Arrojo Underground 2013

This weekend was a whirlwind of birthday, holiday and hair madness, ending with a 24 hour trip to the city to attend the annual Underground event at Arrojo. And maaaaaayyyyyybbeeeee just a wee bit of shopping (BIRTHDAYSWAG!!). Underground is a yearly event to showcase the work of the stylists at Arrojo Studio in SoHo. The staff at Nick's salon are encouraged to create a collections which embody what they see trending for the upcoming year in hair fashion. Stylists work, often in teams (Arrojo's salon is departmentalized), drawing inspiration from nature, the city, and themselves (loved that!) to create their looks and present them to an audience of super pumped hairstylists from all around the country. So what is the team at Arrojo lovin' on right now? We saw a lot of muted colors, think taking the pastel trend, and adding a touch of gray to dull them a bit. Lavender, lilac, and ice blue tones are definitely here to stay (lucky you, Kelly Osbourne, and lucky me, cuz' I love your locks). Cuts had stronger outer shapes to them (90's chic, here with clothes,here with hair), with a textured interior to add lightness and keep styles looking modern. And, of course, texture texture texture. Keep those American Waves coming, because lived in, easy to style textures are in and fabulous!

ColorZoom 2013

2013's ColorZoom collection was based on urban beautification; think urban gardens, yarn bombing, unexpected pops of color and nature found in developed cities. This made for a really fun color palette of a mix between pastels and jewel tones against cooler, muted bases. Here are some photos of my take on the trend!

And of course, gotta give props to everyone who made these images possible!!

Model: Hadley

Makeup: Teague Vivolo

Photography: Magdalena Niziol Photography

Partners in hair crime found at O2 Salon

Some of you might remember my post a few months back about the hair painting, or balyage, class that I took at Arrojo Studio in NYC. Meg is one of my clients who has moved over to the painting technique in lieu of foils, and here is her new fall color! For summer we kept things a bit brighter at the ends, with more of an ombre effect, and to deepen her tone up for fall, we painted high and low lights throughout her hair. The results are crazy natural, and, if I do say so myself,  go'geous!  

Love for Pastels

The pastel hair color trend, seen on celeb's heads from Helen Mirren to Kelly Osbourne, has been going strong and doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon (thank GOODNESS!). Playing with pastel tones in your hair color can range in effect from super subtle to impossible to miss.The fact that they are more translucent than their brighter and deeper counterparts makes them less of a commitment, which is just an added bonus. Wondering how you can pull of this trend? Golden blondes look great with a peachy hue woven in, brunettes lend themselves well to periwinkles and lilacs, or you can just go for it with an all over pastel in a shade you die over! Here is a shot of a client that we recently made into a fabulous gradient cotton candy pink:

This color was created using Goldwell's Elumen, which is a color I consider to be a semi-to-permanent. This super high shine color can be a temporary change for those with fleeting hair dreams, or can be layered over time to create long lasting hues, not just in "fashion" tones like we did here, but in natural shades as well. Because the Elumen color line is ammonia free, it is extremely gentle on the hair, and can even work to combat unwanted frizz and body for those clients with unruly textures!

Hair Painting

This past weekend, I attended a class at Arrojo Studio in NYC on hair painting, most commonly known as "balyage", the french style of hand painting highlights. If you follow my rarely updated blog, you know I took a class last year at Arrojo, and am kiiiiiinda obsessed with the staff and education at this SoHo based salon. The class was great! I definitely feel like I gained a wealth of knowledge and techniques to try out, so naturally I came back to Portland dying to get my hands on some hair in need of some new color! Luckily, Sarah called the salon, wanting to chop off enough length to donate, and feeling like her (completely virginal) color needed some sprucing up. Perfect, no? Below are Sarah's before and after shots. We used the hand painting technique to create a very natural, sunkissed effect on Sarah's natural blonde locks, plus gave her a nice long layered cut. Check out Sarah's take on the experience here!

