Why You Can't Cheat On Your Stylist

We’ve all been there. The butterflies in your stomach, slight anxiety and distrust. So many questions run through your head. Is he going to be the one? Is he going to make you feel like a princess or leave you miserable and wanting to crawl into your bed and cry? You’ve had bad experiences before, really bad ones even, but you are still optimistic and keep going trying to find the perfect… hair stylist.

In the past few years I’ve changed so many hair colors. I went from ombre to dark brown, to balayage, to burgundy, to copper, to red and oh so many different shades in between. I was never happy with the color and every time I would change the colorist trying to find the one that can make my hair look exactly how I want it to look. Big mistake. Hopping from one hair stylist to another is like constantly having one night stands while trying to achieve the feeling of a good long term relationship. When a stylist sees you for the first time not only is he unfamiliar with your hair and how it reacts to certain dyes, but he also has no idea what other stylist used before to get you to the point where you are now.

When my last attempt failed to get me the perfect shade of strawberry blonde I went to Sorelle Salon in Chicago for a consultation. Luchy, the owner, told me that while my overall color wasn’t necessarily that bad, but pointed out something that I didn’t realize - my hair was like a cut off tree trunk. You know how you can tell by the rings how old the tree is? Well, I had the same vertical strips of different shades, and you could easily trace all the mistakes and attempts to color and recolor my hair. Luchy said that she wished there was a universal database for everybody who goes to hair colorists, so in case you change your salons a new stylist can easily pull up your “medical history” and see what was used on you before. At Sorelle they store your color number so with your next visit you can expect the same shade you got before or if you want to slightly change it they can go up or down on the scale.

And so I closed my eyes and told my new hair colorist JC to do what he thinks he should do. I was tired of red and while I know that red is extremely difficult to get rid of he assured me that he can work some real magic. I was more nervous than before going on a first date! And guess what? The magic did happen! This is the result I got.

Before

After

The color looks a bit darker in pictures but lights up in the sun. It has been almost three weeks since my appointment, and it did wash out a bit, but I am happy to not see traces of red. This time when I go in I will not be worried, because that’s exactly the color I wanted and will have for a while now. Finding a perfect hairstylist is not like finding a perfect boyfriend (because boyfriends come and go), it’s like finding your long-lost family member. And you can never betray your family!