Salon Specialization: What’s in it for you?

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Salon specialization is the practice of  creating special teams around cutting and coloring in an effort to allow each stylist to specialize in their respective area.   Specialization isn’t anything new.  Typically you’ll find specialized salons in top tier operations that are obsessed with customer service, whose focus is on excellence, and are incredibly team-oriented.   Maximum FX is a specialized salon.

If we’re being honest, of course we benefit from being specialized.  It helps us to book appointments with more flexibility, allowing us to service more clients and offer a broader range of service availability. Speciazlization also allows us to embody one of our core values: Teamwork. When one team member is falling behind on timing, there’s another one available and waiting to help them out. We can rely on each other, and trust in each other’s skills.

But if we’re being even more honest, the benefits YOU receive from specialization in the salon far outweigh ours.

Specializing allows stylists to excel in their desired skill by achieving higher education, like this cutting class led by Christine Zilinski.

Specialization allows you to receive the absolute best services MFX can offer.

Specialization allows us to offer you the best services possible from the best-trained and most-specialized stylists available. From the beginning, our stylists get to choose their area of specialization and commit to doing the work they love. This soon becomes evident in the results they produce, the investment they make in their craft and the continued education they seek in order to hone their skills even further. Ever heard the expression “Jack of all trades, master of nothing?” At MFX, our stylists are masters in their specialization, whether it be cutting or coloring.

In addition to getting the best possible service and results, you also share one of our benefits: flexibility and availability in scheduling! Some color and cut combination services can take up to THREE HOURS! That’s an entire afternoon that would need to be available for one specific stylist. With a demand for a long appointment, availability can sometimes be a nightmare, pushing your color or cut out two, three, maybe even four weeks!  Combine this with a demanding work schedule or children’s school demands, and we’d only see you twice a year! With specialization, the necessary time for each individual stylist is greatly reduced, giving you a much greater chance of getting your cut and color when you need it at the best time for you.   It’s not about us, it’s about YOU.

Sure, specialization means that sometimes another stylist will blow-dry your hair, or rinse out your color, but rest assured that you can trust their skills as well. All of our stylists must be skill certified on all of the services we offer in the training process. Not only does this ensure that they are able to provide you exceptional results, but that the results will reflect the superior skills of one another. However, if there’s a certain way you like your bangs dried or your favorite stylist does this “thing” during your shampoo that feels soooo good, let us know! Our stylists are more than happy to share their skills with each other. What’s better than one stylist giving you an awesome blowout juuuust the way you like it? Another one able to do the exact same thing.  We share this bit information not to convince you that this is a better way to provide services, but instead, to inform you why we’ve chosen to operate this way.    That’s not to say that salons that do not specialize are inferior.   Specialization works for us, and we’ve seen better results all the way around.

Filed Under: General, Hair, Team Culture

Headmapping™: Helping salons and clients care for the environment

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maximum fx, best hair hair salon austin, hair color, aveda, austin

Hair Color Expert Erica Colon applies hair color using the Headmapping technique

With the increasing evidence of environmental damage shown by higher temperatures, a depleting o-zone layer and the disappearance of certain plants and animals, it is more urgent than ever for businesses to take steps to protect the environment in order to preserve it. Headmapping™ is the salon and beauty industry’s solution to conserving color waste as it allows salons, like Maximum FX, to reduce waste and make a conscious effort to care for the environment.

Headmapping™, created by Walter Claudio, is a new and innovative way to standardize hair coloring. It determines exactly which sections of hair will be colored and the exact amount of product to be used. With Headmapping™, color clients are still left with the color they desire but leave a smaller imprint on the environment in the process.

Headmapping™ is the only standardized hair coloring system that effectively reduces waste. According to the official Headmapping™ website, “the system defines areas of the head into specific sections, creating a ‘map’ that determines exactly how much… product… is required to perform each service.” Erica Colon, Lead Color Specialist of Maximum FX, says that it is as simple as paying attention; “Before, colorists were mixing the same amount of color for every color service. With Headmapping™, we can mix less color because [stylists] are paying attention to exactly which panels of the head are being colored.” By having this coloring system, it is possible to accurately measure the amount of color necessary to achieve the desired results and to eliminate wastes of unused product.

With eliminating color waste, Headmapping™ salons, like Maximum FX, are doing three major things to help safeguard the environment: minimizing their carbon footprint, decreasing the amount of toxic chemicals being washed down the drain and saving resources. When choosing a salon, color clients should consider choosing an eco-friendly one, concentrated in helping the environment, in order to decrease their environmental impact as well.

Filed Under: Business, Earth Month Tips, Environmental Responsibility, Erinn, General, Stuff We're Working On

America’s #1 resolution is good for your skin too

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Photo: dirjournal.com

Photo: dirjournal.com

According to PRweb and Yahoo!, the number one resolution for 2012 is “getting in shape.”  The best way to achieve this goal is with a balanced diet and exercise. Exercise helps to control weight, combat health conditions, improve your mood, increase energy, and promote better sleep (Mayoclinic.com).

It also helps to improve your skin!

