THE BLONDTOURAGE

GASP!!!!

The situation no Blonde ever wants to be in… A Break Up!

The thought alone can create a downward spiral in your usually blissful Blonde life….

The idea of it can give you visions of horrific Facebook pictures you’re tagged in….

The mere suggestion can have you searching Linkedin looking for jobs in the last city where you had a haircolorist you trusted….

WHAT could we POSSIBLY be speaking of???

Changing your hairstylist.

Listen: I am NOT trying to give you a panic attack on an otherwise lovely Tuesday afternoon when you are reading this blog instead of doing expense reports.  I can guarantee that sticking to one haircolorist is usually the ideal way to keep your hair safe: In the hands of someone that knows it and it’s history.

However, I have been guilty of being loyal to a point where it is destructive and makes no sense, logically.  (I say this because we have ALL made “sense” of things that are not “logical”, and those things can certainly be the right choice some of the time!)

Here are the:

 5 REASONS YOU KNOW IT’S TIME TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR HAIRDRESSER. 

1) You have asked for more than two appointments (in a row) for a change in color or tone of your blonde without seeing any difference. (If your colorist has made a change, and you can tell when you leave, but by the time of your next appointment, the color has gone back to what it was previously, then that is not necessarily their fault. The next time you see them, let them know you are okay with them using a formula that may look different in the beginning, but has more lasting effects.)

2) You notice your hair is becoming increasingly more and more damaged: and you are not using ANY hot tools. Also if your hair is really blonde in the middle area and also the ends, yet not up top in the root area, there is a chance your hair is having lightener applied from root to end. This means the lightener is being applied over previously lightened hair. A recipe for disaster. Especially take notice if your colorist dismisses this or tells you that you just need to trim your hair more if you want to stay blonde.

3) It looks like you got our hair done 3 weeks ago when you leave the salon.  We have all been there:  You are so happy to have your roots done, you float out of the salon full of that “I’m so Blonde even the stoplights are jealous”, then you glance (vainly) in your rearview.  Is that like a 1/2″ of regrowth? Already??  If this has happened to you and you bring it up with your colorist the next visit to no avail, you are wasting a lot of money and time. Knocking off 3-4 weeks between every visit to the salon can add up to hundreds of dollars a year.  Unfortunately, some colorists were never trained how to do highlights close to the scalp, and many do not because it takes too much time. Even worse yet is the colorist that knows by doing highlights off the scalp requires more frequent visits!

4) You are told by your colorist herself that she is moving to another state or city far away; but not to be worried he/she is going to come back to do her clients. Now: I am not saying they won’t come back for a period of time, or that they doesn’t intend on keeping all of her regular clients taken care of.  I am simply saying that this is a good time to try and find another hair colorist in your town.  Most hairdressers are used to having a hundred or more clients counting on them, and they are also used to being able to deliver on that promise.  However, when your colorist moves, its usually for a pretty big reason. One that will eventually take precedence over YOUR hair. 😉  It’s better to plan ahead and not be left in a situation where you don’t have a capable person to keep you that lovely shade of Blonde you are adored for!

5) They are acting very shady and seem as if their personality is changing, or that they are using drugs to the point it is affecting their work.  As much as I do NOT want to bring this up; I have had a lot of clients come to me after being in this situation.  I am not speaking of a hairdresser who you know parties on the weekends, which is the basis of a lot of funny stories they can tell you while in their chair.  We love our colorists who we can live vicariously through! Being an artist, a lot of haristylists are fun loving and exciting and have celebrity clients and are in turn invited to the best parties, etc… When to get concerned is more so when it starts affecting their work.  They sleep through your appointments.  They are spun out from the weekend and have trouble getting your color right, or they have money issues that require them to bring up financial difficulties to you that seem inappropriate. It’s sad as hell, but you need to know when to remove yourself from the situation. Again, its hard for me to talk about this, because I believe in second chances and also that people go through ups and downs.  If you are seeing a pattern though, its time to “abandon ship” and take care of yourself.

