Nail and Spa Sakura’s Chic Nail Look for American Salon

The beautiful bejeweled nail look that graced American Salon’s new last page column, Final Cut, in our January issue was created exclusively for us by Nail and Spa Sakura, which has two locations in New York City. The nail spa uses Calgel, an odorless gel that hardens with the use of UV light, to create distinctive designs that last two to three weeks and protect the natural nail. The system comes with dozens of colors that can be custom-blended to create designs such as French manicures, reverse French, animal prints, fades and polka dots, with the ability to add glitter, holograms and rhinestones, in addition to hand-painted motifs. Sakura offers classes on the service for nail techs in English, Japanese and Korean. Here’s a basic description of how it works:

Nails are first prepped by filing the surface and pushing down the cuticles. Nails are then wiped clean so no residue remains on the surface. After each coat of Calgel, nails are exposed to UV light for three minutes to set the gel.

Finally, nails are painted with a standard clear topcoat polish to enhance the shine.

Photography: Babak (Final Cut). Nails: Junko Uyama for Nail and Spa Sakura

Nail and Spa Sakura’s Chic Nail Look for American Salon

The beautiful bejeweled nail look that graced American Salon’s new last page column, Final Cut, in our January issue was created exclusively for us by Nail and Spa Sakura, which has two locations in New York City. The nail spa uses Calgel, an odorless gel that hardens with the use of UV light, to create distinctive designs that last two to three weeks and protect the natural nail. The system comes with dozens of colors that can be custom-blended to create designs such as French manicures, reverse French, animal prints, fades and polka dots, with the ability to add glitter, holograms and rhinestones, in addition to hand-painted motifs. Sakura offers classes on the service for nail techs in English, Japanese and Korean. Here’s a basic description of how it works:

Nails are first prepped by filing the surface and pushing down the cuticles. Nails are then wiped clean so no residue remains on the surface. After each coat of Calgel, nails are exposed to UV light for three minutes to set the gel.

Finally, nails are painted with a standard clear topcoat polish to enhance the shine.

Photography: Babak (Final Cut). Nails: Junko Uyama for Nail and Spa Sakura

Raquel Welch Gets Wiggy With American Salon

For our new Viewpoint column in the January issue, I had the pleasure of interviewing actress Raquel Welch about the Corporate Impact Award the Raquel Welch Wig Collection and parent company HairUWear received recently from the American Cancer Society for their contribution of more than $1 million worth of wigs. (The wigs have been distributed to women who are cancer patients nationwide with the aim of helping them cope with their disease and achieve a better quality of life.) Here, Raquel shares how she got involved in wig-making and provides tips both stylists and clients can use for styling wigs.

Q: What made you decide to create your own wig line?

A: I didn’t really have the idea myself. As most actresses or people who work in fashion know, hairpieces, wigs and extensions are kind of an everyday thing. When you’re changing character or you’re on to the next thing, so many times you’ve had wig products to help you. [HairUWear] came to me and said they would like me to be involved in a wig line. I said that I never thought about it before, but I do wear a lot of wigs professionally, onstage, in my movies and sometimes for my appearances, so why not? I think it’s a good thing to have wigs more accessible to a cross-section of your average women so that they too can have these beauty aids to play with.

I also said I had never thought of wigs commercially before because I felt like they had gotten so dated-looking and didn’t seem to be very fashion forward. I said I thought we should style our wigs so that they’re not too “fantasy,” but still allow women to get into the glamour mode when they want to. I’m very hands-on. I have a stylist who works with me closely on the wig line who I take tear sheets to of my favorite hairstyles of the moment to recreate. I’ll say things like, “Don’t you love this Rianna look, isn’t that fun?” And he’ll say, “Oh yeah, we can do that.” So we do many contemporary styles, but also some for ladies who don’t want to make as much of a cutting-edge fashion statement. But I think more and more women are wearing wigs now, and younger and younger women, too.

Q: How many wigs do you own and how often do you change your style?

