Continuing Education

Part of my job that I love so much is the opportunity to keep growing and learning new things from really influential people in this industry. Many people have influenced me throughout the years. I have learned so much from my fellow coworkers and Marita, the former owner of Strands Salon, who I apprenticed under while I was in hair school. They have helped mold me into the stylist I am today! Along with them I have also been influenced by Micheal O Rourke's love of hair and cutting techniques and Martin Parsons Upstylings. About 6 months ago, I was able to go to my first Martin Parsons class which was so much fun! He is known for his 5-minute updos that are absolutely breathtaking! This past weekend, me and Jenn drove to Boca Raton to take a Micheal O Rouke's class. I have seen him a few times at Orlando Premiere and its always been a high energy show. The class we took was a smaller class, more one-on-one so we could actually talk to him, ask questions, and see his work up close and personal. We were running late to the class because of the horrible rain we ran into on the drive there. But it ended up working in our favor because while everyone was allready sitting in the class room waiting for it to start, Micheal O Rourke was standing outside waiting as well so we were able to meet him! He was a very nice, down to earth person and he wanted to use me and Jenn as some of his models for the class! I have been growing my hair for a while and wasn't looking to cut my hair any time soon but you cant pass up an opportunity like that so of coarse we said yes! We left the class inspired, filled with new cutting ideas, and with beautiful hair! The trip was well worth the 3 hour drive!




This is me and Jenn with Martin Parsons



This is me and Jenn this past weekend with Micheal O Rourke

summer update!

As most people from Florida who work in any sort of service industry would know, summer is definitely our slower time! Usually it's because of vacationing, or just relaxing on the beach naturally getting blonder. I just thought I'd take a moment to update my blog with some of the newest pictures of some more recent things I have done in the salon. We just did a networking event/rock show at the Vineyard church in downtown Cape Coral which was a lot of fun! My good friends Jose & Steve are in an awesome band called FLF which will be playing at the Orlando warped tour this year were among some of the bands who performed at this event along side Aaron Gillespie who I was fairly unfamiliar with before the show but really grew an appreciation for his music after seeing him preform. At this show, me and my fellow Hair to be Different crew styled some hair for the models they had wearing the bands t shirts at the event. We have another networking event coming up this week at Alfred Angelo bridal store where we will just be talking with some lovely brides and giving them advice as to what they should do with their hair and makeup for their big day! The nice thing about our slow season is getting to do these sort of fun events and getting out in our community to spread the work about our awesome salon! We have also recently expanded to be a boutique as well so we carry all sorts of purses, and accessories as well as a few other odds and ends to make clients experience at Hair to be Different a little bit more fun! Well enough of my blabbering here's the pics!

Here is myself, Jenna, my boss Pam, and Jenn at the networking event

Jenn and I smiling for the camera

Jenn and I styling some hair for the models! unfortunately we forgot to take a group shot of all the models sorry :(

This is Jose, the lead singer of FLF check out there music at purevolume or myspace just search weareFLF

This is Kelly our receptionist at HTBD she she was going to prom :) I did her color which was specified on IAN ZACHARY MODEL #3 blog as well as her style and makeup for this occasion

Here's another fun style I did with lots of curls to show off her bond and blue highlight I put in her hair.

This is Jade a lovely client of mine who needed a style for her 8th grade graduation!

Orlando Premire show!

I had been preparing for so long that I couldn't believe how fast it came and went! As much anticipation and stress I built up for the show was soon calmed as soon as I stepped on that stage! It was such fun, fast paced atmosphere that you didn't even realize how much time had passed by. There were tons of fellow stylists just walking by trying to get the most of all the deals and new products out there. Every so often we would have people come by the booth and watch me preforming color applications and hair cuts. We even had a few people volunteer to be models for me. It was a very fun experience! The days were long, and standing in my fabulous Jessica Simpson heals all day was not an easy task but it was defiantly worth it! Over all, I would have to say that this experience really opened up my eyes to a whole other side of the hair industry that I was unfamiliar with. It's not as glitz and glamorous backstage as I had expected it to be. You have to wash hair in community sinks, use paper towels, and hope that the person before you didn't use up all the water! But what I took back from this was a whole lot of respect for platform artists and the work they do to get to where they are. Also, I learned so many new techniques and tips that I look forward to bringing back with me to the salon. Here are some of the pictures of the booth and me preforming a color application on one of my models. Enjoy!

It's Wedding Season!

So this past Saturday, my good friends Justin & Tanya got married! It was a beautiful ceremony at the Heitman House downtown Fort Myers. I was very honored when Tanya told me she wanted me to be part of the wedding party. Not only is Tanya a great friend, but she is also my boyfriend's sister! I was very happy that I got to be a part of it. On top of being in the wedding, I was also asked to do the hair and makeup for the day! Originally the reason I got into this profession was to do hair and makeup for special events like proms, weddings, and such. So of course I jumped at the opportunity!

We played with a bunch of different styles for up dos for Tanya but we ended up choosing a very nice side swept style with curls to accentuate her beautiful one shoulder wedding gown. For the bridesmaids, they both had short hair and wanted it all up since anyone who is from this area knows it is very warm this time of year. In the end everyone looked great! My Mother Sandra, who is a former hairstylist and My best friend Jenn who works with me at Hair to Be Different, came along to help get the aunts, cousins, and grandmas ready for the big day!

