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!

Special Occasion styles

Here are some clients I have taken care of for special occasions. Whether it be a prom, homecoming, wedding, or just a girls night out, there's always a reason to get all dolled up!

Melissa has naturally curly hair, so we smoothed out her curls to give her a softer look and added some fun gold accessories to go with her dress.

For Kelsey, she wanted a full, soft half up style for her senior prom. I also preformed a makeup application on her using Bed Head makeup and some fabulous false eyelashes!

This was a style done for a school dance using a curling iron.

This style was done using clip in extensions

Twists going up to rolls with pinned curls in the back. I then added a few black pieces which I made using zig zag ribbon and hair pins





very clean classic up do for a school dance

A more Dramatic style with a lot of teasing and hair spray

low set loops and curls with a small bump on top

Twists in the front and looped back. I made the hair accessories using pearl string found at the craft store and hair pins.

After Kelly got her color and extensions, I then curled her hair with a 1 inch flat iron to create big waves in the hair. I then teased up the crown, braided pieces and pinned then back in to the style to create a more intricate style. I also did her dramatic makeup.

These two models were part of Strands Salon 2007 fashion show! I did the cut, color, and makeup for both models.

This is Heather, and for her up do I wanted to give her a nice, classic style for her wedding on captiva island.

For Jenna's up do, We went for a classic style with pearls to go with her dress and accessories.

For Adrian's wedding I gave her a nice, side swept style. She opted for a beautiful flower, feather piece instead of a veil which really accentuated the style.

another style I did for a school dance. The style really accentuates the colors in her hair.