Let’s take a minute to sit down with Scarlet, our fabulous stylist at VAIN downtown, to learn a little bit about the process of glazing hair.

What is glazing, you ask? We asked, too, and Scarlet has answers. Technically, glazing is the application of a demi-permanent (i.e. long lasting semi-permanent color, which should last 6-8 weeks with a proper product and care regimen), sheer color with a hint of tone. It’s gentle and, because the glaze is translucent, the results are very natural. Variation in your hair color shows through the glaze (even with dark coloring), and the new growth looks much more subtle since there is no solid line where your color application ends. The benefits don’t stop there. Glazing is rich in silk protein and helps improves texture and manageability by smoothing the cuticles of the hair strands.

When is it used? Scarlet loves to use glazing in all kinds of applications because it is so versatile and foolproof. She gradually blends in gray hair, and with all the sunny weather we’ve been having she’s been treating faded highlights by refreshing their color. She also glazes to correct the yellow that can occur after bleaching by subtly bringing in more natural tone or warmth. Or if clients want more kick in their color, glazing can pump it up! “Glazing is a good way to introduce color to clients who would normally be apprehensive to color or are commitment phobic,” Says Scarlet.

For those who want shine and manageability without the addition of color, there is even clear glaze. Fine hair, which tends to become greasy under the weight of most smoothing products, is an excellent candidate for this process. And the benefits are lasting.

Thanks for chatting with us, Scarlet! Glazing sounds awesome and the cost is the same as a normal coloring job with a quicker process time. So if you’ve been waiting for the right excuse to try some color with more natural and gentle results, glazing is perfect for you!

Scarlet and other color specialists offer glazing at VAIN. Call VAIN downtown at 206.441.3441 or VAIN Ballard at 206.706.2707 to book your appointment.

It turns out my fatal error was starting from all the way at the ends and rolling up. By placing the hot roller halfway down the section of hair, the volumizing effect would be more evenly distributed. I curl from the middle to the ends, then roll the rest of the way up to the roots. Voila! My fairly fine hair suddenly has volume - and volume where I want it, at that!Thank you, Roxana. My curls are eternally grateful.

xo,
Sarah Jo  

PS - Roxana is currently on a hair sabbatical.  However, the front desk would be happy to include your name on a waiting list when she does begin scheduling appointments.  Contact either VAIN Downtown or Ballard for more info! 

Smokin hot.

Good cut.

To know Whitey is to love Whitey… and his hair.

Miss A. Banana herself. Blonde by VAIN downtown stylist Carly.

To get the lowdown on all the Sup Pop 20 action, visit subpop.com and pretty much any music blog in town. To get great hair, call VAIN.

Anyone who has ever met him can attest that Izzy is one of the sweetest dudes in the whole world. He was recently injured on the job [trying to protect a customer from getting hurt, at that] and has been unable to work since the accident. To raise money, his friends put together an evening at Linda’s and a raffle of donated items. Alexis stepped right up and donated a $150 gift certificate for cut + color.

Here’s my tickets, hoping I’d win the free year of shows at Neumo’s:

And Alexis, sad that she didn’t win the VIP passes to the Capitol Hill Block Party:

Whether we went home with prizes or not, we certainly went home with our hearts warmed. So many people participated to help a friend in need, and had a good time to boot. Shout out to Alexis for her generosity and to everyone who made such incredible donations. We can’t wait to meet the winner!

xo,

Sarah Jo

Graffiti artist + train spotter Deuce 7 was in town last week for the opening of his show at BLVD Gallery in Belltown and did an amazing mural on the back wall of VAIN. Check out the full set of photos on BLVD’s Flickr site and a recent Village Voice article on how Deuce 7’s graffiti has taken NYC by storm for more.

Deuce 7’s “Pneumonia, Isolation, and Disorder” show runs at BLVD through Aug 2- 2316 2nd Ave, Seattle. Big pieces going fast, small pieces still available. Mural up at VAIN dowtown until it it’s gone- 2018 1st Ave, out back.

When we talk about wedding services at VAIN we’re typically talking bridal, but two grooms who happen to be VAIN clients reminded us last week that it’s not all curls and updos; VAIN wedding hair services are for the fellas, too.

Clients: Knox G. and Victor C.
Stylists: Krista (Knox) and Hiromi (Victor)- both VAIN downtown
Style: Lookin’ sharp, gettin’ married.
Sweetest quote: “He looked like a million bucks.”- Knox

Congratulations to the handsome couple on their hot haircuts + happy union. VAIN wishes you all the best in hair, love, and life!

I’m a marketing manager in my mid-30s. I work on the Eastside in a windowless office where I do stuff like social media campaign strategy (zzz), PR planning (*blink blink*) and mulling the return on investment of corporate communication strategies (yawn!). I go to tech industry conferences and speak about public relations (honk-shooo).

…I also have bright pink hair.

Almost three years ago, I made an appointment with my beloved Jenny Slay, who’s been doing my hair ever since I hacked off my rainbow dreadlocks in 2001. In late 2005, my hair was long, straight and medium brown, and I told Jenny “I like it long, but I’m bored with my natural color. But I hate doing root maintenance! I want less boring, but low maintenance.”

