American Board of Certified Haircolorists Newsletter/September 09

         The merger of the National Cosmetologist Association (NCA) and the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) Leave a lot of questions unanswered.
                                                  Andre Nizetich

          The NCA is comprised of cosmetologists, salon owners and beauty school affiliates including teachers.  The PBA is comprised of cosmetologists, schools distributors as well as manufactures.  How effective can an organization be if they are dictated to by all elements of the beauty industry.  If you look at the pecking order of the beauty industry it is, manufacturers at the top, distributors, schools, salons and cosmetologists.  When cosmetologists had their own association there was some representation, now they at the bottom of the pecking order.  The new association will live by the golden rule.  "He who has the gold will rule".  The cosmetologists will have zero to say about how the industry will run.  Gordon Miller said himself , "We found it necessary to merge because we could not find enough sponsorships to hold our events"  Already Miller is cowtowing the the manufacturers by encouraging salons to do more retailing, as though retailing will be our salvation.  When retailing was introduced to the salons everyone made a lot of money.  The recommendation of the professional hairdresser meant a lot, we were able to charge twice as much than the drug stores and super markets.  We had exclusive lines and our clients continued to purchase from us.  Next thing we saw our professional recommendation was being used to increase sales to other outlets.  It like we have been betrayed So that ship has sailed.  We will continue to retail, we have to.  So many salons rely on retailing to survive.  But to launch another major effort to do more retailing will not get too many people excited.
        Now Gordon Miller and Steve Sleeper has to work us out of this mess, Not an easy task.  When you have all factions of an industry saying,"we have to all work together".  All we have to do is figure out how to do that. 
                                                                                          

Advertising Program Invoices for 2009-2010 Sent Out

     The advertising program is one way for the American Board of Certified Haircolorists to let clients know who they are and where they are located. We do not advertise salons, only individuals.  although salons may benefit from the advertising as well.  Many of the ABCH haircolorists get very busy and so another person in the salon may get their overflow. There is no annual dues.  The board of directors determined there would be no annual dues but we would offer the advertising program to its members. 
      It really is a very reasonable amount to pay to have your name on consumer magazines. and listed on the internet as one of Americas leading haircolorists.  The cost is only $325.00 per year for the first person in the salon and $175 for everyone else in the salon.  Its the least expensive advertising you can buy.  The more money collected the greater the number of pages  we can buy.  The Wella Company is co- sponsoring a portion of the cost of the ads which allows us to purchase more pages.  The ABCH is a non profit organization which is self sustaining.
       Of course only ABCH members can participate in the advertising program.  Ours is the only organization where you have to qualify to become a member. 
 
A Word on Education
Education can be elusive.  It may not be giving you the results you are seeking.
                                                Andre Nizetich

       Education sometimes is confused with entertainment.  According to Dr. Paul Bott professor of vocational education at U.C. Long Beach. "Learning is the transfer of information from one person to another, effectively if learning is accomplished you will change the way you do things."  He went on to say "if learning is accomplished the change is permanent. "  He uses the example of learning to ride a bicycle, "once learned, even though you have not ridden a bicycle since you were a child, within just a short time you can once again ride a bicycle. 
       Vocational education is particularly difficult, in vocational education you must experience learning with hands on experience.  Yet hands on classes are expensive.  requires mannequins supplies and in the case of learning haircolor a variety of 6 DVDs
haircolor products.  In one three hour hands on class you can learn a new technique.  It can be learned but not perfected.  Not many people are willing to take a class then return to the salon and practice what you have learned on a mannequin.  If it is a haircut you are attempting to learn you could use up a few mannequins.
        Change is difficult process and not everyone learns in the same manner.  When teaching a hands on class, more than once I have heard one of the students say, "This really hard, I like the way I do it better".  When learning a new technique you have to be willing to change.  You often time must be willing to sacrifice some speed before learning a better way.  Check out the credentials of the educator.  I have sat through classes where not only did the educator not educate, they actually gave bad advice and made the audience feel inadiquate.  The facts be known some of the audience were more sucessful than the educator.   When paying good money for a class make certain you want to learn what is being taught.  The longer you are in the beauty business and the more classes you attend the less you will get out of a class.
         Learning from DVD's is a wonderful method of learning a technique.  Having said that, you need to know there are some awful DVD's which are a total waste of your money.  Do not buy a DVD unless you have the opportunity to preview it.  It is very easy for the producer of the video to put on the web a "trailer".  A trailer is a short two minute preview of what is on the DVD.  I don't think you should buy DVD's from a manufactuer of haircolor.  If they want you to be educated, and they all say they do,  Then they should give you the DVD's.  Don't buy DVD's of a stage presentation. That's not education.  If there is a Q&A session you want to review, bring a recorder, no one should object .  See all of my DVD's on
 www.certifiedhaircolorproducts.com
Want to Know, Haircolor Test. Who Has The Best 6N
If you want to see how your 6N rates among the rest of the field send us a bottle or a tube

