OLAPLEX

We’ve all had that haircut where we ask for two inches off, and leave with a shoulder length bob. We’ve all seen those zebra striped highlights that scared us away from ever trying to go lighter. It doesn’t have to be that way.

At Architeqt Salon we pride ourselves on having a team of enthusiastic, educated and still eager to learn stylists. We are keen on setting trends instead of following them and approach hair with an innovative and eclectic style that sets us apart. Our stylists are held to a standard: We create a color and cut that is cohesive while suiting each clients face shape, skin tone and personal style.

That being said, the integrity of hair is very important to us. A sexy platinum bob doesn’t have the same appeal if the ends look like they’ve been singed with a crimper. I would much rather a client leave with shiny, bouncy hair than replicate a recent favorite Pinterest picture with no regards to the health of their hair. Now you can have your blonde hair and it be healthy, too! No, seriously!

A revolutionary product for hair colorists, Olaplex, has immersed from the hands of the hair gods. Well, technically a group of awarded and reputable chemists, but they will now forever be deemed the hair gods by hair stylists eternally. They have created a product that heals, seals and multiplies the bonds in the hair. Without boring you, let me try to explain.  There are three types of bonds in the hair: hydrogen, salt and disulfide. Hydrogen bonds alone are broken from water and heat, salt bonds are broken from strong alkaline or acidic solutions (hair color) and disulfide bonds are the strongest and can be broken by hydroxide relaxers.

Olaplex is not a deep conditioning treatment or a bandaid for damage. It enables colorists to process clients longer and/or more often than we were able to without it. The hair is softer and stronger than it was before the color service.

Guy Tang and Tracey Cunningham, two celebrity hairstylists, have been flaunting Olaplex for almost a year. They’ve been stringing us along, mentioning here and posting pictures of it there, with no real inside scoop. I love testing new products, breaking the rules and figuring things out for myself. I couldn’t help myself but to ransack google and delve into every forum and social media post about it. There wasn’t much except that everyone was skeptical, including myself, but no one had used it. I immediately signed up for the VIP email list to be one of the first notified when it would launch.

 I was more excited than Christmas morning in first grade when I got the email to buy. I had at least 10 clients in mind that I would have to call right away. If this was going to be everything it promised, no damage while lightening or color correcting, color as we know it is going to change big time.

Olaplex was delivered Thursday evening, and I danced around the entire salon. I had a color correction coming in the next morning to get Rihanna red hair. During her consultation she told me her hair was previously boxed colored dark. She tried to make it red herself, she had hot roots, so she boxed it again. I warned her that her hair was in bad condition and she was definitely going to have to lose at least 3 inches. She was ok with that, as long as it was red.

I love color corrections, and the satisfaction when it’s over and your client is smiling- but I had never been so excited about the end result. Her hair was incredibly shiny, full of life, and felt like silk- AFTER 7 COLOR PROCESSES!!!!!!!!! I LET HER LEAVE WITHOUT A CUT!! I’m still in awe.

Olaplex has two steps for the average client, and three if you’re very damaged. Step one gets mixed into the lightener or color, that is the bond multiplier. Step two is a sealer that gets put on after all color processes are finished and is left on for at least five minutes. Step three is an at home treatment that you use once a week. You leave step three on for at least 7 minutes and shampoo it out.

It should also be said that this does not mean clients can flip-flop back and forth between platinum hair, box color and back again. Olaplex is a tool, a power tool if you will, but not a cure for bad decisions. If it were, I would serve it in a glass on Sunday mornings. Just saying.

 

By Brittiany Cunningham

Hair by Brittiany Cunningham and Jessica Gonsalves

 

 

 

Professional VS Drug Store Shampoo

A client once told me “I seriously love my dove shampoo.” , I politely asked her “why?” As I cringed.

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“Well it makes my hair so soft.” Again I cringe and try to politely explain to her in non-technical terms just why it is making her hair feel so soft. The conversation continues to go back and forth for about 10 minutes, and then a light bulb goes off in her head and she is immediately disgusted by the fact that she has been abusing her hair for most of her life, which wasn’t her fault because none has ever taken the time to explain to her the positives and negatives of hair products. That’s where I come in.

First, let’s start with why drug store shampoos make you hair feel so soft. Frankly, it’s all in the ingredients and not only the quality of ingredients used, but the quantity as well. Some brands boast using the same products as salon quality shampoos. That is probably true. What these drug store brands fail to mention is that they are not using the equivalent amounts of those ingredients.

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So just what are these drug store brand shampoos using? Good question.

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Drug store brands such as Herbal Essence and Suave may be using a small portion of the high-grade ingredients that salon brands use, but the rest of the products consists of fillers and chemicals. Lots of ingredients that are harsh on your hair sound similar to products that are nourishing for your hair. Take for example the common ingredient sodium laureth sulfite, that creates the “safe” sudsing effect in the shampoo. Many companies have come up with versions of this ingredient that sound very similar but aren’t so great for your hair, such as ammonium laurel sulfate, ammonium laureth sulfate, or sodium laurel sulfate. These are actually harsh chemicals that strip your hair of natural oils, essentially drying your hair out. This is often confusing to the consumer because all of those ingredients sound the same, especially when you have no idea what any of that means.

The typical pH of hair ranges from 4.5-5.5 and averages at about 5.0. Salon grade shampoos are tested and have a pH that range from 5 to 7, which is considered neutral. Drug store grade shampoos range greatly from 4-9 on the pH scale. At this point you might as well be washing your hair with baking soda which has a pH of 8.4.

So, how could these products be making my hair so soft? Common client question. The answer? Fillers. Fillers can be anything at all to “take up room” in the shampoo so that it costs the company less money to create the product. Ingredients such as wax and animal fat among many other gross products that leave a build-up on the hair shaft that gives the illusion that your hair is softer when it’s really not. What its really doing is creating a waxy build up that is preventing your hair from accepting any positive ingredients from any other salon grade product that you may use. So if your drug store grade shampoo is full of fillers, just how much of the product do you have to use in order to clean your hair?

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“But I cannot afford salon grade shampoos, they just aren’t within my budget.”

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A typical retail sized salon grade shampoo is usually somewhere around 10 oz, pretty similar to drug store grade shampoos. ColorProof retail size shampoos get anywhere from 65-85 shampoos depending on hair length and density. Even if you’re washing your hair every single day, which most people do not do, you are getting at the very minimum of two and a half months-worth of shampoos out of your ColorProof shampoo.
How many shampoos are you getting out of a similar sized drug store grade shampoo? Definitely nowhere near 65 shampoos, which brings me to the point of guaranteeing your shampoo. Typically, salons guarantee their products; meaning if you don’t like the product you can bring it back and return it for a product that might work better for you. Have you ever gone into a CVS and asked to return a shampoo because it just isn’t working for you?

So the next time you are in the drug store and you think about picking up that awesome smelling shampoo, take a second to think about the fact that the product is just a watered down version of a salon product with harmful ingredient substitutes that leave tons of build-up on your hair and is essentially costing you more money. Let’s be honest when your hair doesn’t look good, you don’t feel good. Take a journey into the world of professional products and see and feel what your hair has been missing.

By Jacklyn Brunning

drugstoreVSprof