JUJU Chan

MOP – Defining Cream

Modern Organic Products

Another of my all time favorite styling creams. When I stopped using the Bumble & Bumble I found another styling cream that seemed to work just as well. The MOP defining cream gives hold and texture, fantastic on shorter hair, I found this one to be abit heavier than the Bumble cream so on medium length hair, it seemed to be a little heavier. The only thing that bugged me with this one is trying to squeeze the cream out, best store it upside down for ease.

Taken from Marie Claire magazine, just wanted to show you yet some more interesting ultra long hair in China, why is it they manage to grow their hair sooo long? Could it be the lack of money, hairsalons or what?? Locks of Love would do very well to have a branch in China!

I have a thing about big curly hair… I absolutely love it, so it comes as no surprise to find this one as my pick of the week. Whether its been permed or just set, the look is fabulous!!

Maybe one day I’ll have the guts to cut mine off and perm it !!!!

Question by Bonnie:

I'd desperately love your advice on something. I have really really thin hair, and really really less hair. My hair is constantly flat and limp, so basically it just looks like a thin layer of black on top of my head. I've done everything I could to give my poor locks a little bit of oomph, and nothing seems to work. I was wondering if you thought a body wave could maybe give some volume to my hair. I'm a little weary of chemical treatments though because I'm afraid it may cause me to lose more hair, and really, every strand is precious to me. My hair right now just about skims my shoulders because I've been growing it out. I usually go with short cuts to give my hair some volume, but i thought maybe this time I'd try a body wave. Are those usually successful on Asian hair? how long do the last? Is this a good idea at all?

Answer by Jules:

After taking a look at your photo to help determine the thinness of your hair, One of the first things I would try for your hair is to have a good layered haircut,( if you haven't already) medium length layers so that it gives it as much body as possible, it would help even more if you had the front part of your hair cut into some kind of longer sweepy look, this would help to define the hairstyle so it doesn't feel like its just hanging. Next I would try 2 very good products for fine hair, both are made by Prive - (you may have already done this step but I have to add it) Weightless Amplifier being one, applied to wet hair and blow dried in to give body, and secondly their Texture Spray, fantastic for giving body to fine hair and most of our clients cannot live without this one. Not sticky like a hairspray, just enough to make it stand away from your roots. If these step have already been tried and your still thinking about a perm then here are some considerations for you:

• Do you mind changing the texture of your hair? From straight to slight movement?
• Do you mind losing some shine in your hair? Not becos of the perm but becos once hair has movement in it, the light diffuses it in a different way, I wrote about this in one of my blog posts
• Do you want a slightly messier look for a change? Becos it will automatically look messier because of movement.
• Are you ready to treat the hair in a different way? As in no combing or brushing it while it is dry as it will make it fluff or frizz, you must leave the hair to dry naturally or use a diffuser. Unless your really good with your blowdrys then the hair can be left abit fluffy and frizzy looking if your trying to blow dry it straight.

If you think you can handle all of the above changes then yes, a perm (soft one) can work well especially if you want a different look. Perms can look great if done well. Asian hair takes fast and well despite people thinking the opposite. My advice if you want to try one is to find a good trendy Asian stylist who does perms all the time, obviously if you went to Asia they would be easier to find but I would definitely stick to someone who has done lots of perms before, then they will know what rollers to use and how long to leave it to achieve the look you want. You could even get them to leave the top straighter and get the body from half way down or take large sections with large rollers. Look for pictures of movements and wave that you like and take them with you. Just remember the looser the wave the less time it will last. If you normally have short hair anyway I know your not too attached to long hair, I think its a nice change, but try to do it when your hair is a little longer due to shrinkage and don't forget perms drop after the first week, so the first week should be abit firmer.

And last but not least, Perms don't normally cause hair loss, but they can cause hair breakage if left on too long or if the solution is too strong.

