Crashing the American Dream.
Should you choose drug store hair color in a box?
For some people it’s alarming how much professional hair color costs. It looks easy as you observe your stylist cover those pesky grays! The cost of your hair color can be like a monthly car payment. You never understood why professional hair color costs so much? You simply hand over the money. Getting tired of feeling you’re at the mercy to your stylist, you try coloring your hair by yourself. The sound of saving money sounds like a great idea!
At your local drug store, you’re browsing the sea of boxes. What should you chose? You glance at all the boxes, and you feel a sense of empowerment. You have the ability to make you hair color into any shade your heart desires. You’re like a little child in a candy store. Many options, that it’s hard to make a decision. Suddenly, you have the idea “I’ll pick the prettiest model on the front of the box”. Clearly the model on the front of the box used the same exact contents that’s inside this box”. “The model’s hair color looks good, so I’m certain my hair color will look just like hers”.
Suddenly, you remember your cousin who took a few months of beauty school, she advised you to choose a box of hair color based on the name. You read the thousands of shades of blondes. Do you choose honeysuckle crème blonde, toasted beige wheat, sandy blonde shimmer, or golden sienna? Your eyes start to get crossed from reading what seemed like hundreds names on these boxes. Then you go back to your own advice and pick the hair color based on the model you like on the front of the box.
You finally chose that box of hair color, and you can’t wait! After all , you’re certain your hair color will look just like the model on the front of the box you just chosen. You realize that the only thing stopping you now, is having to read the directions, you skip over them. “Easy enough, I can do it; it looks so easy when I see my stylist at the salon doing it”, you say to yourself.
Here I go, it’s on; and the suspense is killing me. You have a boost of endorphins, and OMG, there’s no turning back now! You suddenly say to yourself, “I’ll take it a step further, I’ll leave the color on for another hour”. “To make sure those pesky grey hairs are covered up”. “That’ll teach them to hide and never grow again”! Now the hair color is on an hour and a half, and you’re so excited. It’s time to rinse the color out, and it’s messy. Your bathroom looks like you have curry stains everywhere! No matter how hard you scrub, you see firsthand the hair color stains won’t come off your countertop; and sink. Even the clothes you have on and towels you sed are ruined!
All the color is rinsed off and your eyes look like raccoon circles, because your mascara is running from leaning over in the bathroom sink. You inspect your hair and see more than a few areas of hair that you missed. You also noticed the area at your regrowth is a different color than the rest of your hair. The middle of your hair is now three shades darker with a green cast, not to mention it also feels like straw. Suddenly the money it would have cost you to get it done correctly at the salon, isn’t that much after all. You’re back at the salon spending MORE money to have a color correction!
Your stylist explains that the reason it cost’s more at a salon, and why it will cost more to have your drug store box hair color corrected. Professional color can be customized based on a case by case scenario. For instance, the area at the regrowth may need a specific hair color formula, and the previously colored hair may need a different formula. Then the ends are much older than the midshaft, and regrowth; needing YET another formula. Totalling to three different color formulas for one mane of hair! Certain areas while performing hair coloring can process differently, adding more complexity to your service. You’d have to know where you’re starting to figure out what you need to use. Also, with more years of experience and ongoing education your stylist may charge more. All these aspects go into pricing.
You may even know someone who uses boxed hair color from a drug store and has had good results. Not everyone is so lucky. It’s usually when they decide to change from the current color to another that they run into problems. Just because Peggy Sue had a good experience doesn’t mean you will either. “Now what are you willing to choose, box color; or a professional to color your hair”? The choice is yours.
For more information on the writer of this article visit her bio.
The customer may not always be right.
I can remember being a customer looking through numerous magazines, asking all my friends which picture they thought would look better on me. Finally, narrowing down the one picture, and starring at it, with visions of my friends having hair envy. Hoping everyone would notice my wonderful haircut and color. I would even have my duck-face nailed down for a selfie. Better yet, I know the right angle to get the best lighting in my selfie. I’d play this dream in my head and picture myself on all social channels going viral with a salon visit. All while tagging my super star hairdresser.
