What are the things that make us feel most like ourselves?
Tonight I attended my first Spiritwood Grand Ole Opry (http://townofspiritwood.ca/event/grand-ole-opry-4/?instance_id=604) These talented people get up on stage and sing in front of a crowd of people and I absolutely cannot imagine doing that. But if you're musically inclined, I suppose the opportunity to do that would make you feel alive and whole and I admire and fiercely respect that.
I used to say that when you turned a hobby into a career, all of the fun wore off and whatever it was becomes mundane and tedious. I'm not exactly sure when that changed for me though. It wasn't after my first stint doing hair at a salon on Broadway avenue in Saskatoon. Even though I learned a lot, it still ended up feeling tedious.
It wasn't after my second stint doing hair at a great little salon in Spiritwood. I was busy, I apprenticed under a woman who had done it for years but still, the spark wore off for me. I took a long and lost hiatus from doing hair.
I guess the old cliche "third time is a charm" rang true for me. On my third endeavour into the hair industry, I found a place for myself where I was satisfied and fulfilled daily. I feel most like myself in this salon because this salon is a part of me. My heart is poured into it. It's my sanctuary. I am at home here, just like I've become at home in the town in Saskatchewan where my salon needed to be to make me realize all these things.
Yesterday, one of my oldest and dearest friends in the world came and had her hair done. Because I love her so dearly, I have allowed myself to be be put through hell and back about ten times with her hair requests.
Yesterday the task was to give her hair a rooty, grown out blonde on her hair that she had let grow out to almost entirely her natural color. To execute that is no small task and took all the skills I had up my sleeve to pull off. It involved doing the following things (that until I looked them up myself a few years ago and figured out how to do them, sounded very intimidating);
Babylights. All that really means is a small highlight in a foil but the sections taken are tiny tiny and the weave done is even tinier. We're talking a dozen hairs per foil. The end result is a lightness that is so natural you wouldn't even know the person had had their haired colored. If you forget, just think baby lights, like the hair you had when you were a baby. Soft, natural, blended.
We also used teasylights. This is a technique where sections of hair are backcombed slightly then painted with lightener and incubated in a foil. Once the lightener is rinsed and the hair combed out, the result is a heavier saturation of light on the ends of the hair with a very soft, diffused blend into the the base color.
We also used a little freehand hair painting. This means exactly how it sounds. Much like art, you look at your canvas (the hair in this case) and decide where you want to see lightness and you apply a lightening product there. Don't misunderstand me though-this is not a technique to used by the faint of heart. It takes skill to execute it without fucking it up (I absolutely cannot even type that without thinking of my 3-year-old repeating Rupaul's "...and don't fuck it up..." from her favourite show Rupaul's Drag Race). In the case of my friend's hair, I used Paul Mitchell Sky Light on some of her ends and also painted on some Paul Mitchell Synchro Lift with a mascara wand around her hairline.
After all of this lightener (don't be fooled, Reader, lightener is just a euphemism for bleach), we rinsed, dried and applied a shadow root. That just helps give the whole look an organic, natural feel by darkening the roots slightly and blurring any bit of lines that might have been created with the baby lights, despite their being very fine.
After the shadow root was applied, we toned her hair. If you've ever had your hair bleached, its likely that you've also had a toner applied to your hair. A toner helps cut the left over tones that are undesirable and also helps close down the hair's cuticle that has been opened up with the bleaching process. Bleaching hair without doing a toner at the end would be like putting on nylons to go out but not putting the dress on over them before leaving the house.
While I was doing all of this to her hair, I was griping about how she's always requesting the most complicated things with her fine hair. She kindly reminded me that I owe much credit to her for the hairstylist that I am today because of her years of complicated requests. We both laughed but she was right. And do you know why I did it for her? Because she's going through a really hard spot in her life and the blonde hair she requested is the hair that makes her feel most like herself.
I think people are quick to underestimate the power of what hair and our outward appearances can do for us. You only have to look as far as a show like Queer Eye: More than a makeover https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80160037 to see what making someone feel beautiful in their own skin can do for them. Every day I get to help people feel good about themselves. So really, it's shouldn't be a wonder why this place helps to make me feel most like myself. I have the best job. I get to be myself every day while I do my best to help my salon guests feel like the best versions of themselves.
I would love to end this post on that note but alas, Reader, I need to end it by telling you about what my aforementioned, beloved friend was quipping about for the hours it took to do her hair. Last weekend in Saskatoon over pints of Original 16 beers (I serve those at theNines) at the Yard and Flagon, I forced her to read my post about scrunchies. She was horrified. Her and I both lived through the scrunchie's glory day years ago but unlike me, she could not accept that they were back. I have four scrunchies wrapped around a hairspray bottle sitting next to my hair station. True to form, I was delighted that she had to spend almost five hours starring at them, soaking up their goodness, 'cause Reader (and Laura), the scrunchie is here for now. And hopefully it'll be around longer than the panties I mentioned in one of my last posts. I noticed yesterday that they are still laying on the sidewalk outside the salon. Like, hasn't a strong wind or a bird building a nest or a stray dog picked them up yet?? Maybe with the snow fall happening outside while I write this, one of our local snow shovelers will end up with a treat in their shovel!