Here’s an example I came across that I think is sweet:

Fringes – which I prefer to call them (have you heard ‘bangs’ said with an English accent? Bad) can change your hairstyle drastically even if you have basic long hair. They can give dramatic effects to your overall look, from framing your eyes/face, hiding wrinkles, shortening a long face, adding more funkiness and interest. They can say alot about a person, ranging from "’look at me, I’m sexy, to hey, I’m fun, or even I’m very conservative and so on and so on, you get the drift!

Hey but what should you ask for? Without the obvious reasons to consider, like complimenting face shapes and working with hair textures and swirls and twirls, you should be asking yourself…. what image do I want to portray? Is it fun, sexy, convenience and out of the eyes, funky and young….

Alot of people find it difficult to take the plunge to cut the fringe off and of course this is a very reasonable excuse as it does take years to grow back, if you feel very doubtful, maybe its a good idea to try one of those clip on fringes to see if you like it? Not exactly true to your hair texture but does give you an idea of the look on your face shape.

Here I want to introduce my version/names of afew samples of fringes so you can get to know the differences between them.

Blunt heavy: need to careful how wide/narrow to take a blunt fringe as it can open or close the face too much.

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Classic: can be left heavy or soft, but length is most classic.

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Soft wispy: variation of classic but with more softness. Just remember if the fringe is a tad too short and tad too wispy, the look goes more into a young girl of 12 look, so be careful how short you ask for.

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Long sideswept: a good start to trying out fringes if your abit nervous but know it can fall into the face alot and can be aggravating because of this.

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Short choppy: can vary alot in lengths but are more chunky rather than soft round the edges, abit more funkier looking than the soft fringes above.

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Monster fringes: I call them monster fringes becos they are taken very short, giving a stronger, funkier look.

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Here’s ones to avoid - Mall fringes: I used to call them Taiwanese fringes because alot of girls wore their hair like this in Taiwan. The length on the right is what I was talking about when it is a tad too short and a tad too wispy – 11 year old!

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Shelley has had longer hair for a very quite some time and simply wanted to go shorter just for a change, but because Shelley always looks so great with her long hair, our challenge here was so to give her the change as well as keeping her looking as cute as ever!!

Before:

After:

We cut several inches from the length of hair, we then cut square layers into the interior, making sure the layers on the crown area were short enough to give it a slightly rocker feel.We kept the ‘sweepy’ feel to the fringe but took it all alot shorter around the front to give it more movement and texture.

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Thanks to Shelley for posing for us and yes she does look as cute as ever!

I chose this one for the color. Love the color! We all know how difficult it is to achieve a nice shade of blonde on Asian hair so well done for creating this color that is complementary to the skin tone, doesn't make her look washed out and is not a tacky shade of yellow.

As a stylist we all have clients that come and go, leaving us to wonder where a certain person has gone to.. .Have they lost their jobs and income to continue coming? Have they moved away? Or is it simply that they have found another stylist? On the odd occasions I have had phone calls or postcards letting us know that they have moved on, I sincerely appreciate this as there is no need for 2nd guessing.

Sharon Tucker has been a client of mine for over 10years, a beautiful soul who comes into my life every 7 to 8 weeks. The last time I saw Sharon she told me she’d been diagnosed with cancer but it had been caught early so chemo was not necessary, She said wouldn't lose her hair and would continue to see me. Fast forward 10months to last night…

For months now I often had passing thoughts of Sharon and why I had not seen her lately? But as busy as we all are, time goes by and I kept forgetting to call or email her. Finally last night I remembered to look up her company to find a number or email address but nothing came through concrete, just the usual Facebook, or LinkedIn, but no company info. After looking for some time I came across a pdf file titled ‘Deaths’. My heart leapt, Oh no, how could this be? Staring me in my face was an article from Hope College stating Sharon had died March 13th, 2009. I was shocked, how was it possible that time had gone by so quickly and only 2 to 3 months after I saw her, she had passed away.

I cried, in fact I sobbed all night at the thought of losing and never seeing such a wonderful, beautiful, radiant person again, I will miss you Sharon. I had no other contact number or any other way to speak to anyone about Sharon so my only outlet was to write this as my memoir to her.

