Choosing a Salon

A few helpful tips on choosing a salon.

We all have certain desires and expectations when choosing certain things and a salon should be no different.  From the moment you step foot into a salon you want to be welcomed by friendly staff and amazing fragrances.  What is it that women in today’s world want from a hair salon?

We are all very much into comfort and at the fingertip service.

You come home from work take a look in the mirror and see that you need to visit the salon since your new growth is showing but the salon is closed. What to do?

Does your Salon have 24/7 online booking on the computer or even on a smartphone?

Who doesn’t like to receive something extra when we spend our money?

Does your Salon have a rewards program?

I want to go to a salon where they use professional products.

Ask questions, an informed customer is a happy customer. Questions like” What is it that you are using on my hair today” “What do you recommend I use for my dry scalp? Is the product you use sustainable? These are all questions you think about but sometimes don’t voice.   The Salon staff are all doing what they do best which is to give your hair the best treatment possible. Going for a haircut or color that you spend money on and purchasing products in a food store from someone who did not get training in hair care is not always the most advisable.

Does the Salon sell any product?

If a salon cares about you they would make it easy for you to purchase everything you need to take care of your hair’s optimal beauty. It includes everything from the shampoo to styling products and tools.

What is used in the back bar and styling chair should be sold in the retail section.

BEWARE: If a Salon is using only one or two big bottles of shampoo without labels and are trying to sell you products that they are not using while styling hair. These are usually the salons that are looking to make a sale and don’t care about your hair.

 I want to get my hair straightened but am scared because of all the formaldehyde scares.

Ask the stylist questions about the product they use in their salon. Not all Keratin treatments are toxic.

If the Salon cares about you and your hair they will not be using dangerous products.

I need to go out tonight and would love to get my makeup done as well.

Having a makeup station goes hand in hand with beautiful hair. Adding a little color to your face after getting your hair done makes you feel even better.

Is the salon you are going to a one stop chair?

Going to a salon where the Stylist and Colorist are all the same person could turn you into an ordinary person and sitting in the same person’s chair for hours could become boring. Having a fresh set of eyes doing your cut and color keeps your look new. Look for a departmentalized salon where the Stylists and Colorists are separate but working together to create an individualized look. Being departmentalized gives a stylist or colorist the opportunity to be experts in their field.

Taking care of your hair should be a number one priority from the Salon you go to.

Hair Studio Artists strive in excellence by offering our clients everything they need.  Online Booking, Smart Phone apps, Rewards Programs, Shampoo Beds, Professional Products, Professional Styling Tools, Safe Keratin Treatments, Makeup station, Departmentalized Salon with Affordable Services

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL PRODUCT

Sure we all go into a salon and have a certain amount of product pushed in our faces, some pushier than others.

Some salons even have quotas and could care less what you buy so long as you buy.

You the consumer, are bombarded with ads, media, TV commercials as well as what your salon is trying to get you to buy.

The reality is that if you want amazing hair, your specific needs addressed, and to be able to maintain the investment you made in the salon on your hair itself; then you do need professional product.

But what product?

This is all based on your hairs’ individual need. This is your hair type, texture, color, and home habits.

Each salon hopefully and should believe in what they sell and use passionately, if they don’t you need to find another salon that does.

At Hair Studio Artists we not only believe in what we use but our color director and owner is a National Artist for the company used in the salon.

Unlike other salons we don’t advertise the brand, we utilize it. We don’t believe in using the top name of media hype mainstream product, you can find that anywhere; in CVS, Publix, Walgreens, etc.

Hair Studio Artists prides itself on working with small private label companies that produce in house product lines. By using private label we are able to seek out the highest quality of performance and ingredient without advertising for a company already in your face.

It’s the hair we believe in, you and your hair and what goes into the creation of it and the maintenance of it.

Our products are all natural, almost vegan and free of all harmful additives.

Best of all our average price is $20 across the board for everything we sell making it extremely affordable compared to media hyped brands and they outperform them as well.

Our shampoo line is broken down into needs such as color, hydration, and scalp. Our styling line is broken down by what it does, such as smoothing, texture, sculpture and so on.

This is why only the professional who touches your hair knows what it needs.

We feel so strongly that should any company we deal with start mass selling at drug stores or supermarkets or lower their quality standards we drop them ASAP, which is why we don’t waste time advertising for them.

It’s about you and our craft.

 

 

Sulfates: What’s all the attention?

Sulfates: What’s all the attention?

