Hair Colors + Cuts + 2015

What we have today is: the newest Hair color trends & styles that I have chosen from you to become inspired by...... 

So what I have now is a string of photos of hair colors and styles that I feel should influence your next years hair styles & cuts & colors......

SILVER HAIR is a very hot color currently!

 

Metallics!

Check-Out Killerstrands own, Icey Mint-Green 
BURST & BOOST 
color enhanced sulfate-free Shampoo & Conditioner

LOVE THE LAVENDER SLICES through a brunette and platinum head of hair

Add caption

 

KC

Killer Chemist

Become a Crib Colorist : Learn the Level System of Hair Color

I receive a tremendous amount of emails with many of you being worried over "trying to calculate your VIRGIN Level color" . . . especially if you have gray mixed in with your virgin color. It should not be anything that worries you. If you have a pretty recent computer & monitor or I-pad, the colors you see on this Post will be very close to what they are in person. If you have salt & pepper hair many times you may need a friends (or husbands) help so they can look at your hair on the back ... underneath... for an accurate Level. But truly, if there is that much gray then just do your best using the last Level you remember it being. Having that much gray should be a very important part of coming up with the formula.

Understandingg the LEVEL SYSTEM of HAIR COLOR

Everyone MUST understand a few of the basic rules of Hair Color, they are not difficult, they are easy. I want you to understand them so a much larger percentage of women will be able to color their hair at home and it will come out correctly. There are just too many people having their hair destroyed by BOXED HAIR COLOR KITS...they should be destroyed - in my opinion.
It involves more flexibility, so you are not given a set bottle of hair color with a set bottle of peroxide ( that come in those damn Kits).

The Most Accurate Level Chart Level 1 thru 10 ... I have online

LEVEL is the unit of measurement used to identify the lightness or darkness of a color; it is sometimes referred to as value or depth. Colorists use the LEVEL SYSTEM to analyze the lightness or darkness of a hair color



(see above).

Hair color levels are arranged on a scale of 1 to 12, with 1 being the darkest and 12 being the lightest ( not too long ago it was 1-10 some new HIGH LIFT Blonde's added 2 more light levels). The names for the natural hair color levels may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but they each use this chart as the base.What I want you to learn here is simple....try to get very comfortable with these Levels and especially:  

KNOW YOUR OWN VIRGIN LEVEL OF COLOR (without color on it) we sell a great little chart that I made and laminated so you could use it for years. This is an important piece of info and will be important for the rest of your life (even though it will change as you turn grey!)

If you are a redhead (as am I) its a tiny bit more complicated, you still use the same chart to figure it out, you would just draw your finger across the chart to the different "hues" it goes from Gold/Red to Red to Red/Gold to Red/Violet and keeps going as well.
For example:
KC = NATURAL LEVEL COLOR: I am a Level 8/RG
which means my virgin hair is a LEVEL 8  and my tonal categories are: Gold/Red (or Light Copper). Knowing that piece of info helps me be able to figure out more accurately what to use to color my hair with success.

You will impress the Hell out of your Hair stylist as well, if you go into your next appointment spouting off the "levels" - they will be very impressed. I have run into many a Hair Stylist that still have not memorized them (but they should).

Using and knowing this chart really well, is what you need to learn in order for you to become a good CRIB COLORIST.

Healthy Hair Begins When It's Free From Stress, Reduce It, Simply

I have never done this (Post something written by another person) before {only because I haven't finished teaching what I know !} but I respect the man that wrote this Post tremendously. We disagree on a few points, but I believe that is only because he has never had the training and experience of actually changing hair color himself. When you sit in a lab or office and develop hair products (many don't even have hair !) and then proceed to make big huge statements about 'how' hair products work, 'should' work and should be made. It ruffles my feathers ... I feel they are missing a large portion of the education needed to do what they are doing. By not working on real people's hair. 

Regardless, this post is by Philip Kingsley - he is a hair loss specialist in the UK and he is the worlds expert in the who's - what's & whys of the hair loss problem for women. I've read everything he has ever written (which isn't much) but I think that is because he so busy he doesn't have time to.
I have a 14 STEP protocol for women on how to repair and rejuvenate hair for women experiencing hair loss, that is based on my experiences with over 15,000 Heads of hair I have worked on. . . and 2 years of the best training on planet earth in the world of hair. One of my Steps is : REDUCE STRESS, and he explains exactly how I feel as well and he does an excellent job. So, please read this Post on Hair Loss and how stress DOES contribute to it.


Stress can and often does result in hair loss due to a number of factors. One of the main reasons is that stress, through a convoluted route, can increase your body’s production of adrenaline. This can then be converted into cholesterol, which is capable of raising your body’s levels of testosterone. Testosterone is a male hormone (androgen) that has huge implications on hair growth, frequently causing hair loss and/or thinning in people who have follicles sensitive to circulating levels. However, too-high levels can also impact the hair growth cycle, especially in women.

