What Almost Made Me Quit

In 2019 I decided to specialize in gray blending

I spent that whole year getting organized, working out my strategies and my techniques, and putting together what I already knew. Then I took a leap of faith.

My first big gray blending after that decision was a complete transformation. I had done gray blending before, but never one this big.

I lightened all of her hair, and it took a couple of rounds to get it light enough. Then I let the porosity come back and the pH balance so her hair could handle lowlights. The lowlights took a couple more sessions, and we ended up with a really good salt and pepper.

I never looked at how other people did it. I wanted my own way, so I pictured the whole thing ahead of time. I thought about how it would turn out and what I was going to say to her.

Because of the consultation and the way I talked with her the whole time, she understood that this was a process.

I was happy with how it turned out, but it took a lot longer than it needed to. It was the beginning of a long journey.

Then 2020 happened. I'm not going to talk about all of that, but people let their color grow out and finally saw their gray. Some colored it right away and regretted it. Some went cold turkey. Some wanted a transformation appointment after seeing them online.

Women were also accepting themselves and their age in a way that had already started before 2020 and carried on after it.

I got extremely busy. A lot of stylists didn't want to do gray blending because it's long, exhausting, uncertain, and there's liability. I understood that, but it meant a lot of requests came to me, and I took most of them, even the dark hair ones. I did test strands and did it right, and I learned from each one.

The follow up appointments were the hardest part. It looked great on day one, then there was always maintenance, and the second appointment never looked exactly like the first. I've since found ways that work for me. There's no perfection and no going hair by hair.