What I look at before I touch your hair.

Most people find you after something has already gone wrong. What do you look at before you touch it?

Hair and scalp first — before I think about a formula at all.

Irritation, broken skin or a history of reactions can change whether we proceed. Then I look at the roots, the middle and the ends separately: the color, the texture, where it feels fragile, where there are bands from previous applications. Often I look at it wet too, because weakness hides under styling.

Then we talk about its history — not just the last appointment. Everything still on those lengths: salon color, home color, lightener, straightening treatments, what you use at home. People forget things, or leave something out because they are embarrassed about coloring at home. There is no need to be embarrassed with me. I am not here to judge. I need the most accurate history I can get, to protect the hair and to give you a realistic estimate of time and cost.

Then what you want, and when you need it. A wedding next week, a budget, someone who can only come twice a year — each changes the plan. Before a major correction I check porosity and elasticity and take strand tests in a few representative places, to see how the hair lifts and how well it holds up.

What do you look at that a newer colorist might miss?

Whether one head needs three different approaches.

The roots may need lift, a dark band may need correcting, and the ends may need protecting. Treat all three as the same problem and you make the unevenness worse.

After over forty years of corrections, is there a pattern — or is every one different?

Both. The person is different; the mistakes repeat.

Permanent color taken through already-colored ends when it was not needed. Lightener overlapping hair that has already been lightened. A toner asked to solve a problem that happened long before the toner went on.

Experience helps you recognize the pattern. It should also make you less willing to guess. Two people can look equally orange and need completely different services. I have to establish what is causing it, and how much strength is left in the hair.

Sometimes the first appointment is preparation — removing build-up or artificial pigment. As that comes away we often uncover unevenness and warmth that were hidden. What we find tells me what we can responsibly achieve. If it changes the plan or the price, I tell you before we carry on.

What can you tell in the first thirty seconds that a client may not realize you can see?

Bands of previous color, areas that have been overprocessed, and ends far more porous than the roots.

Those are clues, not answers. They do not tell me which product someone used, and they do not replace the conversation or the strand test.

Blonde turning orange is the complaint we hear most. Why does it actually happen?

Three different situations look identical in a mirror, and they need different fixes.

One: the hair was never lightened far enough for the blonde you want. Lifting exposes warmth. If it is still orange underneath, no toner turns that into a much lighter blonde.

Two: it looked cooler at first because a toner was balancing the warmth. The toner faded and the warmth came back. On porous hair it fades unevenly.

Three: staining from the water. Iron can leave a rusty orange cast, which is a different problem entirely from warm pigment showing through. Metal in the hair also makes any chemical service less predictable.

So my first question is always the same: was it orange when you left, or did it go orange later? That does not diagnose it on its own, but it tells me where to start.

What happens if someone treats the wrong cause?

You can add pigment to hair that needed build-up taken out, or lighten hair that only needed its tone refreshed.

You end up darker and duller than you started, or with damage you did not need. Purple shampoo is not a universal correction either — violet works on yellow, and orange generally needs a blue direction at the right depth. Neither one replaces lift that was never done.

People move here with a color that worked for ten years somewhere else. What does Florida do to it?

The formula is familiar. The exposure is not.

More sun, more swimming, different water. UV fades color and brings warmth back. Salt leaves hair drier. Pool water contributes to fading, and a green cast is usually copper in the water rather than the chlorine itself. Iron in a water supply can leave a rusty cast. I have to separate those before I change anything.

So I ask how you actually live. Pool or ocean. How often you wash it. Whether it behaves differently at home than it does when you travel. I do not assume every client in Florida has the same water or the same routine.

And the answer is not automatically a stronger formula or more ash. It is often different preparation, different placement, protection, or a more honest maintenance schedule.

Can you tell by looking whether someone washes in well water?

No. I can suspect build-up from the tone, the dullness and the feel — but I cannot identify well water by eye.

I ask about the supply and whether there is a treatment system. If we genuinely need to know what is in the water, that takes a water test, not a guess.

Why did you stop using conventional color?

Because it was making me ill, and I was told to stop.

After decades of working in conventional product I developed severe allergies and breathing problems. A doctor told me to find another profession. I had been doing this my whole life, so I decided there had to be a better way, and I went looking for one.

What I found was ammonia-free color and more plant-based products. That is the reason I am still behind a chair.

