Sunday, March 1, 2015

Balmain Certified

In the beauty industry today, where it seems the possibilities are only as limited as your imagination, extensions are just another tool of the trade to enhance one's outer beauty.

For those who are in touch with the media, many celebrities over the years have worn wigs, toupees and hair extensions to accentuate a certain style, to wow their audience at an award ceremony and to eliminate the long wait for hair to grow out naturally thus having a feeling of instant gratification with longer, more luscious, full head of hair. When it comes to the possibilities offered to us by the beauty industry, we no longer have to accept the fact that our hair is too fine and flat to achieve the look we want, or perhaps your hair grows slower than others, whichever the dilemma extensions are quick and easy, so you can feel like Pamela Anderson running down the beach with wavy long locks of sexiness. No need for countless medicines and magic remedies, a full head of extensions can be put in sometimes under less than 40 minutes and you can leave the salon feeling like a new person. Where else than none other the Cinta Aveda Institute located in the heart of San Francisco, to host a Balmain workshop. Balmain, an established well-known Parisian brand that started out in the 1940's as a respected fashion house, has extended the brand, starting out with wigs and toupees as well as extensions as early as the 1960's, evolving into what it is today: a glamorous haute couture clothing line as well as a distributer for 100% human hair originating from India and China serving celebrities and the girl next door.


At the Balmain extension class held at Cinta Aveda, Julie Johnson, an entrepreneurial woman who has traveled all over the world, from visiting Paris, France to meet with official representatives from Balmain where classes and demos are held, to Holland where the headquarters are located and has obtained the title of master trainer for the United States. She begins the class by informing us on the history of the brand as well as here the hair originates from and how her own business grew. Julie and her team then start demos on the different hair extensions that Balmian offers and what their purpose are, as each client might need different systems to achieve the look they desire. Julie and her assistants check in with every one of us students as we learn about the brand and how to apply their line of extensions.

Not only a fun class to attend as it sheds light upon the world of extensions brought to you by Balmain, but it is empowering to know that we can always further our business if we are ambitious enough to succeed in the industry. The class ended with everyone excited to start talking about extensions and hopefully start practicing what we learned and building a loyal clientele of extension "lifers".

Saturday, February 28, 2015

New at Cinta Aveda


Here at the Cinta Aveda Institute, we are very excited to announce the newest addition to our masque lineup: the Smooth Infusion Masque! I highly recommend the smooth infusion line for all hair types. Personally speaking, my fine hair tends to get a little rough on the ends as this dry winter weather still rolls onward but I don't want a product that will weigh down my already flat and non-voluminous strands. The smooth infusion shampoo and conditioner or the styling cream smooth infusion glossing straightener (just a dime size on towel-dry ends will do for you fine hair types!) fixes my tresses up nicely for a soft to the touch feel. The smooth infusion masque that has finally graced us with its arrival however, is less heavy than our regular go to Damage Remedy Masque but nonetheless still packs a punch in the combat against gnarly ends. In need of a quick fix? For only an add on of $10 come by and get your smooth infusion fix!


  All proceeds from our express treatment services, such as the damage remedy or smooth infusion masque goes towards the non-profit Clean Water Fund organization. Not only a local fund right in your backyard fellow San Franciscans, but also a great cause!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Treatment Spotlight

Damage Remedy Treatment 


 For only an extra add-on of $10, the Cinta Aveda Institute offers a great express damage treatment for those on the go who are looking for a quick fix, which includes a fortifying spray and mask. Especially during these harsh winter months when our skin and hair feels dry to the touch and lacking in moisture. The damage remedy treatment won't only get your lifeless tresses back to the living! but also to prevent further breakage and that icky straw-like feel. When I offer an express treatment to my guests, I like to give them the full experience as if they were coming in for a haircut. I like to begin with the damage remedy shampoo, massaging and working the product into the hair and scalp area. After a quick rinse, Ill towel dry the hair as to avoid diluting the next product that I will apply. This now calls for our next step which is the damage remedy spray. I like to massage this product into the hair, applying a firm massage technique to the ends. Finally we go in with the damage remedy intensive restricting treatment, which is a moisturizer containing quinoa protein which penetrates the hair shaft and repairs damage from within. Philodendron and barley seals in moisture in the hair and a mixture of castor, jojoba and meadow foam seed oils smooth out the hairs surface.

 I like to leave the product in between 5-10 minutes with a shower cap on the guests head to lock in moisture and let the product get to work. After rinsing the treatment out, a smooth and sleek blow-dry gives that finishing touch for an all day luscious look. You leave feeling refreshed and ready to whip that hair around with confidence.


I recommend coming in for a damage remedy treatment every other week to keep hair healthy and happy in between hair trim visits. 

 Come in today for a quick fix damage remedy treatment during your lunch break or before a night out on the town!

