Hair Color Specialist Mallory Cook of #MMCstyle Salon in Madison, WI is known for the trend setting hair color techniques she’s always working on. Now Mallory Cook has chosen Pulp Riot Hair Color – 16 semi-permanent fashion colors, blending, color melting, balayage, foilage, painting. Many Hair Artists like Mallory choose Pulp Riot.
Hair Product Spotlight: Pulp Riot Liverpool & Glasgow
2019 Hair Product Spotlight by Mallory Cook of MMC Style
Discover Pulp Riot’s new launches and best sellers right here in Madison, WI. In the interest of full disclosure, I do sell professional hair color, hair care, and hair styling products here on my website.
In continuation to a previous post all about Pulp Riot Munich hair serum and Toronto firm hold hairspray, I’ve picked another couple of favorites to write about. The next two: Pulp Riot Liverpool root lifter and Glasgow sea salt spray. Now that summer is over, I’m feeling hair products that are going to provide volume, as well as a strengthening hold to combat the drier air that is to come.
Pulp Riot Liverpool:
Pulp Riot Liverpool is a root lifter that is an easy to apply, spray in foam. While your hair is damp, lift your hair up around the top of your head and crown area and spray, focusing on the root area. Gently massage in and then style as usual. I have had a lot of success using this on fine and coarse hair, it offers a lightweight voluminous effect without getting sticky. I love even after a couple of days of styling hair with Liverpool the hair is still lightweight and airy feeling. Sometimes what I will suggest with second or third day hair is to just add a bit of water to the root area on the top of your head and re-blowdry style quick. It nicely reactivates the Liverpool in the hair for an extra day of wear.
You can purchase off my website for in store pickup at the time of your choice, with your next appointment, or have it shipped to you.
Purchase
Pulp Riot Liverpool Root Lifter in the 8 oz size.
Pulp Riot Glasgow:
Pulp Riot Glasgow is a sea salt spray with multiple hair styling attributes. It adds texture, volume and has a light hold. I love to recommend this for clients with natural curl, or who like to curl their hair often, as well as for my short hair cut clients for added volume and texture. Not only does this product smell amazing, it also has sea salt and sea kelp extract which helps promote naturally healthier and stronger hair. Styling your hair and taking care of it at the same time? Sign me up! Glasgow can be applied to damp, and/or dry hair and will also add in enhancing natural curl, great for my curly girls in the winter whose curls get lazier in the dryer air.
Check Glasgow out on my store, and check out the other new Pulp Riot products available for sale through me!
Purchase
Pulp Riot’s new hair styling product, Glasgow Sea Salt Spray.
- Published in Hair Color, Hair Products, Hair Salon, Men's Hairstyles, Trending Hair Styles, Women's Hairstyles
Customize your blonde: lowlights, toners, shadow roots
Your blonde hair has options with color and style
Contrary to what most people think, the biggest thing that differentiates one blonde from the next is not always the amount of highlights put into the hair, but the amount of blank space left in between, lowlights added in, toners, and shadow roots. Blondes have become a lot more fun for me to do after understanding and using more of these techniques.
Hair Color – Lowlights
Lowlights are typically a color that will be foiled or painted in to add some depth into hair. A color picked for lowlights depends on the overall desired end result. Some people will pick a color that is just slightly darker than the all over color they have going on, some like it drastically darker, or even more fun, we can add in some pops of blue, or green, or whatever fun color a guest may fancy! Strategically placed lowlights can be very soft and subtle, or more dramatic for a noticeable amount of contrast.
Blonde Hair Color & Style – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇
Hair Color – Toners
If you’re someone who gets highlights, or bleaches your hair, you have probably heard your stylist mention they need to tone your hair, sometimes this can be done at the shampoo bowl in damp hair, some stylists will bring you back to their chair and dry you really well with a towel, or even blow dry before applying. Tone refers to the color you want to see in your hair, and how much depth you want that color to have. You may want a “cool” blonde, which refers to something with a violet, blue, or even silvery tone to it, but just a touch of that “tone” so it isn’t visibly blue per say to the eye. So essentially what we’re doing with toners is neutralizing, which would be correcting unwanted tones in the hair color, or using a toner to add a desired certain amount of color to the hair.
