It used to be that all of the hair color was mixed behind the scenes, in a little closet type room, that was a mess, with color everywhere, half filled tubes, cracked tubes, and color charts everywhere. 

In some of the new spas, it is fascinating to see your hair stylist blend the colors right before your eyes.  At The Grand Beauty Spa in Tampa, Florida, Elz and Carmen created the most fabulous color blending bar.  The clients can sit and watch their color being mixed.  Just like you watch an artist, you can now watch your stylist blend away. 

Years ago, you would have never dreamed of mixing the color in front of the clients, but today, we do all kinds of things in front of clients…some good…some not so good.  But this idea of blending your color in front of the clients…now that is a winner.

Now, the only thing missing from this picture is my little gray hairs.

After talking with 5 lighting designers, the architect, the interior designer, and the true Guido to lighting–the chief electrician himself, we still  had clients sitting in shadows.  Now, these were not just any old shadows, clients would remark, “I think I look older”, “I am looking very gaunt”,  “Well, I know I don’t look that good, but my hair…I just don’t know.  It became almost a daily occurrence.  Now, lighting to a massage therapist is ho-hum, but lighting to a hair stylist or a nail technician is the world.  And you certainly know when you just don’t have it right.

The original specifications for lighting drew upon this new type of “work” bulb that came in a pair or in quads.  When tested, it looked like you could light up the night, but when it came down to actually cutting hair or putting in highlights, the lights put off shadows that crept across the client like ivy on a brick wall.   The solution was to add in very tasteful track lights that allowed the hairstylists to angle the lights to fill the shadows.   
Lesson Learned #1:  Lighting is super important, not only to see your work, but to have clients feel great about how they look-highlights & all.
Lesson Learned #2: Even the experts sometimes make a mistake.  We had all of the experts and nobody caught the lighting issue.

Luckily, after each time the client would complain about how they looked, we would rush them over to the makeup chair and touch up their color.  Well it sure helped to increase makeup sales.