Another important point is that when we are stressed we often do not look after ourselves as we should. For instance, we may skip meals or eat more processed foods than usual – which while convenient have little nutritional benefit. Diet has wide-reaching implications on hair growth, with improper nutrition being a leading cause of hair loss in women. This includes vitamin imbalances, iron deficiency, inadequate protein intake, and meals that contain too few calories. Stress also impacts digestion and the absorption of vital nutrients, reducing their effectiveness.

Furthermore, stress affects our immune system, making us more susceptible to illness. Like diet, general health is closely linked to hair health, with the flu, high fevers and systemic upsets often triggering hair loss approximately 2 months later. Stress can also trigger dandruff in individuals who are prone to it - and research is increasingly showing that flaky/itchy scalps can worsen or lead to hair loss.

Treating Stress Related Hair Loss

Unfortunately, there is no absolute cure for follicle sensitivity, and so the best ways to tackle and improve stress and stress related hair loss is to use preventative measures. We suggest reducing your stress levels with yoga, meditation, pilates or moderate exercise. Mindfulness has also shown to be very effective, providing tools for coping with day-to-day stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. You may also want to talk to your doctor about alternative treatments, such as acupuncture or herbal remedies. In relation to products, use a scalp treatment that helps to block the affect that male hormones can have on your follicles. 

In terms of diet, do not skip meals and try to eat at regular intervals with a snack in-between. Those of us at Killerstrands have found a supplement (called the SECRET SUPPLEMENT) that has an 80-85% success rate ...you get the information as to what it is with our Deep Conditioner - THRIVEN. Which is a well formulated nutritional supplement just taking one of these a day. In 30-90 days you will know if this will bring you completely awesome results as it has  everyone in my family it can be very helpful, providing your body with a boost of essential vitamins, minerals & protein. This may also aid in immune system function. While there is no fool-proof method of preventing illness and the spread of germs, if your doctor approves get a yearly flu shot.

It is important to note that stress will not cause hair loss straight away. Any hair loss you experience will present itself anywhere from 6 - 12 weeks later due to the nature of your hair growth cycle.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

This Post was written by PHILLIP KINGSLEY

Philip Kingsley coined the phrase 'bad hair day' and is the world's most respected authority on hair and scalp health. With over 55 years of Trichological experience, Philip Kingsley's past and present clientele include politicians, royalty and celebrities. 
He is called the 'Hair Doctor' 

KC

 

BEST New Way To Re-Touch Platinum Hair w/ the Killerstrands Oil Bleach Kit

Re-touching Platinum Hair or Hit that Base.

I received a great little photo from a girl who used our Oil Bleach Kit for the first time and was thrilled with her results. Here she is.............

This is exactly how your color should look, notice she has NO yellow or brass at home!!!...........the color is even and you can tell the hair is super healthy ......She happened to choose platinum white for her toner but once you get all of the brass and yellow out  . . . THEN you will have the opportunity to choose whichever toner you desire, how fun ! ! ! !

You can then choose a Level 8-9- Blond even and the toners are one of the most fun parts about being this color.
WHY??? Because, depending on the brand and tone you use - they will last 3 weeks or so then begin to fade which gives you an opportunity to choose a different one for a different look . 
You also , of course can use the same one - use 13 Volume which  is what you want to have the Toner Stick the most. 

We call the roots in professional hair color the "BASE". Its at the base of the hair lengths and seems to make more sense to the Pros. So that is how I will refer to it.

When Purchasing one of our Oil Bleach Kits. I ALWAYS ALWAYS recommend reading every single Post about going "PLATINUM'' available in this Blog. Its much to much to include in the Kit, especially for the price, but it is freely and easily available  to see throughout the  8 years of Posts about hair on this Blog. Here is the link ....and read them all I encourage you...

We have sold more Oil Bleach Kits, in the past 10 days than we have in this same time frame in the 8 years we have been open, I recently put a few foils in a friends hair so she had light brown hair with some beautiful little blonde wisps in the front. She wanted to try the  ROSE-ANGEL-ROSE Boost Shampoo and BURST Conditioner in the same tone......

we left the conditioner on about 5-6 minutes......I was so excited with how beautiful it was ( she didn't want her photo on the web.......so I ordered a mannequin with her same color and am going to duplicate what I did on her so I can show you. The rose/pink color truly gives the blonde hair and brown a very pretty cast. I know many of you would love this.

