00:00I'm Lucy Fink. I'm a video producer at Refinery29, but every so often I like to
00:05try other people's jobs. Today I'm at 14J in Tribeca, New York, and I'm going to
00:10see if I have what it takes to be a hair colorist. This is Lucy for Hire.
00:15My name is David Adams. I'm a hair colorist and I'm one of the owners of 14J Salon
00:19here in Tribeca. The job of a hair color specialist is to look at some of these
00:22haircuts, to look at their skin tone, their eye color, and then the hair color
00:26is sort of the painting on the canvas. We have to have a really good solid
00:30understanding of how you see color and how I see color.
00:33While I would have loved to dive right in and paint someone's hair, I first needed a
00:38crash course in color theory from master colorist David Adams.
00:42So Lucy, your first challenge today is going to be color theory. Color theory is
00:46really understanding how color works, how we see color, how light affects color, and
00:51the most important thing is knowing which colors to put together and which colors
00:54not to put together. It's like art school in elementary school, but I'm about to put
01:01it on someone's head for a few months. Exactly. You could mix red and yellow, which
01:06will make what? Green. Oh, that's blue and yellow. I'm close. Close, but far away. I'm
01:12going to hand you off to Deanna now. After I felt a bit more comfortable with color
01:15theory, I was ready to meet with my victim. I mean, my client. Emily. Welcome to 14J.
01:22Thank you. Hi, Emily. Hi. Lucy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
01:26Okay, so I'm just pretending I don't know Emily, but really she's a New York City
01:30private yoga instructor and a friend of mine. We had a brief consultation to hear
01:35what Emily wanted. I'm looking to transform. It's been a really big year of transformation
01:41for me. So now I'm thinking red. Something low maintenance would really be best. It would
01:45suit my lifestyle. I'm a busy lady. And as my coaches taught me, at the salon, everyone,
01:51even friends, must be treated like any paying customer. This is beautiful.
01:57Perfect. Gorgeous. Yeah. I really love a lot of these.
02:02The first step to realizing Emily's hair dreams? Pre-lightening her hair. As I learned
02:08in my color theory crash course, it's essential to lighten the hair a few shades before coloring
02:13to achieve the correct final tone. This is a major technique. Okay, I've got it. I followed
02:21Deanna's directions. Grease it. Slowly. Carefully. Making sure to not make any mistakes. Only 50,000 more to go.
02:38And after the pre-lightener sat on Emily's hair for a while, we washed it out. So I just did
02:43my circular. I went around. Now being a hair washer is an entirely different skill set that
02:48takes time to master as well. And I'm going to get the highest point of the head.
02:56Got it. Got it. Very soapy. Yeah. Your second challenge today is going to be formulation. So
03:04formulation is understanding the guest's natural hair color and how it will react to color. So
03:09we really have to understand which color we put back in the hair versus which color we
03:12take out of the hair. Deanna and I went into the back and began mixing colors. So we're going to
03:16be
03:17melting three different shades. Time to formulate. We had to balance just the right amount of the
03:23different materials to achieve the exact tone Emily wanted. This is red. Yep. Wow. And this
03:30just activates all this. Yep. This stage involved a ton of math, measuring, and mixing. And it's
03:36perhaps the most important stage if you want to get the color right. This is going to be a fun
03:40fall color. In the middle of winter. Your third challenge today is going to be application. So
03:46it's really looking at the hair. And once we know exactly the result we want, then we'll
03:50select the right technique to use. This is it. Thanks. Yeah. It won't look like this
03:55on your head. All gloved up. Deanna showed me the exact right technique for applying the
04:03color diligently. I had some issues being neat at first. Let me get a little bit more clean
04:09right there. Keep it clean. Otherwise David said you'll be cleaning the floor. But eventually
04:15Deanna set me on course and I was cruising. Do I look like I've been doing this for 30 years?
04:20Yeah. Because I've only been alive for 25. I felt I had gotten the technique down and
04:25about 30 minutes later she was all done. Your final challenge today is going to be blow
04:31dry and styling. Now came the fun part. Wow. We rinsed out Emily's hair. Nice and colorful.
04:41I even gave her a hand massage in the 14J way. And then we moved her back to the chair
04:46for
04:47a blow dry. Emily played with the salon dog. Meanwhile I'm busy at work over here. I fully
04:53dried her entire head. So you're going to have to go like this and just wrap it. Oh I see.
05:00And then close it. And just don't even close it. Oh don't close it. You just got to leave
05:03it open. And then there you go. I see. And then went through with the curling iron and
05:08gave her some loose beach waves. And just like that she was a new woman. One, two, three.
05:18Wow. I was on my feet for almost six hours coloring Emily's hair. I learned not only how many years
05:33of schooling it takes to get here but also how much thought, theory, and hard work goes
05:38into each client. If Lucy really worked here as a hair colorist would you be happy coming
05:42back to her again? Oh absolutely. Yes. And I think if you wanted to come here and train
05:47as a hair colorist we'd definitely say yes Lucy come. Alright. Okay. Okay. Okay. You
05:54don't have to ask me. I'll take the job David. Excellent. Thank you. Great. Thanks Emily.
05:59After today I have a complete newfound appreciation for hair colorists. This has to be one of the
06:04most difficult jobs I've ever attempted in Lucy for Hire. And it had some of the highest stakes.
06:10But I think we did a great job. And Emily looked lovely.
06:14Hey YouTube. Thanks for watching. Comment below. Let us know what you thought of this hair transformation.
06:19And as always click right here to watch another video. Here to subscribe to us on YouTube.
06:24And right here for my personal YouTube channel. See ya.
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