A: Oh gosh, I couldn’t even count them—there’s so, so many. I change my wigs quite often because there are so many fabulous new ones. We have the three-quarter falls, we have the hair extensions that are the clip-in straight strips and then HairUWear also makes Great Lengths, which is one of the premium individual bonded hair extensions that are used in the business. Then you have short wigs and blonde wigs and reddish wigs and dark wigs, long wigs and medium-length wigs. I was just upstairs playing around with the idea of wearing a kind of deconstructed shag, sort of very Klute-looking, but it’s not as perfectly quaffed. There are really lot’s of fun, youthful and convenient styles that you can throw into your suitcase and take with you or put on when you’re in a pinch.

What’s really exciting lately are the new lace-front wigs, which have a piece of hair lace—a very fine mesh—that comes right ahead of your hairline so that you don’t have to wear your hair forward to cover the where the wig starts. It really looks like the hair is growing right out of your head. It’s pretty amazing.

Q: Do you have any tips for women and stylists when if comes to wearing and styling wigs?

A: I think even if you buy a wig and it looks pretty darn good on you from the get-go, it’s very helpful for women to take their wigs to their stylist and ask them to just give it a dusting, in other words, take minuscule amounts of hair off the wig to help frame the face and balance everything. It’s impossible to buy a wig that’s produced for thousands of people and have it just exactly the way you want it. I think it’s important that stylists are able to do this. Of course, you have to keep in mind that it’s not going to grow back, so you have to do it judiciously.

One styling trick I use to help frame the face and keep my style from looking “wiggy” is to pull the front of my hairline out from underneath the wig in strategic places. Just use a little rattail comb with a metal tip on it. Because there’s more than one color in the hair that’s in the wig, it usually blends right in. Then if the wind blows or you throw your head back, you’re free to move around and you don’t have a telltale “wig helmet” on that going to be suddenly revealed and blow the whole image! You’d be surprised how often that works. I can get a way with it almost without exception.

Happy Holidays from American Salon

All of us here at American Salon want to wish our readers a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year. We look forward to being your source for beauty news and happenings again in 2010!

Unite Eurotherapy Looks Back on 2009

Unite's 2010 ad campaign

New haircare line Unite Eurotherapy has put together an online retrospective of its favorite happenings from 2009. Highlights of the fast-growing brand’s first year include fashion shows and events, celebrity fans, product launches, international presentations, courses at their San Diego academy and more. Check it out at uniteeurotherapy.com.

Celebs—and Salons—Get the Hint

The latest drink showing up in celebrity’s hands is Hint, pure water that’s accented with just a hint of natural flavors—without any sugar or artificial sweeteners. Famous fans include Miley Cyrus, Lauren Conrad from MTV’s The Hills, AnnaLynne McCord from 90210 and Modern Family’s Julie Bowen.

Hint is also making a splash at top salons across the country; it’s stocked at VIP hotspots including Oscar Blandi, Ted Gibson, Rita Hazan, Patrick Melville, Sally Hershberger and Warren-Tricomi.

Celebs—and Salons—Get the Hint

The latest drink showing up in celebrity’s hands is Hint, pure water that’s accented with just a hint of natural flavors—without any sugar or artificial sweeteners. Famous fans include Miley Cyrus, Lauren Conrad from MTV’s The Hills, AnnaLynne McCord from 90210 and Modern Family’s Julie Bowen.

Hint is also making a splash at top salons across the country; it’s stocked at VIP hotspots including Oscar Blandi, Ted Gibson, Rita Hazan, Patrick Melville, Sally Hershberger and Warren-Tricomi.

Hanna Compton: Week 15

I love the holidays! I’ve really been in the spirit lately, especially at school. We’ve had lots of fun holiday theme days, like red and green day and tacky sweater day. They’ve been playing the christmas music and we’ve been realllly busy with lots of clients who want to look good for the holidays. My friend Rebekah and I have been spending the past few days selling Christmas Grams and tickets for Skate Night, along witht he help of Student Council. I sold soooo many christmas grams, I’m really happy. A lot of people will be getting cookies and cupcakes on Wednesday at our Christmas Party. I’m actually baking the cookies right now. I volunteered to make all the cookies for the Christmas Grams, so now I have about sixty cookies laid out on my table that I’m cooling so I can frost them. My house smells delicious!

