Even Salon Owners Read This Blog for Hair Color Assistance

Salon owners & Colorists across the country are sneaking around behind close doors reading the Killerstrands Blog....I receive plenty of emails from them asking little bits of info that gives away who they are to me! This Blog continues to approach Salon customers, Stylists and introduce Salon quality hair color and tricks I have learned along the way which many can learn to do to themselves at home. We carry the same lines of Hair color that are carried at the best Salons in the world.

'Many of their clients state they read the Blog and then wonder if I have, say many Stylists.....which leads them to look up the Killerstrands Blog” a New York colorist moaned. Considering Crib Coloring is less than what many women tip their hair colorists, more and more women are starting to give it a try. And for good reason.

Killerstrands answer for superb quality hair color

I am Killerstrands head colorist and know that mass-made boxed hair color is a disaster for just about everyone. I have crafted the directions and the theories behind how to reach a successful hair color -- using the precise formula you will best attain each of your goals.
High-quality ingredients and pigments go into professional hair color, which allows superior gray coverage, along with rich, long-lasting, healthy and most importantly SHINY hair color.

The personalized hair color formulas that you can learn very easily how to come up with can be as little as under $20. That’s a far cry from the $100-$200 plus you’d pay at a salon!

I'm so proud of the 5000 + per day readers we have and how proud of the service we provide for women across the country from small towns where they have no decent Salon's at all to the big cities where the price of a single color becomes both prohibitive and ridiculous sometimes. 
We teach those women how to achieve that specialized color and give them access to purchasing top quality pigments, as so many have wished for!

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Everyone Needs to Try 

Customized color truly makes a difference. It even comes with a tint brush, measuring cup & gloves. 

 KC 

 

What's My Haircolors' D.U.R.P., and What Is The Importance Of Knowing It ?

 D.U.R.P..... HairColor ....  & YOU !

I had a phone call yesterday from a lovely woman, inquiring about calculating her own hair color and what she should purchase & at the end of it was the above Question. So simple so 'to-the-point', that I realized I am missing the point to many of you, for which I apologize. That is the last thing I want to do and maybe it just needs to be explained a couple different ways until many of you absorb the idea. So let me try a different way to see if this works. 

Lets look at the words individually:

Dominant -(strongest, most visible, on top, main, leading)
Underlying -(concealed,cannot see, underneath, hidden )
Remaining -(residual, existent, still there, current)
Pigment- (color, tint, dye, stain)

Please read each of the words to see how the acronym of D.U.R.P. is divided up and shortened for ease of talking about the concept. Acronyms make life easy for speech and texting, but not always for teaching, which is what Killerstrands is all about. I want to educate those of you in the heartland of America in how to Color your hair in a Professional manner. Using professional products, which is a large part of the success you will have.

  Remember the difference between hair color at {that place I don't even like to mention - Sally's} and what you can purchase at Killerstrands Store are the difference between a 20 yr. old Moped and a brand new Rolls Royce. They both do the same thing (get u from one place to another) but in completely different fashion & quality.

When I went to Hair Academy, we called it underlying pigment, and that was it. Is that easier for all of you ? Should we just call it Underlying Pigment? Other schools called it Remaining Pigment, there are a zillion names for it.  I wonder but I truly put a lot of thought into what I thought would be the best name for it, which is D.U.R.P.  Please give me feedback for that down below in comments. Although I would rather just keep teaching about DURP, and maybe continue explaining once a month in another different fashion I will put that in my phone and see how it goes.

This woman I was talking to had read much of my Blog and was educated enough that we could both speak in "the Level System basics" ....(it was quite enjoyable) if you have read enough of the Blog and can talk in Levels I really do not mind a 5-10 minute phone call if you need help picking out your color, or any products, so please give us a call and they will hand the phone to me, if it has to do with color ......"just saying !'' 




