Oh hello 👋 Chicago and Midwest stylists!
Sharing with you @thekaceywelchmethod is coming your way!
@kacey_welch will be training at @levatosalon on Monday, March 29th to certify artists in the innovative @thekaceywelchmethod technique! 🤩
Snag one of the few spots left before this class sells out! Visit kaceywelch.com to learn more and sign up!
And check out some of Kacey’s hair extensions work on these gorgeous clients!
@hairbyshannonmckew nails it with golds and caramel tones
A little bit of Royal, and a touch of Oil, and what do you get? An exclusive, all natural and niche newcomer to the industry called ROIL. Have you come across this luxury lifestyle brand yet? It’s only available exclusively in some of the world’s nicest hotels (see L’ermitage Beverly Hills or One & Only Palmilla, to name a few), and at the ROIL Salon in Beverly Hills.
The mission behind the brand is to elevate the industry by creating a compelling collection of natural products, coinciding with the company they keep. Translation: you aren’t going to find this on the shelves of your area big box retailer anytime soon. There’s a place and time for any/every product in the market, sure, but ROIL is more focused on a beauty and social consciousness than it is in getting it to the hands of the next YouTube famous blogger.
If you want to try ROIL but aren’t in the area of a 5 star resort anytime soon, you can purchase products directly from their “private collection”, which is even more upscale than their amenity line. Now through August 31, you can also get 20% off your entire order by using the promo code “Mane20” at checkout (code expires August 31). A small, curated line of products that is no nonsense and simply stunning to look at, let alone experience. We like where the #RoilLife is going with their mission. Tell us if you’ve tried ROIL and what you think in the comments below!
Mixing it up here and throwing in some great runway and behind the scenes photos of Aveda’s presentation at the 2017 North American Hairstyling Awards (NAHA), held this past weekend in Las Vegas. The “Liquid Life” presentation was inspired by the Aveda network’s passion to the Aveda Mission and protecting clean water. Read more about the show and Aveda’s mission here.
Yes, you read that title right. We can relate to a brand that utilizes a little play on words (hair is our MANE Interest, after all), and blowmei hair care has an attention grabbing name that is just the start. New to the product scene just this year, blowmei hair care is a naturally based line that focuses on the styling essentials needed to get your best, sexiest hair for both gals and guys. Here are two products you need to know about now and why:
protectmei smoothing mist: an aerosol based “serum” that conditions, is a heat protectant, AND, most importantly in our opinion, reduces the amount of time it takes to blow dry your hair. ANYONE can benefit from this product!
party paste: for guys and short haired gals, a texturizing paste that gives you some g damn separation and hold like you want it (ALL DAY) but without overdoing it. This product HAD to have been formulated by a dude. #justsayin 😉
Try blowmei now
Mane Interest is all about the new and now and we encourage you to try the ‘new’ and ‘now’ when it comes to the blowmei brand. Use the coupon code “maneinterest” at checkout on www.blowmei.co to receive 20% off your order and let us know what you think of the products in the comments below!
Updo season is here folks. Where do you find your inspiration?
Style by @annette_updo_artist
The new and now talk in the world of hair color is none other than bond builders, as in treatments added to a color processing appointment that allow stylists to go beyond traditional limits in lifting and coloring to give their clients what they want while (somehow LOL) still maintaining the integrity of the hair. A bond builder can prevent hair damage from occurring in the first place, even on those clients that want an icy, platinum white blonde shade yet have naturally dark, coarse hair. For both stylists and clients alike, here’s what you need to know…
THE “SCIENCE”
“Science” in quotation marks because we aren’t scientists here and want to give you the layman’s, quick version behind all of this. Long explanation short is we all know hair color/lightening processing (bleach AND hair color) can and, frankly, does damage the hair to some degree. The ‘bonds’ broken down in the hair strand during a color processing can weaken it and therefore cause breakage. We accept this as a ‘risk’ associated with hair color and obviously with a trained stylist who knows how to formulate correctly they can give you a service that limits this from occurring, however, the breakage/damage still does happen. Product development companies started studying this bond breakdown and what we can add to the process to prevent it. Hence bond builders were born.
WHAT DO BOND BUILDERS DO?
Added to your hair color or lightener, a bond builder can restore already broken bonds in a hair shaft and are supposed to protect the hair from damage. Again, layman’s terms here.
TRY IT OUT
Ok let’s get to the good stuff already. In our case study, we used the Uberliss Bond Treatment on a model with, needless to say, mermaid long hair. Needing to pull the lightener through the entire strand to get the lift she wanted, we added in the Uberliss Bond Regenerator to lightener using a 20 volume developer. Yes, we could have used a higher developer in theory but given the amount of hair this model had and the fact that we needed to pull the formula all the way through, well, if you’re a stylist you’ll understand there’s no need in this instance to go higher (timing and integrity are everything).
SO WHAT HAPPENED
The model’s entire head was foiled and once done the last foils took approximately 25 minutes to process without using heat. We didn’t feel that adding in the Bond Regenerator to the formula delayed the processing at all (as it says it shouldn’t), this is a pretty standard amount of time to get to the level (pale yellow, of course) we wanted. The Uberliss system also comes with a Bond Shampoo and Bond Amplifier (Conditioner) that you use during the service at the bowl. Rinse with the shampoo and condition with the Bond Amplifier, leaving it on the hair for 10 or more minutes. The amplifier conditioning treatment uses the same bond compound as in the regenerator and further seals the bonds in place, reducing damage. Stylists can send their client home with the Bond Sustainer conditioning treatment to use once a week as well.
