The color specialists from Asha SalonSpa checked in after spending last weekend at the AVEDA Congress hair show to get the latest trends in color just in time for the start of fall on Monday.

If you’re ready for a change, here are some great suggestions from the experts:

Deep Coppers and Reds. If you want to go bold this season, look to deep coppers and reds to add some spice to your look.

Soft, Muted Blondes. The bright blondes of summer are moving to the dark side. As fall comes closer, blondes are softening their look by adding muted lowlights. It’s important for blondes to add softer blonde lowlights to gradually change your color from light to dark.

Dark Chocolate Browns. This rich color still reigns supreme for brunettes who are sticking to the one classic color of deep chocolate brown. No highlights or lowlights needed!

Melting from Dark to Light. If you really want to step up your look, try the melting technique throughout your hair. This offers a fun, edgy look that fades from darker at the top of the head to lighter at the ends.

http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/curl-interrupted-do-frizzy-coifs-equal-frazzled-psyches?fc_c=1638269×3468143x107200140

Please discuss.

Now that Fashion Week has taken the show overseas we can finally take a moment, step back and really breathe in what we saw during that flurry of a week. The trends were just not in the designs, but the hair and make-up that helped bring the styles to life.

One trend: Spring hair is going to be big...literally. Zac Posen’s show had a modified bouffant with big messy bangs and textured flowing hair that not only complemented his rocking soundtrack, but also showcased the designs and accessories perfectly.

L’Oréal Professional Texture Expert and world-renowned hair stylist Odile Gilbert once again teamed up to created the hair for Zac Posen’s 2009 Spring / Summer Collection. When asked what inspired the look created for Posen’s Collection, Odile Gilbert, simply responded “The Zac Posen 2009 Woman.” She then went on to describe the modern bouffant style as a sexy and edgy vision to be worn by a confident woman who knows what she wants, and how to get it. Gilbert created the look with Posen to slightly contrast with his soft and delicate designs. The half up-do with bouffant style bangs and long flowing hair in the back added flair to the Collection.

Gilbert started by prepping hair with Texture Expert Densité, a thickening primer to give hair texture and body, while blowdrying. For the models that needed more lift, Gilbert used Texture Expert Expansion to add volume. Hair was then sectioned off and straightened with a flat iron and set with Texture Expert Infinium 2, a workable hair spray.

Next, Gilbert sectioned the hair, taking the front into a half ponytail at the crown. She pulled hair tight and held it in place with an elastic strip. The front section of hair was then pulled up and out of the elastic to create the dramatic, high bouffant appearance on bangs. Hair was set with pins and Texture Expert Infinium 4 was sprayed for added hold.

The back section of hair was left to fall free, being teased with a brush to provide texture and volume. Lastly, the hair was pulled forward in front of shoulders and then sprayed with Texture Expert Infinium 4 for flexible hold as the models walked the runway.

Beautiful!

(Photo by Christopher Lane)

While we are on the subject of hair dye, check out this great quiz: The top 10 hair color myths, debunked:

http://www.devries-pr.com/SMR/Wella/haircolor_myths.html

Every now and then I have the crazy desire to dye my hair…but I really truly fear the unknown and the thought of spending a fortune on something I may grow to hate seems rather…well…dumb.

But what If I am missing out on my true color? And I’ll never know…

Turns out a magic mirror is possible! Previewing a new hair-color is now as simple as uploading a photo and clicking a mouse button. Just upload a picture at ColorTry.com and they do all the work for you.

So…check it out…below are all the reasons I should never dye my hair!

Me as an ash blonde. This actually was the case for most of my senior year of college. (In fact, my picture still contains the muddy brown low lights! The plan had been to “brighten up” my look. The result? Failure.)

Red head. Ditto. Tried it once. FAILURE. Caps on purpose. In fact, it looked sort of like ketchup. Note: I pretended I loved it at the time solely because my mom hated it and I didn’t want her to be “right”. She was. I shall admit it now. (And she will mock me for it.)