A message for all friends and family – we may only be peoples hairdressers or dentists or massage therapists, but we care.. we care alot!! (even though it may take us 8months to get round to looking) So please could you take a moment of your time to let us know, so we can quietly say our goodbyes too. Thank You.

I wanted to share some pictures of Vanessa Hudgens. With her dark ,thick healthy locks, thanks to her background mix of Filipino, Chinese and Spanish decent, she is able to constantly show a variety of styles. What I do like about her hair and styles is that she chooses styles that are young and fun, which is what she should be doing but sometimes once Hollywood gets to someone they have been known to end up looking TOO old and stuffy! Here are afew that are my favorites……

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Pictures from ‘In Style’ mag.

Just wanted to show you all some work done by a friend in Hawaii, Stella Nakamura. I asked her what inspired her and why she decided to do it.

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In Stella’s words:

‘My nephew Kory had asked me a few weeks ago if I could do stars for him cause its his high school spirit week. nothing specific but he really wanted the stars. so my husband helped me find star shapes to cut out but when we got to the house he found the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling that we ended up using (hard plastic ones not the stickers) I took the stars & randomly put them around & decided to do the big one in the back. I held the star down & used cholestrol conditioning cream to section off the outline of the star around the head. then I used bleach & 30 vol. & processed it for 45 min. then toned with P10 richesse from loreal. beforehand I had buzzed his hair with a #1 guard thing. so he was pretty much my inspiration & once I saw everything it all came together nicely.’

Nice Job Stella, Thanks alot for letting me post it.

This is one of my picks because I love this fun, funky, blonde rocker look! The top has plenty of texture creating the height to the style, (thanks to the bleach, which supports my article on bleaching hair for texture)

Thanks to the source: Nylon magazine

Bumble and Bumble Styling Cream:

This styling cream used to be one of my favorite products ever! I used it use it on short to medium length hair, apply it to damp hair and dry it in, it created a great ‘texturey’ messy look, that enabled the hair to stick out randomly without being too heavy. It was one of the first products that I came across that actually gave a DRY messy look and not all sticky and wet looking.

Since then though, I found out that Bumble & Bumble have changed the formula to a more environmentally friendly formula, good for them, but alas… the world will be saved but unfortunately not the product, I think it now lacks the hold it once had and is alot runnier… Boo Hoo! We cant have it all can we?

Nearly ALL good salons will start your service with a consultation. If not I would either try somewhere else or if you are already there, insist on talking to your stylist first. The consultation is one of the most important part of the service especially when you are new to the salon.
This should be done while the hair is dry, which enables the stylist to see what the texture is like, how the client normally likes to wears her hair and also to check for other conditions such as swirls, cowlicks or even head lice (which we will talk about it another post)
During this 5 – 10 consultation (it should not take longer than 10mins because you want to give the stylist as much time as possible to spend on the actual haircut part) You should make the most of this time to get your point across as well as come to an agreement with your stylist on a hairstyle/color. Here are some points to remember to make the most of your time:
1. Your stylist is not a psychic, if this is your first time seeing this stylist do not hold any information back when they are asking you questions.
2. Even if you want them to give you suggestions, becos it is your first time, you must give clues to your lifestyles and desires.
3. Tell them how much time you are willing to put into your hair and whether you are high/low maintenance with it.
4. If you use words like short, funky, trendy, hip or words similar, please define them more clearly, everyone’s idea of these words vary so much. A young hipsters idea of funky may not be the same as yours!
5. If its your first time with someone, it is not a good idea to go in saying ‘Do what you like’ unless you REALLY don’t care!!
6. Do some homework before you go and have at least some idea of what you like and dislike.
7. Do take pictures with you as guide, (even though some stylists don’t like this, personally I think it saves time) this will help eliminate any differences in thoughts, but please be realistic and only use them as a guide to a specific shape and not expect your hair to be exactly the same as the picture, as all hair is different in textures and thicknesses as well as face shapes too.
8. When the stylist asks you questions, please answer truthfully, i.e. if you have had old color or any other product on your hair, please say so, as this can ultimately affect the end result if the stylist is kept in the dark about it.
9. Your stylist should be up front and honest with you as to what is possible or suitable and what is not.. be open to advice.
10. Try not to repeatedly praise your old hairstylist, (no matter how much you loved them)as this will make your new stylist feel that they cannot please you even before they have even tried.
11. Finally – remember that your stylist can only work with what is in front of them – meaning they cannot weave a silk rung from straw!!