People are hesitant I but, there is no reason to be it doesn't turn the hair bright pink at all....it just deposits color and its not bright pink or anything.....as you can see it is kind of a soft rose color...and if its too bright you just shampoo with your regular shampoo once and it will fade/

When you begin the process of coloring the hair, whether it is going to be going platinum or going black....one must always prepare the hair first by SECTIONING it. It is much too confusing and time consuming to do it any other way.

The parts are simple . From ear to ear across the top of the head. and then from nose to top of the spine. That creates quarters.

Attention: Oily Scalp and Dry Lengths Hair?

This is kind of a taboo subject, not many people like to think or talk about........ oily scalps,

but we must sometimes do things in life that are not always pleasant...........yet are necessary.

I am from the camp that believe the scalp is more important than the hair. What? Well I hope you remember some of my previous Posts that explain how the hair actually grows and what goes on underneath the scalp and how each individual hair strand grows.

It still absolutely amazes me the intricacy & monumental  job that actually goes into growing ONE single STRAND of hair. Which is why it is so very VERY important to care for your scalp.

Over the years I have worked with various clients and developed a few little tricks that help the Oily Scalp / yet Dry ends Hair Combination

#1.) Kaaral Scalp Scrub

#2.) Malibu 2000 Scalp Shampoo - another great choice
#3)  Scalp Treatment Packet by Malibu 2000

What you do when shampooing is, you put a dime size squirt of shampoo and add a little water and rub back and forth to create a lather in your hand then put that shampoo on your fingertips. Take that and try to just shampoo just your roots, 1st....... leave that lather on your roots for a few minutes (do everything else in shower) .....then quickly run the shampoo through the lengths very quickly....and rinse. The lengths almost never are very dirty -- because the dirt comes from the scalp, so the scalp is what you need to clean mainly.

Pointing that out helps many.

Leave the lengths out of this process.

Sometimes don't even add more shampoo to the lengths she just pulled the lather from the roots thru to the ends and rinsed almost immediately.........

AGAIN.......... the lengths usually are not that dirty....the dirt would have to travel from the scalp to the ends. .

Then once or twice a week use the KAARAL Scalp Scrub  which also has a conditioning effect when rinsed through. But it has little walnut shells ground up very small so it has a rough texture to it ( just exactly like facial scrubs I'm sure you've tried).

You can use a scalp treatment pack from Malibu2000  maybe every other week ....u will figure out how often on your own.

Then always - always a few drops of Gleam on the hands rub them back and forth really fast and hard it will make your hands HOT -HOT and it will heat up the few drops of Gleam and then just take your finger tips and put that oil on only the tips of the hair, it will travel down a little.....Gleam will heal those lengths if you continue to do this...

There you have the solution to Oily Scalp - Dry Lengths !

KC

Sassy Silver Hair On Saturday

One of the newest and hottest colors people are on the lookout for is "SILVER"...I have been coloring hair silver for over 20 years, that is how long it has been around ! As far as which products work the best, if you are seriously committed to the color is the only way you will truly get it right.

 A little bit of silver looks odd. 
Although Silver slices looks gorgeous, so I kind of take my own words back ! Slices are a technique the Sassoon academy developed many years ago and when looking for a great Sassoon Colorist, just ask them for this technique. Its unique, beautiful and what you see on celebrity/model hair

 The results of the Kenra SILVER METALLICS are in and as I usually do when running Strand Tests I let them develop for 90 minutes. Which I did for these as well. 

Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct. What I did was run 2 Strands on Level 5 hair, which is what you need to do........ to see if it is a truly a permanent hair color. A permanent color has the ability to Lift and Color.........otherwise the color you are speaking about is a Toner or Demi-Permanent Hair Color at best.

As you can see by the above boxes Kenra calls it a permanent color + slips it into the permanent hair color line they have. They have a demi line, the box is half the size and the color range is limited. What I found , is as I expected.

So I ran 5 Strand Tests.......

• 8SM +40Volume on Level 5
• 10SM + 40Volume on Level 5
• 8SM + 10 Volume on Level 9.5 ( Its VIRGIN hair....so if you bleached the hair and applied this Color you may have a little better results because newly bleached hair is like a sponge and soaks up color like nobodies business.
• 8SM +40 Volume on Level 9.5
• 10SM + 10Volume on Level 9.5

The woman that is deciding if she should use these colors I'm afraid is going to be disappointed. I guess somewhere they have the direction to doing this hair color:

The color did not change the Level 5 color AT ALL. Which makes the color not properly categorized if you go by the Level System Rules. I mean there is not 1 organization that heads up the world of Hair Color. I think that would be a great project for someone to take up. I would if I wasn't so ill. They have a tiny magazine called Hair Color but the styles in the magazine are truly a couple years old. I watch Europe. I get my hair color magazines from Europe, I like to see where we will be in a few years. European women are just so much braver than Americans go as far as colour.

