July 24, 2013

How To Avoid Orange (or BLOrange) In Blonde Hair Coloring

There should be no reason for orange in hair color. . . .none...never ever. But there seems to be a lot of complaints about it lately..... It's really pretty simple, if you use a color strong enough to get it PAST the orange stage ... you won't have the problem. 

I need to understand why using highlift or cream lightener bothers you, I just don't understand that one.......?

The following Graphic shows you about
 hair color, orange and how to avoid it !

For any questions on this topic please ask below or join our Group

KC
July 21, 2013

Quit Weighing Yourself ... Weigh Your Haircolor

Many Colorists use a digital scale for mixing hair color and its about time I stress the importance of it to you.
Mixing the precise measurements of developer to color is made more precise by using a digital scale for measuring your hair color mixtures....which are also just as important as the processing times. A digital scale allows for the precise measurements that ensure a constant in your formula & maximize the effect of the hair color chemicals which contributes to keeping a HEALTHY HEAD OF HAIR . The easiest way to obtain the expected results is by strictly following your hair colors' system and weighing the color and the developer precisely by weight - instead of by volume. It really works out best (please don't let this scare you)   I want you to consider starting to weigh in grams instead of ounces. I know it sounds scary because we were not brought up with the metric system - but when formulating any personal care products you must weigh in grams because of how easy it makes life! A great addition all the better scales have is weighing in both so you can switch back and forth


There a zillion and one places to get digital scale's now-a-days . . . . let see. . . why would there be over a million places to purchase scales on the Internet ??? Could it possibly have to do with something illegal ??? Walmart, Target, Macy's online....all have them. I considered carrying the one I like, but the competition is so damn crazy I have decided to just give you a link to places to get them. ( the one I bought a hundred and fifty years ago)  buying them online - so I don't want you to make the mistake I did!

I still remember when I bought my first scale online.....I considered them all........ the price....how they looked and sounded & thought I finally chose the right one. So, don't make the mistake I did.........I spent about $ 20.00 on my first one and it was the size of a deck of cards ! Which only weighed to about 3lbs. Anyway, needless to say I had to purchase another one that was a more decent size and worked well for hair color measuring of all types. Escali makes a great scale and many of us purchased this one in Cosmetic Chemistry class. I have had this scale for over 10 years (knock on wood) and its a champ, simple and works for everything even shipping if need be....Here's the link to purchase it online even !
: http://www.target.com/p/primo-digital-scale/-/A-688856#prodSlot=medium_1_22&term=scales
The new line we are heading for gives some of its very cool beautiful color suggestions and they given in grams! Just trying to get you prepared...!

For Beautiful Hair!

thanks,
 KC
July 14, 2013

Hair Colorist of the Years 's . . .Winning Hair Color

Keep an Open Mind . . . 
                     Hair Color is truly becoming its own Art FIELD.....
                       a true and realistic ART Form ! 

   Its why I got into this field in the first place...
                                             I have this side of me that always must be doing something "Art" based 
                                       and its as if I don't scratch that itch ......it bothers me.  But enough of that ... let's enjoy this ......
                                        I truly think it is a beautiful piece  of ART work ...............

                                              Don't YOU???




July 12, 2013

Level System : Helps You Choose Hair Color Formula

BECOME A CRIB COLORIST 
I would love to see a show of hands, from all Killerstrands readers, as to who had heard of the “Level System” before landing here.level syste,m9
I’m fairly certain, that it would be few . . .  . In speaking to thousands of people both here in southern California and across this great land of ours the Level System is not even taught in the majority of Cosmetology Schools. Just with my little Blog here, I feel I’ve done ‘some’ to contribute to that whole attitude changing.I noticed in the past month many subjects opening up that I truly feel have to do with subjects I have opened up. Take advantage of every single one of them, is my best recommendation.97390255
The similarity between the medical world and the hair world is as about as close as I can come to something to compare the Professional Hair World to. In the medical field you have trained professionals who “hold tight”  all the secrets to repairing (or keeping in top shape) that body of yours. Same in the Hair World  - - the professionals in both worlds never want to ‘give too much up’ to you the public. The medical field ? ? same thing happens . . . I cannot speak for them, but I can understand why they might have to hide things, until they run diagnostic tests to confirm or deny their hypothesis first. Hair ??? The reason is fairly simple . . . if we teach YOU, then why would you need “us” ? ?

Killer Strands BLOG  is here to kick that wall down - -  if I were you I would take advantage of the situation and be a sponge, soak up all the education you can.The Internet has helped me so much with the disease I battle, and I truly wouldn’t know what I would have done without it. Doctors like to keep you in the dark the same way Hair Stylists like to, I’m convinced.

