have chosen our salon to be like, it works for us and most of all it works for our clients.

I’m going to take you back in time about 3 years ago, I was doing a lady’s hair who I had never done before.

Her hair was black, she coloured it at home herself with box dye.

She was using super market products however she couldn’t remember the exact brand ( back then I was ok with that) She wanted to be a lot lighter than she was already and knew it was going to take time.

So I proceeded to do a full head of foils.

I used 6+9 % oxycur goldwell lightener.

( using 9% was and is a normal thing for me to still use to this day on majority of my clients) After I had finished one side of the back, I noticed it was starting to warm up, I figured with the amount of foils it’ll generate quite a lot of heat so I kept going. It wasn’t until I started one of my side sections that I noticed it was too hot, to even touch and a white liquid was starting to leak out of the foils. By then it had been processing maybe 25minutes if that.

I opened one package and it was so light, for 25minutes processing I thought hmm I’d hit the jackpot with this one, I quickly rinsed, It was steaming so hot to even touch.

I kept going with the front.

It did the same thing again.

After 15 minutes the head was processed.. still the packages were hot.

When I got to the basin it was slightly steaming, liquid coming out of the foils I was confused.

I had seen this happen but never really knew what happened or why it happened, god I had been so lucky previously.

I rinsed with colder water than usual to stop any reaction from continuing , the hair seemed to be in good condition absolutely no sign of breakage.

Yet.....

I started my toning as I always would, it was like HELL instantly..

the toner went on and bamm

Her hair was falling out, in clumps. My heart literally stopped.

I know no, her hair never stopped reacting. It was reacting to a chemical called silicone. When powder lightener and certain chemicals touch it creates a chemical reaction which results in - heat on foils, steaming , liquid coming out of the foil packages and breakage.

Everyone bagged me, I had absolutely no salon support. Some say it was the 9% so I started to think it was what I did. I was stupid I now no, none of it was my fault.

I was done with my career in hair dressing. I felt so alone.

I got grilled for what ‘I’ made happen to this poor woman.

So I decided to do some research.. why did this happen to me? I did everything like I always have.

I found other hair dressers who had gone through the exact same, written blogs about it and started doing research on these certain chemicals. I would never let this happen to myself ever again. I have never felt so embarrassed alone and shit at my job before.

What happened that day was out of my control.

It wasn’t my fault nor the clients fault. It was because WE as the hair dressing community were not aware of such reactions. You don’t get taught this at hair school ( and they still don’t teach this ) What have I done to change this, and make it never happen again?

I ask QUESTIONS.

What products do you use? I need names I need details I need everything, this includes shampoo treatments dry shampoos oils you get my drift ?

Have you ever packet dyed your hair? This means 1 year ago 5 years ago 12 years ago I need your whole hair background.

When was the last time your hair was coloured - whether it was a week ago or 12 months ago it’s all important.

Are you on medication / clen / duromine / retin-a etc yes this is important and I don’t care whether your embarrassed about what you are using all I can about is your hair health and yes these questions matter!!

Are you pregnant or currently breastfeeding ? Sounds irrelevant maybe, but this has a huge affect on what happens to your hair while your in my chair.

In-fact all my questions I ask are as important as one another.

So if this doesn’t make you understand the horrific experience, and how I felt nothing will.

What a lot of people do not understand including us hair dressers is we are working with serious chemicals which have science in them. We are working with chemical bonds, PH LEVELS and more.

Now when I was an apprentice I often saw liquid leaking out of foils or steaming foils and we all thought nothing of it. I remember going to salons as a teen and they never asked what hair care I used, because no one knew what would happen, or if it did happen it was because the hair dresser was shit at their job. I remember clients saying to me “my toner doesn’t hold my hair goes yellow” and I just thought hmm must be something I’m doing wrong. When really she was using low quality products which were stripping her colour and making it go yellow.

Even though what I went through was a awful experience god it made me grow as a hair colourist. I still remember being on the phone to my mum michelle saying I’m quitting this job and my career I’m done, and she said don’t be so dam stupid you learn from your mistake and never let it happen again.

I am now more educated than I have ever been. Sharing my knowledge for 11.6K followers for free. Along with hours of writing blogs with absolute nothing in return from it.

Why? Because I do not want what happened to me to happen to you.

Wether you are a hair dresser reading or a client. I don’t want you to loose your hair or to be the one making him/her loose all their hair because you didn’t want to loose ‘x’ amount of money for that client. I feel like that’s what it comes down too? Not turning someone away because you would rather take their money. Well I can tell you right now I would NOT rather money over hair condition. Maybe that’s because this job isn’t money for me . It’s a passion it’s my life. I have built this empire all on my own. No help. No one gave me my clients I worked hard for it. Now if that means turning you away for 6 weeks while you detox your hair then so be it.

We as a salon have chosen nothing but premium products for our clients to use, after trialing them for a while before opening. We would rather our clients use the products we stock for main reasons like :

if a chemical reaction were to happen or something goes wrong ( colour not taking etc)

or if your colour doesn't last.

Using the products that we stock is safe for us, its insurance for your hair.

And most of all we as hair dressers feel comfortable doing your hair knowing the products you use will not cause a reaction.

Please take what I have said with a grain of salt, take it or leave it.

- Maxi