Hair Color – Why Toners?
Blonde Hair Toners – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇
When we use lightener on hair it doesn’t lift right to a natural looking, pretty color right away. It leaves the hair with raw tones that look yellowy to orange, and lack shine. Using a color to tone those raw highlights either right after a lightening service, or in between lightening service appointments to correct any off colors caused by hard mineral deposits in our water, or from heat styling too much, gives you a prettier, desired color. It has shine, the proper color, and overall looks so much healthier and dare I say natural looking as well, even those fun rose gold tones, or silvery/violety tones people are wearing a bit bolder lately!
Blonde Hair Toners – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇
A toner will not brighten your hair, so if your hair needs to be lighter your stylist will first have to apply a lightener in some kind of form if your hair is not light enough to pull of the tone you are looking to do. This may have to be done in more than one step, or even appointment if you’re looking for a nice bright, icy platinum blonde end result. If there is too much depth left in the hair you can only tone to that same level of lightness or darker. So you may be OK with being more of a medium blonde, and in that case a toner usually to neutralize some orangey-yellow is necessary.
Hair Color – Shadow Root
Blonde Hair Shadow Roots – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇
A shadow root is another way to add depth to any hair color for many different reasons. I like a very soft shadow root on my blondes to blend the line of highlights at the top, whether they be highlights right up to the scalp, or highlights that my guest likes a bit more “worn in.” So as you can imagine some shadow roots will be very minimal, so these I don’t like to have much darker than my final color. Some shadow roots can be more extended or dramatic, for this I may pick a color that is a couple of shades darker than our end color for a noticeable result.
A lot of pictures of bright blondes that have been circulating Pinterest and Instagram lately believe it or not feature a shadow root. That bit of subtle darkness really helps the platinum blonde pop and look dimensional.
Blonde Hair Shadow Roots – Mallory Cook #mmcstyle 💇
You can schedule a consultation, or chat with your hair stylist before your next highlight or color appointment to see how any of these methods can be used to elevate your overall hair color! Or you can book online right here with Mallory Cook – MMC Sytle.
- Published in Hair Color, Hair Salon, Trending Hair Styles, Women's Haircuts, Women's Hairstyles
Salon’s…let’s try starting with a nice greeting.
What should you expect when walking into a Salon?
In the salon industry, even in small metro areas there is a salon, salon and spa, salon suites, etc on every corner. Because of this, clients have come to expect much more of the “VIP” or “ME DAY” salon experience over just receiving the service alone. From the initial greeting to their close out, there’s many steps we need to cover along the way to make sure our guests want to come back. I believe anyone working in a salon or for themselves in a salon suite should take note. You’re never too cool to greet your clients with an amazing attitude and service.
Start with the right salon greeting.
Starting with a pleasant “hello, welcome, or a GENUINE how are you?” Goes a long ways, and is something that is so surprising people are missing the mark on. Then taking the moment to find out who they are, are they checking in for a service, are they trying to buy product or looking for info. Then still making them feel welcome, giving them a tour, while along the way showing how you can service them in many ways better than the next salon down the street. Offer them a drink, have plenty of options for everyone, even dare I say an adult beverage such as a glass of wine or a beer from a local craft brewery (obviously only offer this to those you know are of age).
In short, make them feel important! Acknowledgement includes: handshakes, hugs, salutes, funny cheek side to side kissy thing…it’s all what makes you and your client comfortable immediately. No matter what they’ve walked in the door for.
Handshakes Are Alive, dead-fish are unfortunately…dead
TRAINING is Necessary!
Whatever your processes you have in order for how your guests are talked to and sold to on the phone, how their handled in person, to the order of things taken care of when you’re checking a client out, EVERYONE needs to be on the same page in your salon. This isn’t taking away their ability to be personable, it’s making sure one guest isn’t getting offered up more of a greeting, making sure you don’t have a staff member just offering every single person discounts in order to be able to sell, etc.
Everyone should have the same knowledge, integrity, and respect for your business and your customers. This makes for an experience that your guests come to expect, and you want to make sure every single visit you and your staff are knocking those expectations out of the park, not just getting lazy because “oh this client has already been here a few times, we can drop the ball.”
To achieve desired “best” results, continual training is needed.
