We are very flattered that Schwarzkopf chose to feature Reagan and her red hair on their blog. Link through here to check out Reagan’s post about going red.

Colorist– Charlie Regec

Photography: Jacob Breinholt

Some people have extremely thick hair. And when they put in a bobby pin, sometimes the bobby pin will immediately slide right back out because the hair is too thick to hold it. Well, get ready for Japanese bobby pins my friends! Before you doubt these, keep in mind the kind of hair that invented them..Japanese hair is thick, silky and straighty straight, so the right pins are very important. I have yet to see a hair type that these wont hold.

Japanese bobby pins are flat, and I wish I knew the chemistry/physics/engineering/technology behind how they work so well, but I don’t. I just know they are bobby pins on crack.

Japanese bobby pins are pretty hard to find, so you may have to get them online. They are much more expensive than regular non-cracked out bobbies, but a big box will last you a long time and you will finally have something that works for you rather than having to use ten pins to anchor down one little strand of your huge haired head.

You can order them from Shear World here. You’ll want anything in that center row.

Let me know if you try them out!

To thank you all for supporting Hairdresser On Fire, and liking our facebook page, I decided to do a giveaway. This is for a product I love by Sachajuan called Over Night Hair Repair. This product is for you girls with long hair that gets dry at the ends, or for pretty much anyone who colors/curls/blow dries often. It moisturizes and prevents damage, and it comes in a pretty glass bottle too.

To enter the giveaway just leave a comment. For one extra entry, you may tweet or blog with a link to this post. I’ll leave comments open until the end of this week (Friday). Good luck!

Thanks for reading!

(sorry, my cute doll is not included)

Guys, I mean, ladies…My friend and long time client, Rebecca is growing out her gorgeous pixie. I salute her in this endeavor. Let’s follow her along in the process, and cheer for her when she denies all urges to snip.

Rebecca, if you’re reading this…I’ll miss your pixie, you pull it off better than most can only dream of. But once your hair is long enough to braid, I’m going to go nuts with it, so, it’s cool.

Photo credit: Rebecca’s blog, the daily muse.

(I love this picture because it was around 11pm last night, I had been asleep for almost an hour like an old person, and I woke up dying of thirst. When I came out of the bedroom, I saw Jake in the midst of a full blown photo shoot with a guitar as his model. I walked over to say hi and Jake took this picture. So, this is what I look like with no make up and an hour or more of sleep under my belt/beastie boys tee.)

So, here is my hair! There is no trace of pink in it. I guess it’s been about 3 weeks, and I have probably washed it about 4 times since it was colored. The pink only lasted one or two of those washes. A few of my clients have been visibly upset to come in for hair cuts and not see any pink. Sorry guys! Maybe I’ll go pinky-er next time!

So, I wanted to follow up with my last post about preserving your hair color. I got a comment that was something I had never even considered, so I thought I would address it.

Q: “I have another question. So you said to not shampoo your hair right after it’s been colored, so do you rinse it with cold water to wash out the excess dye? Do you keep rinsing the next couple of days and then wash it with color safe shampoo/conditioner? Also how do you feel about box dye? I know it’s not as up to par with salon work but I’ve used box dye on others before, and they’ve always worked pretty well. What do you think? “

A: Yes, you rinse and shampoo/condition when washing out the dye. Preferably with cooler water, especially if you are doing a gloss (but a gloss probably wont be shampooed out!). There are chemicals in hair color that need to be shampooed out or they will continue processing in your hair until the dye has oxidized completely.

As for continuing to rinse the next few days, I’d say no. You are trying to avoid opening the hair’s cuticle which is what is locking the color in!

Box dyes. So this is the main reason I wanted to answer this question. I feel very strongly against box dyes. I really really do. There are two main reasons I say to avoid box dyes forever, and here they are….

~You most likely don’t know what you are doing. Even if you follow the directions on the back of the box, there is so much more to it than a list of 5 steps. There are colorists that assist for 3 years before going on to the coloring floor, it is really best to keep it to a professional. You could over-process, over-lap and/or cause breakage and damage. A professional knows things that you don’t (like all professions!). That is not an insult.

