I have a few clients who literally have half curly/half straight hair. Meaning, the hair that grows from their crown is straight, and the hair that grows underneath is curly (or the other way around)…two completely different textures. It creates a problem with cutting and daily styling. After getting an email from a girl with this type of hair, I thought it would be a good idea to post about it here! She and the girls I know can’t be the only bi-texturals!

This can be caused by damage, or nothing at all! I know some people who after doing the Keratin treatment a few times experienced entire straight sections, I know people whose hair was damaged from bleach and lost wave, but I also know people with perfectly healthy/virgin hair that just likes to do its own crazy wonky thing! Silly hair!

First thing, make sure you find the right hair cut. This is very important. The first time I saw a girl with straight underneath and curly on top, I thought she had been given the most uneven haircut ever. It turned out it wasn’t uneven, it was just cut wet. Once the hair dried into it’s natural state, the curly hair shrunk up, leaving a huge gap inbetween the length and the layers. She had been unintentionally *shelfed! I undercut the length on this particular girl to make sure she is never shelfed again. So, make sure you explain very well to your stylist how your hair behaves naturally. Have a real discussion about how the hair cut may fix it (or at least enhance it). For example, using a razor to cut internal layers on the straight portion can encourage wave!

For styling, unfortunately you can’t just go natural (unless you like the bi-textural look). My suggestion is to use a curling iron to blend the straight parts with the curly parts. You don’t have to do every section, just the most troubled! Curl a few pieces from the curly section as well to blend those with the straighties. So it doesn’t look like the photo of me below!

*Shelfed [shelft]

1. A situation where a hairstylist has intentionally or unintentionally created a severely chunky layer not coordinating with the client’s length, simulating a shelf.

2. A person(s) who became victim to a stylist whose refusal to blend heavy layers ends up in an incredibly shelfy and unmanageable hairstyle.

“Have you seen Lisa’s new haircut? She’s been shelfed!”

Hello there! Today’s peek into my kit is all about my tools!

First up, I like to be prepared for the possibility of hair cutting. What if they are desperate for a bang trim? What if their ends are trashed? At a wedding recently, I ended up using my razor for two different bride’s maids..otherwise their heavy bangs would have been flopping in their face the whole day! I almost didn’t bring my cutting tools and boy am I glad I did. So add your shears, razor (this one!), and a cutting comb (carbon!) to your check off list of what to bring.

Also, at least one rat tail comb (this one!) and possibly a teasing comb (not pictured, but like this) if that’s your thing.

Next, I like to bring an assortment of brushes! I love my Mason Pearson for doing pin straight blow dries, smoothing out up dos, brushing out curls, etc. I love my pocket size Mason Pearson for bangs and little jobs. I sometimes use my Masons for teasing too! For round brushes, I like the Ibiza, and use two sizes, small and medium. I never need any other sizes.

A good blow dryer with nozzle is so important. On many jobs I don’t even use a flat iron or curling iron, just a good blow dry. I have been using the Twin Turbo for about 7 years. I only took a break once when someone gave me an FHI. Once that broke I was right back to the Twin Turbo. I actually have two. It’s the perfect air flow and the even perfecter heat.

Curling irons in a variety of sizes. I have about 4 Hot Tools marcel irons. 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1 1/2 inch. I use the 3/4 and the 1 inch the most.

This are the most commonly used tools. Depending on the job you might need a defuser, a flat iron, foam for forming, clippers, etc.

Anything you other stylists out there swear by?

Photos by Jake Breinholt for Hairdresser on Fire.

For our “Pins” segment, I’ll be covering a broader area than just pins. I’m including all the things I use to secure different styles. Before you get started, you want a pin case. This one below is great. I didn’t use my own picture because my pin case isn’t organized very well right now.
You can get this one here.

I like to bring a big clip to hold the hair while I’m blow drying/curling. This clip holds the thickest of the sections and never falls.

I make sure to always have lots of two prong clips for setting. Also, if you are doing a shoot or a show (or even a wedding) the make up artist will want to front of the hair pinned away so it doesn’t get in the way during the make up application. A lot of times I’ve used a piece of tissue between the hair and the clip to prevent a mark, but there are also special clips just for that purpose if you don’t want to deal with the tissue.

