Hand-Crafted Hair Movement

When you’re starting out as a hairstylist, it’s important to follow the rules. Keep your sections consistent, your partings clean, your weave sections neat and your foils folded impeccably. Go by the book, don’t color outside the lines. Mastering the basics is essential for every artist, but as you evolve, the goal is to expand upon those basics and develop the approaches and methods that express your own creative vision. Coincidentally, now is truly one of the most rule-bending moments in hairdressing, because there is a handcrafted movement taking hold in cutting and coloring. Talented stylists are using creative freestyle techniques, producing hair that moves and flows and color designs that shimmer and melt. One size truly does not fit all. Bespoke hair demands a wide variety of approaches, and today, every smart artist will be developing the techniques, and assembling the most up-to-date tools to handcraft the

Refined Effects
Sometimes you want to create haircolor to stand out. Other times, you prefer a color design so subtle, it leaves everyone guessing. Flamboyage Meche Strips from Davines Artistic Director, Angelo Seminara give you the power and confidence to create any type of color effect from noticeable to nuanced. These unique, see-through, self-adhesive strips offer the precision of foiling plus the creativity of freehand painting. Because they’re self-adhesive, there’s no slipping or bleeding. You can select the sections you want to color with pinpoint accuracy—the strips will contain any size strand, large or small, securely. Because they are see-through, the guesswork of “is it ready yet?” is gone. You can check the development progress at any time, which eliminates the risks of under- or overprocessing. And they come off quickly and cleanly without disturbing the color. For balayage, hand-painted accents or any color technique, go ahead and unleash your creativity. Flamboyage Meche Strips have your back!

A New Tool for Weight Control
Long and medium-length hair must move in order to look modern. The key to creating these buoyant haircuts is weight control; specifically, removing weight where it inhibits movement and retaining it where it will maintain texture. To transform fat hair into slinky strands, Second Hand Scissor Founder and Editorial Stylist Michael Baker, created the De-Bulker—a texturizing system that removes bulk, adds movement and texture and does it in half the time it takes to create the same effects with shears. “When most people debulk a client’s hair, they’re not paying attention to the hair that remains after they remove weight,” says Michael. “This tool fine tunes the haircut, removes the bulk where necessary and creates the movement you want.” The De-Bulker comes with three Texture Guards—The De-Bob, to blend and texturize fine hair; The De-Bulk, for creating moderate but noticeable texture and separation and The De-Bush, for clients with extremely bulky hair who crave extreme textures.

To watch videos & order De-Bulker, click here!

Creative Freedom
Color techniques have progressed far beyond foils and bottles. Colorists must be ready to use a variety of methods on every client in order to produce the desired results. “Sometimes you need a precise, structured approach, say with tint when retouching,” comments Wella Global Creative Director of Color, Josh Wood, “and sometimes you need a balayage approach, maybe for a stonewashed effect on blonde ends, or at the hairline or on shorter lengths.” For these freehand, balayage moments, the right lightener is everything, and Josh’s choice is Wella Professionals BLONDOR Freelights. “It gives me higher lift, up to seven levels,” he explains, “so my balayage can be bolder and more expressive. I might use 6% developer in some sections or 9% around the face where I want the ‘bump.’ This way, I get multiple tones with my balayage—highs and lows. Plus Freelights is creamy, it stays put and it really lets me get into that hair.”

To learn more about BLONDOR Freelights, click here!

Cotton Foils = More Natural Highlights
Foil has long been the workhorse of highlighting services, but it has its drawbacks. It can be stiff and difficult to work with, it conducts heat like crazy and when it comes to the environment, can you say, “Landfill nightmare”? So after years of working with foils, Hue Director of SAHAG Workshop and celebrity hairstylist, Rick Wellman thought there must be a better highlighting material. His research led him to cotton—think of your favorite t-shirt or those lovely puffs that you use to remove your mascara. Today, he creates nearly all of his haircolor with Biolights Cotton Strips. “You get the precision of foil highlights with a much softer effect,” Rick explains. “Plus Biolights are easy to work with, they conform to the head shape, they keep the color exactly where you place it. There’s no swelling or bleeding since they don’t heat up the color, and there’s no foil lip to prevent you from getting close to the scalp. They support even color processing, so you’re not frantically running to check the color every few minutes.” Here’s one more thing—once clients experience the comfort of Biolights and understand that they’re eco-friendly, they’re hooked. “Clients now request Biolights specifically,” confirms Rick, “when they book their color appointments.”

Balayage in Half the Time
Who wouldn’t want a way to speed up color application? Imagine this. Your client schedules her regular retouch, settles into your chair, pulls out a photo of a gorgeous balayage color that she pulled off of Guy Tang’s Instagram feed and declares, “I want this!” in 45 minutes. Uh…okaaaayy….? That’s what happened to Dana Bremner, a Grand Rapids, MI-based salon owner, and it got her thinking. More and more clients are requesting balayage services, she reasoned, so what if there was a way to make application faster, without impacting the quality and artistry? And so, Dana’s Balayroo was born, and it’s rocking the color world!

Here’s how it works—simply fit the device around your fingers, fill the applicator with your lightener, place a section of hair between the plates, close and sweep the Balayroo along the area where you want to apply color. The grooved plates ensure even color application and the Balayroo can cut that application time in half. And don’t stop there. Dana uses her Balayroo for lowlights, too! “The Balayroo allows me to place the color exactly where I want it,” explains Dana. “I can frame the face, place highlights closer to the scalp or off of the scalp or distribute it along any portion of the strand. It’s freehand color, but with extra support that allows me to completely customize every color application.”

Razoring with Ease
If you’re a fan of razor-cutting, Donald Scott is your brother in blades. This Sassoon-trained cutter and razor enthusiast has created a variety of unique, razor-type tools to produce the unparalleled texture and movement that’s possible with razor-cutting. And now he has created a formula designed specifically to support and optimize professional razor-cutting, which he believes will help stylists become more comfortable with, and proficient at, razor techniques. Donald Scott NYC Prepare Liquid Tool Glide seals the cuticle on damp or dry hair, prevents razor damage and prepares hair for super glide and slip. It also nourishes, thanks to infusions of pure coconut and sunflower oils. With Prepare Liquid Tool Glide your razor cutting becomes as easy as slicing through butter!