Again, I in no way want anyone to start surfing the city in a frenzy for new salons/hair colorists! This list is comprised to help those who have already felt one or more of these situations happening but haven’t had the guts to move on!  Remember: Instinct rues the world. If your gut says to leave, LEAVE!  If you know your colorist so well that you consider them a close friend, and you are able to instinctively judge the ups and downs of their personality and schedule, then trust that implicitly.

Here’s to ALL blondes feeling safe and heard in their colorist’s chair!! 

XOXO

Caitlin 

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd #305, West Hollywood, CA 90069

Who cares. It will make your hair yellow LIKE the LEMON.   

Call your mother. Tell her you love her.

Then be a big girl and find a real life hair colorist and schedule an appointment.

Love You!

Caitlin xx

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd #305, West Hollywood, CA 90069

(amazon.not ?)

SIGH.

Let me preface this by admitting my all encompassing love and dedication to amazon.com.

Not only has Amazon Prime changed my life, and in turn, Prime Now, but also the company is based in my hometown of Seattle, Washington!  Rain City is the place where I learned to be a capable woman, raised in a community of people who had loyalty and intelligence and and gave a crap about the environment and education. Bomb AF.

Maaaayyyybe though….Amazon had a couple of screws that went loose when it came to ensuring hair products (amongst other things sold on the site), were legitimate. Again, SIGH. 

I’m not here to point fingers or say anyone besides the seller is maliciously trying to sabotage us from having amazing hair care that makes all brunettes jealous. Oh!  It’s probably brunettes who are selling the fake goods!!!  (JK they never made me submit a current photo when buying any conditioner or anything LOL.)

So the end decision I have made is to CAREFULLY  buy any hair stuff or beauty products on Amazon.

Here’s how I’m seeing Amazon works since researching the issue:

Amazon has three ways they handle fulfillment of their orders:

–Sold by Amazon

These products are sold to Amazon to resell to customers by actual companies and vendors, so they are most likely the actual product.

–Fulfilled by Amazon

These products are not sold by Amazon, but are shipped from an Amazon fufillment center.  So they are at least processed by Amazon, but there’s a chance they were not verified.

–Ships From and Sold By a Third-Party Seller

These items are never in the hands of any amazon employee and ship directly from the Third-Party Seller.  This is how most of the counterfeit products are sold.

Reviews and How They Get Away With It:

-Fake Reviews 

I actually heard a story on NPR a couple weeks ago about this. Sellers are giving free products to “customers” in trade for a review.  I know that some of us would not trade free stuff for a 5 star review, but it seems that the swag stops to the reviewers when the 5 star ratings aren’t there.  Add to that, I’m SURE they don’t send the fake stuff to them anyways! HELLO!

-Selling of REAL product, then having cycles selling FAKE products

I went on amazon and checked out reviews for a seller that retailed “It’s a 10” leave-in treatment. The 5 star reviews were chronologically grouped together, and so were the 1 star reviews.

Example:

October 2013, August 2013, February 2014, there was a string of bad reviews stating that the product was fake, and that they knew so by comparing it to the product the had bought before in a store in person, or even brought it to their hairstylists who told them it was definitely NOT “It’s a 10“.

Then, there was months of good reviews. 

Again, in November 2015, December 2015, and another November 2015, the reviews stating the product was not real were left.

Then, another few months of positive reviews.

And, once again, another cycle of claims it was a fake product. THREE 1 star reviews claiming “It’s a 10” was counterfeit in May of 2016. You can tell that people are utilizing the reviewing process more and more, which makes sense because more and more people have started counting on amazon for household purchases.