Champagne in the Hurricane

This post may be a bit delayed, but hey better late than never! Sitting on my couch, after shoveling myself out of the snow wall created by Nor'easter Nemo, I received some images from the lovely Savannah Daras, from a photoshoot we did during hurricane Sandy. Ah, what I would give to have rain now. Granted, hurricane Sandy did not hit Maine the way it did the rest of the Easter seaboard, thank goodness, but we were still maybe a little crazy to be out in that storm, with our two models, a can of hair spray (like it did anything in those crazy winds) and a photographer. Planning an outdoor shoot when you are a hairdresser is hard. Unlike a photographer that can be inspired by the day's gorgeousness, and just put out a call for an available model, our models have to be prepped ahead of time, and be shot while their cuts and colors are still fresh. In short, our shoots often can not be rescheduled, and a back up plan needs to be in place. Jenn and I had this vision of models in cozy fall knits, the warm light of a gorgeous Maine fall day in a wide open field. Instead, we got rain and 50 mph winds. Oops. Plan B; one of O2's amazing clients opened up her stunning West End home to us. With Kate to the rescue, we had a super fun Monday afternoon, got some great shots, and, we even ventured out into the storm at the end of the shoot for a little champagne in the hurricane.

Vidal Sassoon 5 Point Homage

Last week I got an email from hairbrained.me (a fabulous social networking site for people who work in or just plain love this wonderful industry) that they were running a contest to win admission to a master's class at the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica with Mark Hayes. Say what?!?!? The rules were simple. Do an awesome cut and color. Snap a pic with your cell phone, submit it to hairbrained, and hope that your photo get the most "likes". How could I not enter?!?

One facebook status and 30 seconds later, I already had a model volunteer, the lovely Ashley, who was totally prepared to let me have complete control over her head (love that in a model). I decided to create my own version of Vidal's 5 point cut, a very geometric cut with sharp, clean, diagonal lines, that moved in color from a true violet to a more rosy purple underneath.

Here's the result! Fingers crossed that soon I'll be posting about how excited I am to be heading out to Cali in November!

Braided Bride

This bride was really fun to work with, because she wanted something completely different from the other styles being requested, AND I got play with making a custom weave filler (you know homegirl loves playing with extensions!). For the bride, we worked with braids that started at the temple, and wrapped around the nape and into a braided chignon on the side. For the bridesmaids, I incorporated braids into the updos for continuity. Keep an eye out for the pro shots in my portfolio, but for now, sub-par iPhone shots!

Summer Bride

Here are some shots of the lovely Ms. Lauren after her wedding day hair was finished! Soft, slightly undone, and perfect for an outdoor Maine wedding!

Bridal Blondes!

Just a Day in the Life...

Cookies delivered, playing with weaves and dogs, and cutting your own hair. Being a hair dresser is hard...or the best thing ever.

Super Rad Pre-Teen, Super Rad Asymmetric Cut

This week I got give a really fun haircut to the most adorable asymmetrical haircut, and to make it even more awesome, my client was twelve, and totally rocked it! This haircut was a more blended take on the undercuts that have been popular over the last year, still coming in really short of at the left hairline, and moved to chin length on the right.

July 14, 2012

Last week it was wedding madness at the shop. We had a bridal party of 9, hair and make-up for everyone, three stylists, 5 hours, and a lot of fun. These girls were great, and it was so much fun to hang with them and style them, that I pulled a superwoman move, and busted out 6 of the updo's and 3 of the make-up application. And that friends, is a lot of hair and make-up to do in 5 hours! So here is some cell phone shots of the gals I took care of, hopefully some pro photos will be up soon!

Maine Wedding!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of doing hair and make-up for a wedding held at Linekin Bay Resort in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. The location was absolutely breathtaking, with amazing views of the bay. As I worked, we could see guests paddle boarding, boating, and swimming in a heated salt water pool. I was a little jealous. Okay, a lot jealous. The bride and her bridesmaids had perfect styles to fit the location, simple and sofisticated. Here's a little sneak peak of some photos I snapped with my trusty iPhone!

American Wave

Oh man, am I excited about this. Back in February when I attended a razor cutting class at Arrojo Studio in NYC, I had a chance to speak with Nick Arrojo and Gerard Scarpaci about the upcoming launch of the American Wave system. With what little information I was able to gather then, I came home so excited to become certified in this service that Jenn set up a class at our salon, and today O2 Salon became the first salon outside of Arrojo to learn this technique! Whhhaaaaaaaattttt?!?! I'm sure I've peaked your interest with all this name dropping and jargon, and you must just be DYING to know, what is the American Wave? In short, it's a new texture service that embodies the style of the moment and is going to revolutionize the beauty industry. And yeah, we at O2 are right on the fore front of it all. But what do I mean by a texture service? The American Wave is enabling us as hair stylists to create lived in textures, with a raw and natural feel. Beachy waves? All over it. Bigger blowouts that last longer? Totally. Best of all? BIG GLORIOUS HAIR. You can have it all, and I'm dying to give it to you.

