The pH brand and an Educators Journey
The pH brand and an Educators Journey.
How important is education and continued learning to you?
Education for hairstylist is in my opinion, a never ending saga. One that should be embraced whole heartedly and with an open mind. Part of the human Experience I think is the pursuit of continuing to be better and learn a bit more. As such education is a huge part of our Industry. Countless educators amongst a multitude of brands. There are an endless number of options to choose from when looking for new knowledge, and I have personally taken and continue to take so many with many different brands. Those classes and the associates at my salon have been a driving force into my role as a facilitator and educator. I choose to work with the pH brand, a brand which Artistry is driven by Science.
REDKEN.
The journey into Redken was not so cut and dry. I didn’t begin my career as a Stylist with Redken and had indeed used many brands and taken education from a plethora of brands. This doesn’t diminish my path as an Redken Artist, in-fact I think quite the opposite. I speaks volumes on what I think of the brand. As a choice to want to be a facilitator with them.
Redken has become known as the pH brand, a brand where its artistry is driven by Science. This is because they were the first to look at haircare in the 60’s beyond just styling. The issue being the services in salon were affecting hair quality and texture. It was the pairing of actress Paula Kent and stylist/chemist Jerry Redding that first did the deep delve into create hair care to address Paula’s sensitized, chemically processed hair. From them they developed the brand Redken. The world’s first haircare that worked on balancing the pH in your hair that is disrupted during chemical service. They revolutionized haircare and made it available to the public and were the first to teach stylist on how to educate their clients on what it meant to take care of their hair.
This.
This is why I choose Redken. The brand to this day still closely aligns with the mission of creating beautiful art with the true understanding of the science. The know why behind the creating. Education with them includes time spent on technique and learning how the products you are using are aligned for taking care of your client’s hair.
When I reflected on the many different brands and classes I had taken over my career, there were many great classes and I learn’t so much from all of them. However, as my journey in this career evolved I wanted to feel like more of an authority in understanding what I was doing to the hair, truly doing to the hair. What these chemicals were really doing that caused the harm, why certain products were great options and others felt ineffective. There is surface level understanding and then there is deep, true understanding.
Early in our careers, we have a surface level understanding. Our brains are typically so overwhelmed with learning technique that the science part can be left behind a bit. This is understandable and normal if were being honest. We learn enough to know what is happening to the hair, but seldom we go the distance to knowing the properties of hair and hair color to its core. Understanding the medium that is hair and hair color at a micro level can help elevate your artistry because once you know all the rules and nuances, you know how to break them and create freely.
Working with Redken as an Artist and the journey to become an artist is without a doubt a defining moment in my career. The time spent learning not just the art, but the knowledge of the fabric of hair and science of color let me now work in a truly creative way. And it’s been an exciting venture to now a part of the brand that helps relay this knowledge to the hair community.
Trent Matthews
@trent_matthews_