Ask and ye shall receive: http://www.leestafford.com/uk/thelook/glossary/
Ferret - Yes (48 hours or more) and yes. Hot water opens the cuticle and causes the color to fade more quickly. Wash with lukewarm and rinse with cool.
Kewl. Sometimes I swear it’d be nice to have a haircut menu with little pictures like a sushi restaurant… I’ll take the number 5, with a fringe of 4 please.
Why does it seem like it’s taking forever to grow my hair from short to shoulder-length? When I’m trying to keep it short, it grows very fast, but when I’m trying to grow it long, it seems to never grow. What’s up with that? Would my hair be breaking off at my age- 41? Or am I just being impatient?
When my hair does finally grow, I plan on getting a perm for curls and body- haven’t gotten one of those since the 80s! But I also color it. Bad idea? Should you do either one first and wait a certain amount of time before doing the other?
Can you tell me definitively what a Soccer Mom hairdo looks like? (I’m afraid I might have one, though there are conflicting pictures when I’ve tried looking up ‘Soccer Mom hairdo’).
I bought the TIGI Rockaholic dry shampoo… and realized I have no idea how to apply it. There aren’t any instructions on the can. I have super-thick hair and tried to put the can in my hair at spots, attempting to get at the roots, and pretty much ended up spraying it in random spots on my head, more or less near the roots/scalp. Any idea how to be less lame at doing this? 
That’s where I am! I don’t suppose you could say what salon you’re in? Or at least what it’s near?
Alice - Most brands of perm will recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before coloring, so that’s usually a good rule of thumb.
**Salinq - **There’s a lot there that’s open to debate - but the first thing that comes to my mind is a very conservative, above-shoulderish cut, kind of a bob but not as heavy, tucked behind the ears. Driving a mini-van.
**Ferret - **you have the right idea. Spray at the root, let dry COMPLETELY and then brush/comb it out. Annnnnnd…that’s it. It’s pretty straightforward. When you’re done with that brand, I would try the Oscar Blandi dry shampoo. It smells better and isn’t as…glompy as the RockAHolic. But the packaging is cool.
**kapri - **I’d rather not blurt it on a public message board for god and country to read. I will shoot you a message in PMs with the info.
A question from a student.
How long did it take you to “get” cutting? How bad and how much did you have to screw up before it clicked? Do you think there are any signs that someone isn’t cut out for this line of work? (In that, they may not have the technical skills required.) How frustrated did you get on a daily basis in school?
Hm. can’t really pinpoint the exact moment I “got” cutting. But I don’t really remember having huge issues with it - I mean, there were small things like finger/body position, but I pretty much understood the theory of cutting and the hows and whys right away.
I think it depends on how cutting is taught. Where I went to school, we were taught a one-length cut, and built all the other haircuts off that. Some schools, at least here in FL, work in the opposite direction, teaching the more advanced cuts and working their way down. I’m not sure why.
As far as not being cut out (Ha! A pun!) for this work, well, I think it all comes down to the passion for it. I had a few moments in school where I questioned my ability (I think everyone does) but that just made me MORE determined to “get” it. On the other hand, I saw many, MANY people just, well, epic fail is really the only term that comes to mind. My school was kinda like a Nazi training center, so they weeded out a lot of the weaker students after the Intro phase, either making them re-take the phase, or gently giving them the “maybe you should try something else” speech. Most of these people, were young (18-20) mind you, but I think it was just really the flighty teenage brain that got in their way - they were their own worst enemy.
Just to give you an example of the graduation rate at my school, I started with 27 students in my Intro phase. Upon graduation we had 14 left. We lost half of the students in the course of the year - either due to repeats or just flat out getting the boot.
Talk to an educator you trust, or a stylist that has been working for a bit. Sometimes one-on-one mentoring is the best thing if you’re not “getting” it. If you’re getting overly frustrated, walk away for a bit. Staring at the mannequin head trying to “see” what you’re doing when you’re all heated isn’t going to help. I smoked wayyyyy too many cigarettes during my year in hairschool. But I needed to walk away from certain things and calm down. Once I calmed down, I was good to go.
Feel free to PM me anytime if you need help. I’m not sure how effective it would be via internet, but you never know. Something I say may just trigger a “click.”
Seriously, message me if you need help…
Just to say thanks for the thread. Really, you are so good replying to all these questions.
This post has no questions, just a reply to a much earlier remark about headlice. About ten years ago I unwittingly had those and went to a hairdresser’s to get my hair cut. I had had dreadlocks for three years and had managed to partly grow\comb them out but that had left me with the lice. The hairdresser spotted them, told me in a friendly but firm way how toget to rid off them and to come back afterwards. I did and she gave me a nice cut. I was really grateful she handled it in such a professional way and didn’t make me feel any more embarassed or dirty than she needed to.