Technorati Tags: Hair Consultations

Ever thought about having a change with clip-on fringes? Well here’s one by Warren Tricomi that seems to be the best of both worlds, 2 different looks in one! All for $250!

Whether you fancy a short or long fringe , this piece can be worn forwards or backwards. Hmm, Could be interesting!

I don’t get much opportunity to show some men’s haircuts so I’m happy to share with you not only a guys haircut but a ‘funky’ guys haircut, from my daily work from Dekko.

Trac changes his hairstyle quite regularly, and his hair was slightly overgrown from his last short haircut. We figured it was time for a change, and to go abit shorter and messier than usual.

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We used the razor to give the hair a messy uneven look, and also because the razor allows us to take out alot of the bulk while keeping the length. I am always aware of how much hair I am razoring through because I didn’t want the end result to look like a Japanese over-razored pop star!! I also find it important to keep it looking less feminine when working with the razor as it gives softer edges, but with the right amount of texture and layers, we can get a soft but funky guys haircut!

Thanks to Trac for posing.

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Question by Trisha:

Hi Jules!

Since coming into the salon with my greasy product built up hair I used that Davines clarifying shampoo you recommended, as well as the Love conditioner. My hair feels light and awesome, and I feel like I'm in a hair commercial with wavy, bouncy, soft hair. :o) I know, I know, it's the opposite of the hair you like... Now, the question is... What shampoo do you recommend for regular use? Also, how often should I use the clarifying shampoo? I'm anxiously awaiting your reply. :-)

Thanks!

Answer by Jules:

If you feel like the SOLU (Davines) did the trick and that all the old product build up is out of your hair, then there’s no need to use it again, But if you feel like its still abit sticky then use it again until you feel like the hair is normal then make the switch to your regular shampoo. If you don’t have one, then I would recommend either the LOVE shampoo or the NOUNOU, both are nice. SOLU can be used in the future once a week or once every two weeks or whenever you feel like there is a build up.

New Model Tao Okamoto is the latest ‘It’ model and has the newest ‘It’ hairstyle - ‘the bowl’ so of course I had to have it as one of my picks!!

She is designer Phillip Lim’s muse and he was so taken by her look that for his Fall 2009 show he made all his models wear ‘bowl’ wigs.

Personally I don't there is enough of these strong short looks on women therefore I think it fantastic that this ‘bowl’ look is in and looking fab and sexy, proving women can have short hair and be sexy at the same time – Not a look for everyone tho’!

Ojon Animated Styling Cream:

I tried this product on my long straight hair and was able to get some stringy movement into my hair, this product is more subtle and softer than other styling creams I have tried. Good for people who don't want too much stickiness and have fine to medium hair. Definitely give more body and movement.

Now we've all been through some perms in our lifetime and if you haven't your either VERY young or your lucky enough to have had natural curls!

I have certainly had my fair share of perms, especially being an experimental hairdresser In my ‘hey days’, we Asians could not live without them, and being raised in the UK, we were lucky if we didn't get our hair fried off! Most of the hairdressers think of our hair types as coarse, thick and hard to wave, so they used the smallest rollers, the strongest lotions and left them on for maximum times!! Wrong! – even though we do have thick hair, it was amazingly easy to perm, so even the tiniest amount of wave was enough to show some movement.

But there again we all have aunts and grandmothers or even mothers who insist on having the smallest rollers to perm their hair as tight as possible to make it last longer and to make the most of their money!! Unfortunately all this did was make them look like they had an explosion on top of their heads and make the hair look thinner as the hair stood out from the head, showing scalp!

