Fashion Friday: At-Home Hair Cut & Color Advice From My Personal Stylist
I know I’m not alone in missing being able to get my hair done. My roots are long (and filled with greys) and my highlights have gone brassy and faded. It’s not a good look. Also Andrew has been asking me to trim his hair, Henry NEEDS a clean up and I figured that I’d reach out to my own stylist of several years, Nick Penna, who is the owner of Salon Capri (locations in Boston, Newton and Dedham) for some advice. It also allows me to support their small business in a small way, as they have completely closed down, as all salons have, and that is so difficult.
ERIN: What can you do for a brunette with faded highlights that look brassy (I.e ME!!!)? What about roots??
NICK: A good trick is to use a blonding shampoo and conditioner… it will help remove brassiness without over toning your hair. I recommend Masque Ultra Violet purple hair mask from Kerastase … wet hair, apply from roots to ends… it’s like a two for one, conditions while it tones and it works on blondes AND brunettes with brassiness. For the roots, Oribe root touch up spray (enter SalonCapri at checkout) actually works really well! It is the best way of hiding those grays and preventing you from spending big $$$ for color correction in a few weeks when your back at the salon!
(P.S. Personal note from Erin: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PERMANENTLY DYE YOUR OWN HAIR! I once had a major color screw up and had to have color correction done twice in a row and not only did it cost a fortune, it ruined my hair (this was pre-Nick)!
ERIN: For blondes- what about dark roots? Any at home root kits that aren’t impossible to use? NICK: So this one is a bit trickier… Should we just channel our inner 90s grunge and do the blond ends black roots two tone look??? If not and your feeling a bit artistic I recommend Color Wow root cover up… match your shade of blonde with their selection of colors, using the brush applicator follow the line from where the highlights start to the top of you roots. There are great tutorials on the Color Wow web site for this beauty hack!
ERIN: Does this work for grey roots too in darker hair?
NICK: Yes, you can also try this new kit from Christophe Robin , which seems to be the hot item out there right now.
ERIN: Best methods for trimming your own bangs?
NICK: Ahh, have ya seen all the bang memes out there on IG that is no joke!! Every time a client with bangs sits in my chair they ask, should I grow out my bangs? Well here’s your chance, give it a try and keep in mind, its way easier to cut them back then it is to grow them out!
ERIN: Andrew wants me to trim his hair. Best methods for trimming a guy’s haircut?
NICK: When it comes to the haircuts we really do recommend waiting it out… come on guys, channel your inner Jeff Bridges, who doesn’t love “The Dude”?? But most guys have grooming trimmers in their dopp kit… so if you must, keep the neck line, over the ears and eyebrows clean and you’ll feel fresh!
ERIN: How about kids? I’m SO nervous to trim Henry’s hair but he looks like a ragamuffin.
NICK: Keep in mind, you want to leave the hair longer than you’d usually have it cut. When you get back to the salon (and you will) your stylist may have to go a bit shorter to fix all the little mistakes that you will clearly NOT make ;) Start at the nape of the neck and trim straight across, work around the perimeter of the head and over the ears, in small sections pull the sides straight off the head and trim, for the top starting from the forehead in small section pull the hair straight up and trim, if you want to get fancy… hold the shears at a 90 degree angle and take small snips across the section for the “lived in look”.
ERIN: Any specific hair scissors that are a good buy? I assume having specific shears is important even for trims?
NICK: So the shears thing is real. Kitchen shears just won’t cut it (see what I did there!?) Stylists instruments are very expensive and we keep them well maintained… even the sharpest of craft shears will leave your hair with split and damaged ends. So if you have to do that at home cut get a professional pair like these or this kit.
In the mean time you can support you local hair salon and stylist by purchasing a gift card. Gift cards and recommended products are available for purchase on Salon Capri’s website HERE! Or follow them on Instagram HERE.