Think about the day your client may be wishing for.
Our clients schedules are packed with responsibilities and activities for others almost every day of the week. Without them scheduling time for themselves they may continuously wait for a time when things are less hectic or when they have achieved all of their goals. But such a time may never come, so help them plan a me-day ahead of time and put it in your schedules together. Make your clients day special, make it an easy decision to schedule their follow up appointment, try a new hair product or even put in a drink suggestion for next time (and write this down in your notes). Simply put, make an effort, this appointment is for them and not for us.
Need a “Me Day?” We can all relate, but we promise to listen vs preaching our need for one 🙂
Keep me on my toes.
Please share with me other experiences you, as either a provider, or a guest in a salon or spa, have either wanted improved, or totally loved. You can share any questions you have about why things have been done a certain way during any part of a service you’ve received in a salon or spa. I’d love to keep posts like this coming, it not only helps me stay on my game, it helps my industry as a whole, hold ourselves to higher standards and be able to prove our worth to our clients.
Balayage, ombré, foilyage, babylights…what’s the diff?
Madison Hair Stylist Mallory Cook Explains Balayage & More
We’ve been seeing a lot of these fancy sounding words used to describe hair color for a while now. If you’ve ever gone to handy dandy Pinterest to try to figure out the difference, you’ve probably seen a lot of the same pictures pop up for balayage, ombré, foilyage, babylights and more than one, if not all of these terms.
The truth is, you don’t go into the salon to “get a balayage” or to just get “babylighted.” These are all terms stylists use for an application method of color or lightener to create a specific look in your hair. More than one technique may be used to create a particular look depending on what is already on your hair, and what you are looking to have as your finished result. So what that means: the technique used in your hair should be decided AFTER looking at pictures and talking about how you would like your hair color to look with your stylist!
What is Balayage?
Balayage in French means, “to sweep.” This term applied to a hair color application technique would be used for someone who is painting color, typically highlights, in a very natural soft way creating a soft effect towards the top, and a heavier, brighter effect at the ends of the hair. Think of your hair, after sitting in the sun, typically the ends of the hair are lighter and brighter from more exposure over time, and closer to the root there is softer brightening effects, usually mostly around your face and right on top. Balayage is a great way to mimic this kind of effect, and you have the power to make it bolder, or more subtle to look like you spent a week at the beach.
What is Balayage? by Mallory Cook – Hair Stylist in Madison, WI
What is Foilyage?
Foilyage is something that fools (foils) a lot of us. I know a lot of stylists will disagree, but this IS a way of applying color to balayage, the difference? Foilage is applied in a foil, rather than free hand painted. Why? Many reasons! You will get a more defined result isolating the hair in a foil if desired, my main reason for going to foilage over balayage is how much more lightness I can achieve having the hair processed inside a foil. We can use a lower developer so we’re not just busting open the cuticle of our guests hair (with open air processing of highlights you usually want a higher developer so it can get the job done before it dries out), and it will lift higher. So if I’m working with a guest who has previously darker colored hair, or just naturally darker hair that doesn’t lift light easily, I will absolutely get the foils out and ready to go to achieve there desired result.
What is Foilyage? by Mallory Cook – Hair Stylist in Madison, WI
What are Teasy Lights?
Teasy lights means we backcomb the section of hair before painting, foiling, whatever application of highlighting we are using. This will create a super diffused line of demarkation, meaning the line where the highlight starts, for the maximum amount of blending in addition to our sweeping/painting method.
What are Teasy Lights? by Mallory Cook – Hair Stylist in Madison, WI
What are Babylights?
Babylights are done in very fine sections of hair, meant to mimic the multi dimensional color of a baby/toddler. These can be done very close together, or further apart depending on how much impact you want for the color. I love using baby lights to blend gray hairs for my clients that aren’t wanting to commit to an all over solid color. I’ll use two different formula, one a shade or two lighter than their natural, one a shade or two darker than their natural. It creates such natural dimension, it covers and blends those gray hairs right in. I’ll use closer sections in areas where there is more gray.
What are Babylights? by Mallory Cook – Hair Stylist in Madison, WI
What is an Ombré?
