Portland, Oregon salon and makers of the Hickox hair care line
We recently discovered that the contact form on our main web site has not been working since the end of October. We sincerely apologize if you sent us an email using our web site contact form and did not receive a response. We are working on this problem and will have it repair soon.
In the meantime, please feel free t contact us directly by email at info [at] hickoxstudio.com or by phone at 503-227-2664.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
-The Hickox team
Hickox Studio is happy to announce a week long, store wide sale where you can find your favorite Hickox products or even a new favorite for 25% off retail prices. This sale is our way of saying thank you to BellaSugar.com for introducing us to their loyal readers in a great write up earlier this year.
To take advantage of this rare, limited time opportunity to save 25% off of your entire purchase of premium hair care products, head on over to our online store before the sale ends on July 13th.
My family has had salons as long as I can remember. My father made sure to hold his salons up to the highest standards and in doing so was able to pioneer a lot of things that made salon life what it is today. It was these high standards that allowed his salon to be accepted into the most elite hair organization in the world. Becoming a part of Intercoiffure put us around the “best of the best” and allowed us to learn from them. We learned what product lines these salons were using, which ones were the most successful and which ones worked the best. Ultimately this lead us to create our own product line about 12 years ago.
We have used and sold all of the best lines in our salon and after using them for some time we focused on the best products from each and enhanced them to do more of what we wanted them to do. In some cases we would combine the aspects of a couple of great products to create a “super” product. We then use the products exclusively in our salon, on our clients over and over to fine tune them until they are perfect in our minds. Finally after 12 years of sampling, creating and testing we have a line that lives up to the high standards that my father instilled in our salons so many years ago.
It is a line that isn’t full of wild sales pitches, isn’t huge, but rather a line that is ruthlessly efficient and just large enough to not be confusing. It has recently been getting some national attention and we have been receiving inquiries from other salons about selling our line. We are pleased to announce that as of last month you can now find Hickox products in southwest Washington at Nico Bella Salon. We are diligently evaluating other opportunities and will be expanding soon. So look for us at your favorite salon in the near future!
I was contacted recently by Marie Claire Magazine for an article that they are writing about current hair color trends. The question was what Celebrity hair colors are most popular right now? I would say that right now we aren’t seeing an overwhelming demand for any one color in particular. However there are a couple of things that we have noticed, which I believe are a result of a larger trend.
We are noticing color trending towards a much more natural appearance. To support that theory, we’ve seen a transition from white or platinum blonds to honey or warm tones. These tones have a tendency to look more natural, even when coupled with platinum or white tones on the same head. The other transition, and probably my favorite is what we like to refer to as “tone on tone” color. This is when you add highlights or lowlights to hair that is only a shade or so lighter or darker than the base color. For instance, imagine that you have brown hair that has never been colored. If we were to add highlights to your hair that were just one shade lighter than your natural color, we would call that “tone on tone”.
There are a few advantages. First off it looks natural while still giving the hair dimension, which is an important way to complement haircuts involving layers. Another advantage is that because the base color and the highlights/lowlights are so close in color there is almost no grow out line, which dramatically cuts down on maintenance. This kind of color can be made more or less dramatic by how thick or fine you make the highlights.
Below is a great example of “tone on tone” color. Give this a try next time you need a change!
lor.
So Spring/Summer is coming up and that means weddings! I have seen a lot of styles that work well and some not so well. The number one thing that I always say about getting ready for your big day is this: “As a bride your natural beauty should simply be enhanced.” This means that instead of looking like a completely different person, you should magnify your own beauty while still looking natural. How does this work? First you need to pick your perfect dress. Then decide if you want to wear your hair up or down. After these decisions are made you can start on putting everything together. If you decide to wear your hair up make sure that it looks natural. This means that stuffing your hair into some overly contrived prom nightmare is not an option. The problem here is that they can take away from the rest of the look. You want to wear your hair up in a way that looks like you would on any other day, just a lot more polished. If you wear it down, the same rule applies. The point is to make every part of the look (ie. Hair, makeup, dress, jewelry, etc) look elegant by themselves while at the same time not taking away from the others. When you walk down the aisle you don’t want people to say “Wow, look at her dress” or “look at her hair.” Your goal is to have them say “She looks STUNNING!”
Finally, I have included a photo below that I got from a website that does wedding photography. I am not sure who the stylists were but they did a great job! This is a great example of how to keep the look elegant and natural. You’ll notice not one thing stands out, the dress, makeup and hair all do their own part to make up the overall look. They all look great on their own, and amazing together. She looks beautiful, but she doesn’t look overdone.
If you like what you see, check these guys out! They are amazing photographers and they capture big events in a way that is totally amazing and utterly timeless. http://www.swansonphotographs.com/.
