JUJU Chan

I want to talk alittle about face shapes and suitability, giving a rough guide to advise both clients and stylists when discussing hair styles for individuals. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, people who like to go for character and fashion rather than being safe and being suitable all the time, but I hope it gives you a clearer general idea…
The perfect face/head shape is the Oval (egg) shape. It would be ideal for hairstylists if everyone's head shape was a standard oval shape, unfortunately life is not so simple. Head shapes vary from square to triangular to rectangular. Here's some examples I’ve drawn to show you:



There are many other face shapes which are a mixture of the ones above. A stylists job is to create hairstyles which are as close to the perfect oval shape as possible., but you also should take into consideration other facial features egg. nose, ears etc, which we will go into in another post.

Guides to suiting face shapes:
Round face – People with round faces should consider a style which adds more height and less width. If the face is very round then length and softness can be added to frame and soften the edges, but still keeping the shape as close to the sides as possible – see below..

Long/Rectangular face – With the rectangular shape, as you can see from the 2 face shapes combined, alot of width is needed to fill out the sides. Ideally hair shouldn't be swept onto the face, as this will only crowd and make the face narrower. No height is needed here as this will lengthen the face even more, also try to keep some hair onto the forehead to help shorten the face, see below….

Triangular/Heart Shaped – The heart shape is one of the easiest shapes to disguise as it is very similar to the oval shape, only height is needed. Width at the temple areas should be avoided as this will create a wider top half. This head shape is sometimes quite difficult to assess. If the protrusion at the top of the head is minor, then it can be classed as an oval shape, see below…

Pear shaped face – also known as the upside down triangle. This is not a very easy head shape to work with, particularly if the shape is very prominent. In this case, the style chosen should be built out at the temples and preferably with hair working onto the jaw line to soften out the wider proportion, see below…

The styles shown here are merely a guide to what can be done to counteract different face shapes, but obviously with the stylists experience and imagination, many other styles can be varied to suit the individual. Come visit again as I will go into more suitability details.

Technorati Tags: Face Shapes,Which hairstyle,Round face,Square face,Long face,Oval face,Heart Shaped face,Triangular face,Juju Chan

So what's the difference and can you really tell?

The ongoing question that clients ask: Do you use the clippers or the scissor over comb technique? There is no right or wrong method to use but individual stylists have their own preferences and reasons behind using them, and clients too have a preference so there are some things that you might need to consider about both methods. Here I am going to outline the main basic differences between them, and trying my best not to favoritise !!

Clippers technique:

Scissor over comb technique:

OK, I know, I know, I’m definitely into the scissor over comb technique as I can tell the difference in most cases, I know its great for young kids who want the fade or military look but for me, I prefer a style to look more natural and to have a nicer head shape and build up and to be able to work in a more detailed manner rather than just whipping the hair off. Hey but each to their own!

Asian hair can sometimes be so thick that it can easily look too bulbous and round. On guys hair, this is the case when the sides have been taken down short and then the weight build up is too low, creating a ‘bowl’ look.
Here's Jason with his old hairstyle..

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We decided to go shorter with Jason so that the weight line through the sides can be lifted higher, this not only gives a trimmer look to the face shape, but it gives the haircut a ‘squarer’ masculine look.

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As you can see, the top area has been left slightly longer and razored to give it more texture, and the scissor over combed area has been left to blend into the hairline in a natural way and not clippered into a hard outline, which I personally don't like because especially with coarse hair it can make it look like you have a ‘lid’ on your head.

Thanks to Jason for posing for me…

PRIVE – FINISHING TEXTURE SPRAY

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This product comes with my highest recommendation…. in my many years of doing hair, this one is not only original but actually works REALLY REALLY well on finer hair. My clients call it their ‘crack’ of hair products and come in to buy 3 or more cans per time.. (just in case, they or we run out!!!!)

This product is sprayed on like a hair spray after the hair has been styled and finished. You would imagine it to be exactly like a hair spray but the difference comes when you actually touch the hair.. there is no stiffness or stickiness but PLENTY of volume. You can continue to touch the hair and it still Poofs up, even after afew hours. Unfortunately for me, (with my heavy coarse hair) it doesn't work so well, this one is made for fine hair. Now if they can come up with one for heavy hair, that would be Perfect!!

