PURPLETASTIC! My love affair with purple shampoo.

Ok, so the long-awaited purple shampoo entry! What is purple shampoo, how does it work, and why is it so awesome?

Before we answer those questions, we'll need a little background!

DOMINANT PIGMENT

also known as contributing pigment, underlying pigment, or residual pigment, is a key element in determining the color of your hair, and comes into play when lightening your hair either chemically or naturally. Let's take for example someone with dark, black asian hair who wants to be a blonde. When you lighten their hair with lightener (bleach! usually hydrogen peroxide), it doesn't go straight from black to blonde. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), breaks up and oxygen (O2) molecules attack the melanin molecules in your hair responsible for your hair color. There are two types of melanins in your hair, eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is responsible for darker brown and black tones while pheomelanin provides red, yellow, and ginger tones. Anyways, so when you have hydrogren peroxide in your hair it attacks the bigger eumalenin molecules first; they're easier to separate. These molecules break down into oxymelanin, which is similar in tone to phemelanin. What this all means is that your hair lightens progressively, as eumelanin is broken down first then pheomelanin. As the ratio of eumelanin decreases, pheomelanin becomes more apparent and the tone of your hair goes through stages: black -> brown -> red -> red-orange -> gold -> yellow. This can also happen naturally, hair expose to the sun becomes oxidized, and brown hair turns reddish while blonde or white hair turns goldish.

This oxidation, whether natural or chemical, is where purple shampoo comes into play. When your hair is lightened in the salon, it's usually followed with a toner to create a suitable haircolor; no one likes leaving the salon with orangy hair! The toner chosen is highly dependent on the level which the hair is lightened to. Each level of lightness has a different underlying pigment to deal with, and it is toned with a color that will neutralize that. Basically if you looked a color wheel, find the color of the underlying pigment and go directly across and that's the color base to neutralize it with. So a green base will neutralize a red dominant pigment, a blue will neutralize an orange/gold shade, and what will neutralize yellow? PURPLE! The chart sums up everything we've talked about here, showing each level of lightness and it's dominant/neutralizing pigment =)






















So purple shampoo helps blondes and nordic blondes (grey/white!) deal with the natural oxidation that comes along with having very light hair, neutralizing brassy/yellow tones in the hair. I went blonde a few months ago and I love being a blonde but my hair goes yellow fast, it loves warm tones. Usually I don't really mind it so much but I decided to give my boss's purple shampoos a try and see what they'd do to my hair. I use it all the time in the time in the salon and it's always had great results so I had high hopes, and it didn't disappoint. You can see in the picture here what my hair looked like before and after! I used the Greg May Ultra Violet shampoo and conditioner, which deposits purple color pigment into your hair as you wash/condition it! One or two washes with the shampoo, and I left the conditioner in for a few minutes in the shower (you can even use it under heat for even better results), and it toned down all the brassiness in my hair! You can see it's a lot less yellow and more of a cool, wheaty color; more blonde! It's awesome, I love it. Plus, the shampoo is actually a really pretty purple color -> +1billion cool points.

You can buy the Greg May Ultra Violet at the salon or at the online store! http://www.gregmayproducts.com !

Product of the Week! ::

So, in celebration of the launch of the salon's new E-store ( www.gregmayproducts.com ), I'm going to introduce a new feature to this blog today and that is the PRODUCT OF THE WEEK! Very exciting. This week's first product is my favorite product of all time, I'm sure I've mentioned it before:

GREG MAY: SMOOTH OPERATOR

This is by far the best product I've ever worked with; since we first got it in I don't think I've done a single blow-dry without it. It was formulated to be both a leave-in treatment rich in natural, botanical ingredients (chamomile, lemongrass, sage, witch hazel, aloe, and others). You wash your hair and towel dry it then put about a quarter-size amount of it and comb it through your damp hair before you blow dry it. It's best used with heat; the more you use it with heat the better your hair will feel! But you can use it without heat as well, I put a bit in my hair while its wet then just let it air dry cause I don't blow dry my hair usually. It's also a smoothing balm, and it's AMAZING for people with frizzy hair. But no matter what texture your hair is it'll leave your hair feeling noticeably smooth and shiny. In the salon this product is our best-selling styling product and it basically sells yourself, all I have to do is have my clients feel their hair after it's blowdried with this stuff and you're hooked!

The best thing about this product though is that the more we used it the more surprises it had! Although originally formulated for frizzy hair to smooth it out, every single type of hair we used on it benefitted from it. And although smoothing products are not meant for volume, Smooth Operator doesn't inhibit the body of your hair.


This and all future products of the week can be bought at Greg May Hair Architects (124 Cumberland, Toronto, ON, m5r 1a6) or at our new e-salon http://www.gregmayproducts.com

Fun stuff!

Ok, so I apologize for the gap between the last entry and this one; salon life has been crazy this week! But I've gotten up to some fun hair over the past week or so and wanted to share some:


So this is one of my best friends Tania and she had a photoshoot a couple weeks ago. The cut/color hasn't been done in a little while but it was a fun little style. Just barrel-curled with a big curling iron, pinned up and shook loose! Very simple, maybe I'll make a tutorial video soon showing how to do it at home. She's got great hair and makes anything I do to it look good!














This is Alayna, I did her hair for a catalogue shoot last weekend with the fabulous Angela Y. Martin . I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with her hair until she was sitting in my chair. I had the flat iron in my hand and started playing with it and was loving what I was getting, so I did that all through the back and sides and then left a piece in the front smoother kinda blending back. It ended up being my favorite style I did that day!






















I had Monday off this week and what did I do? I ended up in the salon anyways and some fun with a couple of my friends, Grace (left) and Karyn (right). Grace had stripped all her color out in Cuba. We had already prelightened out diagonal straps on each side so we just top-coated her whole head with my favorite PM Shines color "Ruby Slippers" and trimmed up her bob. For Karyn she wanted somethign with a bit more punch so I prelightened a big triangle on top of her head and used Paul Mitchell INKWORKS to color it that bright red color. INKWORKS is a vegetable-dye that Paul Mitchell has that's the best way to get nice vibrant colors =)