Jenny’s solution was to bleach the tips of my hair, and then dye the ends with Special Effects’ Atomic Pink. So, for the last three years, the bottom six inches of my hair has flamingly bright pink.

It’s incongruous, I guess: a 30something professional with pink hair. But honestly, the pink hair fits perfectly into my professional life, and I wish more established professionals would go for wild colors.

Here’s a short list of why:

• Personal branding, people!
  Bright hair makes you easy to recognize and remember, which is extra awesome at industry events like conferences and networking thangs. It helps you stand out during job interviews. Personal branding is a big deal, and standing out in a crowded workplace is awesome!
• Gives your coworkers street cred
  My boss told me that he actually bragged to some higher-ups that he has a pink-haired employee, explaining that my weird hair makes him look cooler by proxy. Granted, I work in marketing/pr where such things matter. But everyone wants to feel cool.
• When you combine wild hair with solid skills and industry authority, you blow people’s minds
  Yes, there are a lot of assumptions about bright hair and immaturity. But when you’re actually good at your job, you can see people’s minds shifting. “You mean … pink hair and 10 years of industry experience can go together? Woah….” I think it’s easier to get away with bright hair if you’re an professional in your 30s or 40s … you’re already established in your industry, and people are forced to respect your experience, even if your hair confuses them.

Despite all this awesomeness, there are definitely a few considerations for professionals thinking of going for bright hair. Here are a few:

People will ask a lot of questions
…and you need to be ready to answer them with graceful articulation. Coworkers will ask you all sorts of silly things (”is that permanent? why do you do that? is upkeep hard?”), and you can’t act like a petulant teenager and huff, “Why can’t they just accept me for who I am?! Why is everybody staring!?” You look different. People are going to ask questions. Deal with it! Think of yourself as a Ambassador of the Funk and answer their questions with patience, tactfulness, and a good natured smile.

Compensate for your weird hair by being hardworking
The best way to get away with being a weird-haired professional is to, well, be really good at your job so that’s what people focus on. You need to be so good at what you do that people are forced into respecting you despite the hair. If you’re more the slacker type who shows up hung-over, then the bright hair may be more of a challenge, because then you’re the scary weirdo with purple hair who smells like gin in the staff meeting. If you have weird hair, you need to to overcompensate a bit with more hardworking awesomeness. The squares with their frosted Rachel cuts can get away with slacking. You, blue-haired assymmetrical bob, probably can’t.

Go for bright hair you can hide
Ok, I’ll admit it. Sometimes, you just need to blend in with the crowd. I had an appearance on The Today Show a few months back to talk about tech issues, and I just knew that if the pink hair was showing it was going to mess with my credibility as a technologist. Thankfully, my pink tips are easy to sweep back into a nice tidy bun — from the front, it’s all business with brown hair and a tidy up-do. From the back, you just see a flash of pink knot. Who even knows if it’s hair? Could be a ribbon or something.

In closing, I leave you all with this video of me answering questions at a PR industry event (zzzz) but look: PINK HAIRED INDUSTRY CREDIBILITY!

In addition to being a pink-haired professional + VAIN client, Ariel Meadow Stallings is a superstar of the blogisphere- check out her Offbeat Bride and Electrolicious blogs to see why.

Waxing services for brows, bikini, and the rest of it now available at VAIN downtown- call 206.441.3441 for more info.

I’m not sure what day it was exactly when I cut all my hair off. I do remember this: it was eight years ago and I had just quit a job that everyone thought I was crazy to leave. But sometimes you need to do what’s right, even if it means you won’t be in the cool job, the fun job, and in my case one that was very much the former but not at all the latter. You know the old saying- who cares if you get to stamp Eddie Vedder’s wrist if you’re not happy.

I walked out of the place that day and headed towards downtown. I’m going to admit right now that I didn’t go to VAIN. It was still early on for me as a VAIN client and besides, I didn’t even know that I was going to get my hair cut until I walked up to the other salon.

When I walked out an hour later my shoulder length hair was gone. And I mean gone. I did have that little duck tail spikey action in the back that was big then (but that I knew, always in my heart and the minute I saw it on my head, was really just a mullet. No amount of Bumble and Bumble’s going to change that), but otherwise gone. Super short. “Wow what did you do” short. “Boy” short.

The haircut didn’t look that good on me. I’d love to report otherwise, but there were no two ways around it- it just didn’t look right. I don’t think I got a single compliment on it as I painstakingly grew it back out over what seemed like the next ten thousand years. Just a lot of “look at yoooouuuu”s. If you’ve had a similar experience then you know what I mean. But looking back, I can call it the best haircut I’ve ever had. It was an exercise in self-conciousness, made me think about my own gender perceptions when it came to hair, and most of all it was a symbol, or probably the symbol, of my independence from a lousy situation that I was afraid to leave because of how it might look. Hair’s not so different from life sometimes. Sometimes you just have to take it all off.

-Rebecca P.

Editor’s note: Kelly could not confirm that Brett had extensions… they were just that good.