What Secret, Master Colorists Bring To The Set: When Call For Mega-Watt Shine Comes In

Wella's "Color Touch" Line of demi permanent hair color

This is hard for me, I will say this is the first 'reveal' from my arsenal of secret weapons. I have not quite stressed the importance & significance of my personal Arsenal of Secret Weapons of Hair, the group I have not had the backbone to crack open yet. Within my arsenal , as with all top Stylists, I have absolute ... undeniable ... solutions to these problems:

• Gray coverage - 100% {hair color formula}


• growth spurt for hair


• off the chart SHINE


• solution for damaged strands


• Recipe for hair conditioner


• Solution to thinning hair for women (just the beginning)

I have a couple dozen of these that I have held back on, waiting for just the right moment to "reveal" to Killerstranders. Its hard...you keep these secrets for an entire career - become known for the dynamic results ... and then ... to do a complete 180 and reveal . . all those treasures. Most of us at this level plan on writing a book, I did. I would still like to. I can see that the level of my tricks are a bit over everyone's head - but I think as soon as you begin to use them and get more comfortable with the vocabulary and techniques you will realize & appreciate them, I hope you listen and learn and realize what a wonderful little treasure most of you have stumbled upon. I still feel this site is one of those rare reasons you THANK THE LORD for the Internet! If you follow my guidance you will have truly learned the upper elite method of tackling hair - hair color and hair health issues - the professional way. I've flipped through some of the other hair books on the market, and either I have done a lot more research than the other colorists/stylists or they are just not doing the "big reveal" as I have always hoped to do. I'm still reeling from just the trauma of writing this reveal, on the flip side I can't wait for you all to try them.

When I wrote the 1st page of this series, I had decided not to tell Killerstranders about the true wonders of Color Touch, so I went off on the Color Charm Demi Line, which is a decent line and have heard nothing but positive results in regards to it. Today, it just seemed ridiculous to keep something like that a secret...what for? Who for? Why not? Its an inner battle I have with myself, I thought I would share, so you see that I am not just rambling off brands and pointless recommendations. That was not, nor is not...the point of this site.

This question has plagued me so, that some mornings I wake up and just think, I am going to list every single secret and get it over with. . . which is equally as idiotic.

All top Colorists/Stylists in the USA, Canada & UK are like that, every last one. We have spent a long time perfecting different formula's - different tricks so when we get that call to color hair for that hair color commercial, print ad, photo shoot or editorial - the hair we color will be the shiniest hair on the planet, or that will be your last call. That is how utterly important it is to have these type of tricks in the arsenal. Wella's Color Touch Line is the line I know dozens of top Colorists (besides me) use, as that one secret hair color weapon that can be surpassed by no other.

We use Color Touch "under" the final color, one way around > "did you use the 'actual' product" you are selling - problem.. We will use it 'over' the final color and call it a "rinse"(hee hee) There have been times I have used just "Color Touch" and the shoot was for a completely different product. That's just Hollywood, boys and girls. I'm not here to blow whistles, photo shoots are not a court of law, there is nothing more phoney than a photo shoot or the production of a commercial.

That being said, let me finish my schpeel on Semi & Demi-Permanent Color.

As I was trying to stress a true semi permanent color is one with NO developer or "activator" they are a DIRECT DYE or PREFORMED DYE...because they color the hair directly 'without' developer. That is how the category needs to stay. Never purchase a semi permanent color that has a second bottle of "whatever liquid" to mix into it...this is one of the single most abused categories by the big hair color companies. Misleading the public by stating their product is a "semi-permanent", because they know full well there is no laws they are technically breaking. But, come on...with the hundreds of dis-satisfied customers I met over the years, you know they had to hear about it over and over at corporate headquarters. Many modern semi's are really oxidation products, Oxidation hair coloring oxidizes. or combines with oxygen, as it processes.

Semi Permanent products color the hair without an oxidation process,they simply stain the cuticle and to some degree the cortex. Being a direct dye they are small enough to penetrate the cuticle, but are much larger than the indirect dyes of permanent hair coloring. It is self penetrating, relying on plain ole absorption to enter the hair. Where the hair is more porous, it becomes more stained. These products are usually alkaline, which increases absorption by softening and swelling the hair somewhat. Heat processing in combination with the use of foils is a terrific tool as well it helps penetration therefore lengthening the staying power.

Demi permanents are basically a hybrid. Part Semi - - - part permanent. A semi permanent with a developer, a no lift (no lighten) permanent hair color.

Advantages of DEMI-PERMANENT color over Semi-permanent hair color:

• greater penetration


• more deposit


• incredible Shine


• better coverage on gray


• natural appearance


• lasts longer


• more intensity


• better overall coverage

Some demi's, depending on porosity may lighten the natural pigment...if that does happen , in my opinion it has reached into the "permanent" line of color.