I should be clear that this is my exposure, not yours. I was in it every day for forty years; you are in it for a couple of hours, a few times a year. Those are not the same thing and I am not going to pretend they are. But it is why I know what these products actually do, and why I have no interest in a label that only works on a window.

Ammonia-free is on the window. Is it a method, or a marketing position?

It is a product choice, and it is only one part of how we work.

We use ammonia-free color and more plant-based products. I still have to think about the whole formula, the developer, the processing, and the condition of the hair in front of me.

What none of that means is damage-free. Lightening stresses hair and no product removes that. Treatments can help limit it, but they do not make compromised hair ready for more lightening. That is the point of using them: a less aggressive alkaliser is gentler on the scalp, and a lightener that holds moisture in loses less of it while lifting. Those are real differences from conventional products. What they are not is permission to do more — and ammonia-free does not mean allergy-free.

The judgment matters as much as the product — what goes where, what gets protected, how the hair responds, and whether we should be doing the service at all. Sometimes the right decision is to stop.

You tell people no. What does that sound like to someone who has already decided what she wants?

“I understand the color you want. I am not comfortable taking your hair that far today, because these areas are already too fragile. Here is what I can do today, and here is what we would look at again before going further.”

I want you to see what I am seeing. I show you the weak areas, or explain what the strand test is telling us. Then I give you a choice between the things I can responsibly offer.

It would be easier to just agree to the photograph. What worries me is your hair breaking up with you three weeks later at home, with no idea what caused it. We would rather you were annoyed with us in the chair than confused in your own bathroom.

We have told clients their hair needs a break. I would rather explain a limit now than hand someone a result that looks good on the day and leaves them with hair they cannot manage afterwards.

You write the formula down, every time. Why does that matter to a client?

Because your next appointment should start with knowledge of the last one.

A useful record is more than a shade number. The product, the quantities, the developer, where it went, how long it processed, and what we saw in the result.

It should also record what you thought after living with it. Did the tone hold? Did the gray coverage do what you wanted? Did the ends fade faster? That is what tells us what to repeat and what to change.

Writing it down does not mean repeating it blindly. Hair changes, regrowth changes, and you may want something different. The record means we start from something known, instead of asking your hair to absorb another guess.

Six chairs, not thirty. You build every formula yourself. Limitation, or the point?

It limits how many clients I can take. That is the trade.

With corrective color the formula has to follow the hair, section by section. A dark band may need one approach while fragile ends need another. That is why I build it myself, rather than handing over a shade number and hoping.

The team has to understand that plan — which formula goes where, and what needs protecting.

What that is worth to you is knowing who is making the decisions, and who will explain it if something changes. A chair count on its own does not guarantee that.

There is a lot of pressure on women to want low-maintenance hair. What is your view?

Low maintenance is an option. It should not be an obligation.

If you enjoy having your color done and you want a polished blonde or full gray coverage, you do not need to apologize for that. And if you want your gray blended so you can come in less often, that deserves exactly as much thought. I am not going to decide for you based on your age or on what happens to be fashionable.

What I will push back on is a promise that cannot hold. Very light blonde, full gray coverage and almost no appointments are not always compatible. Tell me which one matters most and we can make an honest plan. The right amount of maintenance is the amount you choose with your eyes open.

Why do you build the treatments into the price instead of adding them as you go?

Because I do not want you deciding against something your hair needs because it has just become another charge.

I charge more up front because the treatments I consider necessary are already in it. I use professional products I trust and I want to choose them according to what the hair needs on the day.

A color correction is stressful enough without having to approve an extra item at every stage. My name is on the work. I want the agreed price to give me room to do the best job I responsibly can, and to give you a clear idea of what is included.

It does not mean I can predict the whole correction before we start. Sometimes the first stage tells us more about the hair. If that changes the plan or means another appointment, we talk about the work and the price before we go on.

What do you wish clients asked you before they sat down?

“What will it take to get there, and what will it take to keep it?”

That one question opens everything — how many appointments, what it costs, what you do at home, and what condition the hair is in. I also wish more people felt able to ask what might stop us reaching the photograph. A good consultation makes room for that answer before we begin, not after.

If this sounds like your hair

A correction starts with a consultation. It is free — a $25 hold confirms the appointment and comes straight off the work. Fifteen minutes, in person, because none of the above can be judged from a photograph.

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