Cosmetology Instructor Carol Jensen, L-O-V-E loves bright hair colors. Back in Indianapolis where she worked as a hair stylist, this 52-year-old burgundy maned grandmother says she enjoyed taking creative license on clients who, like her, were adventurous about their look and preferred rocking hairdos in bold red, blue or pink shades.
"I think it's fun to be funky and wild with hair color," she says. "I had bright purple hair all summer last year and it was beautiful. It really complimented my skin and eye color better than anything that would look more natural."
Since moving to San Francisco four months ago to teach at Zensi's Cosmetology Training Center in Hayes Valley, Jensen found that her clients here don't share her passion for hair color experimentation, tending to stick to more reserved blonde, beige and brunette tones. And frankly, she's bored.
"I get tired of clients who say, 'I guess a few highlights would be okay, as long as they look natural,'" Jensen says. "What's so good about being natural? If you're going to get highlights, why can't they be pink or platinum?"
From produce to personal hygiene products, it's no secret that San Franciscans tout a reputation for keeping it green, opting more and more often to drop their dollars on goods and services stamped organic, unprocessed, in a word—real. According to City hair stylists like Jensen, the beauty services San Franciscans seek reflect this inclination toward the unfettered and often translates into demands for softer, laid-back, granola looks that work well with an easy-going vibe, compared to the rock and roll ostentation or red carpet glamour found in other urban hubs like New York City or Los Angeles.
"People here are more low maintenance," says Lizzy McNeill, a stylist at Oxen Rose Salon.
"It's not like L.A. here where everything seems plastic from top to bottom," adds Rachel Blado, another Oxen Rose stylist. "I think San Francisco people are a little bit more down to earth. They still want to espouse a certain glamour. But it has to be a daily glamour and it has to look like they were born with it."
But as with anything in life worth having, achieving a "born with it" look takes work—not to mention time and money. In order to transform what a client has into what they want, the hair industry offers a myriad of chemical treatments and styling techniques capable of re-structurizing, relaxing and basically recreating any hair color and texture. A service called Japanese hair straightening, for example, leaves coarse, unruly hair soft and smooth, but requires a six-hour salon visit costing up to $1,500.
In our investigation of these services, [X]Press Magazine turned to San Francisco hair stylists for examples of what lengths their clients go through to achieve these natural looking results. And after learning how harsh these processes can sometimes be, we were left asking ourselves the same question Jenson asked: What's so good about natural? Especially if it isn't natural anyway.

Stylists:

Dan Suda, stylist at Blo Salon

"I gave a blonde girl dreadlocks once. Over two weeks she came in for four three-hour sessions and we wrapped it, ratted it and ratted it, added hair pieces to it and ratted it some more. When she was finished she came out with tiny, finger-sized dreadlocks that were down to the small of her back."

Samuel Harris, student at Zensi's Cosmetology Training Center

"This girl wanted to be super white blonde and she had brown hair. I warned her about how harsh it would be on her hair but she didn't care. So I bleached her four times, to the point to where she had blisters on her scalp. She was willing to do whatever it took."

Carol Jensen, instructor at Zensi's Cosmetology Training Center

"I actually gave a young blonde girl with smooth hair an afro. It took two of us three hours to do her whole head like that. It was so fun for her to look in the mirror and see herself with such a dramatically different look."

Lizzy McNeill, stylist at Oxen Rose

"Doing color corrections can be really harsh, especially if you change your color within three shades of your real color. That's really going to mess up the way your hair looks and feels."

Rachel Blado, stylist at Oxen Rose

"Highlighting. We've all seen really streaky and stripy highlights. If you're going for something real looking, than that's not really hair-like."

Joseph Brabant, stylist at Headlights Hair Studio

"I think the most extreme thing I've done is take a client from black to platinum blonde. But I did it over a three-day period. Anything is possible with hair. You just have to take your time and care about the integrity of the hair you're working with."

Johnny Bueno, stylist at Alatiere Emmanuel

"Just washing, blow drying and flat ironing your hair everyday, it's really bad for your hair. Let your hair go for a couple days. It should still be straight. Save the style without rewetting and heat styling it so often. Let it get dirty."

Stevens Quarto. stylist at Shear Bliss Salon

"This caucasian girl with highlights comes in and says she wants smooth hair like Gwyneth Paltrow and wants to do a Japanese straightening process. I tell her, 'Honey, get a flat iron and take the time to smooth it out.' Her hair is already processed and has a fine texture—that straightener would fry that hair right off her head."

Andrew Lucido, stylist at Shear Bliss Salon

"I've never done anything extreme. Once this girl wanted white blonde hair and her hair was black. I told her sure, I could do it. But the owner of the salon I was working for told me not to do it because it wouldn't work. So I think she went somewhere else."

Ivy Griffith, colorist at Louie Hair Salon

"Color removal is really extreme. Pulling old color out really kills the hair. To me it's one of the harshest services out there. And it takes a lot of time because there are so many steps."