 Good morning guys, welcome to FreeSalonEducation.com's SplittingHairs podcast. Jaya, did you get that up on Facebook? Not yet. No. Good morning. We just had an extreme talk about... Not extreme, but we were talking about carrots and treatments. Yeah, Brian distracted me. Brian likes to talk, like, about a hundred things before we get on here, and they're all things that we could have talked about on here. So now I don't even know where to start. So we're gonna kick off everything. And we're going to... I want to talk about the fact that you should subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you can keep up to date on these podcasts. I also want to say, follow us on Facebook, Gratitude, Salon, Education, all separate words so that we can alert you when we are going live on here. Are you confused, Jaya? No, my computer's, like, not functioning correctly. Not functioning correctly, no. It doesn't like me this morning. Well, the good thing is mine is. That is good. And that's the otherwise we wouldn't be on here right now. So hopefully it's working well. That's why I don't bring one. All right. So so I want to talk about the people that support us. I definitely want to reach out, talk about Millennium. Millennium, actually, we started a like a beta testing program for their online gift certificates. You know, I was on the phone with them for the last few weeks. And we launched that on our website, SalonGratitude.com. And we actually we've sold quite a few. I think we sold like over six hundred dollars in gift certificates in the last few days. So if anybody was thinking about doing a gift certificate program online, it's awesome. And they I haven't even really been promoting it that much. And people just jump on your website. They can buy a gift certificate and then email it to whoever they bought it for or print it and give it to them that way. So that's worked out really well. Mizutani, I want to talk about a couple of things. I did add some new scissors to our website. We are now officially in the business of scissors, which I'm excited about because I know the quality of these scissors. And I put these up because Brian is obsessed with swivel. I can't get my hands in those. They're not my favorite thing. But I know that I know Brian likes them. And we just put them up on the website last night. They're normally a thousand dollars. They're on sale for, I think, eight hundred bucks. So that's a good deal. I bet. You know, we we've definitely got the best prices for Mizutani scissors, there is. And honestly, I've learned over the last few days, I've learned a lot about shipping because we have actually sold quite a few. And but but none in America yet. So if anybody in the United States of America would like to buy scissors, it would make my life a lot easier. Yeah, we're shipping it to the Czech Republic. Oh, to Canada. All right, we're shipping them all over the place. So I'm I'm excited. I'm happy for the sales and now I'm in the scissor business. Now you know how wheel and deal internationally. Yeah, exactly. I'm good with the international shipping on other things. How was your guys Thanksgiving? Because we haven't even been on here since Thanksgiving since them. We were there the day before. It's true. My name is good. Too much food, too much food. It was awesome. Family. Yeah. Yeah. I guess ours was the same. Yeah, typical Thanksgiving. Nothing crazy. Yeah, we all eat a lot and then we pass out. Exactly. We actually the correct the guys in our family. We were going to have a contest on who could fall asleep the fastest on the couch. It didn't happen, but I was going to say who judges that. I don't. Well, the girls one. Yeah. All right. The girls are awake and and running around with the kids and the guys are watching football and falling asleep on the couch. So all right. So make sure you go on our website. We do have the store open and we're going to do some other things coming up. We're going to have t-shirts and stuff. We're going to do a pre-order on our first shirt to see how it goes. I want to see how it goes. And then, you know, if it goes well, we're going to we're going to make them. So more news coming up with that now questions from social media. Where's my question? We've got a couple and not a lot of questions this week. So if you have questions, leave them below on our splitting hairs YouTube channel or on Facebook, send them to us. We only got a couple, but they're great questions. The rest, we did have a lot of comments, but they were all very positive, nice comments. So thanks for that. Only one negative, negative comment this week. So let's talk about Michael asks. He actually, he's noticed that we're fans of Paul Mitchell. We're a Paul Mitchell focused salon. So basically, that means that we carry all Paul Mitchell products. We've just we've been a part of the Paul Mitchell culture and family for a long time. It's actually what brought us all together. It really is. Yeah. It's how it's how we got together. So, you know, we definitely are fans of the product, but I think more than that, we were fans of the education. And now after using a lot of different products and trying out different things, I'm a huge fan of the products, you know, because I