The number one skin care problem is acne; exercise can help with that! Physical activity produces sweat, which helps flush bad, acne-causing chemicals and bacteria from your pores. As long as you bathe regularly after exercising, and always exercise in clean, ventilated clothing, exercise can actually help clear up your skin problems. Try Aveda’s Calming Body Cleanser, $16, to wash your body while also calming the senses and hydrating your skin.

We all know exercise helps to reduce stress, therefore also reducing the production of cortisol, the hormone which causes skin cells to age faster. With relief from stress, expect to have a naturally fresh, glowing complexion.

Finally, exercise helps to increase blood circulation, carrying vital nutrients to all parts of your body, especially the skin (your largest organ). Blood circulation helps keep skin cells healthy and encourages quick cell turnover… which helps you prevent wrinkles! For even more help in the cell turnover department, try Aveda’s Botanical Kinetics™ Exfoliant, $20. For anti-aging, check out Aveda’s Green Science™ Firming Face Crème, $55.

As you’re powering through your fifth mile or trying to think of a reason to skip your Saturday morning boot camp class, just remember, with exercise – and a little help from Aveda – your skin will be fabulous in no time!

What challenges do you have with your skin? You might already have something at home that can help. Leave a comment below and we might be able to make a recommendation to solve a particular problem you might be having.

Filed Under: Skin Tagged With: , , , , , ,

“Improving Lives is a Gift.” Aveda Holiday 2011

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Aveda Holiday 2011 Photo: Aveda

Last year, Aveda brought you “Gifts Bright with Hope” by partnering with communities protecting the rainforest for its 2010 Holiday Collection. The holiday gift sets included native tagua nuts hair bands. These tagua nuts became the largest fair trade, sustainably harvested, rainforest product exported in Colombia’s history. They also helped 400 families build a better future and worked to preserve 400 acres of rainforest.

This year, Aveda brings you the story of a partnership with communities in Nepal with “Improving Lives is a Gift.”

Have you seen the beautifully hand-crafted, sustainably sourced, green paper wrapped around all of our holiday gift sets? It began as bark from a lokta tree, was then beaded and cooked into a pulp mixture, dried by the sun and dyed with non-toxic pigments. This papermaking industry has employed 3,800 people in the Himalayas of Nepal, 80% of whom are women.

When you purchase an Aveda holiday gift set, you are helping in a decade long mission to aid the nation of Nepal. According to a press release by Aveda, this partnership has helped “empower Napali communities to develop a sustainable business, keep Napali families intact, support the art of papermaking and reverse local deforestation.”

Watch this video to find out more about the papermaking process, the benefits of this partnership and the women Aveda is helping to support, like Guma Pun, 23.

The women of Nepal helped bring you this year's Aveda holiday gift sets. Photo: Aveda

Aveda Holiday 2011: The Story of Nepal

Filed Under: Environmental Responsibility, Products Tagged With:

Four brushes you must have in your bathroom

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You’ve been trying for days to recreate the same style you got at the salon. You’ve bought all the same products, spent hours in front of the mirror and still can’t make it look right. One small change could make a HUGE difference – your hair brush.

Having the correct tool is just as important as the getting the right product and having the right technique. You wouldn’t use Brilliant products on thin, flat hair to create volume, would you? So, why are you still using a paddle brush instead of a round brush for lift? It’s the same concept.

Read on the find out which brush will give you the style you’re looking for, and get ready to make the switch to excellent at-home style.

Round brush – Round brushes come in various sizes and are usually metal or ceramic, which makes them excellent heat conductors. Want curls? Use a small round brush. Large ones are used to give you volume and lift. Large round brushes can also be used to straighten hair and add a bevel (rounded ends) on curly or thick hair.

 

 

Paddle brush – Paddle brushes are wide and flat brushes with bristles that generally massage the scalp. This can help to stimulate hair follicles and distribute natural oils throughout the hair. These brushes are used for smoothing and straightening the hair, and are not the best brush to use for volume. If you choose a round brush to straighten, the paddle brush can be a good finishing tool for you to smooth hair.

 

 

 


Mason Pearson- Mason Pearson brushes are handcrafted, thus not mass produced. They are great for straightening the hair, and “grabbing” the hair in order to smooth out any unwanted kinks. They are also helpful in smoothing out ponytails for upstyling. Made with boar bristles, these brushes help distribute scalp oils throughout the hair shaft, giving it shine. There are three types of Mason Pearson brushes and each is designed for a specific type of hair: Boar Bristle tufts, for fine to normal hair; Boart Bristle & Nylon tufts, for normal to thick hair; Nylon tufts, for especially thick hair.

Denman- Known as the “hairdressers’ brush,” is an anti-static, half-rounded, rubber-based brush with smooth rounded nylon quills. These brushes are especially good for drying precision haircuts (think: Rihanna). The staggered positioning of the nylon quills allows for excellent grip and control for maintaining tension of the hair while styling. These brushes are also good to use to curl ends under, or flip them out.

MFX stylists will always walk you through your blowdry by demonstrating product usage, helpful techniques and correct tool selection, but if you ever have a question, just let us know and we’d be happy to help!

Filed Under: Hair
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