Eyebrows Frame Your Face, Never Neglect Them

Keep Color In Brows For a Balanced Appearance

When you think of the important points of the face, what do you think of ? Most people say the “eyes”. Then nose, then mouth. Me….I say eyebrows. Eyebrows are front & center and seen as soon as you look into someone’s eyes, I feel they ‘frame’ the face and both the shape and color of them can completely change your look. Spend some time learning how to groom them properly, if you do not have an eyebrow specialist in your town – become your own. I will teach you how……….. I have spent years going to and being the best in eyebrow care.

I challenge you to compare photos of celebs before they became famous versus now. Oprah is a perfect example. Her brows before she became famous were completely different…its amazing what $$ does to the look of the face and I am only talking brows. I will keep my eyes open for comparison photos and will post and bring this subject back up once I find them. I have them its just in my files of 50,000 photos which are not organized/labeled and I can’t find them. But soon – soon. I’m not a fan of using celeb photos . . . as I’m sure you’ve noticed. People use celeb photos to get people to come to their website under false pretenses – something I try not to do. Besides, with a daughter who shoots celebrity photos I know how little of those photos are real, and feel it is an unfair photo to put in front of you, they Photo Shop the hair in every photo now . . . how can you ever hope to compare to CGI especially as we age?

One of the more annoying problems of aging is not only losing the color in the hair on our heads, but losing the color in the hair around our eyes, brows and lashes more specifically. You know what the biggest mistake is on this photo above of the aging model ? ? ( which btw she would FAIL – BIG TIME - as a make-up ‘Aging’ test ) -- she forgot to change the brows….to be faded and barely there ! As a natural born redhead, I’ve never known the wonders of pigmented hair around the eyes, we have next to none since birth…so color-less is a way of life for me . I have been tinting my brows and lashes since I was 16 and could drive myself to a Salon.

Melanin is the pigment that gives hair and skin its natural color. How light or dark it is and its natural tone, depend on how much and what kind of melanin it contains and how that melanin is arranged in the hairs. I feel the part of hair coloring that most people get confused on is understanding what actually affects the color change. Many seem to think if you apply color “A”, your result should look exactly like color “A” when you are finished and unfortunately that is just not how it works. High Dollar Colorists and fancy Beverly Hills Salons would not exist if it was that simple, everyone would be walking around as Jennifer Anniston hair clones.

The color result depends as much on the natural pigmentation (DURP) of the hair as it does on the ‘artificial pigmentation’ used. In other words, if I was to mix up a batch of Level 8 Ash with 30 Volume and applied it to 5 different people with the exact same color of virgin Level 6 hair……..EVERY single one of them would have a completely different result.

With a few Eyebrow Coloring Kits leaving this week & a couple new brow shaping products arriving, I re-priced the kits and added options in my never-ending attempt to make things as easy as possible for you.

After the age of about 40 – 50 the color begins to drain out of the eyebrow hairs along with everything else and being as gray truly is pigment-less hair not actually gray – it looks so much better if once 1-2X a month you tint those brows. I want you to feel better about your situation – For the last 15 years every Sunday I have had to tint my eyebrows and every 4th would tint my albino lashes…it has SUCKED…big time. 96% of people have pigment in their brows, and lashes, so remember how lucky you are.

I have been tinting my own and all my clients eyebrows for years, what do the rest of you do? I know there are the stubborn grays on brows which many time begin in the early 20’s, but from the 30’s on… most people deal with squirrely grays, flailing whites and generally misshapen fence-like burley brows. I’ve always taught the brows are the most important part of the face. They are front & center … and seen as soon as you look into someone’s eyes, I feel they ‘frame’ the face and both the shape and color of them can completely change your look. I urge you to spend some time learning how to groom them properly, if you do not have an eyebrow specialist in your town, learning the art ‘of’ is not really that hard and will start with tinting and trimming.