My Experience With Amazon Haircare Purchases

I personally have a haircare product that I recommend to clients (and use myself) that I get on Amazon. I 100% let them know ahead of time that there’s a possibility of the seller going rogue, but the product I buy on there is not available in a large size anywhere in a Los Angeles salon or retail store. I use the exact same seller and only tell my clients to buy it by using the link I send them, which is where I originally purchased the item.  Also, I do have them touch and smell the product at the salon, so they know what to look for.  My clients are so awesome they even send me pics of it when they get it!  The product is so good for the hair, it is worth the risk to me.

Now here’s another story….

Roza’s Experience With Amazon Haircare Products

Uh oh. My BFF and favorite person in the world, Roza had a totally frustrating experience with this…. She bought a conditioner and when receiving it, felt like it wasn’t real… Actually, KNEW it wasnt real because she had used the product many times before. It ended up being hair CHOLESTEROL. A super cheap yellow “deep conditioner” used at beauty schools for practice. She complained. She wrote a bad review. She even contacted Amazon. Her review was taken down due to what she thinks was other positive reviews outweighing her claims. Or just basically in Roza’s words: “Everyone is a cheater liar”.  And lets be honest… She may not be the sweetest person on the phone when dealing with customer service representatives. Im pretty sure I would quit my job if i worked at a call center and she was a customer I had to help. I think she had just gotten over it when I went to Dallas to visit her and brought her a liter of the real thing as a surprise present. She ran into her bathroom and came out with the fake shit yelling I KNEW IT I KNEW IT!!!!  I’m actually the one that had to tell her the stuff she bought for $34 was cholesterol…ouch!

Well I hope this has been of some help!

Here’s to Amazon weeding out the liars and fakers.

Love and Legitimate Fluffy Feel,

Caitlin ❤

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd #305 West Hollywood CA 90069 

(And we ALL KNOW I have THE ANSWER.  (Albeit my opinion.))

Let me say this: If brevity is the soul of wit, maybe skip this post. This is my drawn out opinion ;).

Most of my opinions are really based on Los Angeles air and water quality, along with lifestyle habits of Angelenos who dye their hair blonde.  Maybe if one day I lose my mind and go full blown hippie, I will move to the San Juan Islands and have naked offspring running around my property and no access to the internet…probably making my own soap out of god knows what and then using it on my chemical free babies whom I bath in large steel drums filled with rainwater. Until then, though, I will keep it ALL about Los Angeles Blondes since YOU are my audience! …Workaholic and/or actress/model career women who schedule a manicure between spin class and coffee with your mastermind group mentor. (This is all before you get to the office at 9am.)

Here is the point (if you bothered to read the above paragraph).

When in the world did you have time to wash your hair?

After spin, before your 8am manicure you guilted your nail girl into?  I don’t think so.  You barely had time to rinse off at Soul Cycle and get into your work clothes.  It’s hard enough to get wet legs into skinny jeans without wet hair dripping in your eyes. That shit is in a bun and we both know it.

Hair is sitting in sweat, then sweat dries INTO the hair.

Now its 8:00pm, and you’re lucky enough to get off that early from work.  Never mind that you had to lie about picking up your car from getting serviced… and the dealership CLOSES AT NINE.  (Does it? You’ve really dramatized this lie.)   Really you just wanted to make the 8:30 hot yoga class at Modo because you saw your ex snap themselves there the last THREE  Thursdays in a row.  Over your DEAD body will you let this slide because you claimed every hot yoga studio east of La Brea (INCLUDING the east side OF La Brea) in the break-up.

Fuck!. They aren’t there, but there’s a new hot teacher subbing for the regular one so you stay.  Get out of class- (shit that was a 90 min class) . Rinse off AGAIN in the shower with zero time to wash your hair because you have to be at a showcase at Hotel Cafe at 10:30pm.

Sweat once again dries into hair.

By the time you leave the showcase you had like 4 Hendricks and grapefruits, and got talked into sitting on the back smoking patio of Piano Bar for 2 more.  Ubered home.

Alcohol dehydrates you, second-hand smoke soaks into your hair.

