Spring is in the air, and the hair in Hollywood is hitting the floor.  Recent new celebrity major changes are Kate Winslet and Katherine Heigl, both going relatively short and REALLY blonde.  Sin 7 Salon's (short, blonde) Kat says "Hooray!  Let's get to pixi-fying and bleach-and-tone-ing, STAT!"

Doesn't she look striking?  Gorgeous?  Amazing? We think so.  There's something about a short, platinum look on a woman that makes you pay attention.  It feels rebellious and non-conformist, and the dramatic color goes a long way to keeping a short length looking ultra feminine.  And powerful.  Thumbs up!

Photo by Keystone Press

Love it!  This might be an excellent time to bring up one of the reasons that Katherine Heigle might have gone short.  Purely speculation, but it's worth addressing for the potential lesson.  Heigl is no stranger to dramatic color changes, having gone from  bright blonde to very dark in the recent past.  Going from dark to blonde is damaging to the hair, no matter what kind of gentle, magical lightener (i.e. bleach) you use.  Going from artificially colored, very dark hair to blonde is extremely damaging.  It's just the nature of lightening hair.   Heigl may very well have had not much choice but to cut some length off after having her hair lightened up from the deep brunette she had before.  Hair is bound to not feel very nice after lifing 9 levels.  So the moral of the story is: even the most gifted stylist will damage your hair when lifting it from dark brunette to blonde, and if you wish to do this, you may need to decide between being blonde or having long hair.  Regardless of whether Heigl's cut was from choice or necessity, it looks fantastic on her, and hopefully it will inspire others to take the plunge into a shorter look for spring.   Change is good!

Normally in the hairdressing biz the winter holiday season is busy and the few months after are a bit slow.  Courtney and Kat planned accordingly.  "Hey, how's about we get a small business innovation grant and line up three months of education?  Cool!"  And lo, knowledge was on the menu.

First up in January we had a private advanced cutting class in the salon with Marta Murray from Aveda.  Marta blew our minds with advanced techniques including razor cutting and a more avant garde disconnected geometric look.  We even got out the mannequin heads and kicked it old school, learning two new looks on our lovely dollys.  They are stored in the back room on top of the dryer.  Please don't let the disembodied heads scare you if you need to go through there. 

We went to a Look and Lean class at the Aveda Institute taught by a nice man named Daniel from Van Michael Salon in Atlanta, Georgia, a very well known and fancy schmancy place (the salon, not Atlanta).  We came home with five new haircut techniques to play with.  The looks were quite geometric, disconnected, with very strong lines; lots of variations of bobs.  Some very fun looks reminiscent of the 80's! Hey, we rocked a mullet in here -  we will RULE the 80's revival!

Courtney and Kat had the privilege of attending a class/performance by Beth Mindardi.  Scoring tickets to this event was a miracle.  Beth Minardi is the sole reason we painted the salon white (all the better to see your color).  This woman knows more about hair color than possibly anyone else on the planet.  She did some amazing models on stage and it was a pleasure and an inspiration to watch her work. Plus they picked up some great tips and tricks regarding color placement.  All hail the Magnificent Minardi!

Another in-salon private class was the full day "Hair Color Magic Essentials" with Daisy Colina from Aveda and Ego Salon in Vancouver.  The way Kat has been describing this class is "If hair color is math, this class was advanced Calculus".  Daisy gave us a whole new way to look at color and formulate using the Aveda color line.  The back room where we mix color looks like someone left their algebra homework laying around.  We are thinking outside the box and loving it!  And now whenever we think of Daisy, we sing "She Blinded Me With Science..."

Also in the mix were some awesome business type classes with Colin Sprake and the gang at Make Your Mark.  Almost all of us been to their full-day Exceptional Customer Service class.  Because of this, you now have an assortment of light snacks if you get hungry during your time with us, and we are keeping our loyalty cards in a handy alphabetized box in the salon.  No more lost cards due to purse switching or wallet reorganizing!   Also, we got an air purifier to keep the space more comfortable for you. So you have Colin to thank, even though Chantelle and Kat simultaneously came up with the snack idea.

Also with MYM, Kat and Holly have attended two mind-melting days on websites and database management.  You may have noticed a few changes around here, and there will be more to come.  By the way, if you haven't already, would you go to that badge on the left sidebar of the site here and "like" us on Facebook?  And maybe follow us on Twitter?  Kat has promised to be better at tweeting and that she will spruce up the Twitter page.  She made a pinkie swear, so we think it's serious. 

And that wraps up the winter semester at Sin 7 Salon, where your vanity is our passion and our brains are now close to explosion.  All for you, dahlings!  We stay current so we can keep you current, and gorgeous of course.