There are thousands of trained hair stylists out there at Salon’s who will NOT try a hair color on you, simply because they have NO IDEA how the Level System works – they “guess'”. Can you believe that? I mean to “guess” at something as critical and as important to people as their Hair Color just seems crazy to me.Had there not be the “level System of Hair Color I can guarantee you I would have turned toward “cutting and styling” instead.72301755 
Once I completed my year of training at Sassoon, I stayed on for another full year of apprenticing – under one of the Top Colorists in the World. That year was spent teaching & Assisting the Advanced Training Courses. These courses were designed to refresh and “update” the Color Skills of licensed Hair Stylists who had been doing hair for years. Being a newbie at the time,  I was absolutely blown away at how little these people knew about the Level System in Hair coloring, how little they knew about the proper method of coloring hair. It had been the only method I learned from the beginning – there was no other "system”  for doing hair color. To this day … I remember asking, “ how do they figure out which hair color or direction to go – without it ?”  Some of these people owned “chains of Salons” back east . . down south – all over the country - -  which is why I am sympathetic to teaching the public. There are just so many of you who have tried every single Salon in the town that you live in and are just tired of having their hair color destroyed or mis-colored.
THE LEVEL SYSTEM IS MANDATORY KNOWLEDGE in charting your plan for coloring your hair.
Whether the goal is Level 1 Black
83000951
or Level 12 – Platinum WHITE
80472245

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER... 
                                          the more you know the less you fear

In every specialty I have pursued in my life, I have found that utilizing the best training and the best teachers on my path to mastering it, was the smartest move.
Remember….”Cowboy Colorist” …………..NO.
CRIB Colorist………………………………..YES
If you don’t know the difference . . .  I would recommend reading the appropriate Posts in the Blog. I have written numerous times about what each of them mean. The number 1 recommendation I give people new to the Store/Blog & Group ? ?
      Begin at the first post. . . skim each and every one. Stopping and reading carefully the Posts that pertain to what you are wanting to learn about. There truly is a “mini-Cosmetology” course here . . .actually something better as I did not hold back . . . so many tricks are divulged pertaining to Hair Color Formulating. Just read the POSTS “by date”  - - keeping track of the day you left off on – returning to it the following day. Guess where I got that idea from…………….YOU. I have numerous people every single week tell me that they have done that. Took me a while but I have finally relayed the message to those of you that have not figured that one out. PLEASE, I encourage everyone to review the BLOG that well. . .  it is a wealth of knowledge in all 3 categories: Hair Health - - Hair Color and Hair products.

Remember the ideas and systems I bring you are all THEORY, meaning it is scientific information that is supposed to work. But with each and every head of hair as different as each of our personalities  – there will never be an EXACT formula that will work for every single person until genetic testing crosses over with a hair company ( which to be perfectly honest is probably not as far away as it sounds)

The Level System
I was told by my mentor that when the Level System came along it replaced the “Dear God’ System with the “Thank God” System, there was finally a “system” of some sort. . .so many years were spent praying to the Hair Gods from above  - - that just sounds sooooo sketchy/scary to me.   
What I would suggest you do is to educate yourself as much as possible by reading every “POST” I have written on the Level System .  Study the Levels . . . remembering as a Crib colorist, you only need to learn YOUR 1 head of hair, while a Licensed Cosmetologist must learn EVERY type of hair. So once you get your base figured out and once you do a couple Strand Tests, you should be able to read how your hair reacts going lighter, darker and/or covering gray and not have it be guess work any longer. 
The factors that make the level System Differ from person to person:
  • Porosity
  • Density
  • Resistance
  • Length
  • Growth Direction
  • Scalp Abrasion
  • Texture
  • Condition
  • Scalp Disorder
  • Virgin Hair Color
  • Strength
  • Elasticity
  • Previous Hair  Color and or Treatments (remember hair CAN be repaired and re-moisturized)

The Level bobble heads990

The LEVEL SYSTEM is:
The numerical system of judging color in stages, or numbers, one level being a measure of light or dark in the hair. The system assigns a number for measuring light or dark without regards to the “tones” I speak so much about. I would encourage each one of you to figure out exactly which Level AND Tone you are.

level 1-aaalevel 3 -ccc


level 5 -eee level 7-gg                 
level 9-lt blonder7                                                         level 11 - KKKKK    hope that helps . . . . 
Visit our store &
 join our Group 
for some 1 on 1 training help from KC                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Killer Chemist
July 6, 2013

Watch Out For Products That Have Formaldehyde In Them - - Please

Avoid Formaldehyde Please

There are Straighteners after straighteners after straighteners, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, Peruvian, they change the name to change you from thinking there is anything bad in them. I know there are some that are not made with formaldehyde.  PLEASE  DO  YOUR  HOMEWORK

Calif. Announces Brazilian Blowout Settlement

Calif. Announces Brazilian Blowout Settlement"This is welcome news for consumers in California, but companies can still use the cancer-causing chemical in their products that are sold throughout the country," said Heather White, Chief of Staff and General Counsel for EWG. "Today's action was directed only at the makers of Brazilian Blowout for products sold in California, but our investigation found 16 companies include formaldehyde in their hair smoothing products. The federal FDA needs to ban formaldehyde as an ingredient in these popular products so consumers and salon workers are not inhaling a known human carcinogen. Period."