grew up in hair school. I got connected with Paul Mitchell and I just used it ever since. So I wasn't exposed to a lot of other brands. And I got to say, Paul Mitchell does it right. Yeah. And that's not me. I didn't do a lot of work for Paul Mitchell this this year because I've been working on this. And, you know, that's just that's the honest truth. The products work and they do what they say. So it's a good R&D team. So let's talk about he says he's currently uses Davenus. Organic products, my clients are all over that. We see. Basically, do you feel Paul Mitchell is one of those companies that's all about the kind of natural organic and all that stuff? I don't I guess that was kind of his question. And then because of Paul Mitchell's history with diversion, he was always shied away from it. And I'll admit, I'm quite interested in hearing more. I was a goldwell colorist for years. The cost of the color line finally got to me and I abandoned them. I moved to TG and I did love them. Oh, a lot of relationships. But I felt chemicals were just too harsh. Davenus has been wonderful, whereas that would say divine. But the color line field was actually terrible. It's just a matter of learning how to use it. It's a every single color line is a completely different tool. And if you don't know how to use it, it's not going to work the way you need it to. Right. Like you can sit me down at the world's greatest piano and what comes out of it is still going to sound terrible, because I don't know how to play the piano. So like you learn your tool and you'll be good. Well, I think going off of what Brian said that. The education behind the palm of color is so simple. Yeah, very simple color line to use. So it's very user friendly. It's easy to adapt to. It's not. You don't have to question it. Right. Yeah. And I it's also like for me with Paul Mitchell, the it started out to me with was the simplicity, like you're saying, like the color coded packaging had a really natural base. Every everything had a brown base when we first started with Paul Mitchell. Now they've changed that. But but I think it's true to tone and it fades great because we know hair color will fade. And and like I said, the education is great. So that that would be my piece. I say, hey, since you have no problem jumping around, yeah, to go. Yeah, you can get from it. One more jump and hopefully you'll be happy at that point. There you go. You know, and I think Daveness is a great company. But I, you know, if if for some reason you're thinking about making a switch, then there's something lacking. So, you know, just give it a try. I mean, that's the cool thing you get to play with things in this industry. Right. See what you like and what fits you. So go out and try. OK, few questions from Nicole on our Facebook. She says, I love what you're doing. I have a few questions for a future podcast. OK, so what are your thoughts on attending a local no name beauty school versus brand name beauty schools such as Tony and Guy and Paul Mitchell, Brian, I think it what it really comes down to is what exactly are you looking for career wise? I didn't go to beauty school until I was almost 25. So I knew I was I wasn't just looking to learn how to do hair. I was looking to make a move with a company. Right. So I had it narrowed down to a few different companies. I was looking at an Aveda school, Tony and Guy, Paul Mitchell. And, you know, the I liked the Paul Mitchell culture. It spoke to me a little bit more. So I went and checked it out. I don't think there's anything wrong with going to, you know, like just a vocational school, if you just need to learn how to, you know, what you need to learn to do hair and get going. And then maybe figure that stuff out later if you want to align yourself with a company or not. Yeah, I think you've got to find your path. Right. You know, and I think the good thing about what I know from a Paul Mitchell school is that they help you find that path. I know the school that I went to in Iowa, great, great people. And because of the the teachers that I had there, they helped me find a path. But I know I've seen vocational schools. I've been I've donated time to certain schools around here. And they just you walk in and you don't get that feeling like it's an inspirational place that's going to guide you into a career. They're just teaching you how to pass the board. That's what I like about Paul Mitchell schools and corporate schools that they build a culture force that inspiration. Yeah, I mean, kids walk out of there thinking, hey, I'm going to make a hundred thousand dollars a year this year. So there's good and bad, you know, but I think I think going to a corporate school, anything you're going to be attracted to a brand name, your biggest, most important thing is you need to ask yourself what you want out of your career before you even try to find a job. Yeah. And you got to you really need to it's not so much you're interviewing a salon, because for some reason that I don't like the way that that is. I like that. But you need to know what the salon is about for sure. So that's really what we mean by interviewing the salon. Because if you walk in, let's say you walk in here and you're applying for a job and