Announcing the MODERN SALON 100 Class of 2026
Join us in congratulating this year's list of hardworking, game-changing individuals.
2018 MODERN SALON 100: Caitlin Ford @caitlinfordhair
Meet Caitlin Ford of The Rainbow Room, St. Louis. The Creative Color specialist has more than 85K followers on her @caitlinfordhair Instagram page.
August 2, 2018
Caitlin Ford, @caitlinfordhair
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2 min to read
Creative Color specialist Caitlin Ford of The Rainbow Room, St. Louis, has more than 85K followers on her @caitlinfordhair Instagram page. Her almost 800 posts feature powerful looks from specialty design to classic color placement. Many of her posts are short, edited videos showing technique along with product shout-outs.
@caitlinfordhair
The Rainbow Room, St. Louis
Specialty: Creative color
Followers: 85.5K
Most viral post: My most viral post is a video I created that has more than 9.5 million views and 25k likes and shows color placement on short hair. I think the reason it did so well is because I did colorblocking with black in the placement.
Favorite apps: Snapseed for basic photo editing, FaceTune for minor skin touch ups and InShot for editing videos
Favorite hashtags: #modernsalon (of course), #rainbowhair #hairtutorial
I follow: @caitlintyczka @kristinacheeseman @phildoeshair @uggoff @roxiejanehunt
Pro tips: If you are posting a photo, make sure that your photography isn’t exactly the same as what everyone else is doing. Ring lights and iPhones on a white backdrop give great photo results, but when 80% of people are taking photos that way everything can start looking the same. For me, I decided to start taking photos with a DSLR camera instead of my iPhone to give my photos a different feel.
Hidden talent (Beauty-related): I do special-effects makeup pretty well, and mostly just my clients know about it because I usually do something on myself every year for Halloween, so now every year for Halloween I’m usually booked for makeup services instead of hair!
Hidden talent: I’m a boss at fixing stuff and general home improvement. I’ve tackled many projects from laying wood floors and tiles to building shelves and shiplapping walls.
How social media changed my life: I never imagined that posting hair pics on social media would ever lead to anything more than getting new clients, which is why I started posting on IG in the first place. Being able to travel the world and build relationships with stylists and hair companies across the globe has been an amazing and surreal experience.
The first time I was featured on MODERN’s Insta: The first time I was posted on Modern Salon was a picture of a wig I colored for a client. It had a deep blue base and a sky blue balayage/highlight effect throughout. I remember freaking out that I got a repost from Modern Salon, I just couldn’t believe it.
See the full 2018 MODERN SALON 100 here!
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