House of Colour LLC

Hello👋 Nicole here I have some openings this week for full sets of nails(acrylic) starts at $65 or just shellac starts
at $25. You can book online to see what times work best for you. https://www.vagaro.com/us04/houseofcolour/services

I’ve decided to make more room for my clients-open Saturday THIS week! Book while you can! Let me know if you need in. ✨

- Lauren

‼️WARNING: ‼️Long post ahead, but you know what, I’m tired. I’m tired of people trying take advantage of people. Not JUST in this industry, but in this case, this industry for sure. NEVER in a million years did I think I would feel the need to post this on my professional work page. As a business owner, you try to (or should try to) represent yourself with a level of respect and indifference of opinion in order to be respectful to everyone and keep the sour taste of drama out of the mouths of your followers/clients/customers …

However, I have to post this.

So, last week, I had a new client come in.

Situation: Short, warm (gold,red) brown, very, very bad haircut, porous hair. Said client, had previously been platinum blonde. According to her, someone else fried her hair. Had to cut it all short. SHE then colored it dark brown herself.

What she wanted from me: to go back blonde.

As my color correction loving peers know, this is a common request and just about the worst one at that. Lifting artificial color is no easy feat. It’s unpredictable and can take months or more. When you bleach over colored hair, you have to lift through the levels that go into the color brown. You lift red, for sure, and if you keep going, orange/rust, IF by that point the hair is in good shape and you are able, you lift some more until yellow appears. IF you’re lucky, you get pale yellow that you can tone down but still yield a bright result. Everyone lifts differently, everyone has a different limit. To a point, it is science, then an individual’s variables start to factor in. Like I said, unpredictable. I had a very thorough consultation with my client. I asked her what her budget was. No more than $200 she said. (Right about now other stylists are going, ohh hellll nah Susan, byeeee.) Nope, not me. I looked at that mess and was like, I need to work on this. So, I devised a plan.

The plan: fine foil as much as I can (I fast foil, like fast) anything warm left out, hit it with same level or lighter ash just to calm it down. (Already well over $200, but I just want to help at this point). Anyway, the back of her head, I consult separately because, she has horrendously been layered. Not sure why. She had sections of 3 inches, 4, 5 , no connection between them really, and had also had fun layering her bangs??? Just layer happy all over. So, I ask her how she wants to approach the back of her hair. Ideally, you’d way to take very very fine baby foils all through that, in order to avoid stripes. She did not have the budget for that. Hell, she didn’t even have the budget for stripes. So, I ask her if she wants to risk stripes or if I can put a dark blonde ash color back there instead. It grabbed, hair being porous and all, but it’s ash, it’ll fade and I can work on that another session. I told her that if we gave those layers time to grow out, that would be best. So, what would you like me to do? She literally said “Do whatever you think is best. Just as long as I’m blonde, I don’t care. Anything is better than this.”

Fast forward through me working on her for FIVE HOURS. I refused to let her leave with orange hair, so I just kept applying and lifting. Working for free at this point because now it’s an obsession to get the orange out. I get done, she is very, very happy, even tips me. Well. It’s pretty impressive what I did in one sitting honestly, and I know that anyone who color corrects would see the challenges and agree on that. So, I shorted myself, didn’t get home to my family until 10 pm, all for this gem to come back at me the following week with a text saying how unhappy she is… basically snowballed from there. In summation: this client is claiming that I need to “fix the back of her hair” you know, the dark portion that we had previously discussed. THAT portion was not in her budget. None of what I did was really. She wants me to foil it for free, then threatened me when I refused. My co workers who were with me during this correction, are furious as they should be. I am posting this for one, because I’m standing up for myself. This is garbage and I don’t deserve it. Second, so that other stylists may see it and avoid what I’ve just dealt with. Third, so that prospective clients know the story in it’s entirety, not just some chopped up bu****it much like this client’s layers. (Immature burn? Yes. Warranted. Don’t care.)

I’ll leave our texts and reference photos here for your viewing pleasure. Including the sh*tty ones she sent me with her hair all a mess to make it look idk, worse? You’ll see my tone progression throughout. 😊😵‍💫🙃🤨🧐😠😤😡🤬🤯🙄😈

To all of our loyal clients who know the great work we do, we live and appreciate you as always. Love working as a team with you to achieve your goals. Keep being wonderful. Love you and thanks for your support. For my peers, if some of you have gone through a similar situation feel free to talk about it. KNOW your worth!!!! As my mother has told me repeatedly. I know that I’m good at what I do and that I genuinely care. My clients truly matter to me. This situation really upset me. A lot.

We’ve completed phase 1 of going from artificial brunette to bright blonde. Breaking through color can be quite the adventure, and this client definitely put in the patience for me tonight.

We know that it’s a process, of course, trying to break up every single warm spot, but presenting clients with something beautiful and wearable throughout that process is a must!