You’re welcome,** Pookah! ** I actually enjoy it. I think hairdressing is one of those profession that people think is way less complicated than it actually is. When people find out how much education is involved and how much material we have to digest to get licensed, they are quite surprised.
In response to your story, yes, your hairdresser was professional in his/her approach to your head-lice issue. But it is also self-preservation. I know of someone who worked on someone who had head-lice, just out of sheer greed. Suffice it to say, the fact that lice JUMP seemed to escape her. Shortly thereafter she had a case of it herself. Most hairdressers can handle it with decorum. Some don’t even know head-lice when they see it. Either way, we are looking out for both the client AND ourselves.
My husband has very thick, very straight hair, and three cowlicks. I don’t have a great current headshot of him, but you can probably get an idea of his current cut from this and this. He has a terrible time with convincing stylists that they cannot cut it as short as they think they should - that it will not only stick out, but it will stick out in crazy directions because of the cowlicks. Do you have any tips on what’s a good, professional-looking cut for hair like that? Is there a name for the cut he has?
Before I answer this, may I just say - WOO! My first four page thread EVAR!! bootyshakedance 
ahem
ANYWAY - There really isn’t a name for it that I can recall - but if his cowlicks are THAT bad, he should get regular haircuts (and I mean at LEAST once a month) taking off only about 1/4" all around. Hair like your hubby’s tends to grow fast. Start at the 1/4" marker and adjust from there. If it is still making the cowlick hairs go crazy, take less off. But that will require more frequent cuts. So it’s kind of a catch-22. OR he can go VERY short, past the bend of the hair which should take care of the cowlicks. Since I can’t really tell where they are (looks like there’s one right up front, but that may be the angle he sitting at in the second picture). I have ideas, but without know exactly where the cowlicks are, it’s kind tough for me to make a recommendation.
I think there’s one in front, but the ones that cause him the greatest grief are on the sides, high up and towards the back. As he describes it, “when the hair gets cut short, the stylist can make it look OK, but within a week or two, hair down low will be sticking out while the longer stuff up above grows out and down, so the lower hair sticks out through the higher stuff (or just pushes it out).” Although I would dispute that the stylist can always make it look OK - sometimes he comes home from the haircut looking like he slept on a volleyball or something - there’s kind of a star shape of the hair growing out from a point above and behind the ear. And haircuts every week are definitely not in the cards. 
He tries to go every 4 weeks now, but it often gets delayed to 5 or 6.
You may be able to see the cowlick on his left side better in this picture - I can see where it is sort of “lifted” so you can see the fireplace through his hair. (That’s about as long as he ever lets it get - I definitely remember him describing himself as “shaggy” in that picture.)
BTW, do you mind if someone asks you to thin eyebrows and/or clip a hole in a unibrow? I know that he sometimes has that done, too.
(By the way, thank you for doing this thread! It’s awesome to be able to get this advice.)
I’ve just read this thread all in one hit! & very interesting it is too!
For Purple Haze & others I can confirm that ti (or tea) tree shampoo works on problem scalps. My son uses a NZ one (I don’t know if they are exporting yet) & its done wonders. If he goes back to a conventional shampoo, his problems resurface. Also ti tree shampoo is recommended as a nits preventative. I tried one as my childrens’ primary (elementary) school was literally lousy 
with them - but it made my head itch so badly that I might as well of had nits.
Rost frei I’ve never been to a salon where you could reserve a particular styliist (I’m in NZ) But barbers you can’t. Which is why my son now goes to my hairdresser. One local barber the shop reeks of cigarettes. (smoking is outlawed in businesses now but the smell is ingrained) & the other is a husband & wife team. He hated the job the wife did on his hair but we couldn’t think of a way to politely request teh husband.
I know my hairdressers’s biggest gripe is men who are used to barbers showing up without an appointment or thinking their wife’s appt also covers them.
Hope this isn’t taken as butting in! 
Not at all, maplekiwi - sometimes I feel like I’m babbling, so input from someone else is always welcome!
I don’t think I, or my account here, has PM capability, but that’s okay. I don’t post much personal stuff here, either, because I want to remain anonymous, so I understand.
I know you already covered grey cover-up a little earlier, but I have another question about it - I started going grey at 18, and now in my mid-twenties have a pretty decent amount. I started using box hair color to try to cover it up. However, it seems to wash out within the week (and I don’t wash my hair but twice a week) and still manages to severely damage my hair. Does professional color last longer on greys or damage hair less, or is this just something I’m going to have to live with? I have longish curly hair and hate having it break off from dyeing.
Professional haircolor formulated for grey coverage usually has a double dye load, meaning it is two times as heavily pigmented as regular haircolor. A stylist can formulate for resistant hair, which it sounds like you have if it is washing out after a week. You would really only need to color the greys coming in, and then refresh the all-over color every two or three salon visits, depending on the fade.
I would go to your stylist for a consult and see what he/she recommends.