For humor I thought I would relay to you that the clients that elected to go to the big eyebrow specialist here in our hot-shot Salon (Anastasia) would spend anywhere between $300. - $600. per shape & color appointment. Funny….huh? Plus a round trip of at least 4 hours to accomplish. That’s life in Malibu / L.A., we’re a million miles from anything & everything.

Eyebrow Tinting

STEP 1 Tinting

If you begin the process by tinting the brows, all the little hairs have color in them so you don’t miss them - - I’ve made it easy – all you have to do is to pick the “Level” Kit you want -- providing you are not wanting any ‘red’ in the end result -- you will receive 2 tubes of color that you need to mix 50 - 50 plus the appropriate developer for Brows comes with. You receive the 2 best brushes I’ve found for applying that color, as you want the color to saturate the wiry hair strands…the color needs to be heavily lopped on, yet painted on precisely in the shape of the brow. Getting the color on the skin will stain, and I have never even tested it, as I can’t imagine anyone wanting the Tint stained right smack on the front of the face…so cleaning the color off the face right after applying it, is just as important as the application. Hair color itself -always “expands”as it processes . . so color just “INSIDE” the lines of your brow with the color product, the liquid will expand/swell and cover the entire brow once you get it brushed on. Clean up around the shape of the brow “after” 15 minutes and swelling subsides with Q-Tips and water, toner or alcohol. At this point the color should be on the brow crisp and cleanly shaped ; the exact shape of the brow. Now, go make yourself lunch . . . leave the brows alone, while the color fully develops… at least 45 minutes – 55 is better.

In the Kit you receive 1 tube of an “N” series color and that is the tube that you will vary according to the amount of gray or the stubbornness in your hairs. A good general rule is to use the percentage comparable to the percentage of gray you have. 50% Gray? Use 50% “N” series. . . and then just add the opposing color until you get to 100%. 40% N use 60% “B” color or whatever we’ve sent. Its actually pretty straight up.

The color is done processing you grab a paper towel or tissue, run under warm water….and wipe the color off with just water. Keep rubbing till all the color is off and the tissue is clean. Use a little muscle! Poof you are done that part!

Eyebrow Trimming

The next important part of eyebrow care is the tweezer/scissor part. The first step to trimming the brow is to “COMB”….(yes, comb) the brow hair straight up toward the forehead as you see in my half-assed renderings here. . . .

Comb the hairs straight up with a cutting comb, then trim along the line of the existing brow as shown in #5 & #6 …holding the scissors perpendicular to the floor. Continue to comb straight up with comb and trim a little at a time, watching result and be sure to NOT overdue.

Once trimmed, begin tweezing. Again – start and continue process by combing brow upwards ( which is where the hair in your brows should be heading - - always upward ).

Tweezing should be in the middle above the nose and as little under the brow and on top of the brow as is possible – too THIN of an eyebrow never looks right, I promise you. Shaping the brow will be a while other post. I have to get a couple stencils in order to do that one justice. . . but we won’t be through with brows until we have another 5-6 Posts on the subject.

I’m really excited about the new tweezers and scissors I have come across, I’ve always known they can make the same quality for a decent price…they are on their way here, check them out in the store along with the Eyebrow kits.

I happened to find both that are Stainless Steel and work as fine as the super pricey ones. I KNEW THIS COULD BE DONE. That is the problem with “good finds” they are so damn hard to ‘find ;-) .

Just trim and groom your eyebrows once. . . give it a chance. . when I’m waiting in lines I notice so many people who never touch their eyebrows ( yet, they really need to ) . . I cannot imagine what I would look like if I didn’t do my own.

Killer Chemist

Super Simple Scalp Solutions (on Saturday!)

Ignored Yet Important

Not an exciting subject I will give you that, BUT . . . a super common one. We need a healthy scalp for ‘looks’ for healthy ‘hair growth’ +  and for hair ‘shine’.