Ombré is another fancy word, it’s french for shade, or shadow. So creating a shadow, or richer color at the base of the hair, fading out into lighter ends. This technique can, and has been applied in so many fun, creative ways. We see anything from a subtle medium brown into medium honey blonde ends, from extreme nearly black roots into silvery blonde ends, or more fun, fashion color, applications can be done such as dark blue roots into bold yellow ends. Techniques such as babylighting, teasy lights, and balayage can all be used within an ombré to create a nice blended effect.
What is an Ombre? by Mallory Cook – Hair Stylist in Madison, WI
What are the benefits of these techniques?
The beautiful thing about any of these hair color methods is they are super customizable. Bigger sections will create more of a bold impact, especially around the face this can create a very dramatic sunkissed, vibrant look. or fine sections can be taken for the ultimate natural color results.
A few things to remember or notice.
In any highlight or lightened hair as equally import to those bright pieces is our dark hair/negative space in between so those light pieces pop. If you as a client notice your hair getting to all over bright there’s a few techniques that are life savers to help bring contract back into their hair. Ask your stylist how they can add contrast back in. This makes hair look healthier, shinier, and it just pops color more to have dimension vs a solid color of hair.
- Published in Hair Color, Hair Salon, Trending Hair Styles, Women's Haircuts, Women's Hairstyles
Easy Hair Style Change For Men
2018 – 2019 Men’s Trending Hairstyles
The past year men’s hairstyles followed a more natural, messy style, that has carried into 2019 as guys want the option of easier styling, while being able to be low maintenance as far as trips to the salon or barbershop. What’s important to remember for men is guys like change too, and they like to feel there is thought and effort going into how their hair is cut and styled when they’re in for their hair visit.
A lot of the styles now mostly work for all hair types, lengths and textures. So to my guys with thick, wavy or curly hair: rock that natural texture, the trends included in “short on the sides, long on top,” will all work great for you too.
A slight change to the haircut can make a big change to the overall feel
Guys, ask your stylist if your looking for something a little edgier than your classic crew cut for suggestions, fading the sides shorter, or leaving a little extra length on top. Another simple option is to work with your stylist on wearing it all over slightly longer, your stylist will let you know when you should come in for neck cleanups and reshaping (to keep your hair growing down, not out). Any of these options can freshen up your do, but keep it simple to style since you already have been pretty much styling this cut, just slightly different!
Men’s Haircuts 2019
Men’s Hair Style 2019
New Hair Style Product:
Another way to switch up your style if your not looking to do anything extreme with your cut is change up your styling routine. Try a pomade, such as Redken Brews Wax Pomade, it’ll give you a shiney finish without looking stiff, or Redken Brews Clay Pomade will give you a more rugged, matte finish with lots of texture.
Try Some Hair Color, it’s for Men too!
Guys can and do color their hair too. You can go darker to make a bold, sophisticated statement, cover gray, add in some silver highlights for a distinguished look, or add some sun-kissed highlights for a summery, brightened vibe. Chat with your stylist before booking a color appointment, he or she will guide you on how much time to allow for and the steps involved.
Men’s Hair Color for 2019
Try out the best hair styling products in the industry from Pulp Riot, Pureology, Redken and More
I’d love to show you which products work best for you and your lifestyle. Schedule a haircut, color, product or bridal (+groom) consultation with me today by contacting me by any of the methods below. I look forward to helping you find “The Right Style For Your Lifestyle!”
Mallory Cook | Hair Stylist | Pulp Riot & Redken Color Specialist | Madison, WI #mmcstyle | Online Booking
- Published in Hair Color, Men's Haircuts, Men's Hairstyles, Trending Hair Styles
Product Diversion – What does this mean?
If you have not heard of product diversion, you’re not alone and this may be a scary truth for you, so I am here to inform you.