Picture it. (I guess you don’t have to.) It was the mid-1990s. I was in high school. I begged and pleaded, and my mom finally agreed to let me get low lights for very first time. I was SO excited. We went to one of the posh salons of central Brooklyn. (Yes, they exist.) We had a connection: My mom’s cousin’s friend twice-removed cut hair there. (Or something like that. I honestly don’t remember except it was really vague and she had the same name as my mom. But then changed it to some other name for a reason that made no sense. And she refused to blow out curly hair straight because it went against her morals. Even though it was her JOB.) Anyway, name-changing semi-relative was a stylist, not a colorist, and we went to this dude Manny, who was known to be hot of the hot at the salon. Two hours later, my low lights looked distinctly…green. Not so different than the picture above.

And finally…we have the scariest photo of all. No, I never have dyed my hair gray. But…one day…not so far from now…it may be the reason i NEED a site like this.

Moral of the story: Don’t be me. Don’t be stupid. Save your money, your time, and your sanity - and try out this site. See if there’s a color that DOES work on you. And if it doesn’t…well, you just saved yourself a trip to the salon, and a whole lot of pain and suffering.

It is an exciting day when you have not one but TWO new developments to show off!

Despite my hilariously terrible faces in both pictures - I am insanely happy with both my new glasses (Prada!), and my hair cut (Nick Arrojo!)

My Nick experience was even more awesome than I expected - I will write the minute details in a post very very soon - but let me just say, it’s almost like being in the hands of a skilled surgeon. In fact, I went with no plot of what I wanted (a first for me!) and left myself in his very capable hands.

In 3 hours, I will be sitting in Nick Arrojo’s chair! Think pretty thoughts!

One week!!!

In just about two weeks, I have an appointment with Nick Arrojo! (Note, I did not say at his salon, though that is where I shall be, but with Nick himself!!!) - as I’ve had a hair-crush on him for years, my heart is aflutter and shall be for the weeks to come.

As this will be the most meaningful hair cut of my entire life, I feel that it is almost disrespectful to go there with instructions or photos of what I want. I will leave myself in his famous (and very capable) hands…and return with complete color commentary!

I hope I do not hyperventilate for the next two weeks…I might have a heart attack before our date happens…

We have all felt the peril of bad hair cuts, and stylists who did not see things our way.

Meet Scarlette.

Scarlette is just about the cutest thing to walk the earth since the invention of pleated minis, and yet, she was reaching a time of scraggle. Nearing her eighth-month birthday, she had yet to have a grooming. Half shih-tsu, this was leading to hair growing out in all the wrong places, and increasing difficulty in getting her to sit still for a good brush.

The time had come for her first grooming…but like all girls undergoing their first visit to a new stylist, she was a little frightened.

Scarlette though, was so frightened that she bit the groomer, was put in solitary confinement (OK, she actually was just separated from her brother and had to sit with the receptionist until we came and got her) and had a fit when the groomer tried to give her pig tails.

She won though, and got a hair-cut she seems (relatively) happy with.

(Pictured below with Max!)

Still, my little friend remains emotionally exhausted from the experience (we’ve all been there), and has some regrets. (Like, that the groomer got even one bow in her hair!)

If Scarlette had it her way, she’d never go to the groomer, and eventually begin to resemble a sheep dog! This is not an option for her, and not an option for us two-legged girls either, and yet I hear more and more that women AND men fear change (or bad results) so much they go as long as possible between hair cuts!

This is never a good idea. “Unstyled hair will always look unstyled, especially if you have long hair. No cut is entirely no-maintenance (unless you are shaving your head),” points out Carl Hoffman, a stylist at Tonic Salon in Las Vegas.

Granted, he was talking about people. But as my shorkie-tsu isn’t about to get a crew cut, I have decided that this advice applies to all animals, whether they stand or crawl or beg or talk. In fact, even more so for us!

Note: I do not agree with Scarlette. I think her hair cut (and she) is adorable! And, I did tell her it was not nice to bite her stylist. (Though, seriously, haven’t we all sort of wanted to at one time or another?!)