Serious Staff Meeting and Other Hard Times at Adorn

Adorn Salon had a staff meeting over the weekend, which is always such hard work.

First, we have to eat...

Then we had to listen to this woman Rebecca brought in to give us a free quote on our health care...

Ladies and gentlemen, the lovely and very informative, Marisa Blake:

(obviously, not the best picture, but it's hard to take photos and absorb healthcare information at the same time)

This is a photo of Marisa and Rebecca that I like...

you know, just being serious and stoic.

The Big Bosslady came in at one point during the meeting, which was very intimidating...

She quickly laid down the law...

Finally, we all just cried into our biscuits and gravy from Table, mimosas, and coffee from Izzy's all provided by Rebecca.

Yeah...It sure is hard to work at Adorn.

Before and After By Emily Rexford

"My son is a photographer"
"Oh, so I bet he makes you do this a lot."
"Yeah..."

This woman had been growing out her gray hair for 10 years before she decided to change up her color today. We are so glad she came to us! We love the new look!

Foils, Ombre, and Balayage Broken Down

Alright, we all have an idea of what it means to get highlights, but maybe you get confused when you hear the terms balayage, ombre, full highlight, or partial highlight. We decided to take a minute to clear up some key differences so that you might have an easier time deciphering the madness of hair color.

Let's start with traditional highlights:

Highlights are created when the stylist uses a comb to separate sections of hair which are painted onto foil which is then folded up and left to process. This gives the stylist the most control over where the color goes and how much of an impact you will see. Plus, it leaves you with a consistant, neat looking color result. Also, it frees up the stylist to use as many colors as they want without worrying about the colors bleeding together, which can lead to amazing dimensions.

As a quick note, and for the sake of clearing up some confusion, I would like to talk about the difference between a full highlight and a partial highlight. A partial highlight, highlights the parts of the hair the sun would hit, this leave the most natural effect. However, if you are going several shades lighter than your original hair color, you might opt for a full highlight which, as the name implies, is applied to the full head of hair...in its entirety...leaving none behind in the dark, as it were. 

Ombre hair color has recently hit an all-time peak in fashion. It seems like you can spit without hitting someone with an ombre. Ombre is when the hair is drastically, or moderately, lightened towards the ends. The effect can be anything from beachy: 

to kind of punk rock:

to grown out roots: 

Balayage haircolor has been broken down on this blog once before when I interviewed Emily Rexford.  I'll quote her here: 

"My favorite highlighting technique is Balayage - it's a free-form style of highlights where the color is painted on individual sections (of hair) that give the most dimension and depth. The best part about it is you can make it as soft as a whisper or as loud as a shout, and everywhere in between."

This technique gives the stylist a lot of creative freedom in placement as well as the amount of impact they would like to have. It's very similar in characteristics to the ombre in the way of being low-maintenance color that gives you the look of being distinctively "sun-kissed". 

The drawbacks can be that because the color is painted on, if the stylist isn't careful, the color can bleed onto the rest of the hair leaving little 'explosions' of color that no one wants, but when done right can look naturally effortless and classy. 

We hope this helps! Happy coloring!

Product review: C-System & Deva Curl

Product review:  C-System & Deva Curl 
By Brianna Cross
          

          My name is Brianna Cross, I am 16 and just started working at adorn a few days ago. I have short, fine, multiracial, tight, curly hair. The biggest problem I find I have with my hair is over-drying. My hair tends to lose moisture and frizz-out, turning into a big 70's afro. While I like the afro, I don't appreciate the coarseness and needed a way to tame my funky hair. My coworker and I decided to do a product review for curly hair. We first tried the Mop C-system Curl Refreshing Spray.

You spray this product on damp hair to minimize frizz and on dry hair to revive curls. While the produce smelled fresh and clean and made my hair soft, it didn't define my curls that well. I've come to the conclusion the if your hair has looser or less coarse hair the product would work better, but on short, tight, dry curls it doesn't provide enough moisture to work to its highest degree.

         The second product we used was a product line by the name of Deva Curl. I loved this product line, the entire line is 100% sulfate free (sulfates tend to dry hair). The shampoo (no-poo) smelled amazing, it had a relaxing mint smell. Not only did it smell great, the shampoo made my hair incredibly soft even before we put conditioner in (and in my opinion is a great sign the line is good for your hair). The conditioner itself was an amazing moisturizer, making my curls bounce and become soft, it smelled sweet. The third part of this line was the styling cream. Just like the C-system Curl Refreshing Spray it can be used on damp hair for "targeting denser curls for ultimate conditioning" and on dry hair for individual curl definition. This product also smelled as sweet as candy and really made my curls big and pronounced. My hair feels soft to the touch and didn't become hard like most styling creams tend to do once they're dry. I believe that for my hair type the Deva Curl line is perfect, it provides moister and prevents frizz.

Holiday Hair Problems

The worst part about cold weather is the effect is has on our hair and skin. Adorn is going to feature and couple solution to common hair and skin problems in the next couple of weeks, but we want to hear from YOU! What problems do your hair and skin face in the winter months? We will tackle those issues and try and post about possible solutions. HELP US HELP YOU!

In case you missed it! Endless Deals For The Holidays!