Its 6am. Fetty Wap is singing ‘Trap Queen’ loudly from your iPhone reminding you to get up. You drag yourself into the shower and about 2 min into it remember your car is on Selma by Hotel Cafe.  SHIT!

Good thing you know its good to only wash your hair every 2-3 days.

…Right?

WRONG.

I have just named three crucial reasons above to why you should wash your hair more frequently!  If you are a typical Angeleno, you have done one of those 3 things, or more, in the last 24 hours.  

The very first thing I tell new clients who are preparing to come in for a color correction service and have seriously damaged hair, is to wash it every day.*  

*After that it is to stop using hot tools, and if you cannot for the love of god air dry your hair, instead use a blow dryer (with a nozzle) and a boar bristle round brush.

When these clients start washing their hair every day, the effects are pretty amazing.  The hair is shinier and feels stronger!  There is no need to wait until your hair is damaged to start this practice!  This is why I always recommend washing hair every day, and if you cannot air dry it, then you can wash every other day.

The biggest reason by far to wash daily is what I call “The Sweat Effect”.

Sweat is made up of toxins your body is purging by carrying them out of your bloodstream via sweating.  A huge amount of which is salts.  Salt dries out everything.  If you leave it to dry into your hair, it makes it more and more brittle.  This is an enemy of lightened hair!  If you use a really good moisturizing shampoo, your hair will be softer after washing it.  Also please use a good conditioner as well.  Your hair needs the daily conditioning to protect against environmental impurities such as smog in general or second-hand smoke on the Piano Bar patio.

Try it out!  

My future child who will wash daily.

Wash your hair every day or at least every other day and let me know how it goes!

( Or don’t!  You a free bitch after all!) 

Here’s to all my dirty girls 😉

XOXO

Caitlin 

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood CA 90069

Okay…!

We all have heard about sulfate-free shampoo and have steered clear of it, (or not), regardless of knowing why we are doing so, (or not doing so).  I do a lot of things without knowing why!  Currently, my mother has me taking some algae vitamin supplements and I couldn’t tell you shit about them.

Here I will attempt a simple breakdown about sulfates using the least run-on sentences I know how to write.

Note: I have always been somewhat lazy when it comes to drilling my clients toward sulfate-free products because I have an entire list of things for them to follow, and I tend to get caught up in water quality and hot tool use.  (That is a great example of a classic “Caitlin” run-on sentence… (I have a habit of using parentheses a tad too much.))

(This is a sulfate.) (This is hair on sulfates.)

Alright. So sulfates are a type of surfactant which are used to separate oil and water molecules, therefore removing the oils from scalp and hair and then also adding lather.  This has been used in shampoos as well as many beauty products, including mouthwash, body soap and makeup.

The Culprit: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

This inexpensive and effective detergent is also used in industrial strength cleaners and even engine degreaser.  Sulfates are synthetic ingredients which are derived from petroleum or other sources.  The other sources are the largest part of the molecule, which comes from Lauryl alcohol that actually comes from coconut oil or other plants… Sounds great, but it mixed with sulfuric acid.  Of course sulfer occurs naturally on the earth, but mostly it is produced from- you guessed it- petroleum again.

Types of Sulfates

There are 100’s of different sulfates!  Ugh!  However, the ones most commonly used in beauty products are sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) *not the hotel on La Cienega, my Angeleno blondes*, and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES).  More than 90% of shampoos (and body washes) contain SLS or SLES!  The crazy part is that SLS is a harsher detergent than SLES, so “better” for sensitive skin, but SLES has a by-product called 1.4-dioxane which is a CARCINOGEN.  Add to this that SLS has been shown in some findings to mimic estrogen. WTF.  I know there are so many studies, and everyone has an agenda, but even the sustainability factor (using Lauryl alcohol from petroleum derived sources) can be a cause to start using sulfate-free products.

