Founder's Blog

Karie Bennett,

Master Artist and Atelier CEO

From the Santana Row blog:

Atelier Salons at Santana Row:  Experiments of a Hairdresser

I’ve just finished reading an interesting book by the French Philosopher, Roger-Pol Droit, about experiments in the philosophy of everyday life.  It encourages the reader to look at our usual activities in a new way.  It opened my eyes to many possibilities.  One of his experiments involves going to the hairdresser.  His view was an interesting one, more esoteric than I would like, but it did make me think about what our role is in society and what possibilities there are in something as seemingly simple as a hair appointment.

It does seem fairly straightforward.  You need a haircut, you make an appointment and you go get one.  Someone washes your hair, cuts it, blow dries it, and off you go.

Droit muses that you might leave the salon taller or with a different eye color.  Or that perhaps the hairdresser is some kind of angel, who can perform feats of divine salvation.  He considers the idea that the visit is a rendezvous with your own destiny, an unparalleled transformation that is accompanied by heavenly music.

Fantasies of beauticians as magicians aside, I’ve seen all of that happen.

The self-confidence a new, more youthful hairstyle gives someone causes them to walk a bit straighter.  Haircolor that flatters one’s skin tone certainly can bring out a beautiful eye color or make a green eye even greener.

A hairstylist with a great idea for updating a look can earn gasps of, “Oh my god, you’re a genius!”

If you get just the right new look, it can seem as if this is the hairstyle you’ve been waiting for your whole life—destiny!

And, when you style it yourself at home and it all falls into place, doesn’t it sometimes seem that you hear Handel’s Hallelujah chorus in your head?

At Atelier, our hair services are accompanied by complimentary “moments of wellness”, little niceties like hand treatments, organic tea, makeup touchups, etc.  We look at the usual hair appointment in a new and wonderful way.  Ah yes, salvation exists.

At your service,

Karie Bennett
Founder, Atelier Salons
www.atelieraveda.com

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Excerpt: Article from Shine, on Yahoo!

Yesterday's Houston Chronicle featured a story about how more and more women are forgoing expensive, time-consuming dye jobs in favor of letting their hair go au naturel. While nearly all of the subjects interviewed for the piece found this move "liberating" and "empowering" and a "sign of distinction and wisdom," some expressed fears of looking old.
It's an interesting topic for sure, especially given the double standard: Men become distinguished silver foxes when they go gray; when women do the same they're often de-sexualized—thought of as dowdy, unstylish or just plain old. Because of this, according to the Chronicle story, nearly 65 percent of the female population uses hair color (often starting at age 18) and 71 percent of women who dye their hair do so in order to "look and feel more attractive."

***Atelier Founder, Karie Bennett’s Blog in response:

As a haircolorist, my opinion is this: If you think you want to go gray, be sure you're ready!  But always remember, you can cover it any time you want.

When you're ready for gray, ask your longtime stylist to help with the transition.  And it can still look young, hip and sexy!

This can be accomplished a few ways:

1. Wear a hat and grow hair out for 12 months, then cut your hair 6 inches long all over...(hair grows 1/2' a month on the average) This one's not very popular...

2. Have your colorist start highlighting your hair with your natural pigment color.  This is the brown, black, red, or blonde that you might still have somewhere in there.  I call this technique "tapering away the gray".  This will take up to 12 months for a hairstyle that is 6 inches long.  Have it re-done every 3 months.

3.  Have your haircolorist use a Deposit-Only haircolor product on your hair.  I use only Aveda haircolor, which is 99% naturally derived.  It's like a conditioning treatment gloss with color we custom blend.  It doesn't have ammonia, won't lighten the hair...only deposits color.  The old school term for it was Demi-Permanent, or Semi-Permanent.  It's quite sheer and fades out over 6 weeks.  Have it done every 6-8 weeks.  You can keep using it until the old permanent color has grown out and gets cut off, then let the Deposit-Only color fade all the way out.  By then you will have gotten used to how it looks.  See #4 for how to maintain grey hair!

4.  Now that you are a bonafide silver fox, you can keep it shiny and silvery.  Remember that a white hair has air bubbles instead of pigment molecules, and it has a tendency to absorb pollutants that float around in the air, or come through in water, such as cigarette smoke and chlorine.  These can "yellow up" on white hair.  Using a Detoxifying shampoo (Aveda has one) and having the hair Clear Glossed every 3 months will keep that beautiful hair turning heads for years to come.  And THAT'S young, hip and sexy!