Valerie Rojas
LV Life Editor
Numerous people, including soccer moms, college students and celebrities have decided to rid themselves of the coloring Mother Nature gave them, and instead recreate their own, with the help of salons everywhere.
But the price of great hair does not come cheap, or quick.
Those who seek the help of salons when altering their hair color must first brave long waiting periods.
“Most of our clients make appointments to avoid the wait,” said Naureen Askari, soon-to-be manager of Regis Hairstylists Salon located in the Montclair Plaza.
Customers must not only be patient when they want a color change, they must also be willing to pay the price.
Regis customers pay anywhere from $40 to $65 for dye jobs – depending on hair length and thickness – which is a bargain compared to what some have paid elsewhere.
“I once paid $130 to get my hair colored,” said Tiffany Ondatje, 22, a resident of Fontana, who has been dying her hair both professionally and non for two years.
After her first at-home attempt at dying her naturally dark hair light brown, Ondatje spent months growing out the dye in an attempt to get her natural color back.
“It was gross, I had two different colors for a long time,” Ondatje said. She has left the coloring to the professionals ever since.
“If you get your hair done professionally, you get it the way you want it,” Askari said.
Although a number of loyal salon clients cling tightly to the aprons of their hair colorists, there remain a number of beauty-conscious consumers who would rather take matters into their own hands and under their own roofs, only spending a fraction of the salon cost.
“Doing it yourself is so much cheaper,” said Max Probst, a freshman liberal arts major. Probst has been dying his naturally blonde hair different colors for the last three or four months.
“It’s been all sorts of colors, red, black, everything,” Probst said. “I didn’t even want to do it at first, but a friend of mine told me to.”
But applying hair color at home can be a challenge.
The risk of being left with more dye on the walls or carpet than on your scalp scares many away, while the threat of being left with unwanted hair color or no hair at all, often lingers in the at-home cosmetologist’s mind.
“When I dyed my hair black it was so bad. It clashed with my skin tone and everything, big mistake,” Probst said.
With the risks associated with at-home use and the negative aspects of salon styling in mind, European salon owner and hair-care professional Ted Barry established “Hair Colour To Go,” an online company that allows customers to customize their own personal hair color for at-home use for less than $25.
The Web site www.haircolourtogo.com gives customers the chance to complete a personal profile that will assist the professionally trained chemists and hair color consultants in creating the perfect hair color for them.
After first ordering a swatch kit, a collection of hair color samples, customers can submit their natural and desired hair color information and then submit their profile, answering questions pertaining to skin tones, ethnicities, past treatments and hair length, online, via telephone, or by mail.
Each customer is then assigned a personal Senior Color Consultant, who will formulate the specific hair dye and contact the customer either through email or telephone.
The company, established in 1994, is still relatively unknown in the United States, but has begun to develop a following, that may continue growing in the future.
“I guess when a normally conservative person like me, dyes his hair weird shades of red, anything can happen,” Probst said.
Valerie Rojas can be reached at skalivornia@hotmail.com.
