EP 354 From Olympic Stripes To Everyday Confidence

A striped hairstyle on the Olympic stage did more than turn heads...it gave quiet permission to show up as yourself. We dive into why that matters, how trends can serve confidence instead of swallowing it, and what it looks like to translate bold inspiration into wearable, healthy hair that fits your life and your brand.

Underneath it all is a simple truth: confidence never goes out of style. When hair aligns with who you are becoming, even the simplest ponytail reads iconic. Healthy hair becomes the amplifier, which is why we spotlight routines that protect shine, strength, and cuticle health—so trying something new feels exciting, not risky. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s color-curious, and leave a review telling us: what hair choice made you feel most like you?

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Transcript

Alyssa’s Authentic Olympic Hair

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Did you happen to see Alyssa lose hair at the Olympics? I'm sure you did, because I did. And the first thing I thought wasn't about her jumps. It was about her hair. Of course it was. That's who I am. But what really struck me wasn't just the style itself. It was how authentic it felt. It wasn't trying too hard. It wasn't screaming for attention. It just felt like her. And when her hair feels authentic, it influences people. Not because it's extreme, not because it's shocking, but because it gives permission. And today I want to talk about that. Trends, confidence, and why it's more than okay to be yourself, especially when it comes to your hair. Welcome to All About Hair with Denise. This is where we talk about hair, confidence, and why a good hair day can seriously change your whole mood. It's like hanging out and chatting about life, feeling good, and loving your hair. No pressure, no perfection. So grab your coffee, settle in, and let's talk about loving your hair and yourself a little more. Alright, you guys, you know that trends move fast, right? One minute, everybody wants beach waves, or it's blunt bobs, or it's glassy hair, or it's texture, or it's vivid color. But sometimes as a stylist, this can feel exhausting. And as a customer or as a client, it can feel really intimidating when you see somebody on TV or you see somebody out in public and you're thinking, wow, that is really cool, but can I pull it off? You might see something and think, is that too bold for me? Am I too old for that? Because you know, there's a lot of gray-haired ladies out there, they are loving their little lavender streaks or their purple hair. I see it a lot. Is it unprofessional? That's a whole conversation in itself. And what would people think? Now, if you've didn't see the Olympics on TV, or if you are hiding under a rock, I guess, you might be wondering what I'm talking about. But you know, the U.S. gold Olympic champion, Alyssa Liu, who had the striped hair, you've had to have seen her. She's this wonderful. What a wonderful story behind that. Where she just is doing things her own way. She's not letting people tell her how to look, how to act, how to eat. And she has just found so much joy in just being 100% herself. I love that. It's about being authentic. That's what this is all about, and being your best version of you. So that's whose hair we're talking about is Alyssa, the gold medal champion from the Olympics this last couple of weeks. But as a stylist, you're probably thinking, do I even want to offer this? I mean, can I even? I don't even know how to do this. Is this just a passing phase, or is are people going to be coming in here wanting this striped effect on their hair? Doesn't even align with my brand. Do I have the skill set to even know how to do this? There is a lot of tension with staying current and staying true to yourself. So let me take you back to a story. It was, I think it was like 2012. And I think that's right when the vivid colors or the rainbow hair, unicorn hair, whatever you want to call it, it just kind of came on the scene. At least it did in our neck of the woods. In Virginia, that's where I had my salons. Uh, sometimes we're a little bit behind. Anyway, I think it was 2012, and that's when it really started taking off in our town. And I'll I'll be honest, I said, we are not doing this. This is a fad. I'm not gonna spend the money on buying the hair color because it takes all this stuff. You know, I built the whole reputation of the salon on beautiful, believable hair, you know, dimensional blondes, rich brunettes, healthy shine, hair that looked expensive but effortless. That was our whole brand. So when the vivids started trending, I said, nope, not in my salon. We're not doing that. But then, but here's the beautiful part, you guys. My team took it upon themselves to learn. And oh my gosh, I am so glad they did. Just because I was uncomfortable with it, and to tell you the truth, I felt like I couldn't do it. And I think it was just my skill set, I just didn't know. But my team, they were young, they were trendy, and they saw something that I didn't. They were excited, they were inspired, and they wanted to play. They didn't want to just do touch-ups on level six hair and covering gray all the time. So instead of shutting it down, they leaned into it, and oh my god, they did a fabulous job. They didn't make it chaotic, they didn't make it messy, they made it artistic, controlled, beautiful. Oh my gosh. I uh I remember this one that they did lots of rainbow hair, lots of rainbow hair in different sections, things like that. But um, one of the gals did another stylist that that worked for us, okay? So this was not on a client, but she did silver roots and then rainbow hair. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you've got to see the picture. It was stunning, stunning. And it took them, I don't know how many hours to achieve that and the placement of it. But here's the thing we would never do that on a client. And do you want to know why? The upkeep. There is no way. My stylist who had this done to her, she would go probably five, six days without shampooing her hair. Because what happens is when you shampoo the hair, if you're not shampooing it correctly, the vivid colors, of course, will fade. We were afraid that they would bleed into one another. Because remember, this was at the start of this. She would get her hair shampooed professionally at the salon. And remember, her roots were silver, and she had really, really vivid rainbow colors on the rest of her hair. So we would have somebody hold up her rainbow hair, somebody would shampoo her scalp first. But here's the catch: it had to be with cold, cold water. So it would not fade the color. First of all, what would you charge for this? That's why we wouldn't do it. The upkeep on it, and then how to maintain it. My goodness. That was a whole other story. Some of these are unrealistic and they're just creative and they're just for art. My team, I had to just sit back and say, okay, let me see what you can do. And they did not disappoint me. And this moment really taught me something as a leader. Sometimes growth doesn't look like protecting what you built. Sometimes it looks like you have to pivot and evolve with it. And vivids are still here. And I'm so glad that we all learned and we all took classes on how to do it. And our color line came out with a vivid line. Uh, we did use a couple of different lines for achieving some of the looks that we wanted, but we evolved and we still had we still did it. But I can guarantee you that the hair looked healthy, shiny, conditioned. Okay, so that's why Alyssa Liu's Olympic hair hit me the way it did. When someone like her stands on a global stage, like the Olympics, and shows up fully herself with her hair and all, it matters. It says you do not have to fit in into a mold, you don't have to look like everybody else, and you don't have to tone yourself down. Trends at their best aren't about copying, they're about being authentically you. They're about permission. You don't have to ask permission to be you. It's the permission to experiment, it's the permission to evolve, it's the permission to express yourself. Now, let me speak directly to stylists for just a minute. You don't have to love every trend. I don't love every trend. However, you do have to understand them. And now, whether that means take a class and learn how to do it, or watch a YouTube and learn how to do it, you need to study them. You need to practice them because I guarantee you somebody's gonna sit down in your chair and they want this look. And it's up to you to learn how to adapt it to them. Maybe you come up with your own brand of it. You don't have to copy what Pinterest does, you just have to interpret it to your brand and to what you want as your walking billboard out there. That's what I used to tell my stylist. What do you want if there was a billboard that was shouting your name on it, Jane Doe hairstylist? What would it look like and what would it say? Mine, I would always say, would be beautiful, believable hair, because that's what I'm all about, right? Easy, breezy, believable hair. That's not everybody. Maybe somebody wants to be the hair extension queen. Maybe somebody wants to be the striped hair queen, maybe somebody wants to do blondes or brunettes or redheads. It's okay. You can be the person to go to. Now, if you're a new stylist, I wouldn't recommend going down one lane. You need to learn everything first, and then you can specialize, but whole other subject there. If your client wants vivid color, maybe if you don't want to give them the full-on unicorn treatment, maybe it's just a hidden panel under tucked underneath. Maybe it's a softer pastel color. Maybe they've got blonde hair. I know my daughter, because I wanted to play around with the vivids, even though that's not my brand, okay? But I needed to know how they worked, how they they worked on the hair. So, of course, my daughter was the guinea pig, and she's