I didnt get a chance to take a lot of pictures but my mom was there to help! Heres some pictures of the bride and bridesmaids!

Here Im just doing last finishing touches on the bride before the ceremony begins

The beautiful bride!

The bridesmaids! (from left) Joy, Lani, and myself!

This picture I took from the photographer :)

Ian Zachary Training pt. 4 (Kelly)

The last few weeks we have just been preparing for the hair show. I have been working on mannequins to trouble shoot different problems that could occur while using Ian Zachary color line. We played with the vibrant mix tones to create fun blue, violet, and red pieces. We also tried different formulations to cover grey.

This past Monday, I got my friend Kelly to come in to the salon to be a model. Kelly is our other receptionist at Hair to Be Different. She has been a very vibrant blond for quite some time. A few moths ago she decided to go slightly darker so we deepened her high lift level 11 blond to a nice golden level 7. It worked well with her skin tone and was very complimentary but she was ready for a change! When we consulted with her the one thing she was kind of scared of was being too red! We opted for a beautiful level 4 mahogany with some rich under tones of red to really deepen the shade. We both agreed it was not too red as long as we left some fine strands of highlights throughout the top. Here are her before and after shots. She has a prom coming up this weekend so ill be sure to post her up do pictures as well!

Before:

After:

Special Effects makeup

As well as doing hair and special occasion makeup, every so often I get an opportunity to play with special effects makeup. Here are some pictures of some makeup I got to do for Zombicon 09 and Halloween. This experience was very fun because I got to use my imagination to create really dramatic looks! I hope to do more looks like this in the future!




This is me. I was inspired by a video I saw on youtube called Zipper eye. I used a regular zipper i bought from a craft store, eyelash glue, fake skin, red lipstick, and a zombie makeup kit to achieve this terrifying look.

This is my boyfriend Dereck who graciously let me do a scary makeup application on him for zombiecon. I used the zombie makeup kit, gauze, and fake blood for this look.

This is my good friend Nick. For his makeup, I decided to create a huge wound on his face using fake skin which I built up and added fake blood. For the "guts" on his shirt, I created a mixture using oatmeal, red food coloring, and fake blood.

This is my lovely mother Sandra. She was a geisha for Halloween and instead of doing the typical geisha makeup, we went with something much more dramatic. Using white face cream, MAC eye shadows, some fabulous false lashes, and a nice glossy red for her lips, I created this look for her.

Ian Zachary training pt.3

For my third model I wanted to use somebody with blond hair and little to no previous coloring their hair to demonstrate a foiling technique that I learned many years ago but haven't used in a while. I again posted a search on facebook. Thankfully I found the perfect model for this technique. Her name is Heather and she is a client of mine. After I described the technique to Chuck he had lots of questions how its done and how it would turn out. Instead of your average square foils, the foils are folded in triangles to give a totally new look! For Heather's hair, I wanted to create height in her cut and style and achieve a fun, blond look with many dimensions and tones. I decided to use two different shades of blond and a copper lo light as well as a darker tone underneath. That is 4 different colors total used in her hair! Check it out :)

Before:

During:

After:

Ian Zachary training pt.2

For my second model, i stayed at the salon and used our fabulous receptionist Sandy! Chuck had come in earlier that day to see Sandy and examine her hair before I got to play! Sandy is a hair school graduate who is not quite ready to get out on the floor. She loved chunky white blond highlights and ashy tones. Unfortunately neither went well with her skin tone. She was worried about stepping into warmer tones because she didn't want to look "orange". So what I did for her was use a rich chestnut in a level 6 as her base color so she still has dark but in a warmer tone. I then went in and covered her white highlights by weaving out new ones, coloring over the old ones, and toning the new highlights with a warm, light blond. For her cut, she loves to have height but she finds it hard to hold with her longer layers. To combat this issue, I gave her choppy, disconnected layers blended by some texture to make it more wearable. The results were beautiful!

before

after

Ian Zachary Training session pt. 1

I have been working with Chuck at West Coast Salon Distributors to enhance my skills as a hair stylist and platform artist. He has been teaching me new techniques as well as giving me constructive criticism on my work and how to make it appealing to other hair stylist. Ultimately my goal is to help him sell products by teaching other stylist how amazing Ian Zachary color truly is.

I posted a search on facebook for anyone willing to let me do whatever needed to showcase this color line by giving someone a dramatic change. I got a lot of responses but many of them wanted small changes or something specific. I ended up choosing a friend from high school Danielle. She had natural level 6 hair which she BOX colored to be a level 4. She hadn't colored it in a month so she had about 1 inch of regrowth. After consulting with her, we decided to make her a beautiful level 4 with a lot of red tones in it and create an accent panel in the front of an intense level 6 red. My natural response was to color her ends with the target color and mix a different color for the roots to deepen it. But Chuck said that would have made my results far too dark, so i took his advice and did a bleach wash on her first which lifted her to a very orange level 7 which was perfect! After that it made it very easy to section out my panel and use the red level 6 on her panel and put the dark red level 4 on her ends. For her cut, I wanted to add more life to her locks by re stacking it and releasing some of the weight at the bottom. I also added a small amount of fringe in the front which can be worn forward or swept off to the side. The results were beautiful! see for yourself!

This was the results after the bleach wash. I used Ian Zachary bleach with 30 vol and shampoo, capped it and let it sit without heat for 30 min.

Here is the gorgeous, shiny after!