I’d finally get the courage to book an appointment with my hairdresser. Expressing to the receptionist how I have my goal picture, and I wanted to have a brand new me! A new color and cut that all my friends have encouraged me to get. The anticipated appointment day has come! I am so excited that I even check-in to the salon on social media to notify everyone my excitement. Showing the hair dresser my picture, she looks at the picture, then glances over at me. My hairdresser runs her hands through my hair, and asks me a series of questions. Suddenly she becomes the hair police. Eyeing me down, she say’s that it has been sometime since I have visited her. Feeling like I was giving confession, I tell her I went to someone else; and I didn’t like it. She knew because,she explains that my line of color demarcation since the last color visit with her, doesn’t match the time line of six months. Therefore you should have at least three inches or more of regrowth, you only have one half of an inch. You ask yourself, “why can’t she (the hairdresser) go mix up something and make me the color I want in this picture”?! Your hairdresser keeps touching your hair as if she’s checking for lice, inspecting all your strands from your hairline to neckline. Then she steps from behind the chair, to look at you straight in the eye, and you get nervous.
Your hairdresser looks at the picture, then back at you. She does this what seems like forever. Then she says. “how about we do a conditioning treatment”. “Let’s get your hair healthy, or let’s try and cut off the damage”. “Once we work on the health of your hair, or cut off the damaged hair, maybe we can work towards a version of what you want”. In your mind, all you came in for was a scheduled appointment to have your hair cut and colored. “Why you can’t you make my hair to look like this picture”? You don’t understand, you think to yourself why can’t my hairdresser just mix up some hair color? My hairdresser precedes to tell me that the condition of my hair won’t support the chemical process needed to get to the desired hair color. She explains to lift my current hair color eight levels lighter, it would involve a color correction on the previously colored hair. And I’d probably would get a chemical haircut if we proceeded with any chemical services at this time. Also that I needed to cut at least five inches to stop the continued breakage occurring in my hair. Then that phrase comes to play in your head, “I thought the customer is ALWAYS right”!
Well what happens when the customers wants something that the hairstylist knows will not work? Do you continue and pray to idol hair gods that it turns out great? Or do you let the customer know that she’s wrong for wanting this? Personally, I’d want to know if something wouldn’t work, and why. That’s what sets you apart from other hairdressers and salons. The customer may not have the right expectations in mind, but that’s the duty of a hairdresser. To lead your client in the right direction, is coming forward and telling them your professional advice. What would be worse, having all their hair fall out because, because you’re supposed to say, “The customer is always right”; and do as they ask of you?
Give your client options and a plan. The options may be that down the road, she may have these results at a later time. The client may not be right in knowing what is best for her hair, but she may feel like she made the right choice by choosing you to be her forever hairstylist.
Hair color can be a commitment
When you begin to color your hair, it becomes a lifelong investment. A lifetime commitment to yourself. Let’s hope you don’t have commitment issues. While many will skip going to the gym, or even their own doctor, many won’t skip going to their hairdresser to get hair color.
Hair color can change your entire look in one single visit to your scheduled appointment to your salon. It’s like your hairdresser possess a magic wand, waves it over your hair, and poof; smiles are produced! The magic wand armored you with a beautiful mane of results that covered your grey, and has suddenly taken ten years off of you. It sure was cheaper than visiting a plastic surgeon for a face lift. It isn’t fair that woman get judged that grey hair makes them look older.
It’s no wonder usually as soon as a woman sees grey hair growing in, it’s as if they are in complete disbelief! They may even pull out the first few grey hairs from their scalp to inspect them closer. It is often associated that grey hair ages women, while on men it gives them that distinguished stud muffin looks! Grey hair sends woman running to a hairdresser for professional advice, or running to the hair color aisle at a major drug store.
If they’re going to a drug store, you’re probably searching for a picture on the cover of a hair color box that best looks like the results you want to see on yourself. Because you’re panicked from having grey hair you make a decision to take matters into your own hands. Suddenly the results of the, “what box should I use,” guessing game you played aren’t what you were expecting. You we were expecting to wave your own wand like the hairdresser did at your salon visit. When all you were trying to do was cover up that grey.
Hair coloring is one of the few services that many people try their own hand at, while expecting professional results. After all you’ve been to the salon and had it professionally done before. Clearly that gave you experience and it looked so easy when your stylist did it. There’s a real theory behind hair coloring. However you my get lucky and chose the right box of hair color at the drug store.
Hair coloring is a service you don’t want to play a guessing game. It’s a service that can cause chemical damage to your skin, and your hair. Hair color is something when done properly will leave you wanting more. When done incorrectly, hair color may also be a service you will go through leaps and bounds to find the right stylist. After all your stylist possess the magic wand! Hair coloring is a commitment to yourself, and to your hairdresser.
Six years, where has the time gone?