The federal Food and Drug Administration warned Brazilian Blowout this past August that their product containing carcinogenic formaldehyde is “adulterated” and “misbranded.”
An April 2011 survey by EWG found dozens of top salons still promoting formaldehyde-laced hair straighteners despite the mounting evidence of the risks to stylists and clients.

 Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Announces Settlement Requiring Honest Advertising over Brazilian Blowout Products 

Monday, January 30, 2012
Contact: (415) 703-5837
SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a settlement with the manufacturer of Brazilian Blowout products that will require the company to warn consumers and hair stylists that two of its most popular hair smoothing products emit formaldehyde gas.
The settlement requires GIB, LLC, which does business under the name Brazilian Blowout, to cease deceptive advertising that describes two of its popular products as formaldehyde-free and safe. The company must also make significant changes to its website and pay $600,000 in fees, penalties and costs.
“California laws protect consumers and workers and give them fair notice about the health risks associated with the products they use,” said Attorney General Harris. “This settlement requires the company to disclose any hazard so that Californians can make more informed decisions.”
Today’s settlement is the first government enforceable action in the United States to address the exposures to formaldehyde gas associated with Brazilian Blowout products. It is also the first law enforcement action under California’s Safe Cosmetics Act, a right-to-know law enacted in 2005.
In November 2010, the Attorney General’s office filed suit against GIB, LLC for violating five state laws, including deceptive advertising and failure to provide consumers with warnings about the presence of a carcinogen in its products.
The settlement covers two products used in a popular salon hair straightening process, the “Brazilian Blowout Acai Smoothing Solution” and the “Brazilian Blowout Professional Smoothing Solution”.
The complaint alleged the two products contained formaldehyde but were labeled “formaldehyde free.”
Proposition 65 requires businesses to notify Californians about certain exposures to chemicals in the products they purchase. Formaldehyde is on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer.
The complaint alleged that that GIB – the manufacturer of the Brazilian Blowout products – did not inform customers or workers that formaldehyde gas was being released during a Brazilian Blowout treatment, and therefore product users did not take steps to reduce their exposure, such as increasing ventilation. Under the terms of the settlement, GIB is required to:
- Produce a complete and accurate safety information sheet on the two products that includes a Proposition 65 cancer warning; distribute this information to recent product purchasers who may still have product on hand; and distribute it with all future product shipments. The revised safety information sheet -- known as a “Material Safety Data Sheet,” or MSDS -- will be posted on the company’s web site.
- Affix “CAUTION” stickers to the bottles of the two products to inform stylists of the emission of formaldehyde gas and the need for precautionary measures, including adequate ventilation.
- Cease deceptive advertising of the products as formaldehyde-free and safe; engage in substantial corrective advertising, including honest communications to sales staff regarding product risks; and change numerous aspects of Brazilian Blowout’s web site content.
- Retest the two products for total smog-forming chemicals (volatile organic compounds) at two Department of Justice-approved laboratories, and work with DOJ and the Air Resources Board to ensure that those products comply with state air quality regulations.
- Report the presence of formaldehyde in its products to the Safe Cosmetics Program at the Department of Public Health.
- Disclose refund policies to consumers before the products are purchased. 
- Require proof of professional licensing before selling “salon use only” products to stylists.
GIB will also pay $300,000 in Proposition 65 civil penalties, and $300,000 to reimburse the Attorney General’s office fees and costs.
A copy of the settlement is attached to the online version of this release at www.oag.ca.gov
July 5, 2013

Nappy, Wirey, Curlie-Wirlie Hair = Best Products Ever

I was having a Conversation in the KS group - which inspired me to write this Post. I was speaking with one of our zealous members who is a die hard fan of a certain line of products, just like me , that are unique, rare and wonderful. The said company is small and focused at curly hairs. Do any of you remember my tip ? ? ? ANYTHING that is made for "CURLY HAIR" is an excellent product for e v e r y o n e. Companies that formulate for curly hair usually have cosmetic chemists that actually 'get it', they understand the problems of hair (all hair) and therefore formulate correctly. The main focus needs to be the pH level of shampoos and conditioners & styling products - and this company has zeroed in on that, which is why she loves it so much ( although she doesn't know that) - but I do.




 I promise, some day soon we will have the "pH" discussion spread out over a couple posts, I think you all will find it fascinating, well maybe not all, but a large majority. I am finding many are becoming more and more interested in the technical parts of the world, which I LOVE! Congratulations. I still laugh when I was worried I wouldn't have enough to talk about - seems absolutely ridiculous now, huh? We have over 5000 readers every day now, I'm so proud of that, guess my writing is not that bad, that's a lot of people.

When looking for a good conditioner....look for any company that designs their products for curly or kinky hair.....I'm tell you they have deep conditioning - WIRED !  !


K I L L E R   C H E M I S T











a

a