What is Diversion:
The definition of diversion from Merriam-Webster is, “the act or an instance of diverting or straying from a course, activity, or use.” Applying this term to a hair products journey from when it comes off the factory line to when it ends up at its buyers home can imply a few different things. (source)
Where you may be buying diverted products:
The main thing to know is Diversion occurs when products are sold from “unauthorized” places, from places we’re all guilty of looking for deals at, such as Amazon, Target, Walgreen’s, to name a few. Purchasing products from such places means you are not guaranteed to get what you think you are actually buying. All it takes is a quick Google search to realize in a lot of cases the prices from these “unauthorized” sellers are in fact higher, because of the means they had to go about to get those hair products, because manufacturers and distributors are not selling to them. (source) (source)
The scary truth of product diversion:
The biggest issue with buying diverted product is there is no guarantee what’s in the bottle/container is what it should be. One of my favorite examples is when I fell for buying my favorite Gucci perfume from a clearly unlicensed dealer while in LA, the store was floor to ceiling every brand of perfume you’ve ever seen and heard of, and everything was about 2/3’s of the usual price. At first I thought I had really scored finding this product, but within a month of my purchase, I sprayed it on before a night out and it STUNK, like sour, bad garbage. Clearly it had been diluted down with some mystery ingredient, something to keep the smell the same for sale, but something that did not keep the smell stable for it to last.
I got your back:
Professional products ending up in the wrong hands before selling to you, the consumer, can end up being diluted down, expired, counterfeit, and not safe if it has been mixed with something that creates an unpredictable reaction, or worse yet has been contaminated which can lead to infection in the consumer. NO THANK YOU!
Pulp Riot Authorized Retailer
This is why I have created a product store within my business of doing hair available to purchase on site or from my website. I can get you the products you need, straight from the distributor, with as promised the correct product inside!
Mallory Cook – Authorized Retailer & Diversion Policy
SHOP PRODUCTS
Pureology Authorized Retailer
Redken Authorized Retailer
- Published in Hair Color, Hair Salon, Trending Hair Styles
What is Pulp Riot Faction8 Hair Color All About?
Mallory Cook Pulp Riot Hair Color Specialist in Madison, WI
Pulp Riot sure has done what they came to do on the hair scene, they’ve caused a huge, positive, disruption to our industry. They’ve taken what artists in the hair industry are doing and trying to create, and given them the best means to achieve these results and made it possible to push the envelope to a new extreme.
Pulp Riot was first introduced in 2016 with a new collection of 16 semi-permanent fashion colors, which more and more clients have been asking for, but I know for me I was reluctant knowing the tools for these results people were looking for were limited, and inconsistent. The launch of these 16 shades people were seeking out was the first game changer, and they had a whole lot of information and images available for artists to find to feel inspiration, confidence and support. Co-founders David and Alexis Thurston, owners of Butterfly Loft, along with fellow stylists, created Pulp Riot to connect stylist, to help form a community to achieve that level of support. “Pulp Riot is not just a product company. Our company is linking the beauty industry. We’re providing more opportunities to stylists and making them feel like they’re part of something,” says David Thurston.
They followed up by launching an 80-shade, permanent hair color line, called Faction8 on September 1, 2018.
FACTION8, WHY IT’S BETTER THAN THE REST:
It’s been decades since any other top color companies have come to the scene. Pulp Riot has been created on what we are doing RIGHT NOW in salons as far as any trends and techniques go. We now use complicated techniques of blending, color melting, balayage, foilage, painting, etc, we need new products and tools that help us apply these new techniques to meet our guests beautiful expectations. Pulp Riot has beat any other color lines to the punch of being created for these new types of applications. The consistency, which is creamier, is so much easier for stylists to apply and blend softly into the hair, making these new looks all achievable, empowering stylists to feel truly like an artist.
Pulp Riot was created in hair salons, by stylists, for stylist. It makes sense to have someone in the same profession, especially working in a city that is on top of the latest and greatest trends, creating the products in which we are using today.
Not only did they hit the nail on the head with consistency, they really considered the ingredients going inside their product. Those ingredients we want, and those we do not. They contain quinoa, a gluten free seed with the power to deliver protein and moisture to hair. These are the top ingredients hair is made of, these are broken down and lost during any bleaching/coloring processes, and just every day from styling, being outside in the sun and wind, etc. Therefore, Pulp Riot color line not only has the power to achieve modern day color trends, but it also keeps hair to its healthiest potential, full of protein and moisture.
They’ve also considered one HUGE fact of life for many stylists, space for total stock of a color line. Not only does the Faction8 line have 80 shades, simple, but can achieve so much, but it can also be altered from a permanent line, to demi-permanent line with the adjustment of developer mixing ratio! Hallelujah!!! We can officially use that space where we’d have to keep two FULL color lines from the same company, to make sure we are well stocked in the full array of colors we’re using daily, being able to have confidence that we can achieve any color a client comes in asking for on any particular day.
