Lauren - orlando, florida-2/20/10

COLOR: -All Pravana- I did a mo-hawk section on top of the head, but I've really gotten into just slanting it a little so you have a dark side and a light side depending on where you part. It gives a great block-color effect to a bang and covers a lot of space from a small section. I used 8.31 with 30 volume and lightener with 30 volume, in a random combination of slices and weaves everywhere, including the few foils I put on the side of her face. I tried to do mainly very fine slices.

CUT: I used Toni&Guy's Shattered Graduation technique (I use it A LOT) from the occipital down, and cut off a good 3 inches to get the perimeter up to the shoulders. I've given her a lot of layers and taken out a lot of weight with point cutting in the past, so I actually combed everything down to natural fall and just cut the whole perimeter. I know you're not supposed to do that, but sometimes you just know the perimeter is weak enough that you can, don't lie! And if you're going for a textured look and plan on shattering the perimeter anyway... why not? I used Toni&Guy's Forward Graduation for the face-frame and then for the entire top I did Paul Mitchel's Square Layers. After it was dry I did a lot of point-cutting to remove weight and then cut her a side bang.

STYLING: I actually used a Kerastase treatment product on Lauren called Ciment Thermique (http://www.kerastase-usa.com/_en/_us/resistance-ciment_thermique.htm). It's a heat activated refortifying leave-in that works wonders. Other than that I just did my flat-wrap with a paddle brush and flat-ironed to really get that treatment into the hair.

Lauren and I met while I was still training at Paul Mitchel. It must of been sometime in the spring or summer of 2008 when I first did her hair. I remember because I used a high-lighting technique I learned at Magnolia's Salon&Spa in Winter Park, and I started there in Dec. of '07.

I see Lauren as a calm and well spoken girl, and she has a lot of fun when she's not working for the local tv channel hosting ABC. She grew up in Florida and has the laid back attitude of a Florida girl. Lauren was one of my first clients and I still do her hair today!

I took the bus to College Park Saturday to meet Lauren. Lauren and I got Einstein's to-go and headed to her friend's condo where we got down to business. Well, actually I forgot developer and we had to go on a mission to Beauty Alliance, but other than that things went really smooth. Her friend Daniela, the one hosting us in her kitchen, has a sister who has couch-surfed and is a host in Washington, D.C. I already plan on visiting to see my dad and maybe cut everyone's hair at his church. I'm happy to know I have another potential contact who could probably show me the night-life of D.C. better than my dad.

We dished about guys and I was still rambling about my project when I was leaving. The first thing I loved about being a hair stylist is that relationship I watched my bosses grow with their client. When you can go to work and let business go out the window and just spend some time with someone and exchange goods and services... I don't know, there's something so simple about it that you can't fight wanting to get personal.

I can't say that Lauren and I spend a lot of time together, or that we know a lot of the same people. But I can say that every 7-8 weeks we spend a few hours together and we have a friend in each other for that time. And she knows I'll look out for her, and I know she'll look out for me. And I don't have to "up-sell" or "keep up appearances" or "keep the conversation neutral." No, we just talk and ask questions of each other that we really want to know the answers to.

Then she goes her way and I go mine. And in my head I'll remember a story she told me or a piece of advice she shared, and I'll act on it or pass it on. And, hopefully, she'll do the same. And that's beautiful, if you can take the time to think about it. Just two would-be strangers interacting in complete peace and striving to make each other happy with the time spent together. Hey, maybe I'm pulling this apart too much, or maybe you're not pulling apart your day enough.

Gunnar

work.

This is a Toni&Guy cut I learned in my New Talent Training @Altamoda.

CUT: Shattered Graduation, Toni&Guy Classic Cuts. I hear this collection is available in a book, and on DVDs. Maybe they're sold together. Not my job.

STYLING: Bumble & Bumble Prep and Styling Lotion (love both). Finger-dried at the roots, against the hair's natural pattern where you want volume or movement, with the pattern where you don't (this saves so much time). I used a flat brush to move the hair from side to side in the back, and then just leafed it down in the front, brushed and dried upwards on the top. A messy version of Paul Mitchel's "flat-wrapping." Moving the hair side to side in the back along the head shape gives it a perfect amount of curve under the head and lays awesome on the neck.




Every week, sometime every other week, Phillip made all the New Talent (new stylists and assistants) get a model with straight hair willing to do the haircut he'd chosen for us out of the Toni&Guy "Collection Cuts".

This week (8/13/09) I remember I had no model right down to a half hour before class. I went across the street to the only place where I could hunt someone out, the grocery store downtown. The only grocery store downtown.

In the cereal aisle I passed Elizabeth, who was seriously analyzing the ingredients of something healthy looking. I actually think I walked away and came back and circled her again. I figured the only way to propose something like this on such short notice was to just say it.

"Hey, I'm Gunnar, I'm a stylist across the street at Altamoda. Anyway, I need a model for this class at the salon in like 20 minutes and you just happen to have the perfect length and type of hair I need. Can I get you to be my model?"

I showed her a picture of the cut, and of course she hesitated for a minute or maybe just over. Like 80 seconds. I was playing it super cool, but approaching people in the street... Well, I mean, I've done it. Just, never sober. I was desperate for her yes, and I got it.

The cut was an amazing variation of a traditional haircut. In school things were kept simple, but here I was learning to bend all the rules and make your own haircuts. And being with all these people, my age, learning their own version of what I was learning. I got to see 4 people do this haircut in a different way. These classes became priceless to me.

Elizabeth and I lost touch for a while. Then, she came into the salon on a Saturday a few months ago and had just gotten an awesome promotion. She was moving to Dallas, Texas wanted me to do her hair one more time (some awesome red highlights on a really dark red-brown, almost black, actually.)

I met Elizabeth only a couple weeks after I got my license. I'm not sure if she noticed, but that night I had the time of my life. Learning a new part of this craft I perform with my hands. Meeting someone so special in an experience that was part of my job.

What I need the more than a model that night, was to meet someone who saw the world I did. Elizabeth was a smart and hard-working, beautiful woman in a city where many women I met aimed for a husband instead of a career.

Hopefully somewhere along my travels I can track her down and maybe even do her hair again.

Gunnar