Nice to finally find a mans haircut/style that I like…. even though I don't normally like clean cut neat styles for men, this one has been done well, with a scissor over combed look through the sides leaving the top to work longer towards the front. The way it has been dressed is a good look too as it goes with the models sharp features. A wet slicked look without looking too greasy and ‘Italian Stallion-y’!!

I know alot of you are interested in products that are natural and chemical free, so with the help of Trusha, I wanted to share some product recommendations with you.

Trusha has ‘wild’ naturally curly hair, and before she came to see Joni in Dekko Salon, her hair was pretty big and ‘extreme’. Personally I loved it, but I guess when you've been trying to tame the beast for so many years, finding a stylist and products that do that is pretty exciting. You can see Trusha’s hair in these photos, that’s her on the right in the second photo!

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Anyway, Trusha used to use normal styling products such as Bumble & Bumble styling cream or Aveda Be Curly but she popped into her local organic store Rainbow’s and found afew products that not only are 99% natural but combined together, works like magic in her hair to give it a soft, natural frizzless look.

The 4 products that Trusha uses throughout the week is:

Giovanni – Leave-In Conditioner – sprayed onto hair onto wet hair.

Alba Botanica – soft hold style cream – worked into the hair while the hair is flipped upside down.

Burt's Bees – Hair treatment, mixed together with ……

Jason – Texturising Cream – again worked into the whole of the hair while the hair is flipped upside down.

Trusha doesn't wash her hair on a daily basis, more like every 5days or so, but on the days she doesn't wash it she just wets it down, and add these products to refresh the style. (Although not the leave –in again as this can make it too heavy)

Here’s Trusha’s finished look using all these organic products.

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One more product recommendation from Trusha, A great sea-spray for a beachy bedhead look – John Masters Organic Sea Mist.

Thank’s to Trusha and Joni for their help in this post xxxxxx

Why would I write a blog post on Headlice I hear you say… Well I figured if I was covering all aspects of hair I should also mention the more serious stuff like headlice and alopecia (in another post).
Estimated between 12 – 25million cases per year in the US alone, most of us have/will come into contact at some point with headlice, whether we’ve had them as kids or our kids have had them etc. We, as stylists hope that we don't come across them often, but part of our consultations are to look out for not only growth patterns and hair textures but also head/hair problems like headlice.
About Head Lice: (in brief)
Head Lice are human parasites that require human blood for survival and if they are away from their human host for longer than 24hours, they cannot survive. Lice is the size of a sesame seed and live up to approximately 30days and the females can lay up to 100 nits,(eggs).
They are spread mainly by direct hair to hair contact with an infested person and sometimes by sharing brushes, hats towels etc, which is why this is most common in children between 3 – 10years and mostly girls. Mothers can pick it up just from having longer hair. Head Lice do not jump or fly and actually prefer cleaner hair as it is easier for the nits to attach themselves rather than on greasy dirty hair. Nits take 7 – 10days to hatch and if the nits are off the head they will not hatch at all as they need human warmth to incubate.
Once infected treatment is necessary, lice treatment products are potentially hazardous to the health and should not be used as a ‘just in case’ a child or family member has lice. Salons are sprouting up offering non-toxic prevention and removal (one being Hair Spies, Burlingame, CA,US) but the best alternative treatment according to Headlice.org is still manual removal of lice and nits, using the nit comb (licemeister comb) Everything should be vacuumed and washed, whether at home or in a salon, but remember the lice does not live without a human host for more than 24hours.

Technorati Tags: Head Lice,Nits,Eggs,Licemeister comb,Headlice.org,treatment,juju chan

According to one lady, if you take your hair vitamins, this is how your hair can look too!!

Well if thats if true then we must all remember to take them.

Kung Hei Fat Choi to all Juju Chan readers!!!

I quite like this photo of the skunk hair that I found online. I think the color was very well done, it cant be that easy making the lines look so perfect and to look so original too.

Thumbs Up!!

I seem to be talking alot about perms lately, but that's because we have been seeing an influx of them coming into our salon (Dekko)

Baya came into Dekko to see Jodi Ninomiya about a soft perm, we all know that perms can be disastrous under the wrong technician but I wanted to share this with you to show you how a good perm should look, especially on Asian hair where it can become TOO curly.