all you really want to do is cut hair all day. Then you're not going to work here because we do other things. We are here after work, you know, putting in hours for just the art of hair and we're doing getting up early and doing podcasts. Like if that stuff that's not into you that you're not into, then then you're not going to want to work here. So you need to figure out what the salon is about and what you're going to get from it and what you're looking to get out of it. Right. You got to find your fit. Find your fit. Yes. What are your thoughts on new grads working in chain salons, like supercuts, Alta salons, JCPenney salon? Do you recommend this as a good starting point? I know you've worked in one. I did. I actually I started in my very first job was a super fancy shishi high end place and it was great. Fancy shishi. Hey, like that? Putting that on a T-shirt. OK. No, but then after that, I mean, I learned tons there. It was great. But then I worked at a supercuts for a little while and I got to tell you I'm still so thankful that I did because that's where I learned speed. Yeah, that was the kind of place it ended up not being the type of environment for me permanently because I needed some place that focused a little bit more on the experience rather than just getting it down and cranking it out. Right. But I'm glad I did it because now I know in the back of my mind if there's an emergency and I have a really late client that if need be, I can do a men's haircut, start to finish in nine minutes. And right, that's what you learn in those kinds of places. So and you got to think about I had a teacher in beauty school. She worked at a chain place as well as teaching. And I remember sitting in her class and she was like, you know, I can make twenty dollars an hour if I do eight haircuts. Right. And I thought to myself, I am never in my life to an eight haircuts in one hour. That is too much work for me. So that was my goal from that moment when I heard that I changed my path. I made sure this is actually I went to school in Iowa and then I flew out and worked in this salon that we're in right now for five years before me and my fiance bought it. So this is the only son I've ever worked in. So I don't really have I was an employee here and now we're the owners here. I never really had the experience in a chainsaw. I've taught in them, but, you know, I think it's cool. I think that's a good point because I've watched stylists start here and they just don't have the speed and speed is an important thing. Whether you're in an experience type salon or not, we still spend an hour and a half, two hours with a guest here. But you've got to be on time still. And some stylists will take four hours to cut color. Right. I mean, it's it I'm glad I have it so that I know where I can pick up the pace when I need to. Right. I prefer this type of environment, obviously, where, you know, it's it's it's about the experience and all that. But it's just good to know that in a pinch, I've got that in my pocket. Right. Also, another aspect of it is a friend of mine actually works for Bubbles Hair Salon in Maryland, and she started out there. And now she's, I guess, it's only been like two to three years and she's running her own location. Oh, really? Yeah. She has her own team of stylists. She's in charge of their training, making sure of all that. So I think that's really cool that you have growth opportunities within those companies as well. Yeah. And those companies do offer. I mean, I know that they you can see the signs like I watch them. They they offer 401k and health insurance and all of that now. But you got to look at what also what money are you going to make there? So I know that some of the stylists I've talked to that work in those type of salons are not making a lot of money. So you might have benefits, but, you know, I could go to Starbucks and work. But and they might give me health insurance, but they're not paying me very much. So I would rather get paid more and buy my own health insurance. You know, so I think, you know, it's a give or take, but I do think that the learning part of it and maybe it's for you. Maybe it's not. Maybe you can run your own store. So so the theme of today's podcast is just discovering yourself and finding your own path. That's all of our questions. Yes. You know, do whatever you want. Exactly. What do you want to do? We're not going to tell you what to do. Yeah. We don't have all the answers. We don't want to be responsible for if it was a really bad idea. Yeah. Yeah. If you're really bummed out, don't write us. She's like, I quit my job. My life is ruined because you said we didn't say. OK. All right. So let's talk about some new products in the industry. And we're going to talk about a new product, which was Shines XG from Paul Mitchell. And then I also want to talk about I've had some questions about comparisons with Wella, Illumina and Paul Mitchell, Shines XG. I do believe that they are a similar attack on the industry, I guess you could say. I think they have the same angle, but they're different. They're definitely different after looking over the same placement in the industry. But I don't think. But there's just so many different shades with Shines XG. And I think that's probably why Wella, for for me, I don't know for sure. But that's probably why they're coming out with more shades, I would think. So they only had nine previously. Now they have 11. So that would be my take on that. