Rachel Hall Does Hair at Jovi Salon

One thing I notice a lot, especially with clients who travel to see me, is that they feel like they have to choose the biggest transformation possible to justify the trip.

This guest flew in from Indiana and was torn between blonde and copper. She’s the only one of her sisters who isn’t naturally a redhead, so part of her wondered if this was finally the time to try it.

The funny thing was… every time we talked about blonde, her face lit up. It almost felt like she wanted me to convince her to go copper, but instead I reminded her that it’s okay to like what you like. You don’t have to become someone else just because you’re investing in your hair.

Could she have been beautiful as a redhead? Absolutely. But I also knew that changing her placement, cooling down her blonde, and adding a little more natural depth would make her feel like the best version of herself instead of a different version of herself.

There was also a practical reason. If I start with blonde extensions, I can always make them copper later. I won’t lighten factory-colored extension hair because it can compromise the integrity. Starting blonde gave us the flexibility to explore both looks over time without needing a whole new set of extensions.

We also talked about something I think gets overlooked when people ask what color will look best on them. Most people can wear blonde, brunette, or red if it’s the right shade. The goal isn’t just complementing the features you were born with. It’s complementing the version of yourself you show up as every day. If you wear self tanner, fill in your brows, or wear makeup most days, those choices become part of the overall picture too.

When I wore platinum, I loved it. Not because it was the most flattering color on my bare skin, but because I loved the way it looked with my everyday makeup and how it made me feel.

Hair isn’t just color theory (even if there a big part of it). It’s identity. We finished with a bright, cool, dimensional blonde and two rows of extensions, and I truly think it was exactly who she wanted to see in the mirror.

Paula flew in from Texas for one of my favorite kinds of transformations. The really corrective ones.

When we first had our virtual consultation a few months ago, she had almost no hair on the sides of her head. She’d been growing out a pixie since March, and our entire goal wasn’t just to give her longer hair. It was to make the grow-out process feel like herself again.

She’d worn wefts before, but with her density they always felt too heavy. So we decided on an extremely customized K-tip placement instead.

One thing I made sure she understood from the very beginning is that K-tips weren’t going to give her the same dramatic fullness that heavier methods can. Because her natural hair is so fine, every bond needed to be microscopic to safely match her density. Instead of making each bond bigger, we made more of them. Hundreds of them.The result doesn’t just look more natural. It feels more like her own hair, just better.

I think people sometimes approach gray transformations like there’s one formula. Grab a gray extension and call it a day.But gray isn’t one color. For Paula, we hand mixed Andrea, our darker steel gray, with Taylor, our cool ashy brunette, because she still has tiny ribbons of other colors running throughout her natural gray. Then we added little peekaboos of Rachel and Stacy to brighten and accentuate the prettiest silver pieces she already had. Liz literally handmade hundreds of tiny pearl bonds to make this transformation possible 😭🥹

One of my favorite parts of the day was that Paula happened to be sitting next to another one of my extension guests who had flown in from Indiana (her video is coming soon too). Watching two women from opposite sides of the country cheering each other on through their transformations reminded me how special this little corner of the salon really is.

A long time ago, when I first started posting my work online, this little corner of the internet felt different. People encouraged each other. They celebrated each other’s wins. If something wasn’t for you, you just kept scrolling. It wasn’t about pretending everyone had the same taste. It was just about remembering there was another human being on the other side of the screen. I really miss that.

I deleted multiple videos this morning. Not because my clients weren’t thrilled with their hair. They were. Not because I wasn’t proud of the work. I absolutely am.

I deleted them because I know what it’s like to have 500 people tell you you’re beautiful, and then spend the rest of the day hearing the one stranger who said you weren’t.

The comments aren’t even about hair anymore. They’re about someone’s age.
Their weight.
Their natural texture.
Their color.
Whether they’re “allowed” to wear their hair long or short or blonde or brunette.

And I just keep thinking…

Who decided we needed permission?

Your hair belongs to you.
Your body belongs to you.
Your style belongs to you.

If you’ve always wanted the bob, wear the bob.
If you miss your long hair, grow it back or get extensions.
If you want curls today and a blowout tomorrow, do both.

You don’t owe anyone consistency. You don’t owe anyone an explanation. The women who sit in my chair aren’t mannequins. They’re people.

So if you’ve ever posted yourself, worn something different, changed your hair, started over, or simply existed in a way that invited opinions from strangers, I hope you know this:

You are allowed to evolve. You are allowed to try new things. You are allowed to become someone new as many times as you want.

And if you’re the kind of person who cheers for other women, believes there’s enough room for all of us, and wants the internet to feel a little more like it used to… you’re in the right place.

I hope you never let someone else’s projection dim something beautiful about yourself.

The world doesn’t need less of your kindness.
It doesn’t need less of your creativity.
It doesn’t need less of your weirdness, your laughter, your courage,

With a combined million views across my social media in about 24 hours and so many of you asking to see the process, here’s the breakdown of the transformation that has everybody convinced she was wearing a wig. 😂

This was my guest who flew from Texas to Virginia after coloring her own hair with dark Sally Beauty color for the last 10 years. We took her to bright blonde with 26-inch keratin bond extensions in one very, very long day. I tried to film as much as I could, but this was a real client who waited months, traveled across the country, and invested a significant amount of time and money into this appointment. She’s not a model. She’s a human being, and her experience will always come before getting every angle for social media.

One thing I wanted to address is the comments about my co-stylists helping. Alex and Liz have both completed over two years of apprenticeship at our salon and are incredibly talented. I was doing the planning, formulations, placement, and directing the transformation, but having them help with application is the only reason we were able to complete a transformation this large in one day. My client got the hair she dreamed of, and two incredible stylists got invaluable education. That’s a win for everyone.

Extenstions are one of the most powerful color tools I have. Parts of her hair lifted to a level 9 while others barely reached a level 7. Without extensions, I would’ve had to tone everything down. Instead, strategic lowlights, a shadow root, and hundreds of tiny keratin bonds created the optical illusion that let us keep so much more brightness.

It’s also why so many inspiration photos feel impossible to recreate with color alone. Extensions aren’t just adding length. They’re often what’s making the color possible in the first place.

We lost our natural daylight by the end, but she still looked absolutely incredible.

Start your Saturday morning with an outfit made by a fit by one of my favorite people and a little Disney lore. ✨

Watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame as an adult completely changed the way I see Esmeralda. She wasn’t just beautiful. She stood up for people everyone else overlooked, challenged people in power, and literally prayed for the outcasts instead of herself. I think that’s why she’s always been one of my favorites.

I am so tired and I probably shouldn’t be posting this at 10:30 p.m., but this transformation took myself and three co-stylists (owe L I Z and Alex Hall my entire life) who jumped in and out to help throughout the day, a total of 12 hours. So many people at the salon kept walking by saying they couldn’t wait to see the final result, so I had to share.

This cutie flew all the way from Texas hoping to go blonde, and from the very beginning I told her we were going to have to let K-tips do the heavy lifting.

We platinum carded her entire head, saturating and re-saturating every section with 10 volume so it could process low and slow for hours. We ended up getting significantly more lift than any of us expected, but there were still inconsistencies and bands that I normally would’ve had to tone down.

Instead, we strategically used a huge amount of teeny tiny baby K-tips to visually break everything up, creating a much brighter, softer result than her natural hair alone could have achieved.

I filmed so much of this process because so many of you have been asking to see what transformations like this actually look like from start to finish. If you want to see how we went from point A at 9 a.m. to point B at 9 p.m. (sadly, after we lost all the natural light 😅), comment below and let me know.