This is Baya before the perm, sorry that the photo is abit dark but you can make out that the hair is pretty flat and fairly straight apart from the curled ends:

The rods that Jodi decided to use were large and medium mixed. The perm solution was Definition by Goldwell, it was for Normal Hair and it was left to process for 25 minutes.

Once complete the hair is dried using a diffuser so that the curls are not disturbed, if disturbed too much, it can cause the hair to look frizzy as I talked about in my post about curly hair.

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After reading my post on fringes, Shelley decided she wanted to go ahead and give a fringe a try. Normally Shelley keeps her front area long for a few reasons;

1. She has slightly wavy hair,

2.She felt like her face was too round to have a fringe.

So as shown below, because we kept the length slightly longer, the waves are kept under control and because we gave her a fringe that still allows her forehead to show through, it does not cut the face off and does not make her face look rounder. This shows that fringes can work on most people if you take things under consideration.

Nice change Shelley and good fun.

(before and afters)

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Would you let your boyfriend go out like this?

Davines Matt Pliable Stucco for Wizards, #5

This finishing cream is great if you want to get a messy chunky look into the ends of your hair, it has a matt finish to it and is strong enough a hold to keep the ends chunked together. Great on thick course hair!!

Article written on me and Davines

After living in Asia for several years, one of the things I noticed was how unattractive guys with longer hair looked. Now, don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against guys with longer hair, in fact I love it normally, so why is it I found these guys to be so unappealing?

After careful studies of haircutting and techniques and style in Asia I came to a conclusion that satisfies my query.

The method to hair cutting that is predominantly used in Asia is done with a razor, as we all know the razor is a great tool to use on thick coarse hair but the problem arises when the hair is OVERly razored…. resulting in a Japanese or Canto popstar look!!!! (Canto stands for Cantonese)

No offense to these popstars but in my opinion, one should aspire to look more like a ‘rocker’ rather than a ‘Japanese/Canto Popstar’. Overly thinned hair not only looks dated but also too ‘girly’ and ‘feminine’, the exact opposite of what is desired. In other words - Passion Killers!! See below for examples of what I mean……

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Now in order to achieve more of a rocker look, the hair should still be razored but in a more controlled way. Hair should look piecey and not too wispy, unkempt yet not gelled looking, done yet not look done! There is such a fine line between the 2 that to some peoples eyes, I could be just talking a load of rubbish, but for those in the know, those subtle and slight differences in hair techniques make or break a look.

And for me,(and I’m sure alot of other women) they make the difference between: Rocker V Japanese Popstar, Cool V Cheesy, Funky V Feminine, Good V Bad and Sexy V Ewww!!!! As seen below……

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So for all you guys out there, make sure you ask your stylist to give you a style that give you all of the positive traits and not wonder why women/men are not looking your way !! You have been warned!

So I chose this hairstyle for a few of reasons:

1. The color combination is really cool, by combining black with brown, the differences are subtle yet enough to give it a more dramatic effect. The color really brings out the hairstyle which is what good color is all about.

2. The haircut is so well done, again with the combination of soft and hard edges, razored and blunt ends, showing up dramatically on strong straight Asian hair.

3. Hairstyle is soft yet edgy, wearable in real life, and complimentary to the bone structure of the model. Excellent! Well done!

Sarah is one of those lucky people who has naturally curly hair, although we have often joked about it, as hers is quite soft that sometimes, especially when her hair was shorter, if she hadn't styled it right, it can look abit like a shampoo and set!!

Luckily with her hair now worn longer, the curls look better with the right cut, and right amount of layers, but as you can see from the before pictures, if the layers are too long including the fringe area, the hair lays much flatter on top and gives too sensible a look.

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So after using scissors rather than a razor (as we did not want the ends to look too wispy and dry), we took the layers much shorter on top, took alot of weight out by chopping into the hair throughout but mainly on top and then we sliced the fringe off quite short to frame the face more. We then re-wet the hair after the cut and used Leave-In conditioner throughout the hair and twisted medium size sections and dried it with a diffuser. The overall effect is lighter in weight and a younger funner look! Thanks Sarah!

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TechnoratiTags: BeforeandAfter,Dekko'sDailyGrind,Curly Hair,Leave In Conditioner,Short

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!