Many hair products, including shampoos and conditions, contain various sulfates, like sodium lauryl sulfate or SLS. Some companies produce hair care products that are sulfate-free, including both mainstream and natural or organic manufacturers.

Sulfates are detergents that produce lather. They are found in a variety of beauty products, including soaps, body washes, and shampoo. Sulfates break up grease on the hair, allowing it to be rinsed away. In hair products, like shampoo, sulfates remove natural oils, dirt and hair product residue. Sulfates can be rather harsh for sensitive skin, and may strip away color

 

These chemicals are the same chemical used to degrease engines. Like many things in our modern world, we are discovering safer/healthier alternatives.

The cold hard facts: your hair does NOT need to lather in order to clean your hair. While using a low-lather or no-lather shampoo will feel different, use a regular amount of shampoo with each wash and your hair will end up just as clean.

Common chemicals include Sodium Laureth Sulfate , Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Lareth Sulfate and Myreth Sulfate, often referred to by initials like SLES, SLS, and ALS

·         People with really dry hair or hair that is generally more brittle and drier than other hair types. So this group in particular should look for other choices.

·         People with eczema and scalp conditions should stay clear too

·         Anyone with oily skin. This sounds counter intuitive. Surely someone with oily skin will want a product that strips the oil away. Unfortunately, the body will produce even more oil to replace that which has been lost. So avoiding sulfates would be a good plan for these folks too.

·         Anyone with chemically damaged hair or color treated hair. The sulfates will fade the color in your hair every time you wash it.

·         Anyone doing keratin treatments must stay away from sulfates

In today’s world that list covers the majority of people out there. Just like the discoveries in food science can work either for us or against us. As large companies dominate the market with what we call Franken-Science we will see more and more food and beauty products made with cheaper and more harmful ingredients. Just check out the Genetically Modified Food World.

All of our products are sulfate free and parabin free, natural and healthy. Best part of all is that every product of our sells for $20 across the board and is just 1 ingredient away from vegan. If doesn’t get better than that.

Treating your hair right is what will make your hair healthier, shiner, easier to manage, allow you to recreate what we’ve produced for you and gives the hard earned money you spent at our salon insurance that your look will last and be in the best care possible.

We currently carry product for color treated hair, hair that needs hydration/moisture, volume product for fine/limp hair, and a full line scalp products designed to heal issues of the scalp such as dandruff, dry or oily scalp. So we have something for everyone as very reasonable pricing.

The end result of your hair is a combination of what we do here and what you follow at home based on our professional recommendation.

 

 

 

Rocks in your Hair

Your Hair is full of Rocks!

What’s in your water and showerhead?

Its South Florida, the water is hard and full of minerals that attaches to your hair and produces discoloration, build-up, fade-age, and makes your hair feel dry and dull.

Hair has negative ions and water has positive ions.  Together they create a magnet and everything in your water attaches itself to your hair and fills up the strand with unhealthy mineral deposits. These deposits form as rocks in a tunnel. Your hair-shaft is filling up with all that it doesn’t need.

How about using positive ions with healthy components so when they attaché through the magnetic reaction your hair is better, shiny, healthy, full of life and longer lasting color.

So the next time you’re in the shower just look up. All those white caked-up deposits are calcium and all those green spots are copper. Imagine what they’re doing to your hair?

Let’s not forget lead and magnesium and if your color is always brassy or red then iron is the culprit.

If you want longer lasting color, healthier hair, longer lasting keratin treatments then Wellness Color is for you.

Our new Wellness Color Experience will excavate the rocks and produce healthy anti-oxidant color, and will cleanse and detox out the impurities.

If you are one of those people whose scalp gets sensitive from color services we can adapt your service using the same methodology, just inform us.

What you do and use at home is equally important since you cannot change the water supply. Using weekly at home treatments can cost as little as $10/week.

It is our firm belief that if your hair is not healthy or if your canvas is compromised than excellent color and cut is a continual challenge, it doesn’t have to be.

What’s Behind Your Hair?

What’s Behind Your Hair?

