Hairdressing sequences

[Fionax]

Hi Everybody,

I thought that I knew most things about the activities of GGs, but I'm stuck in describng hairdressing for a shortstory I am writning.

So please can somebody take me by the hand and fill in the gaps?

Start with a shampoo, head over basin? Wearing some sort of protective cape?
Now to bleach, pour on and leave awhile ~ how long?
Then I quess, rinse and apply some form of setting lotion ~ say three minutes?
Will that be over the basin or sitting upright?
Now brush and cut and insert curlers/ pins ~ 10min?
Then head under dryer hood ~ 30 min?
Remove pins etc and brush to style ~ 5 min?
Cape removed.

Is there much conversation going on, if so when?

All that is my guess work as you can see, somebody please correct my suggestions

[Stephenie S]

Sweetie, sweetie, sweetie. You don't get experience second hand. The way you want to do this is to go to a hairdresser and get something done. Then you will know all about it.

You describe and ask about several different things in your question. You may have the sequence a bit off. Every hairdressers does things just a little bit differently, though. I can tell you what MY hairdresser does, but you will find others a bit different.

So. I go to my appointment, sit in the waiting area until Don, the owner of the salon, come up and tells me he is ready for me. I follow him back to his station where I sit down in his chair and he puts the wrap (just like a barber, I think) around my shoulders to protect my clothing. This stays on for the entire process. Then we discuss the current state of my hair and what we are going to do. I always need a bit of color for my roots, which at my age are gray. He gets me a magazine and goes to mix up the color. When he returns I have to stop reading because the color solution might damage the plastic of my glasses. He spends five to ten minutes carefully putting the color on all my roots. Then it's sit still for about 15 minutes while the solution does it's magic . I can put my glasses back on because he has these cute little sleeves that fit over the earpieces of my glasses to protect them. When he determines that the color has had enough time to work (he knows this by now because he is a hairdressers after all), it's put down the magazine and over to the basin to wash it all out. I sit down, lean back, and place my neck in the hollow of the basin.

Ahhh. I love this part. If I were rich, I would have someone else wash my hair every day!!! After the wash and conditioning, it's back to the chair for the rest of the job. He blows my hair out, styles it, and trims it. I like this part too as I enjoy the constant attention of someone brushing my hair and I like the warmth of the blowdryer. And, of course, I ALWAYS look absolutely beautiful when he's done. (Well my HAIR looks absolutely beautiful) anyway. The cape comes off, of course, when he is all done.

Now, you asked about several other things in your post. Perms? My hairdresser does NOT give perms. He feels that they damage hair excessively. Bleach? No one has EVER poured bleach over my head and I would never let anyone do so. Hair color is applied carefully with a small brush. I have gotten perms, of course, in the past. They wrap your hair in rollers (I'm sure you have seen rollers), the setting solution is applied to your hair, and then it's over to the big dryer hood for 15 to 20 minutes or so. They usually wrap a protective barrier around the edge of your hair to protect your skin. The color solution will affect your skin as well as your hair. The size of the rollers determines the size of your curls and the eventual style. Little old ladies (like me) are usually given very small rollers which produces that head of little curls sometimes combined with a blue rinse. This is what my previous hairdresser did for me. I hated it. I wanted longer, straighter hair. Large rollers produce larger, more glamorous curls. Movie star curls. I switched hairstylists to find one who would listen to me. I love my guy.

Then, when it's all over, it's back to the front to pay. My guy usually charges between $100 and $150. Tip 15-20%, or whatever you like. Owners, like my Don, don't get tips. They have, after all, all the profits and equity of the shop. But everyone else gets tipped, please. Some shops employ a separate washer. I have been to shops like that. Then you have to tip two people, the washer and the stylist.

Conversation? Oh my goodness yes. ALL the time. Sometimes it gets absolutely raucous. I usually don't talk all that much as I use the time to catch up on my fashion knowledge by reading the magazines. But some stations get quite rowdy sometimes. Talk as much or as little as you wish.

OK? As I said, the best way to gain this experience is to do it. Make an appointment and get your hair done. Hair stylists are ALL very open minded. Go in and get a color change and a style. It's exactly the same for men and women. Of course it will take far less time for a short, guy style, but the process will be the same.

The whole thing will take an hour to an hour and a half in a good salon. It's REALLY fun. Check it out.

Stephie

[Diane Smith]

Stephenie has precisely described the process I experience in my salon as well. Minus the raucous conversation, since it's basically a one-woman shop and we're the only ones in there. Getting a perm is a pretty rare event now except in a few specialized salons and for a few specific (usually older) clients. (I'd still like to experience it someday, though.)

After my hair is washed but before it is dried, cut and styled, I usually switch chairs to the waxing station next to the shampoo bowl to have my eyebrows done.

- Diane

[Fionax]

Thank you Stephie for such a comprehensive description and Diane for confirming it all. Can I just check when you say perming is out, is that because most girls have a long straight hair style these days or is there no longer a need for having one's head in a heater hood because there are newer ways of getting waves and curls?

As my story is set in an East European country perhaps I can get away with being old fashioned.

Fi

[Stephenie S]

Perms, which is short for "Permanent Wave", have been around for a long time. This is what we did AT HOME when I was a teenager. It was called a "home perm", and we thought it was the cat's pajamas. Salons did it too, of course, and they still do. But Dianne is right, it's just not done that much any more. The rotten egg smell of a perm is the smell of the chemicals which are softening the hair structure which then reforms itself around the curling rod.

Now a days, we have electric curling irons and hot rollers and straightening irons to use at home. These are MUCH easier and quicker to use than the old fashioned perms. I work at retirement homes and nursing homes, and the only perms I ever see these days are done to old ladies to produce those small curly blue rinse hair styles that so many people think look good on older women.

As I said, I changed hair stylists because the woman I was seeing insisted that I needed short curly hair with a blue rinse. ICK! My new guy colors my hair and cuts it in a style that does not need curling.

Stephie

[janeyb]

i would love to go to a salon and have my head of natural hair all put up in cullers and then created into a beautifull mass of curly hair.

[kimdl93]

I recently went to my usual hairdresser at a salon and asked for a feminine cut and styling. I have medium lenght hair so it was doable. Anyway, it was the first time I'd acknowledged my CDing to my stylist and she was really very cool and creative with it. We of course talked about my prediliction for a while and she tried a few different looks, then we were back to the usual subjects - kids, grand kids, pets, etc.

[Jessica Ames]

If you need more help with this, I am a hairdresser and can fill in the gaps if needed!