VAIN Blog

Lights, camera, William in action at The Paramount. Photo by Erin Pease.

Behold William: VAIN assistant, future hair superstar. In addition to assisting VAIN hairstylists with clients and helping our downtown salon run smoothly (no easy task), he’s on the verge of becoming a licensed stylist himself and unleashing his hair skills and passion for personal style on the world. He recently did hair at a fashion show benefitting The Ruby Room (pictured above), and you’d think he was famous by the reaction his high-impact updos got. It just goes to show you: that person shampooing your hair at the salon or assisting with your blowout could someday be the next best hairstylist you’ve ever had.

The Ruby Room is a non-profit organization that helps under-privileged students look sharp for prom and encourages volunteerism. VAIN fashion hair pros Aubrey, Megyn, and TT also volunteered at the benefit, with waxing specialist Belinda leaving the wax pot behind for a day to pitch in on styling. Check out a Seattle Weekly slideshow for more pictures from the event.

Earlier today, I went next door to Miro Tea for a fix - rooibos chai with rice milk, agave-sweetened, please. As I glanced around the shop, I noticed they’re now blogging about their monthly tea features at mirotea.blogspot.com. There’s an impressive wealth of information there, and a chance to learn about our neighbors… and how your Ballard stylist fuels up for the day.

xo,

Sarah Jo + VAIN Ballard

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels: walk softly and carry a VAIN comb. Photo by Sarah Joann Murphy.

This just in from the “OMG VAIN wins another award” department, VAIN has been named a winner of the Mayor’s Small Business Award for 2008. At an awards ceremony last week to honor this year’s recipients (the appetizers were delicious!), VAIN was able to share our support for small business, working class heroes, activists, artists, and the Seattle music community in particular. We were also thrilled to share the stage our with our deserving co-winners. They are:

• 8 Limbs Yoga Centers & Boutique
• Animal Critical Care & Emergency Services
• Arab Film Distribution / Typecast Films
• BabyLegs
• Compendium, Inc.
• glassybaby
• GP Institute of Cosmetology
• KOBO
• Macrina Bakery & Café

Each of these businesses is a great example of hard work, taking an idea and running with it, and the awesome power of being an active community member. Oh and being nice. Check them out if you haven’t; we know we will.

VAIN thanks YOU, our clients, for helping us run with our hair.shop.art.community idea since 1996. We’re winners thanks to you.

Riders, don’t forget your helmets - your heads will thank you!

This season has given us plenty of beautiful days that would inspire anyone get outside and take a ride on a bike. We’ve also seen astronomical gas prices this summer which are none too fun. I see it as a great opportunity to get some fresh air and exercise and save our hard earned cash for things that we really need - i.e., anything but gas. So I decided at the beginning of Summer, at least a few times a week, to put on my helmet, get on my bike, and huff it out for work or play. Let’s be honest, helmets of any kind don’t necessarily leave you with the most immaculately executed coif after a fun day of riding. (I won’t give a treatise about why you should be wearing your helmet, but if you are planning on being on the road, please be smart and put one on). I’d nearly given up styling my hair on days I was biking knowing that it would end up in a mush no matter what I did beforehand - that is, before I turned to the help of the stylists at VAIN to seek advice on how to master the art of riding with great hair. They assured me that there is hope for us bicyclists, scooterists, and motorcyclists out there.

Jen C, who, along with fellow stylist Sharon, will be riding her bike from Seattle to San Francisco for the American Lung Association this month (see below for more info!), recommends Wool Shake from the Redken Urban Experiment line for helmet wearers. Spray it on before you ride and it bestows your hair with serious volume and texture - apparently this works on all kinds of hair; straight to curly. Literally shake your hair out after you take your helmet off, and you are left with a sexy, nicely tousled look.

If you’ve got short hair and normally use pomade, clay, or wax to bring out the definition and texture in your style, you might find that your edge is all but gone after a session under the helmet. Valentine, a VAIN stylist with serious short hair skills, suggests spraying some water on your hair to reactivate the product and doing a quick restyle with your fingers.

Liza Jo suggests getting a chin length cut with layers that will allow you to play up texture to avoid have hair that sits flat on your head. She also warns against putting your helmet on a wet head of hair; if your hair dries while you bike you will be left with the imprint of your helmet on the surface of your hair for the rest of the day!

The next time you decide to ride, know that you can still rock a hot style and keep your noggin safe.

Ride on!
-Sylvia

You can still donate to Jennifer Cassady and Sharon Blyth-Moss before they leave this week for the Big Ride Pacific Coast to support the American Lung Association! Please visit Clean Air Adventures and click on “Sponsor a Big Rider.”

VAIN wall, 1st Ave. Photo by Tyler Soverns.

More pictures of the great graffiti wall painting of ‘08 are now up on VAIN’s Flickr page. Check ‘em out.

What’s more fuel efficient than a car and more time efficient than our public transit?

Aran’s sweet new motorcycle! In addition to her talents as a stylist, artist, and curator for our jewelry collection, she’s started an apprenticeship in motorcycle repairs so she can maintain the beauty herself. A regular renaissance woman.

