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SEARCHErgo Education and Artistic Director Shannon King shares the Ergo method for a perfect, efficient and speedy blowdry every time.
You spend so much time blowdrying hair—but are you doing it right?
Shannon King, Ergo education and artistic director, says his training in that department was a little lackluster. The women in his classes were very familiar with blowdrying hair, but he felt like he could have used an extra hand (literally and metaphorically).
Cosmetologists Chicago brought King and Ergo to Pivot Point Evanston for their monthly First Mondays continuing education class in August. King explained that, like all exercises in good hairdressing, blowdrying is a multi-faceted process starting with simply identifying the client's hair type.
HAIR AS FABRIC
King brought silk, cotton, felt, denim and burlap to class and said that clients can have a range of textures and weights to their hair just like fabrics do. They might even be a combination of two or three, and no two fabrics (or hair types) are going to react exactly the same to the same process.
TOURMALINE, DEFINED
Stylists have a lot of big words thrown in their direction. Tourmaline isn't one of the biggest, but it's frequently ill-defined.
If brushes or dryers are infused with or use tourmaline, that means they negate odors, seal the cuticle, expel water, create high shine and have a negative charge to reduce the static of hair (which is positively charged).
THE VISION: THREE PARTS
When a client brings in a picture, friend, iPhone, whatever, and says, "I want to look like her," make sure you really break down what the image is you're looking at. You can do this in three parts:
1. Silhouette: What is the outer edge and shape of the hair like? Is it voluminous or flat?
2. Perimeter: Is there fringe? Do the ends flip out or are they smoothed?
3. Texture: Is it smooth? Curly? Wavy? A combination?
How do all these parts work together? Figure that out before you move toward a cut, color and blowdry.
THE ERGO METHOD: 5 STEPS
1. Squeeze out excess moisture.
Pro tip: If you're blowdrying to 70 percent dry, have the client feel the hair when it is that dry so that they know what the feels like when they go home to do the same.
2. Section head into five parts: top, two sides, middle, and nape around the occipital.
3. Choose your weapon (brush or brushes) based upon the vision.
4. Sub-section and detangle.
5. Set, lock and lift.
This means to prep the hair by detangling and running the brush through a couple of times, wrap the hair around the brush (even the end—Ergo brushes are 20 percent longer and have room for that), and pull the brush toward you (overdirected or otherwise depending on how much volume you want) therefore unwrapping the hair. Repeat as needed.
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