    We are going to put all of the 6N's we receive through the paces.  How do they hold up under shampoos, how much do they fade from the sun, which has the most vibrance.  We'll give you six weeks to get your color into us.  So far we have received only four, and only one manufacturer send in their 6N.  Send your color to ABCH 1891 N Gaffey St. Suite P San Pedro CA 90731
 
Warming up to 2010 Summit
The Amazing Miseal Returns

Dates moved to June 13-14, 2010

        Miseal Apointe will be returning again to teach at the Energizing Summit.  Miseal choose to take last year off so he could become a student at the Summit and get recharged.  So he will be back with his high energy presentation.  Creativity is the name of the game with Miseal.  He has thrilled audiences far and wide with his keen eye for color and movement.  He has always been inspired by creativity and the intristic rewards that come with educating others. Miseals unique approach to of color placement make dimensional haircoloring more understandable.  Using haircolor to accentuate or diffuse features of the face  requires the eyes of an artist. He is amazing.  He has cut back on the number of classes he will be teaching so sign up early for his class.Registration will open February 1 2010.


What a Shocker!!!
L'Oreals Kerastase Color Retention Shampoo at $37.99 Removes More Color Than VO5 Retail Shampoo at $.79

     The test we ran comparing professional brands of shampoo and retail brands no one expected the results we got.  We colored Yak hair swatches using a dark burgundy haircolor, knowing these colors fade faster than other colors.  What is important to remember here is that all of the swatches were treated exactly the same.  The only difference was a different shampoo was used on each swatch.  Actually the swatches were not 6 DVDsshampooed, they were only soaked in the shampoo for one hour, rinsed, left to dry naturally and the process repeated the next day.  This was done for 5 days.  We are only comparing the most expensive professional shampoo aganist the least expensive retail shampoo.  There were winners and there were loosers.  Does this mean Kerastase is a bad shampoo? Not really, for a color retention shampoo it removes too much haircolor.  Can I feel confident selling this to my client to protect the color I put in in her hair, I don't think so. We sell all types of shampoos, shampoos for dry hair, oily hair damaged hair fine hair soft hair and ever which kind of shampoo.  We have never known whether these shampoos really worked, until they came out with a shampoo that retains color in the hair.  That gave us something to test.  We conducted this same test before, only last time we did not use retail shampoos in the test.  Now we know, they speak with forked tongue.  Makes you wonder if any of the other shampoos do what they are supposed to do.



     VO5 at $.79                   Kerastase $37.99
The control swatch is left,   results on the right

There were 16 shampoos in all, 6 retail and 10 professional.  There were other shampoos that removed as much or more haircolor as Kerastase, only not as expensive.  1. Aquage, 2. Wella, 3. Back to Basics, 4. Redken, 5. Graham Webb
6. Matrix, 7. Goldwell, 8. Joico, 9.Kerstase, 10. T&G. In the retail shampoos Pantene had the best showing.  Even Palmoive dishwasing soap did better than some of the low ranking professional shampoos.  Personally I think we need more of these tests.  Below was the display at the Energizing Summit.
6 DVDs
 
The results are not visible in such a small format, but you get the idea.  If you one of those haircolorists who has been selling Kerastase to your clients to preserve your haircolor you may not want them to see this test.   
Thanks for reading our newsletter, we will keep you updated on whats new in the industry as well as give opinions from some of the ABCH Board of Directors and some of the members.
Sincerely,
Andre Nizetich President
ABCH
Save 20%
June 13-14
Over 100 attendees took advantage of the 20% off early bird special for attendance to the Energizing Summit last year.  The reduced price was for the general admission as well as the hands on classes being offered.  Of course you will not be able to even register until February 1, We just wanted you to be aware of this special offer.  If airline tickets stay low this can make it a very economical educational trip.
Offer Expires: March 1, 2010      Registrations begin February 1, 2010