You open a magazine, watch TV, go shopping and you simply get bombarded by brands. Brands can be powerful and can make an impact at times.
The large companies behind these brands are powerful and have the purchasing power to be everywhere. They appear in your web browser because of the sites and searches you perform or where you shopped or because of your age.
In the beauty industry a small handful of companies owns everything and makes it very difficult for you to be open to other possibilities.
So what’s in a brand and what’s in your hair?
First ask yourself you do you trust? A commercial or the person who knows your hair such as your salon professional?
What is it that makes a consumer buy a hair care product off the TV from a stranger who clearly wants your money vs. the person who touches your hair and knows it needs issues and challenges?
The answer is that it’s in your face, telling you that you need it and need it now. It creates immediate relevancy and urge because if you act now your hair will be shiny, smooth and they will throw in a special something because this won’t last.
So how come when your hairdresser tries to sell you something you balk, or feel as though you are being hard sold?
They’ve touched your hair and know what it needs. We know plenty of salons that are forced to sell to every consumer every time.
Some salons will always carry the latest, hottest most popular product of the second waiting for the phone to ring. They jump on anything at any time based on media hype and assumption. SO they naturally attract a very fickle uncommitted clientele. They may also eliminate your favorite product at any time for no reason other than hot sales on the next thing.
Typically a salon who behaves like this is using popular brand with the mass appeal riding on the coat tails of the company’s advertisements.
Then you have the free thinkers who truly care. These are salons that carefully research and try a product in search of something unique and exclusive that can’t be found in the drug stores and supermarkets. Let’s face it; those salons that carry the latest and greatest have to compete with every other salon, drug store and super market with no loyalty whatsoever.
As a salon owner, I want no part of a company that sells to everyone including supermarkets or drug stores. I am not easily sold on the hippest thing nor do I want those one time buyers who jump ship at the slightest change in what’s on QVC.
We want to work with private labels because they provide high quality products, ingredients, support and do not sell to the masses or to the retail chains.
These companies care about the salon. They are for hairdressers by hairdressers. These are the companies I want my dollars spent on and these are the companies I want you to trust and spend your money on.
A true salon professional will care about your hair; work with high quality product not sold down the block and will never hard sell you. They stand behind their work and their results and the performance of the product they invest in.
Sure, not everyone can be pleased but it is also about the salons brand. And it’s the salons brand that is what’s behind your hair.
I am behind your hair; Hair Studio Artists is behind your hair. We select the finest private label product that we feel is affordable, performance worthy and that has high quality ingredients.
We touch your hair and create your look, advise you based on your hair type and lifestyle.
All too often these other companies end up with very short term search and then one day your hot product is on the news because it messed up someone’s health, caused cancer or was found unsafe. Just remember Brazilian Blowout Brand and all is cancer causing ingredients.
If a product fails us or a company sells us out we drop them. It’s that simple.
The same integrity we have behind the chair with your hair we expect from the companies we do business with.
We purposely want a label you haven’t heard of. And the whole time you jumped on board when you heard no sulfates from the top players we’d already been there and done that because our manufacturer who doesn’t advertise already figured this stuff out and is now researching how to improve their brand not create new ones based on hype.

Blow Dry Bars

What would you do if your dentist stopped doing everything except cleaning your teeth? No cavity filling, no x-rays no nothing?
Or we simply stopped cutting and coloring hair?
What statement would be made by giving up our hard earned skills or if we never had them to begin with?
Well that’s how a certain segment of the salon industry views Blow Dry Bars.
Although highly successful and making sense to some degree these blow dry only bars might do well in cities like NY where people are on the fly from the gym to work to dinner to meetings and need their hair styled in between; but why not just call your regular salon and/or hairdresser to get this done?
It seems silly to have spent $10-$13K on school, to get licensed. Open a salon; pay the same fees, permits, licensing etc. only to limit your services to blow dry’s.
Are these people taking the easy way, do they have a new cutting edge business model or did they simply cop out of the salon industry because they are just mediocre?
These are just some of the questions that come to mind as we see this type of “salon?” crop up here and there.
Is it the convenience of sitting and waiting no appointment necessary like a barber shop, to get your hair blown out or is your regular salon too busy for you?
Accommodations are our business so we are always prepared to take a client for any service. Should we ever become too busy to get you in for a blowout, you’ll be sure that we will simply hire another salon professional to get you in for your blow out.

Feel free to post your thoughts, we are curious about this topic. Oh and if you need a blowout, well; just call us, email us, text us, blog us, FB us-we're always here for you.

What Makes Fabulous Hair?