Sulfates and Haircolor

Not to be completely shallow, but….sulfate-free to keep HAIRCOLOR lasting longer is kind of important here at The Blondtourage.  Any detergent CAN and WILL strip your hair of color.  Especially toner.  ESPECIALLY BLONDES.  Having the pigment removed in the first place already compromises the hair itself and the hair’s cuticle.  Obviously its worth it; we all know we were supposed to be born and spend our entire lives the shade of blonde we ask our colorist for.  Let us give those locks a little break from the detergents and petroleum BS that is so easy to use.  Let the easiness be applied to other areas of our lives. (Just sayin’.)

Soooo…. I guess I learned my lesson about being lazy when insisting on sulfate-free shampoo.  I guess it’s as important as a shower filter and not using flat iron. Meh.  Luckily, sulfate-free is such a huge advertising ploy, (that happens to be legit), you should be able to figure out which products are sulfate-free or not… It’s kind of like the vegan or crossfitter of shampoos…. You won’t have to ask.  They will likely advertise it…ha ha ha!

Love From a Non-Petroleum Derived Girl,

Caitlin ❤

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood CA 90069  

“Oh my god I can’t believe I ate that entire bag…You should of told me it was for us to share!”-girl on right  “In about 30 minutes I’m going to ditch your high AF ass”-girl on left

Hey all!

To clarify, the drugs I’m speaking of are not the kind you do at Coachella…..! I’m covering actual prescription drugs you take for an ailment or disease! (However its funny to reference the music festival anyways, lol !)

Drugs work. They do. But they do so by changing the chemical make-up of certain parts of our bodies… Your hair is on your body.

During a hair consultation, your colorist SHOULD be asking you a LOT of questions… At least I hope they are!  I myself ask like 4000 questions to a new client, but in case your colorist isn’t as nosy as I am, I wanted to share with you all something you would need to bring up yourself if not asked.

Medication.*

Most people take dugs because they work!

I’m sure most of us would be warned previously to taking a prescription medication, (by either your Doc, P.A., Nurse, or Pharmacist), but sometimes in the frenzy of a new medical condition and all of it’s information we can lose track of details. Or maybe your pharmacist doesn’t get highlights so she/he wouldn’t think to tell you this. You should actually tweet the pharmacy #goblondeorgohome as a subtle suggestion.

SO: If you are prescribed and taking as directed any medications, please inform your hair colorist! We of course, are not in the medical field, but are usually aware of a lot of drugs that have affected clients color in the past.

This list may not be complete, but here are some big ones that I have seen make a difference. 

–ALL Hormone medications (including, but not limited to hormone replacement therapy and some types of birth control if you have just started taking them or have just stopped), should be brought to your colorist’s attention.

–Thyroid medications

–Chemotherapy medications

–Stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin (these affect more the dryness and brittleness of your hair, which is HUGE when you are lifting hair to BLONDE).

–Accutane  (also known as Amnesteem, Claravis, Sotret) reduces oil/sebum in your hair follicles so it can make your scalp sensitive and your hair drier than usual. Most concerns for this acne drug is the potential for hair loss, so take care of the hair you got!

Especially for clients who are on or have just finished a round of chemo, talking about it can feel like the last thing you want to do when meeting a new person in your life.  The possibility of being able to have normal conversation without the questions about your condition probably sounds glorious, but sorry kiddos, we gotta know.  Preface the information with a quick request that you don’t really feel like getting into it today, and your professional should get the hint.  We good at reading people and shit ;). Its half our job! (This goes for all other conditions that all y’all blondes are sick of talking about too! Give a quick run down and then subject change!)

Here’s to all clients having the guts to be upfront and honest about stuff they gotta take!

In Love and Health,

Caitlin 

*Please note I do not know enough information to include Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, or other types of naturopathic medicine. I personally believe these are as important as western medicine, and use them in conjunction for almost all of my ailments and preventative measures! If you don’t know about them, take some time to look into it. They have been around for thousands of years.

BLONDE / BLOND | 2016™ | All rights reserved |8581 Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood CA 90069