So what makes the American Wave superior (far superior) to a classic perm? Most importantly, the condition it leaves your hair in. From start to finish, the American Wave is less aggressive to your hair. Perms of the past used chemicals that blew open the cuticle of the hair, forcing their way into the hair strand and breaking the hair down to 50% of it's normal strength before hardening the hair into it's new shape. The American Wave uses the magnetic attraction of positive ions to negative to pull itself into the hair, and breaks the hair down less than half what a perm does. Plus, it has barely any odor! Where perms used to linger in the air of the salon, and your hair, for hours *cough* days *cough* weeks, you would never even guess that your salon neighbor was getting a chemical service with the American Wave.

Now the fun part- the results! Today in class, we had 3 models that received new waves! To the left is Sarah, whose wave will offer her much more support to her hair when she styles it. Sarah's hair is naturally straight and very fine, and she is always fighting to keep the body in a blow out or roller set.With this wave, her styles will stay put, and she will have some tousled textured on days that she wants to let it air dry. In the photos here, her hair is diffused for maximum volume and curl, and will be a bit softer when she lets it go au natural! Below are the before and afters of  Jenny and Mandy. Both of these ladies got the beachy wave, with movement that starts dropped down a few inches from the crown, and has a really soft, romantic finish. Jenny's wave looks so natural, and Mandy's red lion's mane is to die for (am I right, or am I right?). The one bummer with today's class is that we didn't get a model who dared to get the expansion wrap, a set that gives maximum volume and really expands (get it?!) into space, with a gorgeous rounded out shape. Our instructor, Abbey, rocks the expansion wrap, and it is most fabulous. Speaking of Abbey, once again I have to give props to the team of Arrojo Studios for their commitment to their craft. Abbey did an amazing job teaching us about the what's and why's of the service from start to finish, and Nick himself has been in touch with Jenn to make sure that we feel like we have the support that we need, and that we love the experience. And trust me, we LOVED the class today and are super pumped to be performing this service!

Epic Color Transformation Day!

It's been a nutty couple of weeks for me! In the shop I have been working like crazy,  and in the past three weeks I have been to a cutting class with Nick Arrojo in Soho, and a color class with Goldwell here in Maine. On top of that, I have been spending all my free time working on Cat Snack Fever, my other blog project focusing on the other things I love in life, food and cats. Finally things feel slightly back to normal, with myself having 2 days off in a row! Saturday was the perfect lead in to the weekend, with 3 color clients all coming in looking for something fun and different! Yay!

Clockwise from top left:

My client started off with a very mossy dull green over her natural, dirty blonde hair color. We lifted all of that to a pale blonde, and then went in with a deep forest green using Goldwell's Elumen color. My next client came in with a couple months of regrowth, and dark ends, wanting a multidimensional red through her top layer while staying off the part line directly, with a deeper base. Finally, the biggest transformation of the day! My blonde client wanted to be a redhead, in the same sort of category at Isla Fischer and Emma Stone, which she pulls off incredibly!

At the end of the day, I had zombie hands, satisfied clients with gorgeous new dos, and a well deserved saketini!

Arrojo Razor Fundamentals

Day One: Heavy sigh, thunk.

That's the sound of me hitting the bed at the end of day one of a two day razor fundamentals cutting class held at Arrojo Studio in SoHo. Today was both mentally and physically taxing, definitely in good ways. I arrived at Arrojo Studio, met by a warm welcome and the realization that I would be lucky enough to have Nick Arrojo actually be one of my educators over the next two days (score!). Today began with basic razor theory and dexterity work. Holy flashback to day of beauty school Batman! The Arrojo razoring techniques are different than anything I have worked with in the past, so it took a lot of concentration and focus to work on retraining my muscles to work with the razor.

Once we began working on actually executing cuts,  today with graduation (think the stacked bob recreated),  we were able to see the how a razored shape can differ from a scissor cut shape. In the case of the bob, the graduation or "stacking" is almost an illusion, which creates a slimmer shape that still has the ability to expand. My mind has been racing about which clients could have, scratch that, need to have a banging razor cut. In the past, I thought of razors as a tool to create very textured looks, with soft edges, and an almost grown out look. While that is still true, today taught me that using a razor to create graduation can actually "collapse" the shape, removing weight, while graduation created with scissors builds up weight. I can picture this technique opening up a whole new world of styles for those clients with mountains of hair that want to reduce their volume as much as possible.

