Update, May 2010: J-D now works his magic from (And speaking of love, how much do I love you people that I'm willing to let you see me in the morning before I've even put in my contacts or put on makeup or brushed my hair? This is just pre-photo tousle.)
J-D, my
So I arrived at the salon to find several other women there, waiting for us to begin. Turns out, every few weeks, Dennis (the salon's namesake, Dennis Bartolomei) holds these workshops for his stylists to teach them something new.
It was completely fascinating. Until yesterday, I never really thought about hair color.
Usually, I just go to the salon, J-D and I chat for a moment about what I want to do with my hair, he looks at me in the mirror for a moment (devising a color plan, I figure), then walks away and comes back with a few bowls of goop, starts sectioning my hair and brushing on color and folding foils and the next thing you know, I look ridiculous, but then the foils get pulled out and my hair gets washed and he blows it dry and voila!, it's a pretty new mix of colors!
But yesterday, all the stylists gathered around each model as Dennis talked about what to do with each color challenge. At least one stylist was taking notes. I don't know if he was the note-taker for the whole group or if he's just particularly studious, but there he was, jotting things down as Dennis suggested what color combinations to use on my hair. Many numbers were involved. And formulas. Hair color is a mix of art and science.
J-D got started and Dennis popped over many times to check on his work and make suggestions. Dennis is meticulous. If J-D didn't do exactly what he wanted, he'd wipe the color out of my hair with a towel and have J-D do it again. J-D is hugely talented and I trust him with my hair completely, but Dennis had a vision and it was going to be realized. We're talking about strands of hair here. It got very delicate in the end, as they neared my part. Turns out, you want a very fine diffusion of color there, so you have to select very small amounts of hair to color.
Like I said, fascinating. Maybe not to read about here, but to witness. A lot of thought went into the colors they chose and how they applied them and where. Some highlights were put in at angles, some horizontally. Lowlights here, oh but never lowlights there.
My foils came out in three stages, the first ones on were the first ones off, and then J-D washed my hair. And then, back at his chair, he dried my hair halfway (he gave me a hand mirror so I could see the color up close and I said, "My hair sparkles!" It really did! The light was glinting off it!) and then we went back to the sinks (Dennis calls them "bowls") so that J-D could squirt glaze all over my hair. Blech. Icky-smelling stuff. And then, back at his chair, he squirted some serum-looking stuff on my hair and worked it through. Something about closing the hair shaft and locking in the color, I think.
He gave my hair a quick trim, not a haircut, and then started blowing it out. Normally, he styles my hair, but yesterday was about showing off the color, so he blew it out straight and smooth. Dennis gave him a boar-bristle brush to use. (
The picture doesn't do the color justice. I waited until this morning to take a picture so that I'd have some natural light in my office, but you still can't see the full effect. It's darker than it's been because we always go a bit darker for fall. It's the color of caramel with glints of copper and gold. It's spectacular. I love it. Dennis is a genius. J-D is a genius. To have them both work on my hair was amazing. At one point, I said to J-D, "It felt weird to have another man touching my hair," and he laughed and said, "It's OK because I was watching."
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