been every shade of purple and blue and silver and pink and peach. But I played, okay. And, you know, we learned what fades faster. We learned how to get it out of the hair when it was time. So it's a learning thing. Maybe you have a friend that you could do this with if you don't have a daughter. You need to learn how these colors work and you need to elevate it to your brand. For the clients that are listening out there, you are allowed to ask about it. Yes, you are. Okay, so if this gets you excited, bring in a photo of what you want and tell your stylist what you love about it. Maybe it's not a full-on unicorn kind of thing, but maybe you like the brightness, or maybe you like how playful it is, or maybe you like just that color, that depth, the placement of where the color hits. There's some oil slick colors out there. Oh my goodness. And if you don't know what an oil slick is, I'll put a picture up. But an oil slick is done on darker hair and it looks just like what it says an oil slick, and it's done with vivid colors, but it's on a dark palette. It's stunning when it's done right. But it takes somebody with the skill and the know-how to do it right. But you can collaborate with your stylist, and this builds confidence with both you and the stylist because nothing feels better than being able to experiment and being honest and say, hey, I've never done this before, but hey, let's let's try it out. If you're a stylist and you haven't done it before, maybe use them as a model. We used to um ask for models all the time in the salon, and we would just charge them whatever the color cost. So we didn't charge them for the service. Um sometimes when we first did it, we charge them like a flat$40. But after we got a computer program that that it would actually break down how much color you used, then we could be a little bit more precise. And there's there's um Vish, that's what we used. There's a couple of them up there. Color scale, I think, is one. And then you can just be exact and charge them what the color cost. But that's what we used to do. We would just have models. And you could do that or do it on a doll head. Experiment on a doll head if you don't, if nobody trusts you with their hair. That's funny. Um, hopefully, people trust you with their hair. So, look, here's what I've learned in my 30 years in the industry. Trends come and go, they always will, they always have. But confidence in yourself that never goes out of style. The women who feel the best in their own skin always look the trendiest. Wouldn't you agree? You can feel when a person is aligned with their confidence. It's how they enter a room, it's it's how they walk, it's how they carry themselves, it's how they their shoulders are back, it's something, you know, you you feel it, right? And maybe they don't have the trendiest hair. Maybe they it's pulled back in a low ponytail, but you can tell it is a classic. And their hair is aligned with their lifestyle, aligned with their personality, it's aligned with who they are becoming. And sometimes that means going really bold, but sometimes it's just staying classic. Classic never goes out of style. Sometimes it means growing your hair out, and maybe sometimes it's cutting it really short in a pixie. The magic is in when you own it, when it's what you want to do for you. And this is actually one of the reasons I created the Good Hair Energy box because trends are fun, absolutely, but they're only powerful when you feel confident wearing them. Every box that I put together every month has one product that you're gonna actually use. And the product usually aligns with what season that we are, like if it's gonna be a lot of humidity, we're gonna talk about frizz. It's just gonna be about healthy styling and little touches in the box that help you remember that you matter. It's not about chasing trends, it's about giving you the foundation of shine, strength, protection. So when you do want to try something new, your hair is ready. But healthy hair makes experimentation a lot less scary, and confidence that changes everything. So whether you loved Alyssa Liu's Olympic hair or whether vivid trends still make you a little nervous, here's what I want you to remember hair is always an expression of you. Your hair is your identity, and your hair is energy. You don't have to follow every trend, and you don't have to reject every trend. You just have to choose what feels like you. And if you're a stylist, stay curious, learn new things, but always be open to more. If you're a client, stay brave, ask for more, collaborate with your stylist. It's okay. Because when you feel good in your hair, it changes how you show up in the world. Remember this when you know better, you always do better. Thanks for hanging out with me today. If this episode made you smile or taught you something new, go ahead and hit subscribe and treat yourself to my good hair energy box for some happy male and fun hair favorites each month. And remember, when you know better, you do better.