That being said, this is definitely a technique that is going to require a ton of practice to feel 100 percent confident in, especially because it's getting used to an entirely new motion with the tool. Tomorrow we work on layering, and I can't wait to get my hands back into some hair.

Day 2:

Phew! My mind has the capacity to remember how to use my new razor! Thank goodness! We start the day by jumping right into a layered cut, and today, my friends, razoring feels great. I finished my cut feeling confident in the techniques, and understanding the concepts behind razor cutting. It is so different from training I've had in the past, because razoring is entirely about the feel of the cut; the actual feel of the razor moving through each section as well as the feel of the finished shape. It's organic, and slightly imperfect, which is so beautiful.

The second half of our day was demonstrations by Nick Arrojo and Gerard (stylist and head of education). The cuts were gorgeous, and I always love to watch an amazing stylist at work!

At the end of our two day course, I felt great about the education I had received. Arrojo Academy sets up the class so that in addition to the two educators, there were two assistants working with us. In a class of 13 stylists, having four instructors to give us pointers meant that everyone attending the class got tons of hands on assistance. It was also really great to see how solid of an education the assistants were receiving from the studio, and awesome to talk to them about their journey to becoming an Arrojo stylist.

Grammy's 2012

Alright, here it goes. I keep saying I'm going to watch the awards shows and blog about the hair. So I've snuggled in on the couch with a ginger beet martini, my lap top, and a dog who won't get her face out of my dinner. Not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about how well I am going to complete this task. I barely know who any of the musicians are that the kids listen to these days (what? David Bowie is nominated for record of the year?!?). Watching the red carpet coverage, (I'll be honest, that's as far I got before I caved and climbed into bed to watch the IT Crowd with my husband), a lot of the hair styles were very simple and classic, as they have been for a while. The days of the ridiculously styled starlet seem to be over, le sigh. Many stars arrived wearing loose waves or sleek ponies. Yawn. Simple is pretty, but where is your sense of adventure Hollywood?!? I picked out a few of my favs/un-favs to highlight and hate/love on, and I think I tend to be better at the hating...

Katy Perry was my simultaneously my favorite and least favorite of the night. Oh Katy, Katy, Katy. I love that you are rocking blue hair with that GORGEOUS gown, but why has your color been so haggard lately? Every photo I have seen of Katy lately has shown her with roots, and a blue that is fading out to that weird greenish color. I loved her french twist, with the squared out volume, but was totally distracted by the fact that her color appeared to be done by a high school student with manic panic. Dang.

Kelly Rowland, on the other hand, gets all love from me, that sexy bitch. I have gone on the record stating MANY times that if I could have  any hair in the world, it would be offensively large and curly and gorgeous, and Ms Rowland is rocking the long fro, looking fabulous. Get it gurrrrrrlllllll.

Amber Rose definitely deserves props for her clean look tonight. She always looks banging, and I adore that she went with mostly natural make up, with a red lip that shared the spot light with her simple yellow gown (black and yellow black and yellow).

There were two previously ginger ladies that showed up newly blonded. First, Rihanna! Thank you, thank you thank you THANK YOU for ditching the red and going platinum! I thought that the red was nice when she was rocking the cropped do, but once she got that long red weave it was a little too Little Mermain for my taste. This does, however, confirm my suspicions  that Rihanna has spies watching my every move so home girl can consistent be jacking my style, but that is a whole other story.  Adele on the other hand, should have stayed red, in my judgmental opinion. I loved her red, with bangs and lots of volume and length. I think that the blonde makes her look a little like a heavier Evan Rachel Wood, and not in a good way.

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Alicia Keys was another favorite of mine, totally rocking that glam look, with an updo that combined a french twist with a pompadour. this style seems so grown up from some of her past red carpet looks, and was a great contrast to the many "unstyled" looks of the evening.

Revita Update

Okay, so I slacked a little on following up on my Revita experiment. But never fear, I am here with my results! Recap on the experiment: I began using the Revita shampoo and Revita.cor conditioner right after coloring my roots (to get an accurate read on how much my hair was growing), with hopes of faster, thicker hair growth. After one month, my measured regrowth was 7/16". My hair didn't seem noticeably thicker, but then again, my hair is pretty short, and it's hard to tell. After a second month, my measured growth was the same, at 7/16'. Bummer.