Yes, there are complicated Scalp conditions that require a dermatologist, by no means are any of my recommendations or suggestions on all of Killer Strands a replacement for medical help and advice. As I have told clients for years that are leery of having their hair colored for ‘health’ & ‘safety’ reasons, if hair color was dangerous to the human body at all . . . I can guarantee you we would be physicians /medical doctors…. not Cosmetologists. In every country on planet earth hair color is considered just that - - HAIR COLOR - - a decoration and Fashion accessory – but that’s it. Please take my advice that way … if you have any type of long-lasting abnormality on your scalp or radical hair loss of any nature get yourself to a qualified Dermatologist. That is NOT what we are talking about here, remember  - - boys & girls : common sense – common sense.

  I have been known to clear up many scalp conditions that were just minor issues which is what I am speaking about here today. Many speak of seborrhea dermatitis  and psoriasis . . . and do their own self diagnosis…which I fully understand. Money, Time…everything it takes to go the medical route… . alongside the all too frequent…” hmmm, dermatitis – looks like dermatitis” … which basically means it idiopathic. They don’t know what caused it nor what it is .

That is when people would show up in my chair, to see if my Scalp regimen might help. Lots of girlfriends and wives sent their boys ( husbands - boyfriends) to me, it was set-up in such a way the men didn’t really know what was going on. Men, ya gotta love em, they are very E A S Y  - - SUPER  simple creatures. The spouses didn’t know how to bring it up, and didn’t want to make a doctor appointment or a scene – they just wanted to see if it wasn’t something easier. About 60-70% of the time it was my little SSS Simple Scalp Solution that cured the whole enchilada. It was – a  2 hour treatment focused on the scalp, with no guarantees basically. Skin and hair are a funny thing and they just don’t know that much about it, although right now, it is 2 areas the pharmaceutical companies have most of their Research focused on. With 70 million women suffering from hair thinning & loss…well it would be nice to think they are focused on that to  “ do-- the–right--thing & HELP”….although - I doubt any of us would believe that……… I’m pretty sure its the CA$H.

Coming up soon is my over simplified version of how a strand of hair on your head grows….I love the lesson and I always felt light-bulbs going on everywhere – when I taught it.  Maybe I should have started with that….but the “scalp” issue hit me in a dream last night, I get inspirations while asleep – its the weirdest thing—always have. The ANAGEN phase ( of 3 phases) is the growth phase and is the longest phase;90% of scalp hair is growing in the ANAGEN phase at any one time which lasts from 2-5 years (can last as long as 10 years). Just as the skin on other parts of the body is continually being shed and replaced, the skin on the scalp is in a constant state of renewal, with skin cells in the outer layers flaking off being replaced by new cells from below. Ordinarily these scales loosen & fall off freely…the natural shedding of the scalps dead scales should NOT be mistaken for dandruff. Nope, this post is NOT on dandruff, a completely different subject. The subject of “Scalps” will be an ongoing Topic with various sub-topics: such as dandruff, psoriasis, etc..right alongside.

Which brings us to what I feel is the problem with over 50% of people with “scalp issues” whose butts sit in my chairs and possibly read my words. We’ll have to see. The way you discover this is by having a BIRDS-EYE-VIEW of your head……..which is what you have of a person’s hair when they sit in your Salon chair. I would say in one day of 12-15 clients (hypothetically of course, if all ‘new’ clients) 1 or 2 of them would have it, that’s a lot.  Having discovered this one way back in Academy, I thought it stemmed from homeless drunks / drug addicts with poor personal hygiene. Which is not AT ALL the case, you probably have family members, friends, bosses with it, I have some Physician friends and they have had it --- no one is excluded and no one is ‘above’ it. We will coin it the “SSS”  the (Silly) Simple Scalp Solution for purposes of this Post & for those of you who think you could be a victim – we used to call it Camo-Land meaning camouflage Land where ‘ sneaky things were lurking ;-)  ‘. There are many terms Stylists sling around so you don’t know what we are referring to, stupid – I know – there are times you don’t want to know.

