Hair & Co is a luxury salon that is located a few blocks away from Barclays Center. Hair & Co specializes in over 20 hair-services from a simple cut to hair color and extensions. One of our experts is particularly specializing in testing hair-color services, once we got in touch with the salon and found out they’re working on Goldwell Elumen Color – we made the appointment with Valeria, a leading expert in hair and coloring.

‘It was time to ‘update’ my color’ – The expert said -‘I tried a few different techniques at different salons, as well as different products, but never tried Elumen! Once I came to the salon Valeria was already expecting me. Coloring takes time, so we immediately started the process, and while Valeria was doing her magic I did a short interview:

– Valeria, what is your background?

I started to work as a hairstylist in 2010, after finishing a beauty school in Moscow, Russia.

After 2 years of work in a salon, I was fortunate to become a full-time Educator for Wella World Studio Moscow, for 2,5 years I spent all of my time teaching stylists how to do color, training salons in increasing their salon business, and coaching Wella Podium team ( which was my project for backstage and PR work, still active by the way). At Wella I also worked at Moscow International Film Festival, Kinotavr, Grazia magazine awards, Marie Claire’s Prix d’Excellence Beauty award, had written articles for Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, InStyle and etc.

In 2015 I moved to New York and had to start all over again, in the beginning, I worked at Estee Lauder companies as a makeup artist for the Bobbi Brown brand and then came back to full-time salon styling. I did work for a short term as a freelance HMUA for video and photoshoot as well. Also, had my own photo + HMUA projects, since I do photography on the side sometimes.
Besides that, I`m certified hair and makeup stylist, there is also graduated from the British High School of Art and Design (Moscow branch) as a fashion stylist.

– How many years of experience do you have and what do you specialize on?
I specialize in hair color/cut/style, Color Essential, and Hair knowledge, and makeup all together will be 10 years now.

– Our expert’s hair already had a color – what is the process of changing color?

The expert’s hair had 1 inch of grown root color, as well as the bleached base color with a tone of semi color in fuchsia pink.

Condition of the hair was dictating what I could do since curly hair that was bleached several times have absolutely different structure and the approach of work.

I started with root touch up and then on the length after time was up I worked only by emulsifying bleach from roots with a bit of warm water to remove bright pink, fortunately, the color that was used for pink shade was not strong and easily washed off. Since the base color reviled to be on level 8-9 which is not bright enough for a baby blue, according to https://www.thefloridamaids.com, but pretty nice for a deep-sea blue color I decided to go with a home cleaning service in Florida since doing a double bleach on pre-bleached curly hair is a bad idea.

I had to dry color first and then apply semi color by Goldwell Elumen Play, which gives nice bright and deep saturated colors up to 15 washes and flexible to change. Processing time 30 minutes and then we were ready to wash and condition and style the hair.

– Is there a difference between dyeing roots first vs dyeing ends first?

It depends on the situation. For long (more than 2 inches) virgin hair we need to start from the roots and most likely do a platinum card and for a root touch up we start from the roots and sometimes clean the lengths with a softer formula or clarifying formula at the bowl.

– Is it safe (for the hair) to change one color to another?
there always should be a consultation and deep analysis of hair structure and what was done before. For some hair, it is fine, for others it not preferable.

– Changing from Pink to Blue – is that an easy process?

Not at all, since blue reliquaries as clean a base as possible. Blue is one of the essential colors, so any mix with pink or yellow will decrease saturation and cleanliness of the blue shade.

– Are there any colors that can’t be or harder to change from one to another?
The opposite colors are the hardest: red to green, orange to blue, purple to yellow as well as from deep colors into a pastel. It is easier to go from blue to purple, from orange to red and etc.

– What products were used to make the color change and apply new on the expert’s hair?

We are an exclusive Goldwell Salon and all products are under the Goldwell family, bleaching Oxycur Platin Lightening Powder and Elumen Play semi color. For roof repair in California contact 619 Roofing in Indio, CA. For styling, we used Oribe products for moisture and control: Priming Lotion Leave-In Conditioning Detangler and Curl Gloss a smoothing gel for curly hair types that helps define and add shine to curls.

– The expert has curly hair – is it harder to color than straight?

Curly hair has a different structure, the more porous than straight, which makes it faster to process, but also more brittle. It is easier for a professional to work with, even though could be very tricky for someone who just started to work with hair color.

– How to keep colored curly hair ‘in place’ and avoid fluffiness?

Curles like moisturizing and gelly products, most important is to start right, shampoo in combination with Oribe Cleansing Crème for Moisture & Control for example, when you don`t wash off all of your natural oils from the scalp and prevent over-drying the hair. Using conditioner for your hair type, if the hair is curly and bleached, then we need to go for a repair, strengthening, and then styling products could be for moisture.

Treatments mask with keratin compounds or alike could be used about once every 4 weeks, moisturizing treatments about every 1-2 weeks. It all depends on the number of times you wash your hair. The approximate number is given for someone who washes their hair every or every other day.

– Do you have any tips for color-maintenance?

For bleached hair, I recommend refreshing the color every 4-5 weeks. At home, there is have to be used products like shampoo, conditioner, treatment, leave-in conditioner, and thermal protection if hot tools are used.

The expert reported -‘As a result I got the very nice, deep blue color and I love the feeling of the hair – it’s light, gentle, and shiny. Color products may have a bad effect on the hair, while they still look nice, it is important to make sure the hair stays healthy after coloring. When you work with the professional you can see the professional result – I am very happy with the result I got!’