But lets look at what will turn Kenra's color into a Demi Permanent - why? BECAUSE IT ONLY deposits color.....and not very well.

As you can see the only color worth its cost is the 8SM.....and it is very pretty, If its applied on bleached out hair it will absorb better because newly bleached hair is like a sponge it soaks up color like nobody's business.





So, you can see here that there is NO lift with 40 Volume and either color, there is ZERO change, so this color is not a PERMANENT Color. It can be a Demi-Permanent color though because the lower numbers DO deposit.
The one Strand Test came apart when I was rinsing it so its kind of a mess but you can tell by the photo that it has not changed the color AT ALL. Both were on there 90 minutes and it is a warm day here as well.

This color is the best and it is beautiful , but again it is color deposited on blond hair, not a hard process to produce. I truly thought they had mastered a new technology.

So you want to begin with blond hair . Bleached lightened is best , so use our oil bleach kit:. Then apply the Kenra 7 or 8 SM

     
We have had nothing but compliments about SILVER BULLET in BOOST & BURST...
'these turn your hair Silver, they are the color SILVER, like they should be ! ! !


But at least everyone now knows exactly what it does.

Color Theory (Sounds Boring, I kno) 100% Necessary To Become Successful Crib Colorist

60% - 80% of You Come To Killerstrands In An Attempt At Fixing A Botched Hair Coloring Experience

Therefore I feel its necessary for me to teach you the tools to correct those disasters, otherwise, why be here? ! So as much as it sounds boring, Color Theory and understanding : the basics of it, is simply mandatory. It gives you the tools to be able to understand how to fix any mess on your own. What a wonderful tool for this new hobby of home hair coloring and becoming a Crib Colorist.

Primary colors are Blue, Red & Yellow and are the basic colors that make up every hair color out there (except, of course, silver/white) and that is in the order of their size of the molecule (or atomic weight - now, don't leave because I said 'atomic'....wait, hear me out)...Understanding the order and size of the primary colors shows you what happens during the lightening process when going from Level 1(black) to Level 12 (Platinum). So many of us go lighter, that is the way of the world for some reason.

When lightening, Blue is the only 'cool' primary color. Most people lean towards wanting more of a 'cool' tone to hair. I mean warm means Brass, Blorange, Gold, Reds. No one wants the first 3 that's for sure and the only way you want red, is if your goal is red hair! When Blue is added to any primary, secondary or tertiary color is is dominant. The new color will be cool....again....good. Its molecular weight (or pigment size) is the largest and BECAUSE of this, it is closest to the cuticle. Why is this bad? Because being the largest pigment means when you begin to lighten hair (even a little bit) it will be the color that is closest to the cuticle and that damn sure means it will leave FIRST! If it leaves first, there goes that 'cool' hue that we all need so much to give our hair that 'cool' tint we talked about earlier. When the hair is oxidized by the ammonia in hair color the hair expands almost immediately, the blue molecule escapes and poof no more 'cool'.

Next is Red, it is also difficult to remove and lastly the yellow which is buried deep down in the hair strand.....the most difficult of all to remove and why so many of you get stuck at Blorange (blorange is the mix of red & yellow: so you see why you get stuck there?) Gold & Brass. The yellow molecule is buried so damn deep, it pretty much always takes bleach to be powerful enough to get it out of that hair strand. See????????

When all 3 colors are in hair in equal proportions you achieve a completely NEUTRAL Blonde or Brown. You know how we all wonder why we can't have like hair like Jennifer Anniston? That is hair that has equal proportions of red, blue & yellow molecules in her hair, there are VERY FEW people that happen to be this lucky. How do I know? I colored over 15,000 heads of hair (yep, my assistants kept track). Do you know how rarely I would have someone in the chair that was a breeze to lighten?  Not even once a month. That is rare.

Secondary colors are made when you mix 2 primary colors. You mix red & Blue you make Violet. That is a secondary color. If you add the opposite of any secondary color to a hair color you are mixing you will neutralize it. For example:

If you have a bigger yellow molecule and brass has become your problem.............look across that color wheel . What color is opposite of yellow (brass) on the color wheel ? Violet...........right? ! Add Violet and you will help cancel out yellow as it is directly across from it on the color wheel. That is why you see so many violet colored shampoos including our own (BOOST & BURST - Violet Pilot). 

Now, I am hoping from that you will be able to understand and pick-out any color you need to neutralize an annoying one you have in your hair color. So brass is yellow, across from yellow is Violet.

Blorange which I refer to a lot, because it is indeed a very common problem. We have calculated that Blorange is both Yellow & Orange cast that would be in your hair ....what colors would you use to counteract Blorange? Blue & Violet (check out the wheel). 

Understanding these basic theories is mandatory if you want to take control over correcting your hair color or planning your hair color and having positive results.