Perms have been off the scene for a long time now, but personally I still like them on certain occasions,(to add movement and funkiness) I tend to recommend my clients go to Asian hairdressers to do them becos they are so much more experienced (becos they have still continued with them) or to have it done in Asia when they are there, to try out the latest techniques.

One day maybe they will become popular again here but hopefully without the smelly lotions!

Anyway I felt the need to share with you my 70’s, 80’s an 90’s perms, even though I may regret putting some of these images out there but hey, what the hell!!

Here’s the 70’s:

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80’s:

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And 90’s:

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If you have any perms of your own you would like to share with me, please do so : )

I always thought computer generated hair images (which I will discuss further in a different blog) were bad enough but someone took it a step further and had these dolls model hairstyles in a Japanese magazine:

You never know what you might find through the streets of San Francisco…..

Makes you wonder what really happened here, abit creepy and yucky no??

Thanks Summer….

Some may think this is an extreme way to get some texture into your hair, but for those with the most straight stubborn hair who like messy punky hair, its worth thinking about. Especially if you don't want to have any kind of perm in your hair.

In other words, you need to wreck your hair as much as possible, hence the strongest chemical – Bleach!

By bleaching the hair, this opens up the cuticles and therefore leaves the hair with less elasticity, makes it more porous and therefore more pliable. But of course, once the hair is damaged, it cannot be repaired on the outside, and and only be cut off to remove it.

The degree of lift with the bleach is dependant on how ‘wrecked’ and ‘textured’ you would like it to be. Even lifting the hair to an orange shade will still give some texture to the most stubborn hair. Once the hair has been lifted, for those who don't want to be lighter in color, then a dark brown or black is put back over the top of the bleach.

The idea of this technique is not necessarily to change the hair color but to change the texture of the hair, (hence the application of the darker color on top) and it is not suitable for anyone who wants to retain shiny healthy hair, this is an extreme way to give a very messy look to straight hair, for people who like funky ‘do’s!

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Sharing some more salon work with you…

Haydee came into the salon and her hair was way overgrown. Her hair is thick and heavy but had some movement to it. Her complaint was that it always seemed too heavy and the front piece was always hanging over her face.

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We decided to razor the the hair throughout and we took of the front piece so it didn't hang in her eyes constantly. We also shortened the whole haircut so it looked abit fresher and perkier.

Thanks Haydee for posing for us.

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Harajuka girls:

Very fascinating to go to Japan and visit Yoyogi Park (Harajuku Station). Anyone who gets the chance to visit Tokyo should try to go visit this large park, this is the place where all the kids hang out on the weekends and parade around. It used to be all about Rokerbillies and now it more about Goth looks. The kids go there, dress up or help each other dress up and then they will pose with or for any of the curious bystanders.

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Thinning scissors are widely used on Asian hair around the world. As seen above they can vary on how much hair (weight) is taken out, depending on the spaces on the blade. One side has the teeth at varying widths while the other is a normal blade. The result of these scissors would look similar to this with varying widths:

Personally I don't like to use thinning scissors for a few different reasons:

1. It gives such a uniformal look (above) that it becomes TOO thinned out.

2. You have no control over how much hair is taken out (unlike using razors or scissors) therefore in areas that are already thin, it becomes flat and flyaway.

3. Hair becomes too lifeless as too much of the body is taken away not leaving enough fullness and lift in the hair.

4. Although I do think they are good for use with cutting dog hair : )

Found some absolutely fantastic fantasy styles that I wanted to share with you all. This work shows just how creative hairdressing can be and with this we can all confirm that hairdressing is truly an art.

Here are 3 examples of Animal Hair:

These were featured in www.zuotou.net but…..for a full featured version showing more animal hair, click here.

Simply fantastic show of work. Just wish I could work out who did it?

This is my pick of the week cos I love the sharpness of the fringe in contrast with the messy long hair. It instantly updates long hair, Nice look!