WHAT FACTION8 MEANS:
David Thurston: “A faction is a smaller group of people who are dissenting against the larger group of people,” and this is what Pulp Riot has been striving for from their start in the industry. I love jumping on board with a company that started as a small group who wanted to find new and innovative ways of going about things, to achieve better results. The “8” on its side becomes an infinity sign, the idea came up when they were considering a permanent color line, I take this as a sign they are here to stay. Fun fact about Faction8 packaging, the art work was all done and designed by a tattoo artist, Chris Paez who owns a shop called De La Rosa Tattoo, resulting in tying things permanently together, making the line very much so about the art of our industry.
WHY 80 SHADES?
The 80 shades beautifully covers the needs necessary to formulate any type of color, from blondes, to rich black, from vibrant reds, goldens, ashy, to every single possibility in between. The 80 colors available cover the right amount necessary for a starting point, and leave plenty of room to grow. Again the benefit to being created by stylists, they could think hard about what was really necessary, and have made it so realistic for any artist to have all of the tools necessary to create an unlimited amount of shades and colors.
WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL TECHNIQUES CREATED WITH FACTION8?
Because of the consistency and blendability of Faction8, there is a whole slew of techniques that can be applied and any artist can feel confident in their end results being smooth and flawless. Shadow rooting, color melting, balayage, ombre, lowlights are all made easily possible by Faction8. It covers gray perfectly, and for those clients who come in as frequent as every 2 weeks with a tiny outgrowth, it is possible to tap it on to that tiniest bit of out growth and not worry about overlapping previous color. Thus solving the problem of color banding we see happen in our gray clients all to frequently.
I also haven’t had reds ever come out so fully saturated, they turn out vibrant and so bold. The depth of ashy colors is unmatched too, I really enjoy that the Faction8 natural colors are cool based, so many clients always have to specify they pull warm and extra ash is usually needed, compromising the consistency of gray coverage. With Faction8 I see those nice neutral results and full, solid gray coverage, leaving the hair shinier and more beautiful than I have seen in previous color lines.
HOT TIP:
Because permanent color is oxidative, and semi-permanent are not, be sure to use Faction8 permanent colors and Pulp Riot semi permanent colors in two seperate processes while using them together in a service. If they touch there will be some unpredictable friction! Use your permanent color along with any lightening first, shampoo out, and then apply the semi-permanent color over top for the best results every time!
HOW PULP RIOT IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO CREATE A COMMUNITY:
Pulp Riot has done an amazing job focusing on getting out education digitally. They started out from the get go publishing information on their line, from facts to tutorials, there’s so many answers a stylist could need to switch confidently to their full product line.
They also have a private Facebook group that any stylist can sign up for, and an impressive Instagram that immediately connects to you multiple stylists offering up free info and suggestions daily! With countless pictures, videos, formulas, hot tips, a stylist will never run out of inspiration following these guys on social media. They do everything in-house, so response time is unexpectedly quick, creating that supportive community feel I’ve mentioned a few times.
NEW TO PULP RIOT:
This whole year, Pulp Riot has a full schedule of products launching, which so far has proved to be extremely exciting, and necessary. I’m a firm believer in a full system of hair care products & stylers. If I’m using Pulp Riot hair color on my guests and loving it, and they’re loving it, you can bet any shampoo, conditioner, any stylers, etc are going to go along beautifully with that, helping me help my clients achieve their best hair every single day.
Pulp Riot Faction8 Color by Hair Stylist Mallory Cook.
Try out the best hair styling products in the industry from Pulp Riot, Pureology, Redken and More
I’d love to show you which products work best for you and your lifestyle. Schedule a haircut, color, product or bridal consultation with me today by contacting me by any of the methods below. I look forward to helping you find “The Right Style For Your Lifestyle!”
Mallory Cook | Hair Stylist | Pulp Riot & Redken Color Specialist | Madison, WI #mmcstyle
- Published in Hair Color, Hair Products, Hair Salon, Men's Hairstyles, Women's Hairstyles
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