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about was this product. I actually took from my bathroom because this was given to us. And everything goes through the Christina test before it gets to this test because if Christina likes it, for me, she's got long, thick hair. It's a medium texture. So if she's using it every day, then there's got to be something that it's doing. So what I've noticed is that this is going in her hair quite often. And I hated this product looking at it. I hate to say that, but it's not. It's poor packaging. I'm a packaging guy, and this is not cool looking to me. And a lot of people say it's cool looking. I think it's like this is not cool looking, but. But it's amazing in there. Right. And I know Dray loves it, too. So I actually stole this other bathroom this morning. I didn't tell Christina. So I hope she tried to get a home before she in the bathroom right now. Yes, she doesn't know what to do. But OK, so it's it's a 10 if you can see it. Oh, yeah, I have a picture right here. It's a 10. It's the miracle leave in product, which already to me, it's like, OK, it's a miracle. So that got me right away. Some things get me upset. It doesn't take much repairs. Dry damaged hair is the first one. So there's 10 things add shine, detangles, controls frizz, seals and protects hair color, prevents split ends, stops hair breakage, creates silkiness, enhances natural body. And flat flat iron spray and thermal protector. That is a lot of. A lot of claims that it does, right? I was with you until that last one. I mean, I thought as hairdressers, we know most of those things. It's pretty redundant. I mean, if you can make the hair not terrible, then you're going to make it shiny or stronger or all that stuff. Right. Thermal protectant that frightens me. So it's also. But you know that thermal protectant is just like one little ingredient that they throw in there. But like I said, I don't want to be telling people to spray that on dry hair and then run an iron over it. Well, that's why it's probably more like a wet when you're blow dry. Yeah. For when you blow dry, I was imagining. I thought it said it says flat iron spray. It does. I don't know. I honestly. I mean, I've never sprayed it on. I want to test this out this week. This is my plan. I'm going to. Where's that girl from YouTube? We'll try it on. Right. So we're going to test this out and and give you our opinion on it. And then, you know, we'll do a review on it. But I want to. I don't know. I'm a lot of people are raving about it. It was all over. Let's see what the pros of it, where it smells great. It detangles hair. It has a heat protectant. It can be used on any type of hair. It doesn't weigh down hair. Helps tame frizz and makes hair soft and smooth. Was what one person said. And then the cons where it was a little on the pricey side, it's $22. Yeah. So I think if you're going to charge $22 for something, it needs to look like it's worth $22. So I think that might be. Does it smell good? It's all right. OK. A little sweet. So it's a little on the pricey side. That was the only negative thing that they said. Maybe it is a miracle. They gave the packaging a five out of five. I don't know. That to me would be the greatest packaging you've ever seen. I guess I can't get that upset about packaging. Who really cares? Very upset about the packaging. Clearly. So let's see. We did have a couple of people add to what is your favorite color line on Facebook. OK. So we have L'Oreal Pro, All Nutrient, and Provana, and Joyco as favorites. Joyco's been pumping out some stuff. I got to say. When we were at the salon centric show recently and I looked at their models, they had some really awesome color. And they have really vibrant colors right now that I want to play with too that seem pretty insane. But L'Oreal Professional, I still don't understand. Still don't understand. And that gets me into Farouk, which I saw. So I'm in Target every once in a while. And sometimes I like to just walk over to the beauty section of Target. It's like Farouk is owned by Target in there. They have the irons, the blow dryers, the products. Everything Farouk is in. Drive off to see. Shoot yourself in the foot. But I've also seen TG and Paul Mitchell on Target as well. Well, yes. But that's what I wanted to talk about with Michael's comment about diversion. Now there's a difference between diverted products that are just because they're popular and they're diverted and they're in stores. And products that are actually being sold to the stores. And for Farouk, Paul Mitchell will see like, Paul Mitchell, and I don't know about TG, because I don't know that the inner workings of TG and how that works. But I know TG was bought out and Tony and Guy don't own it. So I don't know how it's being sold. But I do know that for Farouk, or Paul Mitchell, when you see it in one of those stores, you see it in a CVS drugstore or whatever. You see old packaging. You see weird packaging. You notice that the product's