We know there are a lot of people out there that are shopping for a new stylist and/or salon. If you find yourself in this predicament here are some ways to find a salon and stylist that you can trust.
The easiest way is also the most risky. It consists of you finding a haircut on someone that is similar to what you have or want and then asking them where they get their hair cut. This can work well, but be sure to check out the stylist (by scheduling a consultation) before you schedule the actual appointment. If you aren’t ready to stop someone randomly in your local coffee shop, that’s fine; there is another way.
We believe the next way is your best option. Go to www.intercoiffure.us. Click on the link for “salons” and there you will find salons that are part of this elite group in your area. Intercoiffure is a group of salons that are considered to be the top half of 1% in the entire world. It is no easy feat to get accepted in to this elite group. There are many prerequisites a salon has to meet before Intercoiffure will even consider them. Then there are a number of interviews and hands on demonstrations that the salon has to go through with the board before they decide rather or not they are worthy of membership. You can be assured that if you find a salon from this list, you are in good hands.
Finally, once you have found a salon and If you a bit picky about your hair, ask the receptionist for a senior stylist that is good with your texture of hair. I still think it makes good sense to book a consultation with this stylist prior to your appointment, you should always make sure that you feel comfortable with them before they work on your hair.
In preparation for your consultation read our blog on “consultations” to make sure that if for some reason they aren’t asking the right questions, you can!
We were honored this week when BellaSugar.com did a write up on our product line.
I tried The Pink Stuff ($18), a moisture-enhanced curl cream. It has a sticky, waxy texture and smells fresh and clean like laundry soap. The best part is that it has just the faintest of shimmer; it’s fine enough so that it doesn’t look like you have a head full of glitter but noticeable enough to leave a pretty sheen in your hair. I also sampled the Quick Fix ($9.25), which Hickox claims is “the hairspray your mom warned you about.” And he’s right: My ponytail had nary a flyaway after a few spritzes of this. It’s too much hold for most occasions, but when you need your strands to stay put, this one can’t be beat.
In my years around hair salons (I worked in my parents from 14 years old) I have learned one important thing. There are rarely bad haircuts, just bad consultations. The problem is that most stylists spend time learning new cutting techniques, but little time focusing on the most important thing…how to talk to clients. Learning new techniques is VERY important, yet still second on the list.
First on the list, Consultations!!! Let’s face it, I don’t care what great new short style you learned at the weekend class and I know how excited you are to show all of your clients how great you are. So what’s going to happen when your new client comes in with hair down to her shoulders and tells you she wants a big change but she doesn’t want to go too short? You, in your infinite wisdom think “BINGO, the perfect time to show off my new technique.” So off you go, cutting her hair into the greatest short style you’ve ever done. Man is she going to love this! WRONG, she said she didn’t want to go short. You thought that in comparison to a lot of your haircuts this is long, but she didn’t. She thinks “short” means above her shoulders. So who’s at fault? Yours! If you had asked the correct questions you would have known what she considered to be short and none of this would have happened. So what are the correct questions? Well there are different questions for everyone, but here are some that I ask every client and I have found to be a great foundation.
1. How did you hear about me, or the salon? You always need to know who to thank for this new client. You also might be able to use this client as a reference for this haircut.
2. How do you style your hair (step by step)? Many times I have had clients that say “I don’t want to spend a lot of time on my hair”, and then tell me how they go through 35 steps to get it styled! In my opinion that’s a lot of work. Either way you need to know what they do to their hair so you can figure out a style that makes sense for them as well as looks great!
3. How do you like the length of your hair right now? Do you think it is good, too long, not long enough? You never know, sometimes people want a “big change” but they don’t want to lose any length. If the answer is “it’s too long”, then you need to find out how short they are thinking. And what is “too short”.
4. What is the shortest that you would be comfortable with? You might not be thinking about cutting their hair as short as they say they would be comfortable with but you need to find out your boundaries.
5. Is there anything you have had in the past that you either hated? Or loved? This can also help you narrow down your options.
Finally, the last thing you need to do is to explain, in plain English, what you are going to do. Now, do what you said, not what you want. It is fine to recommend to a client what you think would work best based on their answers to your questions, but sometimes we have to compromise. Clients have to wear their hair every day, we only have to deal with it for 30-45 minutes. That means that they need to love it first, we need to love it second. Let’s assume that some of you reading this are not stylists, but clients. You can use those same questions with your stylist. Answering those questions for the stylist means that if they aren’t doing their job, at least you’re not going to have to suffer in the end.
My final note is this: The most important part of getting a great haircut is the consultation. As a stylist you need to ask questions, as a client you need to make sure that your stylist is asking them.
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