This boils down to a round spot …an accidental scalp problem, occurs totally by accident, having nothing to do with illness, poor health, and especially not the cleanliness factor. Yep, its accidental and super easily curable. There is a spot on the top of the head, about the size of a Grapefruit to about a lemon… that is just above where your arms reach, without extra effort, I figured out. People are lazy  - - especially my one daughter that has this. SHE is the reason I figured this out, thank the Lord she doesn’t read this.  This may not include any of the devout KS disciples. Most of you sound like you must have sparkling-clean-healthy-hair & scalp .. .. but its worth a check…. I’m telling you its just an accident, an innocent accident.

I hope all of you will get to your bathrooms & check the top of your heads with a hand-held mirror using a diptych {type} mirror as you see here                   look for the spot or have your “trusted” partner do it for you.    Its on the very highest point of your head and then about in a 2 – 3 - 4 inch circle around…way up at that tip top spot at its center, as you see below  

See that tippy-top-spot? That is where you develop Poo-Head  - which develops from either a lack of shampoo OR too MUCH shampoo that builds-up from missing that spot and shampooing up till you reach it. It happens SOOOOO MUCH, it needs a classification in Dermatology books. I have one daughter with it, and 1/4 of my clients have it. You know I will say some of the people with it is on people with a propensity towards dandruff ... so definitely check if that’s you.

You see when a person goes to shampoo most people are in a hurry, its in the morning - - late for work , late for a date – late for something….so people zip through the shower a hundred miles an hour. They don’t think about the whole head when they shampoo, they MISS the top of the head, being in a hurry , arms hurt, or the most common – just didn’t realize they were missing that top circle….THAT is how this occurs, ESPECIALLY with men, work-a-holics, you get the picture, people who don’t ‘think’ about their shampoo. A lot of people could give 2 cents… Like I said Simple Silly Scalp Solution.  Get it now ?

Most common? People simply don’t realize they are missing that spot…I will ask them to show me how they shampoo. . . almost always they will just rub the sides and back of their head….not the top.  See the girl above, its a ‘close’ rendering of what I’m referring to…she has her eyes closed is thinking about work, kids, her date - - - everything BUT the shampoo… see her arms this is an exaggerated version – but also its pretty right-on as well. She is just missing that top round spot on her head. Once I fixed this on my daughter, I then took it to the Salon ( years ago) and it began to work and work and work. Again

Silly – Simple – Scalp – Solution ! ! ! ! !

So, I would then load them up with Scalp Wellness, if it was bad one of the packets and the most important part . . . a little silly thing called a shampoo brush. Yep we have kits with the whole shebang in the store PLUS 4 water strips to check your water (getting a shower filter also helps this, so check your water….in 4 different rooms !).

People started using the shampoo brush to scrub that part of their scalp  . .  by having the brush in the shower…it reminded them to concentrate on that spot. Using it brought back all sorts of funny stories…that usually sounded like, “ OMG my head bled, I don’t think I had ever touched my head there. . . .SINCE I WAS BORN ! !  Funny – funny answers.

 

I loved hearing how successful it was, I mean I was at the highest end Salon in Malibu, California - - - would you really expect THAT from a whole lot of clientele there? You would think people wash their hair FOR them…and never miss a spot. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere boys and girls. It is just a silly little accident, never meant to be intentional by anyone.

Get your mirrors out . . . . give the SSS a chance

I’ve put together a SSS KIT . . .so you can get it all in one spot

This month only ( February 2010 ) Shampoo scrub brush is complimentary as is the Water Test Kit, which has enough strips to test 4 faucts!!!  HAPPY VALETINES DAY  ! ! !  . . .  BUY IT for the man in your life….it will end up benefitting YOU!

http://killerstrands.myshopify.com/products/malibu-2000-hit-n-miss-scalp-solution

Killer Chemist