Who doesn’t want fabulous hair? It is something we strive for, covet, dream of and for many chase after as you hop from one salon to another.
For some of the lucky people out there they have been blessed with great hair, texture and density (which is the quality of the hair fabric and the amount of hair per sq. inch) and many of these people maintain this great hair by doing less.
Others obsessively seek things far from what they possess naturally, thus pushing the limits of what their hair can do.
They perm or straighten to damaging degrees, they over flat iron, over color and or over bleach. In these cases both the hairdresser and client are to blame. Many hairdressers have no care or emotional integrity in their work and will simply over process over chemical a client’s hair at their request in search of something they simply are not.
These clients do not have a realistic expectation, nor do they care or consider the long term quality of their hair. If it gets damaged they cut it, and seek another salon.
In the salon industry, the person who touches your hair last is responsible. This is not a fair or true statement.
The true professional cares dearly for your hair. The true professional makes recommendations every time you come to the salon. They will offer treatments, products, color options, color glazes and glosses, and advice not only on the best cut but how to style it.
They will not compromise the integrity of your hair under any circumstance. With such integrity comes the risk of losing those clients who cannot understand or appreciate the impact and meaning of this.
For example, the “BLONDOREXIC” clients want unrealistic results; they push their lightening ability of their hair in order to be far from what nature created them to be. The end results are always “BLORANGE” color or overly damaged nearly white cotton fried hair.
The holds true to changing the texture from straight to curly or curly to straight.
When the limits are pushed the hair suffers and so does the reputation of the salon and salon professional.
So what makes fabulous hair and how do you get it?
It starts with a very realistic, honest, consultation about your hair. The salon professional will analyze your hair’s texture, density, existing color, natural color, percentage of gray (if any), and study its length and your facial features, skin tone and eye tone.
From this point several options will be offered about they length, type of cut, color and home care.
The true key to fabulous hair also lies in the credentials of the person doing your hair. Make sure they are involved with hair shows and education. Ask them about what they believe in.
You must first care about your hair before they can. All too often the true salon professional cares more about the client’s hair and its quality more than the client.
I have personally heard many people point blank ask for either unrealistic results, expect a miracle, tell me they don’t maintain their hair often, or don’t care about the condition so long as they get light enough.
How can a professional deal with hearing such things?
Some salons are like bars where the hairdresser is the bartender and will serve whatever you want no questions asked. Some salons are like those unscrupulous plastic surgeons that take the money and could care less.
Other, such as Samantha and I, truly care deeply for the wellbeing of your hair, is condition, quality and overall finish.
The other side of selling homecare is not just about a salon making a buck but truly caring about your hair’s integrity and having you be able to recreate your look at home. Things like shadow lighting and glosses along with proper treatments will only serve to create healthy color longevity.
Let’s face it, there are those that walk into a salon and their haircolor and condition and style look great. They save money by listening to the suggestions on how to maintain the look and care for it. They use professional product recommended by their professional, not jumping to drug stores and QVC for the latest “whatever” sounds good to them.
They trust the salon professional in all things hair related!
So their key to fabulous hair seeking out the top professional and following their advice. They are not there to create something outdated, unhealthy, inappropriate or damaging.
It is their ability and your trust that allows hair to showcase its finest attributes. These attributes are using what Mother Nature gives. Harnessing the hair’s natural undertones, warmth and texture qualities without veering too far from what is naturally given is essential.
Remember, pushing the hair’s limits leaves you limited, compromised and the further you push it the less shine and luster it will have.
Staying within 2-3 steps lighter or darker is vital and it’s what the top top professionals will always advise.
Your stylist will enhance your eyes, and facial features including your bone structure with the right cut. The right cut will accentuate everything. Trust what they say in terms of length, layers, bangs and texture.
Follow carefully what they use in your hair. When you leave looking and feeling awesome it’s because of what and how they used it to create it.
A salon chooses its products carefully, it’s what they believe in and what performs best for the type of work they do.
The colors, shampoos, treatments, style aids; all have not only a performance quality but also have an ingredient quality that all balances out properly with your hair type and the type of work they are committed to.
Using any product that you think works or can save you money is not the case.
One of our professional friend’s and colleague wrote this great article that will also help in your having fabulous hair. http://haircoloradvisor.blogspot.com/2011/11/choosing-new-salon-how-to-avoid-top-7.html?spref=fb
Fact, the majority of salons are under qualified, have no education past beauty school, do not care about the integrity of your hair, want your money, and will ruin it for those salons that are the exact opposite because the trust has been broken for the client.
So when you see someone with fabulous hair, stop and ask them where they got it done. Don’t be afraid to travel and spend a few extra dollars on yourself and your hair.
When was the last time someone complimented your hair?