VAIN Blog

The VAIN downtown hair product wall: so embarrassing when you run into your exes.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m currently in a deep, committed relationship with the Kevin Murphy line of natural hair products, but the truth is that there have been others… many others. Some of my favorite formers, in no particular order:

Tigi Bed Head After-Party
The name says it all: if you’re walking home in last night’s shoes, at least your hair can look good. The hot pink After-Party container/pump looks like a mic and the product itself smoothes flyaways and tames hair-of-shame like a champ. By far the best-smelling hair product I’ve ever used.

Pureology Hydrate Shampoo
Great for color treated hair. This is the one in the light purple bottle and my hair always drinks it up. It just feels luxurious to use Pureology products in general, and VAIN has just about all of them.

Redken Outshine
This anti-frizz polishing milk doesn’t have the scent or pizzazz packaging of Bed Head After-Party (yep, I said pizzazz!), but it’s a light n’ lovely product for soothing your hair. Truly one of my favorites. Use After-Party casually; take Outshine home to your parents.

Murray’s Pomade
What can I say? I like a nice tin.

VAIN’s Dirty Boy, Dirty Girl
I told myself I wouldn’t cry! Like listening to PJ Harvey (a LOT) and making completely avoidable life choices, this amazing, magical purple goo was an essential part of the dawn of my 20s. I don’t even know what it did, exactly, but my hair always looked better and smelled really good when I used it. AND THERE WAS A TEENY PLASTIC PIG AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH CONTAINER. So random, so great.

So there you have it. As Kevin Murphy and I explore new ground in our relationship together (I just met his Fresh.Hair dry shampoo and Body.Guard smoother and I think they liked me!!), I can’t help but take an occasional visit down hair product memory lane. Your firsts and favorites are always the hardest to forget, I guess.

-Rebecca P.

Victoria Thomas Gentry’s dahlia hair, 1999: “It was a color obsession that built up.”

Last month we challenged VAIN Blog readers to consider going cherry tree pink for Spring, and mentioned VAIN owner + styledriver Victoria Thomas Gentry’s onetime dahlia-inspired hair color. After locating a photo in the VAIN archives (they are so vast!), we asked VTG herself to share the dahlia hair story:

“I had the inspiration when one of my favorite clients brought me a dahlia from her garden. You don’t see a lot of dahlias on the east coast where I’m from and I had no idea there were such big varieties.”

“The biggest question I got was “so what do you call that color?” Pink just didn’t cut it as a description. Depending on the light and what I was wearing it could be cherry or coral or blush pink. I loved it!”

Grab your favorite flower and call VAIN for a free consultation with one of our hair color experts: 206.441.3441 (downtown) or 206.706.2707 (Ballard).

Raise your hand if you get your hair done at VAIN:
at The Crocodile, 1999.

The recent closing of Seattle music landmark The Crocodile got me thinking about my time there (I worked at the club in 1999 and for a second in 2000) and how it coincided with my first visit to VAIN. Posies frontman Ken Stringfellow was sporting hair in ocean tones as colored by VAIN owner Victoria Thomas Gentry at the time, and he suggested I go see her if I ever wanted a new look. The possibility immediately impressed me as I was a drugstore DIY colorist stuck in a hairstyle rut. I wanted some VAIN cool, too.

I remember walking down the street from The Crocodile to my first appointment at VAIN a few weeks later feeling hopeful and a little intimidated. Would they laugh at my ponytail and obvious home dye-job? Was there a tattoo quota to get in? Would I come out looking like Ken? The answers were no, thankfully, and so started my now nine-year relationship with VAIN from client to employee and client still.

Since that first appointment in 1999 VAIN has seen me through a lot of looks: big blonde panels over dark hair (inspired by a cover of Elle and executed perfectly by Victoria), pixie short, a 9-to-5 bob, a 9-to-5 bob with a little after-hours layering kicked in for good measure, a modern Marie Antoinette white wig for a live art installation, my 4 year neurotic quest for the perfect burnt-espresso-brown-but-not-black! color, a memorable galactic geisha updo for Bumbershoot 2005 courtesy of Shaun Surething, and this year’s “back to my roots” corrective color adventure, a group effort by Carinn, Alexis, and a one-night out-of-retirement stand by Victoria that took me from that near-black to my current blonde-ish shade.

During all this change VAIN has seen even more- it moved from 2nd Ave to 1st, tripled in size, opened a gallery space downtown and a second location in Ballard, got a whole new visual identity (hello, vain.com!), has seen staff and clients come and go, and in many cases come back again. The Crocodile, meanwhile, seemed to pretty much stay the same, at least in looks- postered walls and windows, those hanging dusty bee hives, the red of the back bar, the sight of slow Tuesday nights and all the busier weekend ones, and the light in the place that never seemed to change. Am I the only one who, condo cynicism aside, thought it would probably always be that way? It just had a constant quality about it.

I don’t want to wax too nostalgic; change happens, whether it’s on your head or in your city’s music scene. The shows will go on someplace else and I think Chop Suey has stuff hanging from the ceilings, too. That said, let’s keep the changes coming to our hairstyles and life strides in 2008, and enjoy those good constants while they’re still around.

-Rebecca P.