I guess I shouldn't judge. Maybe whoever lost them feels most like themselves when they aren't wearing any underpants.
xoxo, Rachelle
Tonight I attended my first Spiritwood Grand Ole Opry (http://townofspiritwood.ca/event/grand-ole-opry-4/?instance_id=604) These talented people get up on stage and sing in front of a crowd of people and I absolutely cannot imagine doing that. But if you're musically inclined, I suppose the opportunity to do that would make you feel alive and whole and I admire and fiercely respect that.
I used to say that when you turned a hobby into a career, all of the fun wore off and whatever it was becomes mundane and tedious. I'm not exactly sure when that changed for me though. It wasn't after my first stint doing hair at a salon on Broadway avenue in Saskatoon. Even though I learned a lot, it still ended up feeling tedious.
It wasn't after my second stint doing hair at a great little salon in Spiritwood. I was busy, I apprenticed under a woman who had done it for years but still, the spark wore off for me. I took a long and lost hiatus from doing hair.
I guess the old cliche "third time is a charm" rang true for me. On my third endeavour into the hair industry, I found a place for myself where I was satisfied and fulfilled daily. I feel most like myself in this salon because this salon is a part of me. My heart is poured into it. It's my sanctuary. I am at home here, just like I've become at home in the town in Saskatchewan where my salon needed to be to make me realize all these things.
Yesterday, one of my oldest and dearest friends in the world came and had her hair done. Because I love her so dearly, I have allowed myself to be be put through hell and back about ten times with her hair requests.
Yesterday the task was to give her hair a rooty, grown out blonde on her hair that she had let grow out to almost entirely her natural color. To execute that is no small task and took all the skills I had up my sleeve to pull off. It involved doing the following things (that until I looked them up myself a few years ago and figured out how to do them, sounded very intimidating);
Babylights. All that really means is a small highlight in a foil but the sections taken are tiny tiny and the weave done is even tinier. We're talking a dozen hairs per foil. The end result is a lightness that is so natural you wouldn't even know the person had had their haired colored. If you forget, just think baby lights, like the hair you had when you were a baby. Soft, natural, blended.
We also used teasylights. This is a technique where sections of hair are backcombed slightly then painted with lightener and incubated in a foil. Once the lightener is rinsed and the hair combed out, the result is a heavier saturation of light on the ends of the hair with a very soft, diffused blend into the the base color.
We also used a little freehand hair painting. This means exactly how it sounds. Much like art, you look at your canvas (the hair in this case) and decide where you want to see lightness and you apply a lightening product there. Don't misunderstand me though-this is not a technique to used by the faint of heart. It takes skill to execute it without fucking it up (I absolutely cannot even type that without thinking of my 3-year-old repeating Rupaul's "...and don't fuck it up..." from her favourite show Rupaul's Drag Race). In the case of my friend's hair, I used Paul Mitchell Sky Light on some of her ends and also painted on some Paul Mitchell Synchro Lift with a mascara wand around her hairline.
After all of this lightener (don't be fooled, Reader, lightener is just a euphemism for bleach), we rinsed, dried and applied a shadow root. That just helps give the whole look an organic, natural feel by darkening the roots slightly and blurring any bit of lines that might have been created with the baby lights, despite their being very fine.
After the shadow root was applied, we toned her hair. If you've ever had your hair bleached, its likely that you've also had a toner applied to your hair. A toner helps cut the left over tones that are undesirable and also helps close down the hair's cuticle that has been opened up with the bleaching process. Bleaching hair without doing a toner at the end would be like putting on nylons to go out but not putting the dress on over them before leaving the house.
While I was doing all of this to her hair, I was griping about how she's always requesting the most complicated things with her fine hair. She kindly reminded me that I owe much credit to her for the hairstylist that I am today because of her years of complicated requests. We both laughed but she was right. And do you know why I did it for her? Because she's going through a really hard spot in her life and the blonde hair she requested is the hair that makes her feel most like herself.
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| Before. |
I think people are quick to underestimate the power of what hair and our outward appearances can do for us. You only have to look as far as a show like Queer Eye: More than a makeover https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80160037 to see what making someone feel beautiful in their own skin can do for them. Every day I get to help people feel good about themselves. So really, it's shouldn't be a wonder why this place helps to make me feel most like myself. I have the best job. I get to be myself every day while I do my best to help my salon guests feel like the best versions of themselves.
I would love to end this post on that note but alas, Reader, I need to end it by telling you about what my aforementioned, beloved friend was quipping about for the hours it took to do her hair. Last weekend in Saskatoon over pints of Original 16 beers (I serve those at theNines) at the Yard and Flagon, I forced her to read my post about scrunchies. She was horrified. Her and I both lived through the scrunchie's glory day years ago but unlike me, she could not accept that they were back. I have four scrunchies wrapped around a hairspray bottle sitting next to my hair station. True to form, I was delighted that she had to spend almost five hours starring at them, soaking up their goodness, 'cause Reader (and Laura), the scrunchie is here for now. And hopefully it'll be around longer than the panties I mentioned in one of my last posts. I noticed yesterday that they are still laying on the sidewalk outside the salon. Like, hasn't a strong wind or a bird building a nest or a stray dog picked them up yet?? Maybe with the snow fall happening outside while I write this, one of our local snow shovelers will end up with a treat in their shovel!
I guess I shouldn't judge. Maybe whoever lost them feels most like themselves when they aren't wearing any underpants.
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| Afterrrrrr. |
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| Also afterrrrrrr. |
xoxo, Rachelle
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