THE BLONDTOURAGE

Welp.

I’m sure you all can guess a lot of the points that I’m going to make in this post.

However, if you can’t, or can, it’s still good to hear it from the mouth from a professional.

Instagram. It all starts here because Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter all have mostly shared posts and videos. Okay, YouTube too… but I think we are all mostly getting fascinating ideas without seeing the processes it takes due to editing of videos (because who would watch a 12 hour correction) and still images. (I’m looking at you, “before and afters”.)

First off, I think we should all remember that maybe only about 1% of before and afters get shown to us because the other 99% are NOT posted. It’s not that hair colorists don’t want to show them to help their audience understand it’s not all rainbows and sheets of platinum healthy hair as the result- but more so the fact that we are posting work to get LIKES. Even the most educational, realistic, and difficult jobs that we would like to share to help our clients understand will NOT be simply because Instagram is a tool for our business. To attract followers and likes. Add to that the constant change of algorithm; we are posting what we think will be liked the quickest, pull in others to our page and get a follow, or to get a share or a bookmark.

Everyone’s hair is vastly different and has a separate history and biological response to each and every hair service.

This includes not just the bleach- but the hair color remover, the pre-treatments, the technique in which all lightener is applied, and the toners or any pigment put back in. Especially especially the toners or pigments put back in.

Really there is NO way to know how anyone’s hair is going to react to a color service. Even a regular clients hair can go AWOL some times and do some weird shit.

When you learn about hair coloring, the class is called THEORY. We all remember what a theory is, right? It’s an educated guess of an outcome. A GUESS.

This is why when we do get that exact color the clients wanted, we are all: “LOOK AT THIS BEFORE AND AFTER I AM RULING THE HAIR GAME! 👑🥳🙌🏼!”

Hair is photographed in different lighting. The best possible lighting. This included studio lighting, bouncers, strobe flash bulbs, ring lights and perfect daylight.

Although daylight is by far the best lighting, it is not always available. We try desperately to recreate it when it is not possible, however this ends up still not giving you a straight up idea of what it will look like in your office, bathroom, rearview mirror with your sunroof open, etc. (If I could have 5$ for every pic sent by a client of their hair in the bathroom of a restaurant or even at their house then I probably would only cruise into work a couple times a week since I’d be a millionaire lol the salon would be a passion project, second to my ranch of older dogs and other various animals I’d rescue with all my heaps of 5$ bills LOL.)

Yes. Your blonde hair will look different in EVERY LIGHT. It will not always look like your after pic at the salon or the selfie on a cloudy day at the beach. Or when you were super tan after Coachella last year. These pictures create havoc in your mind because if you look at them and then your current hair- it will never match! I mean- if I did it- then it should always look fucking amazing lol but it still varies- constantly!

This is just the start of unsteady expectations. We haven’t even gotten to editing or FaceTune-ing yet.

Now if you are comparing your results or if before the appt, comparing what you DO want to other’s hair that isn’t even YOU- then you have started another whole situation lol. Now we are talking about someone else’s hair completely. And almost 70% of the time, the hair is 100%-200% thicker, and almost never the same length.

If you are one of my clients that brings in a pic of someone who has the same type and natural color of hair like you do, and the same length and thickness- then you know who you are! I probably got very excited, told you that you were client of the month (or year!) and made a huge deal about how you conquered the inspo pic game!!!

A inspo pic that is way way off from your hairs length, type, and thickness is the start to unrealistic expectations. It’s not that we can’t get your hair that exact color- but it’s going to LOOK different when it’s done!

DISCLAIMER:

🤷🏼‍♀️ now that I’m going on and on about this, I should probably also mention that a lot of you are amazing and have Insta pics simply for inspiration. Some of you even bring in multiple images and let us find the common denominator and give you that look! For all of you who do this, we love you we appreciate you and there may have been some talk about going ring shopping even lol! 💍👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