not even the same inside. That's just those. So we did unpackage it. It is from Colortracks. This is a pretty cool little tool. I dig it. I actually almost broke it trying to get it out of the packaging. So if Colortrack could just figure out a way to make that a little bit easier, I had no idea what to do. So the funny thing is Brian is trying to open this, and he can't figure out where to put the foil and all of that. So he finally almost breaks it, gets it open, and the instructions were in the inside. Oh yeah, the instructions on how to do this were inside. You're not the smartest. So just a little piece of advice. We need instructions. Instructions are good. But don't put them inside the package that you have to take apart. You have to break in half to get. So tell us how it works. It is what's cool about it. The roll of foil is in there. I like it because this thing is weighted perfectly to use one-handed. I did an ombre this weekend, and you can use this entire thing start to finish with just one hand. Because we've all had the rolls in the cardboard boxes that are great at first. But then as you get to the end where there's only some foil left, like the thing's fallen over, and you can't rip it off. This is great because it's got the spring-loaded top that has the blade inside of it. So you just pull out as much as you want, pop that down. It cuts it. It puts a little crease in there if you use that. When you're doing foil work, which is awesome. My only complaint with this is way too flimsy of foil. I don't know if you can buy a little bit of sterility of a foil, because I was having a hard time with some of the work that I was doing. It didn't hold enough, and it was crinkling while I was just trying to apply. So other than that, I actually don't want to break it when I open it. And I need a little bit thicker of an actual foil to go in there. But other than that, this thing's been awesome. Yeah, I think we'll definitely be using this thing. But yeah, I'll talk to you. I'm going to give them a call anyways before I do the review, because I like to get their take on the product, what they love about it, and the points that they want to make on it. So I'll give them a call and see if they make a thicker foil and all of that. But yeah, very cool product. There you go. There it is. Especially if you don't work with an assistant. And I don't let Brian have an assistant here. So that's his assistant. There you go. So this is mine now. Yeah. OK. And then Andrea just got really upset. I'm really sad now. Yeah. OK, so let's get into. Oh, I didn't even show these pictures. So this is aluminum color. And we have palmitra shines XG. That's some packaging right there. It's exciting. We did talk about this. Now we're going to talk about. Trending tresses. Trending tresses. What was that face? OK, so trending tresses. First off. First off, we have Keith Urban, who has cut his infamous hair that he's been known for having this shaggy, longer style. By the way, let me just say that Drea has a blog now. I do have a blog. So she has a celebrity hair blog on freeselaneducation.com. So I just want to say that. You have to go on there and check it out because she's going to write about all these things as well. And we will post this as a separate video so you guys can see just the trending tresses part, which gets a lot of views, actually. It's kind of cool. But with this hairstyle, I like it. And I know you guys don't, but I like it. I love big changes. And I support that. But I wish it was executed a little bit differently. The front just is too PC for me for his hair. And it reminds me of a woman's haircut. Yeah, he couldn't get rid of that part. So for those of you that are on iTunes listening to this and can't see the picture of Keith Urban, he basically took his kind of classic, shaggy, blonde highlighted haircut that he's had forever. And he cut the bottom off of it and the sides. So he basically kind of did like a pixie cut in a way. But a guy version of it, it's really long on top, but shattered. And then it's all cleaned up on the sides and back. It almost kind of reminds me of one of those rocker hairstyles from Fall Out Boy or something like that. I like the haircut. I just think it looks, I mean, it might just be this picture that it looks very soft and feminine. Looks a little bit like he walked in and said, give me the Jennifer Lawrence. But it might just be the picture. That would be awesome if he did that. He could pull it off. I'm Keith Urban. Can I have the Jennifer Lawrence haircut, please? We're friends. We're going to be taking a picture together. I mean, I like that style. I just think that I'm hoping this is just a bad picture. I'll give it a week. We'll see. All right. I have no idea. This one I couldn't. This is Paula Patton. I saw the name, but I'm not sure where she's from. She's been in a couple of movies. She was most known for her ghost protocol, Deja Vu. She was in Precious. She was in Two Guns. But I think what she's most famously known for is she is Robin Thicke's wife. Oh, there you go. There it is. Which is why there's a picture of her. Yeah, because I feel like even though she's been in a bunch of movies, she's not major roles. Yeah. I think this is a bad