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SEARCHWhen a salon owner embraces her new neighboring paint store, she discovers a unique educational opportunity for her staff.
The news of a paint store moving into the shopping center where Kitty Tierney's Impressions Salon and Spa is located in Mequon, Wisconsin didn't thrill her in the least. "First the tanning salon moved out, then the restaurant—the news of a paint store didn't excite me at all. My small shopping center of six businesses was not renting to my dream merchant mix at all." But Tierney soon discovered, the paint store offered her staff the perfect learning environment. Here, Kitty shares her tale:
"At the same time that the paint store moved in, we hired a new stylist assistant Brittany. I was having the hardest time getting through to Brittany about hair color. I kept referring the color wheel. I thought everyone understood the wheel from basic art class in high school, but she just wasn't getting it.
"At the same time, I was painting the salon. I wanted the door jams beige. Not a cool beige, not a warm beige—just beige. I had the color chart from the new Hallman-Lindsay paint store in my office at the salon. Color is color I though. Hair or paint. Red neutralizes green always. Get rid of yellow? Add purple. It's a rule. This never changes. So, if you have red hair and you want it to look brown, we put green-based color on it. Hmmmm...my wheels were turning.
"Is this why people get themselves in trouble doing box color at home? They can't teach the color wheel at the grocery store near the box color. Hair color is just like the color at the paint store. If I want beige paint for my wall, I might start with a white base (thing grey hair) and put in two squirts of yellow and two squirts of purple.
"I had an idea. I called Amy at the paint store next door and asked, 'Can we do a hair color class at your paint store?' 'Sure,' she agreed.
'I took samples of the paint colors for the woodwork and we sarted to add color to a white base. Every color can be achieved with all three primary colors.
'I gathered the assistants and we met at the paint store. We took different bases and saw that one squirt of black, one red and one yellow made brown. Two yellows made a khaki. The staff was amazed. Suddenly, color made sense to them, and I had an alliance with my new neighbor.
I had another idea. Hair color has different finishes and textures just like color on your wall. For example, we use Redken color, so for us...Redken's new Chromatics=Gloss, Shades EQ=Semi-gloss, Shades creme color=Satin, Fusion =Eggshell, etc. Coverage, texture, longevity, color. This is really getting exciting!
In the end, I learned that we are not so different from our new business friends. And Brittany and the team learned about color theory!
CLICK HERE if you or your staff want to brush up on color theory!
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