Bungees are the best way to get a smooth pony. They hold the hair tight tight tight! See my bungee tutorial here!

I go through these little bands like crazy. I use them mostly for securing braids and ponies. Make sure you have clear (pictured, but hard to see) for your blonde clients.

Japanese bobbies. I’ve written about these before. Normal bobbies don’t come near these guys. They are expensive, but one box comes with hundreds, and you non hairstylists will likely have a life supply by getting one. You hairstylists will likely have a few months supply. Let’s be real. We go through a lot of bobbies!

Last up is hair pins. I also like Japanese because they are easy to form without being too flexible. They are very comfortable to wear. The longer I do hair, the more I find myself using hairpins instead of bobbies. Go here for a quick hairpin tutorial!

Tomorrow I’ll choose a winner! Also, We have a new tutorial all edited and ready to go. I’ll probably post it Monday, but I just had to tell you!

All photos by Jacob Breinholt for Hairdresser On Fire. Except the top one.

I got an email from a young stylist asking for a peek into my kit. She wanted to know what I would bring with me on a job outside of the salon. I’m going to break this up into a few posts so that I can get into more detail with out it being too long and boring, but in the meantime, here is a peek!

I’ll be breaking it down into pins, products and tools.

Looking forward to seeing in the comments what other stylists bring along with them too!

Photo by Jake Breinholt for Hairdresser On Fire.

Is your hair straw-like?

Over-processed? Over dyed? Over heat-styled? Over everything?

Then I’ve got the solution for you!

(does that sound like an infomercial?)

Step One: Get a freakin’ trim! Take a look at your ends. If they are see-through, fuzzy and/or slightly resemble cotton candy or velcro, you need a haircut. The longer you put it off, the higher the damage is going to spread up the hair shaft. Put down the internet and call your stylist. Then come back and finish reading this extremely informative and well written hair article.

Take a cue from Olivia, perhaps?

Step Two: Tone it down, literally. If your hair is as damaged as we think it is, you are probably bleaching it a lot, right? Hows about you tone it down to a more natural color that doesn’t require so much lifting? You’ll be able to go longer between color visits, and the less processing the less breakage! Ok? Yay!

Something like this maybe. Not bad, right?

Seen here

Step Three: Cool it on the heat styling. A little heat is ok once in a while. Hell, it’s ok a few times a week. But if you are shampooing, blow drying, flat ironing every single day, I really doubt your hair health will ever improve. Your hair might be addicted to the flat iron, it might be the only way to get it smooth at this point. My advice is to pull it up in a pretty pony, a beautiful bun or a sassy braid. You can do any of these with zero use of heat. I’m willing to bet that the number of people who notice you are no longer torching your hair daily will be less than you think.

Seen here

If you practice these three steps, then I have no doubt you can have healthy hair. If you refuse them, then I guess you like cotton candy for hair! Sorry!

Q by Heather: I’d like to get your take on “cowlicks”.  I have hair that looks very similar to yours, maybe a little thinner, and I have HUGE issues with the whorl at my crown.  It’s fine when I wear it curly, but when I go straight it seems that no matter how I blowdry or tease, after a very short time you can see my hair start to split in the back….it drives me nuts!  I end up having to wash my hair way more often than I’d like because it’s the only way I can get it under control after sleeping on it.  Any suggestions?

A by Reagan: Heather, you’re on the right track! There are a few tricks to dealing with cowlicks that I have found very helpful. The first trick is to leave the hair in that area a little longer. You don’t want to be cutting short layers or fringes where there are cowlicks. The extra length with help weigh down the hair, making it more manageable. My next tip is to comb and blow dry that area first, while the hair is still quite wet. Make sure you are blow drying against the grain of the hair, this will help to manipulate that little tuft to lay down a little more. My final tip, is instead of shampooing your whole head in the morning just spray down that area and start over. My favorite blow dryer is the Twin Turbo, give that a shot. They range from $90-$150 on Amazon. And for the millionth time, use a nozzle!!

Cowlicks are such needy little things, right? They love all the attention like that one girl from highschool! haha. Good luck!