~The products are very cheap! I’m telling you, there is a huge difference in quality of professional hair color, versus grocery store hair color. In a salon, they will tailor the developer and color formula to what your hair type/base color/texture is. A box has no idea if you’ve had a Japanese relaxer before or if you’ve been previously lightened, or how porous your hair is.

Color is not easy. It might seem like it is, but there is so much to it! There are very few occasions I’d say it’s ok to do your own color, and at that point I’d still say to never buy it from a grocery store. Always use a good quality professional line.

Great questions!

My go-to hair style for running/exercising is definitely a mermaid braid and a pony tail. The mermaid braid keeps my fringe out of my face and looks cute so I only feel red faced, sweaty and smelly instead of adding ugly haired to that too. I have some great stretchy headbands from Aasics that work great too, but I always prefer the mermaid braid.
Jake took this photo of me during a 5 mile race in central park last Saturday. It was at 9 am and it was H O T hot.

I also snapped this photo with my phone when we were walking to the starting line. Can you believe this is in the middle of the city? So beautiful! (Not too far in from the 102nd street entrance on the west side.)

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thank you for liking my Facebook fan page! Over the weekend, we hit 1,000 likes! I’m so happy!

I want to do a giveaway soon to thank you all!

Hooray!

While I’m on the topic, look at Brittney’s cute summertime side pony! She posted it on the HDOF page wall the other day. She looks perfectly summery!

My friend at work has been wanting to work on double french twists with my hair for a while. They are really hard to perfect, and are a serious accomplishment in the hair world if you can get there. It’s basically two french twists both going toward the center, so the back of your head sort of looks like a glamorous butt crack. Double french twists are very, very hard to do right.

So, after loads of products, probably a hundred Japanese pins (which are like regular bobbi pins on crack), and not a single hair out of place, I felt like I had had a face lift. It was so tight!

Well, 3 or 4 clients into the day, and I started getting a headache. It was fine at first, but then it was getting worse by the minute. Soon I was feeling a little dizzy and shaky and nauseous! It was insane. I actually excused myself from a client, asked an assistant to start blow drying her, and ran to the back room in a panic to take out the pins.

After getting most of them out, I felt a little better, but my headache was there for good and it caused me to lose the entire content of my stomach. Can you believe that? It was so crazy to go back to my client like “Hey, sorry about that, my hair was hurting so much that I threw up. How do you want your bangs today?”.

I kept thinking about the girls that get tight tracks all over their head for weaves and the models that wear crazy hair all day long in photo shoots. I could not believe how sick my hair made me!

Anyway, all I have to say is that my friend has serious skills if she is able to do my hair sosososo tight. Talent!

 I was hoping to wear my hair home so Jake could take some real pictures of the back. Double frenchies are so beautiful!

P.S. I said crack twice in this post! Now three.

Also, I have really only felt semi-painful hair from headbands or the occasional high bun/pony. Have you ever had that experience?

I feel like the highlight of my hair’s life/career will be the day I get a pixie cut. I have always wanted one. I mean, ever since I’ve been in my 20s I’ve wanted one. I never really thought about it before then. I don’t know what is stopping me really. I am pretty proud of my hair-guts, and I’m not really afraid to try new things….but the pixie, at this point it’s almost the untouchable. What if it’s not as exciting as I’ve always thought it will be? What if I like it for only a month?

I know I’ll have a pixie one day, but it has to be the right time. So, for now I’ll look longingly at the pixie hair of my fancy. The girls with all the hair courage.

Carrie Mulligan

Michelle Williams

Sienna Miller

Agyness Deyn (she comes into my salon. Her platinum pixie is cuter than you can imagine)

My mom. Photo of a photo from the late 1950s, she’s the cutie on the left. My mom is actually an inspiration to me in a lot of hairy ways. I’ve had a client for 3 years that gets my mom’s shaggy early 70s cut.

So. I vow right here on Hairdresser On Fire, that one day I will get a pixie. I will not be afraid forever. I will have one.

It just might be two or three or four years.

PS Something about a pixie screams for a drastic hair color, right?

Guys, go pick up some bungees at your nearest beauty supply store and practice using them. They’re awesome! Especially for you girls with super long hair, super thick hair, or you lovers of the sleek pony. Let’s get started!