Now she asked me how do I figure out what my DURP is?  For as educated about my Blog as she was, I was very bummed that she hadn't figured out what her DURP was and that it seemed so difficult to her.  Now, if this is you....please pay attention as I try to deal with it.  First of all she only had 20-25% Gray, but there are millions of you that are so "anti-gray" that you cover it before you give your hair a chance to grow in. Now, listen to me.....NO ONE needs to color their base every 2-3 weeks..............NO-ONE! ! !  She had no idea what color hair she had because she never let it grow long enough. She had it colored professionally for years, but lost her job and began buying an $8-9.00 Box of color and throwin it on.  She said, it really wasn't that bad, until recently and I will tell you what when you have Level 7 - Level 8 hair-- you usually can get along for a few months with it looking good. But with the way box color works and the quality of ingredients, eventually the DD (Delayed Damage) will start tearin the hair down. It just does. It may take a couple months or 12 months.....but the damage WILL COME and it will be hard to come back from.

She was just puzzled how to figure out what her DURP was and the reason she didn't know?  She never saw her own hair, she was coloring it much too often and applying the color ROOT to ENDS every single time. That is not how Hair Color should be applied. Remember, apply the color to the new growth, till the last 15-20 minutes of processing time and ''pull-it-thru''. I will make a note to do a POST on "pulling-it-Thru" soon. You need to let your hair grow out at least 1/2 inch (even celebrities do I promise) to give it a chance to breathe and be healthy. The reason she didn't know her DURP was because she had so much color on her hair, she never saw her real hair or her virgin hair never had a chance to pop through..... Maybe some of you do too??? I'm just saying......! 

Purchase one of our Color Wheels to begin the concept of learning about Color ....the Wheel..... and how it all pertains to hair color. Its really not complicated, but clarifies the end of this concept for you I believe.

Even Stefani and Gaga let their hair grow out 3-4 weeks, they just carefully calculate their life around it ! I used to care for a few, so I know. The only way you will deal with DURP is if your own VIRGIN hair has a chance to pop thru or breathe thru..   Please let it grow through and get on a every 5 to 7 week schedule to re-touch your roots. 

Either of the 2 Levels of hair color Up Above's DURP would be one of these 3 :  

BLORANGE/GOLD/ or BRASS

So, I am just saying...if you want beautiful shiny healthy hair get on a schedule like that and learn your DURP. You know what I think the easiest way to figure out what your DURP is????

Its whatever color that pops through that BOTHERS you, that you are always wishing "wasn't there". Its almost always been the same color your whole life. If you have Level 1 thru 4 hair your DURP ( or annoying tone) is almost always RED.  So that is how you figure out your DURP in a very uncomplicated manner. What is the annoying cast or color your hair has or has always had ......that you wish you could get rid of ? ? 

That is your DURP !

Knowing what it is helps you choose the proper color to make your hair beautiful & shiny. . I hope that helps those of you that are struggling with that concept?

HTH
KC

How To Continue To Become a Master Crib Colorist w/ KC & Talk 'Hair' + 'Hair Color'

                                                          

 I have had so many wonderful and caring emails....with my health as it is - when someone begins abusing me it truly makes me ill... I am embarrassed to say.. I cannot handle it any more. 
So I will send you all to FACEBOOK and if you don't know how to use it.... we are all in the same boat........its truly not that difficult. If we have any mean and rude comments....that will be my last attempt.
Please read the rules in the FAQ, as you should do when you purchase from any and all online stores.

I have never been a fan of FACEBOOK, but, for this purpose I think it will work fine, anyway ....we will try it.

---- - - -
...........NO WORRIES love you guys so freakin' much! thanks so much for the knowledge you share. i work in health care as a nurse and i hate it. i cant express my creativity at all. your site has been functioning as an art instructor to me, delivering fundamentals. now i can perform processes on myself or at least be informed while getting treatments.

i just spent the weekend in LA with my family and had to come back to phoenix. i want to tell you girls you are a catalyst for change and your promote artistic expression with disciplined execution. thank you for being so positive and acting an inspiration within any area of artistry. x^o 

Best Regards!
a.

and btw i did my own color to platinum myself following your instruction. then, i toned it to a softer blonde again with your direction as my guide

 

thanks, 

KC

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.
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.
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. 
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

or Level 12 – Platinum WHITE


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 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.

                 
                                                             hope that helps . . . . 
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for some 1 on 1 training help from KC                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Killer Chemist