When owner Anna Walker started BODY2SOUL SALON in September 2009 she never imagined what six years would look like. For one we started in one location, and relocated to another. In all these years BODY2SOUL has been successful, and continues to be.
To start with a few milestones other than the fact of starting in 2009. Anna Walker was voted best colorist, and best stylist in her city through a local publication from a reader’s poll. BODY2SOUL has been voted best in 17 out of 22 categories also. Our online reviews are a testimony that our customers can come to expect good service, while in a positive atmosphere.
If there is one thing we have learned in our six years of business, our client’s trust us! We hold our clients trust in our hands and they value our expertise. Definitely being in business without trust couldn’t have gotten us this far. Our customers trust, is something that we don’t take lightly. To keep the ongoing trust, all of our stylists have a commitment to ongoing education that is industry specific to the beauty industry. This ongoing education is what BODY2SOUL brings to it’s customers.
When it came to BODY2SOUL relocating, and changing brands of color, and retail; the questions came nonstop. WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, WHERE? First thing we realized the questions weren’t going away! We reminded our customers, “You know that thing called, TRUST.” Well, trust that BODY2SOUL wants you to know; we want a better location, better environment for our clients, and better results for our client’s too.
The questions stopped for a while, then they came again. What about my hair color, will it be the same? Know that thing called trust we’ve built. Continue to trust me that I can formulate your hair color, because I as your hairdresser for numerous years, and salon home for numerous years, have always delivered good service for you to trust us at BODY2SOUL. I gained your trust for 6 years and want to continue to uphold your trust in us.
Thank you to all of our customers who continue to trust us. We truly appreciate you. We will continue to try to build our trust with you!
“Say What”??!!
We’ve all had conversations with our stylist & overheard other conversations while getting your own hair done.
There is a certain level of confidentiality you feel with your stylist. Confidentiality, that becomes, “An emotional relationship”. Over the years this emotional relationship has led you to share things you wouldn’t share with your closest friend, doctor, or therapist. Hairdressers become more than just giving great hair services, yet they become lifelong friends. Some people look forward to dishing out their dirt with their hairdresser. It’s as if these conversations become a reality television show called, “As the Chair Turns”, & you can’t wait until the next episode. Uniquely unique to say, “You can’t make this stuff up”!! Often times your hairdresser gives out the best advice, because they have been exposed to so many different scenarios at the expense of everyone else. The hairdresser often than most can say, “Don’t do that because, I know someone who tried that, & it didn’t turn out so well for them”! “I won’t say who I heard it from, but TRUST me, you DON’T wanna do that”. “Instead you SHOULD do THIS ____________”. You leave your stylists’ chair ready to face the world. Not only does your hair look good, you have an arsenal of confidence backed my great advice. You have a pep in your step that was cheaper than going to a medical professional. Then the point comes were you have to apply the advice your Hairdresser gave you. Meanwhile you’re awaiting your next scheduled visit or as you jokingly admitted, “The next episode”. You can’t wait to update your hairdresser from the last timeline to your current timeline. You dish it out descriptively ,as not leave out the subtle of subtleties. Your Hairdresser looks right at you & says, “Say what”??!! Now you’re given advice by your Hairdresser again, that goes all too familiar as your last visit like a reality television show, “As the Chair Turns”. If you were to overhear the conversation the show would have you saying, “Say what”??!!
The story behind the name: BODY2SOUL
It’s like giving birth! What will you name your child? You search all the baby books, look at countless internet sites, but what about naming a business?
I literally looked at all the salons in my area, & I was clueless! Who do I ask? Believe me that can be a can of worms, because EVERYONE has an opinion. Before I tell you how I got the name of the business, let me back track.
I was penniless! I had paychecks that I could not cash from a previous employer. I was a single mother living in a friend’s basement with my son. I only had seventy-five whole dollars in my bank account. YET, I dreamed. Wondering if having a business was even possible, I researched things I needed to do. One thing was I needed money! I was having a conversation with a friend, talking about the opportunity I had come upon. An agent of the business I worked at asked me, if I wanted this business. Who does that? Never did it dawn on me that I could ask someone for money, so I never did! After this friend heard my concept, they said, “I can help you”. QUICKLY my mind raced with more questions. One in particular was, “In what way”? They gave me the money to start my business. I did repay it back.