Use the Figures of Hair to notice the difference in the Cuticle, the Cortex, and the Medulla. . . . and where the color molecules go to on each one. Its easy to see the hybrid of the Demi permanent hair colors.

The primary defining characteristic of the hair coloring categories is duration....how long the color change lasts.

The Demi's are really designed for almost everyone that enters the Salon - deposit-only hair color is a wonderful thing. Demi's and especially Color Touch have a conditioning effect, they shine and bulk up the hair...so just tell me which one of you doesn't want shinier, fuller, more lustrous hair?

This is the secret, we have used for the past 10 years, I am making the entire line of Wella's Color touch available to you. That's how much I believe in it and want you to experience its wonders. If you need a toner, because you're a yellow blond, you want to add some low lights in mink beige, or you want the exact toner that Pink & Gwen use you now have access to them all. Color Touch even has a "SILVER" (another of my secret weapons).... leave this Silver on in foils for 30 minutes with heat, cover with Clairol's Glorious Grey's and this Silver can and will last for 10-14 days! That's HUGE.

Here's a link to one of the 4 online color charts of Color touch.http://www.wellausa.com/consumer/products_consumer/international_line_consumer/color_touch/swatch_charts/classic.jsp Which in no way comes close to doing Color Touch justice.

What I will do........ for $19.00 :

• 1 tube of Color Touch
• plus developer to go along with it
• 1 pair of Gloves -
• 1 Tail Comb to part hair with
• 1 sample of "IN DEPTH" After-Color Treatment

There are 2 choices of developer,

1. "Gentle" for "toning"(7 Volume) or more conservative methods....or
2. "Intensive" (16 Volume) used for gray coverage, coverage, and most other instances.

1 Tube of color should be enough to do 2 heads of hair unless you have very long - thick hair. 1 Color Touch Kit will be $19.00 plus shipping.

I am working on way to better display the colors to you - please send me an email if you are interested Killerstrands@gmail.com

Love Is In The Hair

have not seen a hair cut this luscious in a very long time

5 Hair Cuts : Can You Put The Name To The Cut ?

The Fringe, The Crop, the Mane, the Shag, and the Bob

the next 5 are on their way...

Hair Color Cowboys Go Crazy

Back to the Books

Had a couple over enthusiastic hair color cowboys plow into coloring without realizing this is a serious business, and improper technique can bring disastrous results. As much as I have been thrilled with many success stories, a couple of disasters can erase it all.

It makes me feel like maybe I have failed and did not stress the importance of reading through the entire Blog and all of its steps. Or maybe my explanations were not clear enough. No, I don't have everything posted yet, that will never happen.

There will always be new procedures to bring up-to-date and refresh but the basics are here and if you plan on trying to learn the CRIB COLORIST method you must review the entire blog.

If you are interested in this process I am teaching here , I think I should put it in perspective for you so you understand what an accidental gold mine you have stumbled upon. I bet it was accidental too wasn't it! People spend $40,000. - $50,000. to go to Vidal Sassoon Academy for a year to learn all the information I am delving out here. FREE. Truthfully only top stylists would recognize it, and why would they be looking for it? They wouldn't. That is a pretty damn good deal for all of you and the only reason I am doing it is >

because I am sick. I had a whole other plan, and this sure wasn't it.

So please,

take advantage of this odd occurrence - use it in the way it should be used....correctly. Please, read through the entire Blog, take a week to do it - if it seems overwhelming or 'too much' ... it doesn't take that long and everyone I ask to do that - 'Thanks me' they really do! Absorb and learn it so you have the advantage

BECOMING LLLLLEVEL HEADED

I want to go back and review some of the Level System. Of course in this small arena I have I have not covered it all. I tried to focus on the important parts, but I realize there are additional areas I must cover so the education is more thorough.

What I'd like to do is to get everyone on Killerstrands talking in 'Levels and Tones', as a Sassoon Colorist that's how we roll. Everyone is known by their hair color level & tone, every single person has one, even if they have never colored their hair. So as you go through your day, as you stand in the line at the post office - start guessing everyone's Level and Tone - practice makes perfect

The first task in learning hair color theory is to understand the difference between LEVEL and TONE. These 2 characteristics of Color are the most important and vital to understanding the concept.

Level, I feel fairly confidant that most everyone understands this concept, it simply refers to the lightness or darkness of hair color be it natural or artificial. If anyone out there is having a difficult time with the concept of "Level" I want you to post a comment at the end of this post OR email me so I know. Everyone here needs to be able to name every person in your life's Level/Tone of hair. Think about that. . can you?

Everyone is a LEVEL 1 thru 12 .

I guess the confusing part comes from the fact that as soon as the major hair color manufacturers decide on a basic 8 Tones, one of the companies decides to add a new tone or two, for Pizzazz! As colorists we are never more thrilled when we hear of a new tone coming down the pike. They call that a Lab-Rat, and sadly I may fit well into that category -- what a loser.