Our location is :
305 Kearney street, 3rd floor salon, 94108 San Francisco, California.

Make an appointment at 415-989-4400 or pass by our store today and have a peek at whats cooking!

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Transformations

Check out what I looked like in the beginning of cosmetology school and now, yikes!













Aveda and the crawling stages

Having secretly had a thing for hairstyling since a young girl, my hair has gone from 2 inches to 16 inches, blond to black and everything in between, curly to straight. Now, I understand you might be thinking that all females are interested in hair--and are fickle by nature wanting "that something" they don't have, be it different texture to different color, but allow me to express the sheer excitement I feel when someone sits down in my chair and I get to perform an Aveda ritual of renewal on them. Don't get me wrong, Im no creeper willing to massage anyones neck and shoulders, and despite the awkwardness at first, making a client feel comfortable as well as happy when they leave makes me satisfied in return. Coming to Aveda, I entered the premises quite perplexed, curious and a tad nervous. Was I meant for this? Will I stick with it? The introduction phase definitely won me over, the camaraderie you feel with your classmates is like no other you'll ever have experienced previously. Located in the heart of San Francisco, the Cinta Aveda Institute is surrounded by plenty of inspiration and possible clients buzzing around you keeping you on the edge of your seat and craving more. And at first you may be shy, or hesitant to approach strangers to be your subject matter, but don't be! The great thing about hairstyling is it never goes out of business, even in a recession, people wanna look good and you offering a service courtesy of the Institute? Sounds legit and very appealing to most people. According to google, San Francisco has over $825,863 humans populating the city, probably 95% of those people running around with a style of hair they loathe but are clueless and are desperately seeking for that special person (could be you!) to coif that pomp the way they want it or curl those tresses with a perm styled the way they liked it back in 1986. Listening is key, and with a background in customer service which will most definitely aid you in the cosmetology world, you'll come to find that most clients are unsatisfied because their hairstylist had too much wax in their ears that needed to be unclogged. Now not to knock all hairstylists in that way, because some clients may be those indecisive wishy washy characters (used to be me, quite honestly) who want everything and nothing but the kitchen sink. So who knows how to find out what they want if they don't even know? Its up to you my friend, to chisel away at that crusty exterior to find the warm and fuzzy insides of what this client is truly about. Hairstylists the new psychiatrists? If you ask me, I would like to say that hairstylists are the original gangsters of psychiatry, similar to bartenders, who choose to listen to that poor slob pouring his heart out about how he missed the last episode of The Walking Dead and doesn't realize he can buy the DVD box set on Amazon. Well without the bartenders expert advice about purchasing DVD's on Amazon, this poor slob might've never found out the simple solution to his problem. As a stylist our expert advice is to educate those on how to get great hair! (Meeting the boundaries of their hair type and structure of course). Instead of saying "no, we can't do that" to a customer, keep in mind you could say something like "ill see what i can do" as the prospect of a perhaps slightly modified dream (that dream hairdo) coming true sounds hopeful. We sell the hope of dreams coming true you know!


The Fascination Begins

All of us in beauty school come from different routes all converging into one. It doesn't matter where you come from but where you are now and what you're doing with your time in the present. The cosmetology program at the Cinta Aveda Institute has students from every walk of life, age and cultural background all under one roof and for the same reason that we all are quite obsessed with hair. Being in such an awesome lively unusual city of San Francisco where you may find many different tastes in style be it square to edgey to playing it safe.

When you start, you know you are investing your time (1600 hours) and money (more or less $25,000) into the cosmetology program because somehow at some point in your life you became interested in doing hair. It really doesn't matter, whether you liked torturing your baby sister holding her down to cut her hair (sounds dangerous) or experimented on your own tresses by bleaching the hell out of them and then dying it green and then watching it slowly fall off your scalp. After you have mastered the baby steps such as holding a blowdryer correctly (yes it feels awkward at first) and finding the courage to snip off more than an inch with your new "shears" (not scissors) from your beloved dollhead which seems to become an extension of your own fashion sense (mine has black nail polish lips and funky 'dos on the regular), then you're ready to take on the human race. However it all sounds short and sweet, but boy is that not true.

I am currently 1100 hours in. At first it went by slowly, with my short attention span that has plagued me throughout my life, the theoretical part needed some extra attention especially when it comes to safety of the client and hygiene standadrds one needs to uphold and surprisingly all this I found quite interesting, whereas back in the day trying to keep my eyes open during Physics and Chemistry was a painfully difficult task. Once you start taking clients a whole new world opens up to you and its then that you realize if you are meant to do hair or..if its just not your thing. Here are a few images I took of the cuts and color I have done.

Mens hair cut, fade with pomp
Bangs and Long Layers


Concave Graduation with a backwards flow and face framing