Me crying at work because I’m cold.

I got an email yesterday from some girls who are in beauty school. They have been dealing with some rude clients and wondered if a rude client has ever made me cry?

Yes, yes they have.

When I was an assistant, there was this really mean old lady who had done every plastic surgery known to man at least 15 times. I don’t know if this was the reason for her hating the world, but I just don’t know. I’m open to it. Anyway, I was about to blow dry her hair when she stopped me to ask how old I was. I answered “21″, she said “give me someone else. you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re too young. i just don’t want to deal with this today.”. I said that I’d go find her someone older (haha) and while I walked around the salon looking for someone older than 21 to blow dry her hair, she sat there muttering loudly about “someone so young shouldn’t be working here. they don’t know what they’re doing. my day is just too busy to have a bad blow dry”.

I went to the back area and started crying. I felt so bad. This lady was a repeat offender, though, and had made at least 2 or 3 other assistants cry before.

Nothing else comes to mind as far as crying, but there was another time maybe 3 years ago where a woman was equally rude. She was the kind of woman who thought she was super fabulous (but wasn’t), so she acted like a diva wherever she went. I think she probably left the salon and called all of her friends to brag about how she just yelled at the girl blow drying her hair.

Anyway, In the first 5 seconds of the blow dry, she said “Stop! Aren’t you going to do it this way?”. I said “yes, but I’m first getting these frizzy hairs in the front so they don’t dry on their own”. She started flipping out and saying I didn’t know what I was doing and ran out of the salon with wet hair. Then in the doorway, she turned around and yelled “If you want to learn how to do a REAL blow dry, try going to the Upper East Side!!”.  And that was the last time I saw her and her ugly knock-off Coach handbag.

The funny thing, is that I did learn how to do a blow dry at a salon on the Upper East Side. That is where you go for an old lady blow dry. I can do that if you want to look like a news reporter, but I would much more prefer to make you look like a Victoria’s Secret model, if you will only let me.

In both of these cases, I didn’t do anything wrong. It was just nasty people taking out their nasty attitudes on me.

So, chin up! Just make fun of the rudies when they leave. There are other ways to get your point across besides stomping around and being rude, so in my opinion, they deserve it.

Me on the far right, in 2001. Addicted to the flat iron. (and bleach and lipgloss and cheerleading)

Q by Allie: Hey there Reagan! My name is Allie and i absolutely love your blogs. I am a teenager with a similar hair texture to yours except slightly curlier/frizzier. I feel like all teenage girls nowadays flat iron their hair daily which is obviously super damaging. do u have any cute hair ideas that dont involve too much heat!? hopefully u see this cause i really need some help here! thanks.

A by Reagan: Allie, I was a flat ironer too! The flat iron became really big when I was in high school, and I guess it’s never left the high school scene! In my experience, the flat iron is what destroyed my hair. Before the flat iron, my hair was so thick and perfectly healthy. Before I knew it, the flat iron had wrecked my hair so much that the only way for it to look smooth was to keep flat ironing it every day. It wasn’t until I finally cut off lots of length and left it alone that it got back to health. Pheeww! Bad memory!

Anyway, Allie, I love you. Do you know how much I hate unecessary damage on hair? Because of over-heat styling, overdue haircutting, over-processing color treatments or whatever it may be. Just treat your hair nice and it will be so much more glorious resulting in tons of boyfriends or girlfriends or jealous people! I am constantly trying to show my clients how to keep their hair healthy, so thank you for this question.

So to answer your question finally, I say look all over this blog! I am really into just enhancing your hair’s natural texture. Maybe by blow drying only the roots and letting your ends dry how they naturally would, or just curling a few pieces around your face to feel jazzy. You could also let your hair air dry before putting it in a bun, a pretty ponytail or a braid of some kind. And don’t be afraid to use product. Product is always a great way to cut down on styling time AND damage. As always, I love Redken Outshine for almost every hair texture and styling purpose. But I still think it’s freaking sick and disgusting that they call it polishing milk. Milk?? Are you kidding me?

I have an idea! What do you say you and I run around dressed like hamburglars and steal all of your friends flat irons so they are forced to stop doing it? No? That’s illegal?

