Danielle Avila Hair

It took me being forced to close my small business, to see the importance of slowing down. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went camping before this year, or completely unplugged for 2 days! It felt so good to slow down! I would work 10-12 hour shifts 5 days a week behind the chair, and spend my weekends working on the other side of the business. No scheduled breaks, back to back clients, and working holidays. To be honest, I was a total workaholic! Not to say I’m no...t still obsessed with my career, but I never allowed myself to pause and focus on anything except work! I was full speed ahead, ready for the next project, trying to fill every empty moment with something to better my business. It wasn’t until I was forced to close my doors, that I finally paused. Not just for the weekend, but truly stopped working behind the chair for 6 months. Never in my life would I have expected that! Having looked at my old work life balance, and how hard I was wearing myself into the ground, I can now see that my mind and body were not heading anywhere good!! I thought I was resting, but really it was shove everything to the side just to stress myself out that I had too much to do when I got back at it. I would panic to cancel a client for even major medical reasons. I would come in early, stay late, work a wedding on the weekend, book a class every month. I can now say that I am a self proclaimed recovering workaholic, and forcing myself to pause and rest. That doesn’t mean I’m not still 110% still obsessed with my job and the industry, but that I can have Saturday’s off and the world won’t collapse. Well, at least not because I need to reschedule someone. Just make sure in life you take time to pause, breathe, assess your life and make sure you’re doing things that are heading you in the right direction.

She had never colored her hair before seeing me and was super nervous about it! Now she wants more blonde each time . We first started out by using high lift blonde to give her the most subtle of all my highlighting techniques. Once seeing how natural well placed highlights can look, we added a round of hand painting with clay lightener to brighten her up and add more dimension. Now she’s transitioned to high contrast hand painting and loving it! . I love that my guests fu...lly trust me I feel that I do my best work when given a direction and told to do my thing! Having systems in place for my coloring and cutting allows me to build on to them, and create custom looks for each appointment. . For the free pattern on this balayage, follow @crafthairsociety! Full demos coming soon! See more

Would you believe me if I told you her 6 roots almost 100% grey 2 hours before this photo? . Swipe for the proof! . I used to struggle with grey coverage, finding the right tones and wanting to highlight through to make it look natural...... . This challenged me to think outside the box (or tube ) and really take a step back and think about what I was trying to create. . A natural blonde doesn’t have a base color and highlights. And why put in color if I’m just trying to lift it back out? Lowlights? Combo? Base color today and highlight next appointment? . Instead, with the limited time we had, we decided to use a base color, a lowlight and a highlight! Lol yes, that’s a base, full highlight, lowlight and haircut...in 2 hours. . How? Apply it all at once!! Apply base color (10/00 and 10/32 20volume) to outgrowth. Re-mix same base but as deposit only and pull through zone 2 Hand paint with deep V pattern through root color and ends on the surface level only (clay lightener 20volume) Shampoo with purple shampoo and admire your work . Full pattern available for free at @crafthairsociety #crafthairsociety See more

I love this!! This is why I choose to teach systems! Systems teach you to think about what you’re doing and why, so you can make it your own! Train yourself to understand something, not just to repeat and regurgitate it!

Ok, now THIS makes me happy for fall . Anyone interested in this pattern?? It’s the same system I use for balayage and foilyage, only in reverse!! I’ll be showing this pattern Monday evening! DM me or comment below for the info!! Informal yet informational Q and A and talking systems! #balaygepatterns #balayagehighlights #reversebalayage #systems #haircolor #hairstylist #crafthair #crafthairsystems #crafthairsociety #danielleavilahair #hairclasses #haireducation