Endless Deals For The Holidays Dear lovely and valued Adorn client, Happy Holidays!! As our gift to you, we have decided to offer countless deals on our products! 50% off all Broo products! made locally out of Highland Brewing Company's handcrafted beer, this shampoo and conditioner combo is bound to leave you wanting more. As they say on their website: "Lushes?No, Luscious!" broo.com 50% off Mineral Fusion Makeup Talc free, natural makeup that allows your skin to breathe. It blends easily, we enjoyed this line, but we have to decided to retire it. Get it while you still can!mineralfusion.com 10% off Level Naturals This is, hands down, our favorite skin care line. Handmade by Rebecca Hecht's brother in L.A. the company takes a lot of time to make sure that the quality of products they deliver go above and beyond. levelnaturals.com 50% off Davines 'Wizards' line Davines is replacing their 'Wizards' line with a brand new line of products, so it's out with the old and in with the new. We adore this line, but we're excited to see what they are coming up with next! davines.com 10% off Gift Certificates!!! C'mon, that's just like free money!  100% Free Hugs! just ask! Davines Launches New Line 'More Inside' THE NEW STYLING RANGE, THE VALUE OF A CRAFTSMANSHIP APPROACH, THE QUALITY OF FORMULATIONS CONCEIVED TO SHAPE THE CREATIVE EXPRESSION more inside

Client Feature: Scot Quaranda! Working with Dogwood Alliance to help save our forests

In past years, Adorn has had the opportunity to help Dogwood Alliance in their efforts to preserve our forests by involving our proactive clients (Way to go, guys!). We also get to stay informed on the issues surrounding our forests during the times that Dogwood Alliance's Campaign Director, Scot Quaranda, comes in to get his hair cut by Amy Grove, but we wanted to know more - we always want to know more! Scot agreed to an Adorn exclusive interview so we could really talk about this amazing organization and all that it has done, and is doing, to save our forests and improve our world.

Scot Quaranda

Scot explains how Dogwood Alliance originally got involved with Adorn:
Scot: The first time we did a project with Adorn was when we realized that health and beauty companies, like Unilever and Procter and Gamble, who make a lot of the products that you buy at drugstores, were using a lot of packaging. We were working to get those companies to change; to use more recycled paper, to use less packaging overall, to really reduce, and to make sure that everything else that was used in the packaging was done in a better way. So, that's why we first worked with Adorn. Then we realized that the number one [culprit of overuse] is actually fast food packaging.

Adorn was able to help Dogwood Alliance with their campaign to encourage KFC to change their practices towards packaging by having a box of postcards clients could sign that were eventually sent to the CEOs of KFC. There was also a pretty amazing kid named Cole involved in this campaign. He helped make a huge impact, you can watch a video about him here.

Here are some examples of the creative media strategies used during the campaign:

On Dogwood Alliance's triumph, Scot explains:
Scot: We first worked with McDonald's and convinced McDonald's to dramatically change their practices around packaging by increasing their recycled content and making sure there is no endangered forest in their packaging. The kind of big hold out was KFC - KFC owns Taco Bell and Pizza hut, they're a big signature company. We knew if we could move KFC, we could move anyone. 

Dogwood Alliance has had success in greatly influencing the companies they have stood up against. They have also drawn a lot of attention to the importance of preserving our forests. It has been that way since the beginning. Just a mere four years after they originated in 1996, there was a Southern Forest Resource Assessment to look at the impact that the paper industry was having on southern forests. This was the first ever assessment done in the south and it was a direct result of the effort of the members of Dogwood Alliance. This assessment opened the door to all of the changes that Dogwood Alliance continued to make over the years. From transforming the way that companies like Staples and Office Depot treat their paper production to traveling all the way to Europe to tackle Biomass issues. 

"Dogwood Alliance is about the people that make up our network," Scot says. "It's basically mobilizing the voices of the people of the region in order to make an impact," he adds. Making an impact is what they have done. These are the people that transformed the way that Staples operates around paper by writing letters, attending shareholders meetings, sending emails, and having days of action. One day they had over 200 protests in different Staples around the country. After that Office Depot and Office Max were quick to follow Staples' lead, not wanting to be outdone by their competitor.

The projects Dogwood Alliance is working on today:
The Carbon Canopy Project:
The basic idea is that 90% of the forests in the south are privately owned so basically, the future of our forests lies in the hands of literally thousands of small, private landowners and I think most of them want to do the right thing and manage them well or not manage them at all - depending on what their individual goals are. There's a lot of pressure to cut or to develop what we wanted to do is find a way where big companies who are buying those products from those forests actually have a way to invest in them being managed better. In this case, it was Staples and Interface Carpets who bought carbon credits from these forests as a way to pay those landowners to set aside the best parts of those lands to make sure that they're never cut and then make sure that the rest are managed to the highest standards of the forest stewardship council, which has a lighter touch on the land than the average forestry. They are able to measure, basically model, how much carbon will be stored in the landscape over a 3 year period. 

Biomass:
The new push is for big utilities to burn forests for electricity and the craziest part about it right now is that we're not doing so much of that in the U.S., but it's actually Europe that's buying most of our forests to burn. Basically, clear-cutting our forests, turning them into wood-pellets, sending them on big container ships, and shipping them over to Europe so that they can burn them in their mega-power plants. I went to Europe, I went to the UK, because the UK is the leading country that is doing that right now to meet with the department of energy and climate change. Then I went to Brussels to lobby the commissioner on climate change and the commissioner on the environment for all of Europe, as well as, met with a bunch of member of European parliament. 

Do you think the trip was successful?
Totally successful. I think we busted a lot of myths about, you know, people think everything is sustainable and certified with no problems. Now they know that there is a real impact from what they're doing and I think that bodes well for future policies that they'll send that hopefully will limit the amount that they're buying rather than dramatically increase like it's projected to.


For more information about Dogwood Alliance and how you can get involved, visit them at their website: www.dogwoodalliance.org