I recently got an email about brides wearing bangs, asking if I thought it was a good look. Yes, I do! But I don’t know if I’m the type of girl who says you should completely avoid dating your wedding. I mean, it will be kind of fun to look back at the pictures and know know that what you wore was what you wanted, instead of not wearing what you wanted because you were too afraid of the occasion being dated. I wore my hair long, down and wavy with a nod to the 1940s (with sort of a victory roll on the side). I also wore a big champagne colored sash which will forever go down in 2007 wedding history. The point is, it was what I wanted to wear. (Actually, I got married in Vegas and it was the only dress I tried on. But I did my hair myself and I did like it.)

So, maybe sweepy bangs wont be around forever. Maybe you have Zooey Deschanel hair and that wont be around forever either. But if you love your bangs, and you don’t feel like yourself without them, you should just wear the bangs.

But..

..If you are afraid of looking like you are hiding under your big heavy bangs in all the pictures, then maybe you should try curtain bangs. Which is basically the beautiful bangs you already have, just parted down the center. You’ll have the comfort of the bangs that you know and love, but you will also be able to see your forehead!

So I know none of these above ladies are brides at the moment, but I do know that they all have the beautiful “curtain bang” that I love so much. I wear curtain bangs whenever they get too long to wear all the way down. They’ve been too long for that for several months, and I’ve enjoyed so much the curtain look.

I am interested to hear if you wore bangs to your wedding. Or if you will. My friend Maggie has had bangs as long as I’ve known her (6th grade) and she is getting married in just a few months. I am so curious what she’ll do with her bangs. Frankly, I can’t picture her without them!

PS this question came from Bosnia! Crazy!

I recently got an email with a question that really had me thinking. She was wondering how I “got so good at hair”. This question had me experience severe flattery syndrome.

But more important than posting this question so that you can all see that someone thinks I’m “so good at hair”, I thought it was actually a really good question to answer for you aspiring stylists. It could even be good for someone struggling in any career field.

Here it goes:

I started out beauty school interested in hair, but not really having any idea of where it could take me. I was in for a rude awakening when I graduated and I didn’t have a full clientele immediately. I spent a long time just doing hair on the side because I wasn’t making enough money, and I had to rely on waitressing as my real source of income. When I moved to NYC, I found out that you can’t work on the cutting floor without assisting experience. I thought I knew so much about hair, but in truth, I wasn’t sectioning the hair off right, I didn’t know the difference between a stationary blade and a moving blade, and there was so much terminology I had never even heard of when it came to hair. I was embarrassed and it took a lot of pride swallowing to realize that beauty school doesn’t count as experience in NYC. Most people assist for 2 or 3 years before getting on the floor.

I chose cutting/styling over color. I still can’t really explain why I did, but I’m glad. There is definitely more money in color, but cutting/styling feels a little more creative. I worked my ass off. I cried, I messed up a few haircuts, I got laughed at by my teacher and I worked terrible long hours handing people hairspray and shampooing clients for the real stylists. I spent so much time leaning over shampoo bowls, that I had to get weekly back adjustments by a chiropractor. But I also learned a lot. I learned which blade was my moving blade, how to section off for different haircuts/head shapes and most importantly I was in an environment that challenged and inspired me.

I still feel insecure sometimes when I watch some of the stylists I work with. I wonder if I’m that good or if I’m that professional, but I think that a little of that is important in any work environment. What if I didn’t feel slightly insecure? I’d go to work every day bored, not trying new things, not looking for constant inspiration. I don’t feel afraid of looking stupid, if a stylist I work with knows more than me, I ask them to teach me. We all have our own styles and we can all learn something from each other. I look through magazines, I play with my friends’ hair, I watch old movies and use what I already know to come up with new things.

Something I’ve learned over the years….especially since I spent over three years in a salon that didn’t challenge or inspire me…is that your talent/creativity will become dormant if you aren’t pushing yourself. If you go to work and cut/blow, cut/blow, cut/blow, without any variation, you will never grow. If you have an extra 15 minutes with client, ask if you can try a new bun or braid on them that you saw in a magazine. You’ll find out that hair is the most fun think that ever was.