To learn more about Aran, check out some of the recent Yelp reviews singing her praises. As someone who gets to work with her four out of five days a week, I’m singing them too!

xo,

Sarah Jo

Style in Still Life. Photo by Genevieve Pierson for Seattle Sound magazine.

Check out the September issue of Seattle Sound magazine for an awesome Fall fashion spread featuring hair by VAIN downtown + Ballard senior stylist Jenny Slay and makeup by VAIN’s resident makeup artist Christine Cherbonnier.

The photo shoot took place at some of VAIN’s favorite independent art spaces (including, you guessed it, VAIN’s gallery adjacent to our downtown salon), and the result is a series of striking images + sculpted style sure to inspire your next hair or makeup appointment, appearance at an art gallery event, or city night out this Fall. So take a look and witness VAIN’s hair.makeup.art power in print!

Seattle Sound’s “Style in Still Life” Fall Fashion spread is in the magazine’s September issue, currently on newstands around Seattle.

VAIN note: due to a completely avoidable typo/brain lapse on our part, Jenny Slay’s VAIN start date was incorrectly listed in the issue by, oh, ABOUT NINE YEARS. Jenny Slay has been with VAIN since 1998. An actual decade. That, along with her amazing hair skills, is why she’s our senior stylist. Duh.

For several years now, VAIN owner/founder/styledriver Victoria Gentry has volunteered for the YMCA as a part of the Patsy Collins Adventure in Leadership program.

What is the mission of the program?

To empower girls during their middle school years to feel confident in themselves, take an active role in shaping their community, and work towards a positive future for themselves and the world.

I asked Victoria about her experiences there, and the benefits she’s seen firsthand:

“PCAL provides a unique experience for young women to develop leadership skills in a supportive environment free of peer pressure, competition and ridicule. It is quite remarkable to watch how quickly their confidence grows when they truly, finally are able to find their own voice and really put themselves out there without fear. Once someone has had that experience and realizes what is possible even when they go back to ‘real’ life they have a new perspective on just how valuable their ideas are and feel empowered to put them out there and into action!”

“I have met some of the young women years later and they have said that this camp with all the hard fun and challenges really was a profound and life changing experience.”

We’re proud of Victoria for being a part of this program! If you’d also like to show your support, donations can be made to the YMCA. As Victoria said, “GO PCAL!”

DIY dye: good on your hair, not so good splattered on your stuff.

We have a lot of clients get their DIY hair supplies + advice at VAIN, so we wanted to share the love online with you, our loyal VAIN Blog readers. A client we’ll call “Pink Tips” wrote in with a common DIY complaint from home hairstylists: when your hair isn’t the only thing that gets dye on it. Let’s hear it directly from PT:

“Ok, so I re-pink my hair at home. I have gloves. I have the special black button up shirt. I have the tinfoil. I am always very careful … but EVERY SINGLE TIME it seems like I get a tiny splat of pink on the bathroom wall or floor or a towel hanging 8 feet away. Any tips for using veggie dyes at home without turning your entire house the color of your hair?

Great question, P.Tips. We went to VAIN Ballard stylist + DIY specialist Rachel for answers, and here’s what she had to say:

“Squirt the veggie dye slowly and carefully onto a regular comb and comb into your bleached parts. Foil and such makes it more difficult. If you get pink where your hair isn’t bleached don’t worry, it will not stick. Still wear your gloves and shirt though.”

So there you have it- a comb’s the key. Thanks for asking, Pink Tips! Hope this helps keep the splats contained.

Do you need DIY hair advice? Send your question to vain(at)vain(dot)com and we’ll do our best to get an answer posted.

First look at Saturday’s painting of the VAIN wall. Photo by Lindamy Vu.

Thanks to everyone who came down to VAIN this weekend to check out the DVS crew putting up their new pieces on our outside wall. We’ll be posting more pictures here soon so check back!

The VAIN graffiti wall downtown is so money. Photo by Angela Dawn.

Today from 8am to 8pm at VAIN downtown, the famed DVS crew of graffiti artists will be painting four new pieces on VAIN’s outside wall. We’ve told you about the history of the wall before, and this latest chapter should be just as good. So if you find yourself on 1st Ave today, stop by and check out some amazing graffiti art in action. It’s going to be a scene out there.

The VAIN graffiti wall is on the north side of VAIN, facing the parking lot- 2018 1st Ave between Virginia and Lenora.

The VAIN bikini wax: a gift for yourself so good it needs its own name.

We’re celebrating VAIN’s new waxing specialist Belinda and her magical VAIN waxing services with a contest for all you creative (and hairy) types out there. Come up with a new VAIN name for “bikini wax” and you could win one of these fabulous VAIN waxing prizes!

To enter, send your idea for what we should call the VAIN bikini wax to vain(at)vain(dot)com, subject line “VAIN bikini wax contest”, with your full name + phone number. One entry per person and nothing dirty, please- this needs to be something we can actually use. Just ask yourself: if grandma called VAIN to get her downtown action tidied up, is this something she could say out loud?

Winners will be selected by VAIN vote and announced at the end of the month. Winning waxing services are good for any body part that Belinda can wax… and that’s just about anything. So get ready to win + wax. Good luck!

Belinda Leybold offers waxing services at VAIN dowtown- 2018 1st Ave. Call 206.441.3441 to book an appointment if you can’t wait to win.