picture of her haircut, too. It doesn't even look like wherever she was. It looks like some kind of spirit oars. But she's got a bob. So basically, she went from really, really long hair, those of you on iTunes again, really, really long hair with bangs to a bob with a side-swap bang. And I think it's definitely, it looks nice on her. It definitely looks better than the long hair. I got it. I think it's cool that they styled it a little bit differently, doing the slight finger wave in the front to give it more of that old Hollywood feel. Yeah. Because a lot of times, recently I've noticed with everybody chopping off their hair, they're doing the super-peasy, super-textured styling. And I think it's cool to see it a little bit differently. Yeah, I like it. I just wish, I think the angle of this picture is a little bit, it's hard to tell because it looks like she just has kind of a calic in the front, more than anything. But I do like the length of it. You can tell how it kind of elongates her, shows off her neck a little bit, instead of having all that hair just sitting on there. I think it just gives her a totally different appearance. Yeah, I think. And she has taken on a richer, darker chocolatey brunette. And I like it. I like the warmth to it. I like that it just adds more depth to her. Yeah, looks good on her skin tone. I mean, it's appropriate for the time of year, go a little bit darker. I think this is a great example of taking that lighter, summery kind of hair and not just making it darker, but making it richer, adding those warm tones. So when everyone freaks out, don't make it red, don't make it red, when you make it just dark brown, not red, just can come out kind of flat. And I think for someone who had that really pretty ombre kind of effect to go from that to flat dark can be almost more jarring than if they saw some of those warmer tones that are in there. I mean, that's straight up some golds and oranginess to it. And it's really pretty. Yeah, I like it. I think that you can definitely, like you said, the skin tone, it looks great. I think it's one of those things where it just softens everything. As long as you hit the right tone, like you were saying. So fun fact about this hair transformation that I found out. OK. Well, actually, I don't know if it's fact. It's all rumor. OK. Fun rumor that I found out about this. Fun rumor. Well, because no one actually ever confirmed whether or not it took six hours. But her color and gloss treatment with her new stylist, because she's been switching around stylist recently, took. Can you imagine the devastation if you have? Oh my god. So it could be handsome. It took six hours for her transformation and cost about $800. OK, I would have charged her more. Well, yeah, it's going to be the future Queen of England. It's like she didn't have it. But wait, so it took six hours. And that goes to show you. And this is what I want to say again. And I'm not going to go off too crazy. So Christina, when we first started dating, she would be like looking at celebrity hair. And she would say things like, she went from dark to blonde. I'm like, yeah, but days. They don't share themselves with the world. They walk around like Pamela in this picture with a hat on for three days while they get their hair to do that transformation. And they do it slowly, so hopefully they don't fry the hair off, which is the reality. And we have guests that come in the salon and they sit down and they expect to go from a level one black to a level 10 blonde in three hours. And it just doesn't happen. And they want it for $100. And that doesn't happen. Nope. And that goes to show you the other thing. I had a guest last week in the salon. We've talked about this. But when you get a guest in your chair and you're not going to style your hair, you're not going to put the time into styling, then you need to, I am personally from now on, telling them that I cannot give them that haircut. Because haircuts don't just happen, styles don't just happen. People spend time with them. You see celebrities in magazines and they have their hair all done great. A hairstylist probably did that. Or there's a handful of people that can do their hair really well. But you've got to spend time on your hair. It doesn't just magically happen. There's not a potion or a perm or a relaxer that is going to make your hair look great. And I think it's our duty to tell them that. And that's one thing last week. If I could change it, I would have said, hey, I know you want this hairstyle, but it can't happen without you blow drying it. Right. I think that that's something that even we in the industry are guilty of, whether it is something like a perm or a relaxer or a caratine or any of that stuff, we're here to make things Asian. Yeah. And find us on Instagram. I'm Hairstyle, H-A-I-R-E style. I'm Dreidae, D-R-E-A. No, D-R-E, D-A-Y, two, two, eight, nine. And I am underscore Matt Beck. So thank you guys so much for watching, splitting hairs, or listening on iTunes. Oh yeah. You can get us on iTunes as well. Yeah, that too. That's new for us. All right, guys, we're going to do some hair in the sun. Thank you guys so much for being a part of Splitting Hares, and check us out freesiloneducation.com.