We’ve also added another amazing new team member to our school. Her name is Nico and she’s been working at the San Diego school for over 4 years. She also works at Robert Cromeans salon a couple times a month. She’s a fabulous hair stylist and educator who specializes in color. I’m so stoked that we could have her at my school to educate us and help us along on our journey.

Also, don’t forget to follow me on twitter so you can get daily updates of what I’m doing in school. And check me out in Aerican Salon magazine every month!   www.twitter.com/hanna_compton

I hope everyone has a happy holiday!

Hanna Compton

Scientists Discover “Curly Hair Gene”

Scientists at Australia’s Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have discovered that a certain gene called the trichohyalin gene is mainly responsible for creating curls. Professor Nick Martin, head of the QIMR Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory and author of the research, says that the variation in this gene determines the straightness or curliness of hair. Another fact to come out of the study, which appears in the latest edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, is that the chances of inheriting curling hair is around 90 percent!

With this new genetic knowledge, Professor Martin says that it may be possible to come up with a pill to make hair straighter. “Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly,” said Martin, who revealed that he has a meeting with a major cosmetics company planned for January.

Read the Telegraph article for more details on the study.

John Allan on the Importance of In-Salon Education

In 1979, I sold my Camaro and decided to move to Paris to learn about the hair industry in Europe. There, as part of the training team at Jean Louis David, I experienced the dynamics of a successful staff and the importance of education on the floor amongst stylists. Today, it seems that most salons depend on outside support to educate their staff and their clients, usually through distributors, product lines or a point system. What I believe is most important is to empower the individual salons and the owners, creating a structure inside the salon that breeds motivation, inspiration and loyalty. When the foundation—YOU, the salon owner/stylist—is trained to teach as I was with Jean Louis David, education becomes part of the core business structure.

A year later, back in New York, I developed an educational round-table in the JLD 57th Street salon. The forum focused on hiring staff, retraining employees, and learning how to rotate in fresh new stylists from Jean Louis David studio each season. We established a training structure and paired internationally trained staff members with stylists who were shampooing for the first time; this motivated everyone. What we were doing is similar to a baseball farm team—we were developing future stars.

The loyalty that develops when you teach someone is amazing. When you empower an employee and show them how to earn money and succeed in the industry, they will show their gratitude with loyalty. Through the years, I have run into people that are still working at their first salons because that is where they learned to grow and succeed. Being able to educate your own staff and sharing knowledge with one another has proven to be a cost-saver and team-builder. I use my company as an example because it’s proven successful. I have always personally trained my staff and encouraged them to share ideas with one another. As for the partners that come to my studio to train with me, I make sure that they are equipped with the skills to train their own staff, it’s an organically growing process. You can see now how education within the salon is beneficial to inspire creativity and grow a lasting business.

Now, I’ve always said that the men’s segment is an underserved category in the salon industry, which is what inspired me to launch our Core Cutting Foundation DVD (see more on the DVD in the January issue of American Salon), for cutting men’s hair. I’ve built my business by focusing on men, and if I can teach others the approach to men’s grooming—which includes core cutting techniques and retail restoration—then I can help them grow their business, too, and they in turn can educate their stylists, once again, empowering the salon and putting success back into their hands. I urge people to look seriously at this side of their business. Setting up an educational structure inside the salons and motivating existing stylists to take on the responsibility of training new people will keep the staff engaged while drawing in prospective employees who will want to work for you because they see a future and realize their opportunities go beyond sweeping hair off the floor for the next two years.  Growth and promise are very encouraging job descriptions.

For me, education is the focus entering into 2010. To be able to give the strength and power to the owners of salons and to create this type of attitude and progression in their place will help grow their business. To learn more or to discuss education, email me at ja@johnallans.com.

John Allan has been a pioneer in the men’s grooming industry for more than
20 years, creating renowned luxury destinations for men that combine the
atmosphere of a private club with a full grooming outpost. Along with his
men’s clubs—there are several in New York and a new club in Chicago—John
Allan also has an award-winning product line that offers everything from
shave products to hair and skin care. John Allan is now distributing his
products at salons throughout the country and certifying stylists in his
cutting methods and business-building techniques. John Allan’s THE FOUNDATION Studio Session 01 DVD is available for purchase through johnallans.com.