Manufacturers Level Systems vary somewhat from one another. Some products have ten levels, some 11, some 12. Regardless of the variations the lowest number will be the darkest color in any given system - highest number the lightest color.

Levels are precise degrees of lightness standardized across the manufacturer's tonal groups. All colors of the same level will have the same degree of lightness or depth, whether natural (neutral), ash, gold, matte, Pearl, Brown-Red-Violet, or any other tone.

To illustrate this, visualize a tall building, black is the basement and white is the penthouse, graduating from dark to light each story a grade lighter than the one beneath it. That is the International Level System, with numbers identifying those grade of dark to light. If you wash this image with a hue, such as gold, then you have a tonal series. Imagine a "black and White" photograph - in that you are only seeing 'Levels" of color. Before color in our TV's and in our photographs we only had this "tonal" look. Its taking one color and going from the dark to light in each.

TONE

Tone refers to the hue of a hair color, be it natural or artificial. The main tones, or hues, of hair coloring are natural,ash,gold & red...although I would add Brown, matt,pearl, brown-red and a few others.

Another point I know I didn't clarify was the labeling of hair color, so when you go to buy that first tube of color you won't be thoroughly confused by what's printed on the end of the box. Manufacturers usually indicate the tones of their colors with letters: 'A' for Ash ....'N' for Neutral and so on. Numbers are also used to designate 'tone', for instance, if ".1" means ASH , then a Level 6 ASH would be a 6.1. That's the method, my European based WELLA line uses and to make it easier on the end of the box it says : 6/01A, so you get both.

Any color can be described in level and tone. If the sky is blue and darkest blue almost navy along the horizon and then graduates up as you look into the sky. Those are also distinctions in "level". The level system pertains specifically and only to haircoloring.

If you are having problem distinguishing between level and tone, give it some more time. It will come to you. Its just foreign lingo.

FYI: the painters use of these words are totally different than the haircolorists and should not be related -- each has different vernaculars.

Damage Control - Save Those Locks

90% of women use hair conditioners -

YET...

75% say their hair is damaged

Come on girls, what's wrong with this picture? Does this show you clearly now... how pointless a daily conditioner is ?

My dream when in the Salon was always to open a HAIR HEALTH SPA. A spa where the one and only concern once you walked in was the health of your hair - not skin, not body...but hair! I've heard of just a couple in the whole United States, just like spa's take care of skin, salons should take care of hair. Hair needs to be analyzed, deciphered and given an RX so the client learns how to take care of it the proper way. I have spent my entire career teaching my clients what I know about taking care of their hair and I seem to be the only one doing it. When I get new clients that come to me from other stylists they have never heard of any of my advice or knowledge, it blows me away. So I hope to impart on the world what I have been teaching my clients for the past 14 years, that works. It really works.

I am in utter amazement 1/2 the time, why am I the only one trying to figure it out?

A stack of surveys notes that 79% of women are on a quest to solve their damage problem, a hefty amount of people in my book.

After spending 2 years learning Cosmetic Chemistry, I came up with what I feel is the one and only deep conditioner that truly does work to repair hair damage: THRIVEN.

After running tests and surveying Clients opinions for 2 years I am confidant in recommending it as a solution not just a cover-up to damaged hair. No, it does not take a completely dead, lifeless & destroyed hair and give it life, that is not possible. There is a line, a line where the hair can be helped - I've argued to within an inch of my life with chemists that don't agree with me...its hard to define in 'words', I can tell you the minute I feel and look at the hair...which is what makes dealing with hair "online" the most difficult for me. So much of it is visual and in 'touch' and I never realized how much until I took this on. When I feel hair I can tell you whether it can be revived or not...you can feel 'life' in it or not.

What THRIVEN does help, is hair that is:

• malnourished


• damaged


• over-processed


• lifeless


• dry split ends


• fragile


• frizzy


• kinky


• over flat ironed


• dull


• not growing

An 8 ounce jar is $50.00, it can be purchased from Killerstrands through PAY PAL, by sending an email to Killerstrands@gmail.com and placing "PRODUCT ORDER" in the subject space. I don't recommend anything I do not fully believe in, have not tested through my "own" research & lab work and most importantly the results I gained from the over 10,000 heads of hair that have sat in my chair .

I have witnessed this conditioner give shine and luster to hair with none - over and over. If you have any of the above problems and apply this conditioner (at least) 1-2 times a week using the "slumber" method, ------> 'sleep' with it in

It will begin to be repaired.

Watch the magic.

* * * * * * * * * I've been asked about the ingredients of THRIVEN. . . if I was being thorough, I would have posted them up-front, my sincere apologies * * * * * * * * * *



To Purchase THRIVEN and info on the Secret Supplement : the cornerstone of 10,000HEADS..... simply click here and visit KillerStrands new Store :
http://killerstrands.myshopify.com/products/thriven