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Hi buddy,
I just did this myself and it was super easy!! No more trips to the salon for just a cut!! Thank you!!
https://homeplix.com/how-to-cut-your-own-hair/
The Liquor Outlet is located south of Wigwam and north of Blue Diamond Road
on the west side of Rainbow Blvd.
(+) Great selection! I love to come here to get
beers of places I’ve been to on my travels. They have Singha and Chang (Thailand), Peroni (Italy), Beer Lao (Laos), Kirin Ichiban and Asahi (Japan), Guinness and Harp (Ireland), Kronenbourg 1664 (France), Pacifico, Tecate, Corona,
Sol, Modelo, Dos Equis (Mexico).
They even have the Metallica beer (Enter Night) and some of my old
favorites like Stella, Blue Moon, and Heineken.
(+) Easy to access location on Rainbow Blvd. Never had a problem pulling in, getting what I need, and getting out.
(+) Service has been A-ok. One guy was really cool
and personable (older guy) and another guy was kind of just….there.
lol Not terrible or rude, but was kind of running on \ https://sciencealert.com
I have white hair on top and am still brunette on the bottom. I have very light highlights put all throughout to blend the two and have the white read more blonde. The highlights turn VERY brassy, as I am outside alot. The Christophe Robin Baby Blonde mask is wonderful for that, as is their Brightening shampoo . In fact ALL their products are just wonderful. Pricey but wonderful.
My hairdresser and I did a deal – I paid her directly via online banking, and now I’m first in the queue post-lockdown. She needed the money, and I need to be seen to as soon as is possible!
My roots were getting really long with lots of gray – no way could I wait! I ended up ordering from Madison-Reed and was very happy with the results. My hair is soft and shiny, did a good job covering the gray, instructions were very easy to follow and I feel confident enough in the process that I’ll be doing it again in five weeks. The key is to just painting your roots and leaving color on for 40 minutes, then pulling the color through the rest of hair and leaving on for 5 more minutes.
Great product!
I use Madison Reed also and I love it.
This makes me feel better. :) I’m expecting my Madison Reed order any day now…
I think I had posted this on a previous post, but I do just want to say… think real hard about whether you want to cut your husbands or sons hair, unless you are using clippers and doing a full buzz cut. My 17 year old son needed a haircut prior to COVID and he didn’t get one. So then it became a REAL crisis when the barber shops closed! So, he asked me to do it. I have never cut hair. Other than my bangs when I was 5 and I don’t think that counts. I consulted with a hairdresser friend who found me a great you-tube video on how to cut hair with scissors, not clippers. I watched it quite a few times and thought ok, I can do this. My son’s hair is kind of longer on top and sort of floppy so, I reasoned, if I only take off a little bit, what can go wrong? I followed the advice on the video (which is also stated in this post) to do the perimeter first… the very VERY first cut I made above the ear was WAY TOO SHORT. Bad scene. But I continued on. Hair is slippery. And I couldn’t figure out how to hold the scissors and the comb right — the hair was slipping around… my fairly sharp sewing scissors weren’t sharp enough… it didn’t come out HORRIBLE, but it is certainly uneven and just doesn’t look right. It’s very lopsided. I also might have nicked him behind the ear. I think the advice given above to just let it grow out guys, COME ON!!! is probably the best. Take it from me.
This is soooo helpful!! Thanks!
Thank you for this! There is so much info out there from random sources- I appreciate learning tips from someone you know and trust!
Erin – This is a great post ! I am going share with my sister-in-law who needs to cut my brother’s hair and is very nervous about it. I trimmed my own hair last week. I viewed a video on how to cut an A-line bob and figured I was good to go 😄. It actually turned out pretty well. I figured that even if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be a big deal since I don’t see many people right now anyway 😅. Agree about not attempting to permanently dye your own hair. When my daughter was in high school she had a friend’s mom color her hair using a dye from the store. She also had to have color correction done twice to remove all the color, which was very expensive and fried her hair.
Hi Erin, 20 years ago, before moved from of Newton to CT, Gina used to cut and color my hair. How is she???