
Rodrick Samuels on The Silent Work, Modern Beauty Education and Why Empathy Wins
MODERN SALON sat down with Samuels to discuss the book, beauty education, mentorship and the habits that help beauty professionals thrive.
Heather Wyko (@heatherwyko) of Peroxide Beauty and Barbershop, Hermosa Beach, California, says "My client and friend Kelsey used to do her blonde hair at home but started growing it out last September because she wanted to ...

Heather Wyko (@heatherwyko) of Peroxide Beauty and Barbershop, Hermosa Beach, California, says "My client and friend Kelsey used to do her blonde hair at home but started growing it out last September because she wanted to have healthy, long hair. I told her that there is such a thing as a healthy blonde, it just depends on how you get to that blonde and how you care for it in between color services. Between then and now I've done a partial balayage on her twice so she wouldn't have a harsh line of demarcation while growing out her blonde. We have also been doing Olaplex treatments followed by Paul Mitchell Awapuhi Keratriplex treatments, regular haircuts and, after I religiously preached to her about the importance of proper hair product, she has made sure to use Paul Mitchell Hot Off the Press heat protectant before ironing her hair and Paul Mitchell Forever Blonde for her shampoo and conditioner. Her hair is in a much stronger condition than it was in September. Recently, Kelsey texted me and said 'Heatherrrrrr I need to be platinum again' with which I responded 'I've been hoping you might say that.' She freaked out on me via text because she thought I'd tell her no but with my trusty sidekick Olaplex I feel like almost anything is possible."
Here Wyko shares how she created a healthy, gorgeous bright blonde in her own words:
I used a technique called the "Platinum Card" that was taught to me by my boyfriend who is a Paul Mitchell educator. I divided the hair in to four quadrants and starting in the back, bottom right section (where the hair was the darkest and hadn't been colored since September). I took 1/8" or 1/4" slices, depending how dense the hair was. I used Wella Blondor 40 volume, 30 volume and 20 volume, all with Olaplex which reduces those down to 30 volume, 20 volume and 10 volume. I heavily applied the lightener about 1/4" away from the scalp and I left out her pre lightened ends. She had different levels of darkness/lightness from the grow out and the balayage so I used the appropriate level of lightener depending on what was needed - sometimes using all three levels on the same slice. Once her entire head was folded up in foils I went back to where I started and applied 30 volume and Olaplex to her roots. Once I was finished with that I opened up her foils, checked that they were either at the level or almost the level I needed and removed the foils.
I thoroughly rinsed her lightener out, toned her with one part UTP and one part UTA from Paul Mitchell for about 7 minutes to cancel out any warmth. I rinsed that, towel dried, and applied 10SM from Kenra with 9 volume for about 10 minutes. I used two different toners because the UT's from Paul Mitchell are just tone and no level, so those just helped to give me a nice, cool canvas to put the 10SM on. Then applied Olaplex #2 for 10 minutes. From start to finish including a hair cut and style this all took 4 hours.


MODERN SALON sat down with Samuels to discuss the book, beauty education, mentorship and the habits that help beauty professionals thrive.

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