I will still stand  by the product as a WONDERful shampoo and conditioner to reconstruct hair that has been damaged by chemical processing and/or the natural elements. DS Labs does have 3 other components to their hair growth system, which has provided better results to clients of O2 Salon. Jenn, owner of O2 and fellow stylist, has clients with visible new growth after 5 weeks of using the Revita shampoo and conditioner in conjunction with DS Labs Spectral RS treatment. For myself personally, using an entire system of products on a daily basis to increase growth isn't worth it, considering that I am not starting to thin out yet. I'll be going back to my old routine of shampooing twice a week, with the plethora of products I have kicking around in my shower.

Arrojo Underground 2011

It's Monday night, and the crew at O2 Salon just got back from a spontaneous, one night trip to NYC. In 24 hours we managed to squeeze in delicious food, power shopping, dancing with drag queens, and most importantly, this year's Arrojo Underground event, hosted by, of course, the wonderful Nick Arrojo. Who is Nick Arrojo, you say? If you don't know, you bettah ask somebody foo'. Oh wait, you just did. In short, Nick is most widely known as the adorable British hair stylist from TV's "What Not to Wear." In the industry he is known for his innovative cutting (pulling from a background at Vidal Sassoon and changing the way we see the razor as a tool), and as an educator. The event was held at Arrojo Studios on Varick St, which is also home to the Arrojo cosmo school. The vibe in the studio is great- crisp, clean decor, past collections featured on the walls, and a little cafe in the waiting area for staff and clientele alike. To paraphrase Arrojo, the Underground event is a chance for his team to create collections based on what they feel are the looks of the future, and express their creativity. It's a chance to put hair first, before the rest of the fashion industry, giving complete control to the stylist(s). Pretty sweet, right? We viewed about 8 different collections last night, most of them created by teams, and all different and wonderful in their own right.

Pictured on the left- "Off Center". This collection of cuts was based on taking classic shapes, and moving partings slightly off center for a different take.

The stylist described this look as"kicking up the volume on a wearable NY style, and being inspired by the punk fashions of the 70's and 80's.  The texture was created through a set, involving a braided hairline, and twisted sections starting at the crown to create the flatness you can see throughout the top of the shape. I am a sucker for great texture, and I adore this shape. I think it's completely wearable for a night out, and I might have to steal this.

The collections pictured above, Nomadic, was in my opinion the most interesting as a whole. The team really wanted to demonstrate every aspect of hair dressing, creating pieces that highlighted color, cut, and styling work, all with a feeling of freedom. I thought that all but the "mohawk" style were absolutely STUNNING, and could easily be cuts and colors walking out the door of a salon, even ours in little ol' Maine . I am currently pining over this little lass with the copper hair (it must be mine) and the foil placements on the model with the incredible length as just gorgeous.While the model with the 'hawk was not doing much for my aesthetically, I was intrigued by the technique that went into creating the look.  The mohawk section is made up of both natural and synthetic hair, which is not a shock. What is , however, is that the brightly colored hair is not the synthetic. I wish that with this collection, more than the others, I had been able to see the foil placements for color.

The cutting highlight of the evening was definitely the counterparts collection. These cuts were created by  splitting the head into 2 sections (front and back) and using completely different methods in each section. One sections was cut very precisely and geometrically with shears, the other  was cut with a razor for a softer more textured look.  Probably sounds wretched,but these cuts were great. I really loved seeing that heavyline of the Vidal hayday meeting the shattered looks of now. Genius.

For me the last real standout was the "Unravel" collection, which worked with some really creative ways of using perms to create texture in the hair. The stylist who did the texture service worked with finger waves on both models, something I had never thought of, and was super passionate about texture coming back. The cuts both utilized undercutting, and I adore the triangular shape created on this model:

The show was a blast, and I'm stoked that we decided to take the trip down. Seeing the hard work put in by these stylists to create something that was completely their own was beyond inspiring, especially since some of the work was put out by apprentices. The experience definitely forced me to start thinking about how I can push myself to the next level in my craft, and I can't wait to start playing around with some new techniques. Plus, post show we all headed over to the Brooklyneer for a bevvy, where we met Nick , and yes, he is as darling face to face as he seems.