Here comes the daunting question, “What shall I name my business”? Remember I only had seventy-five dollars, plus now the money for the business; which was just enough for the first month’s rent. How am I going to come up with the money to pay for a sign?? I literally stood across the street, & stared at the location that could possibly become my own business. I asked myself, “How can I change the name without scaring customers away”? Remember if I couldn’t even cash my paychecks; imagine the shenanigans that had been going on! The name of the current location had been, “BODYZENSOUL”. I got it; I’ll remove the ZEN & add the Latin emblem for Gemini! After all I am a GEMINI. Then I wrote it down on paper & suddenly realized that NO ONE WOULD understand it. It did not translate well written. Of course in my head, it was a perfect idea. If no one could understand it, what good would it do me! If you have seen a Latin Gemini Horoscope sign, it likes like a Roman numerical two. So it would look like-bodyIIsoul. Then I kept writing the name over & over, kind of like you do when you have a child. Then the light bulb clicked again BODY2SOUL. That means all I would have to do is remove the, “ZEN”. I found out that to get the number two would cost me seventy-five dollars. Deal-DONE! I had it covered. I went on the roof of the building with a ladder, & removed the Z.E.N letters myself! I had my son hold the bottom of the latter with instructions that were, “If you a hear me scream, call 911”.
I made the resources I had work for me, little resources, yet ones that only a mother can love & appreciate! BODY2SOUL, was born as I like to say on September 29th, 2009. I came to be my beautiful baby living up to it’s name.
Mom, ” I wanna be a Hairdresser”.
From an early age, I knew that I wanted to be a hairdresser! I styled, cut & chemically processed any one who sat still long enough! My grandmother told me that she recalls me being as young as three years old, when I first told her my career choice! I remember watching my Mother with a hawk’s eye carefully curling & feathering her hair tediously, with Mink Hairspray. The first real conversation I recall is when, I was five years old. It starts out, “Mom, I wanna be a hairdresser”. I had been exposed to a few Hairdressers, including an aunt who I admired, because she was a hairdresser. My Mom, dreamed with me. We dreamed that I would have a salon & one day have a restaurant right beside it! The salon, well that later manifested in to reality! I don’t know if I’ll ever open that restaurant, but anything is possible. So when I see a little girl in my chair, it’s magical for me. I relive that moment when I had the courage to tell my Mom I wanted to be a hairdresser. I talk to many beauty school students, & stylists, & mentor those who seek me. My drive for the beauty industry lead me to attend Chesterfield Technical Center in Virginia simultaneously while attending High School. I heard all kinds of ridicule on why I shouldn’t become a hairdresser! One in fact that will haunt me was a phrase,”You’ll do hair in a trailer, & chew gum”! We’ll I don’t do hair in a trailer, but I DO chew gum sometimes!!! I’ve had numerous recognition’s awarding me & my business. I opened BODY2SOUL Salon in September 2009. So my dream was to become a hairdresser. “I Followed my passion to never have worked a day in my life”. All from a conversation between a Mother & Daughter. “Mom, I wanna be a Hairdresser”!
BODY2SOUL Salon, on changes.
My name is Anna Walker & I am the owner of BODY2SOUL Salon.
On July 1st 2015 BODY2SOUL salon relocated to 3601 Cox Road, Suite B, Henrico Virginia 23233. We just didn’t decide to do it in one day. It surprises me how many people ask us the following questions:
- Why did you move?
- Did your landlord kick you out?
- Did your landlord go up in your rent?
- Are all of your staff members going to follow you?
- Are all of your clients going to follow you?
- Are you going to carry the same vendor (AVEDA)?
Well I can assure you my landlord did not kick me out, many times I’m asked these questions as if there is some juicy gossip. I can attest there isn’t! Will my staff follow me? I can only hope & build the intention that they will, & they have!! What I will say, we have changed for the BETTER! What has stayed true to our core is, we are not defined by the vendors we carry. Our vendors we carry are just a facet of our core beliefs. We are defined by our knowledge we have in our industry! We make great decisions as to what we will carry. We have changed vendors & found a company better suited for our business. It is DAVINES (DAH-VEN-NESS). It’s an Italian line that we know you will grow to love as we have done! Are we afraid of loosing clients? That is something that can’t keep us from changing. We have been told by some, that they won’t be following us. That’s OK, we can respect that. It was a very small percentage. Many of our customers have followed us, & have told us, “We trust you”! I know they do! Another comment someone shared with me, “Anna, I know if you are changing, it has to be for a good reason”! That is why we continue to keep ourselves updated on changes that impact & better our industry, & our salon! Thank you to all of those who continue to trust us! It’s a task we don’t take lightly! We have implemented lots of changes that we will blog/write about. Stay tuned!!!
BODY2SOUL SALON 
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