HERE’S WHAT WE LIKE
From what you can gather via the photo, we obviously achieved a high level of lift to the icy, platinum blonde shade we were going for. When someone has this long of hair and wants to be as light as possible, there’s a reasonable risk that when you’re pulling lightener through the ends, on the ‘older’ and more susceptible to damage part of the hair, you can see breakage happen very easily. Using a bond regenerator in this scenario should really not even be a no brainer but rather an essential to part of the service.
The Uberliss Bond Treatment really does showcase the ‘science’ behind their formulation quite well. They did lab tests on elasticity, porosity, and surface imaging to back their product and the results are, well, fascinating if you’re in to actually seeing results. 😉 You can read more (and see the visual proof) about the science behind the Uberliss formulation on their website here.
Most notably is how the Uberliss Bond Treatment stood up against a brushing test on even UNTREATED hair. It performed better. Game changer. 
LET’S TALK
Let us know in the comments below your experiences with bond builders and the Uberliss brand. #bonding
Let’s just call today “Tool Talk Tuesday” to cover a product in the beauty industry that has undoubtedly received A LOT of buzz. Yes, today we are talking about the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer, and more specifically, the Professional Edition. If you thought the Dyson Supersonic was already exclusive, there’s an even more special edition version of the hair dryer that is only available to licensed professionals. GASP! Yes, the Dyson Supersonic Professional Edition isn’t available for sale to the general public, you have to submit your credentials on Dyson’s website in order to get access. More on that later…
SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Aside from the obvious that the hair dryer isn’t available for general retail sale, the Dyson Supersonic Professional Edition comes with a professional concentrator (nozzle) that gets closer to the hair shaft than the retail version. For stylists, this means AN EVEN FASTER and SAFER way to get the hair completely dry, smooth, and frizz free. You can also recognize the Professional Edition and all it’s glory by the exclusive Nickel and Silver finish, which again you can’t buy in retail stores. The retail versions (so far) come in white/silver or iron/pink finishes, just as an FYI. Also, the pro version has a longer cable, which for a stylist is a much appreciated necessity.
AND WHAT ABOUT PRICE?
Good question. We all know the retail version is $399, however, the Dyson Supersonic Professional Edition pricing isn’t advertised because it really depends on the buyer. If you’re a salon looking to purchase multiple hair dryers for all of your stylists, you’re obviously going to get a bigger pricing break than if you’re just one stylist inquiring about one hair dryer (#obvi). Just submit a registration inquiry on their website in order to get qualified to purchase.
IS IT JUST A BUNCH OF HOT AIR?
Seriously though. As much as we wish we could be the ones to say this premium priced hair dryer is no different than the ones on the market for less, well, sorry folks, but it IS DIFFERENT. Per Dyson’s usual reputation, they have once again launched an exceptional product that surpasses industry standards. Which is likely why, even as you’re reading this review, you’ve already read several other reviews tooting Dyson’s horn about this hair dryer. And of course it won Allure’s Best of Beauty Award for 2016, as if you didn’t already see that coming.
PUT IT TO THE TEST
Testing the hair dryer out on a model, we wanted to see how quickly we could round brush and moderately soft set her hair. We use the term ‘moderately soft set’ because we wanted to do a quick, realistic salon blow dry and finish versus a full on blow out appointment. As a stylist, you’re definitely going to take more time to do a whole soft set, but for the majority of your appointments your blow dry time is going to be much faster, with emphasis on trying to get all of the roots and remaining hair 80%+ dry before putting on the nozzle and using a round or paddle brush for finishing. It took us just under 15 minutes total to get this finished look, going from towel dried wet hair to completely dry and styled, using an Ibiza Large EX4 boar bristle round brush. Take in to consideration the amount and length of this model’s hair and we were pleasantly surprised with the timing. 
WORTH THE INVESTMENT?
As a hair stylist, you know the importance of investing in your tools, especially the ones you’re using day in, day out, regardless of the service. Aside from shears, your hair dryer is likely the top tool to invest in equipment wise and getting a Dyson hair dryer shouldn’t feel like an excessive purchase. As a brand, Dyson is sort of notorious with ‘status symbol’ recognition, but in the specific case of their hair dryer, we feel the product is definitely worth the price.
Have you tried the Dyson Supersonic yet? Let us know what you think in the comments below and what questions you have! Let’s #tooltalk people!
Yes – unicorns do exist.
Amazing color by Jeffrey Robert. Check out his IG page for more amazing pastel perfection.
Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, arguably the most influential person in the fashion industry and has been for decades, has dawned the same bob hairstyle ever since she was 14 years old. Now normally one would think a fashion guru would like to change up their hairstyle as frequently as their handbag, but Wintour’s bob has become, at this point, part of her essence. Anna Wintour not having a perfect bob hairstyle would be like Vogue not having a September issue.
Wintour gets her hair meticulously trimmed once a month by famous hair stylist Charlie Chan, creative director of the Michaeljohn salons in London.
If you’re up for a google challenge, try finding images of Anna with messy hair. There’s seriously an article by the Daily Mail about the ONE instance she was caught with a hair out of place. It was newsworthy for sure!
