VODA Magazine

Thursday November 7, 2013

Fall Colors – Chicago’s Maxine Salon rounds up the hottest in hair color this autumn

By Emily Belden

There are two points in the year that we are tempted to change our hair color: spring, and fall. I don’t know what it is exactly, but something about the leaves changing and temperatures dropping makes us run to our colorists and beg for change. This year, it was no different, so I headed to Chicago’s famed Maxine Salon for a fall transformation from their resident colorist, Rex Jimieson.

If the color on his arms (he’s majorly inked!) says anything, Rex is all about spicing things up. So when I sat down in the chair with my brassy brown locks, I let him have at it. That’s right: “Dealer’s choice,” I told him. Rex circled around my chair and pondered for a few minutes before an idea visibly hit him and he rushed off to mix up the color.

In addition to being a L’Oreal certified salon, Maxine is also known for having “specialized” stylists and colorist. That means, their hair cutters solely focus on the “sculpting” aspect while hair colorists strictly handle the “painting” side of things.

After bring two bowls of dye back to the station, Rex got to work. I still did not know what the end goal was, but it didn’t stop him from weaving small sections of my hair with the tip of a comb, slathering on color with a brush, and wrapping the strands in foil one after the next. It wasn’t until an hour later when all of the color was applied and my head was full of tin strips that he finally filled me in on what he was working on.

“This fall,” Rex explained, “People are progressing from the ombre trend into a more traditional look.” Considering I first dyed my hair like that (dark-to-light) in 2010, I was excited to try something new.

Rex explained that “traditional” didn’t mean chunky blonde highlights, but rather “color that is more symmetrical,” which was evident as he minded my center part and foiled my hair thinly from scalp to tip on each side.

As he applied color from L’Oreal’s new “Mocha” line – designed specifically for brunettes to infuse warm and cool tones – Rex also mentioned that warmer colors are in for fall, even though people are tempted to go dark.

“We lose a little color in our skin in the winter, so it’s the wrong direction to darker. So stay in the same family or go slightly lighter even,” he recommended.

Rex lightened up strands just around my face to bring focus to my cheek bones and eye color, and I must say, it is my favorite part about the dye job. My skin looks glowing instead of drab, even though it’s been months since my last sun tan.

After about 30 minutes of processing and another 15 minutes for a glaze to sit, I was given a trim-up and blow-out from master cutter (and eligible bachelor, ladies). As he gave movement to my mane, the blondes and caramels began to really pop and I fell in love with the sexy transformation.