Latest beauty trends often originate in small neighborhood salons
J.Lo perfected the doe-eyed look on red carpets coast-to-coast by batting custom-made fox-fur eyelashes.
And Gwyneth — oh, Gwyneth, with her stick-straight, shiny blond hair. Doesn't that girl ever have a bad hair day?
Harrumph. But here's the good news: You don't have to be a celebrity to work a little beauty magic. Neighborhood salons have been quietly performing feats like hair extensions, long-wearing false eyelashes and straightening solutions for years. The latter, called "thermal reconditioning," is a Hollywood staple among the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and Julianne Moore, and has gone so mainstream that Gene Juarez's downtown Seattle salon started offering the service — at $700 a pop — this fall.
But it all started in mom-and-pop shops like Salon Juno in the Chinatown International District, where co-owner Karen Lee flattens the locks of dozens of clients each week (for about $300). Demand has been so steady that Lee will open a second salon in Bellevue next month.
"It's really been around the Asian salons for years," said Lee, whose staff trained with Japanese stylists, with whom the procedure originated. "It's gotten really popular in America because celebrities started doing it."
In this way, beauty trends follow the well-worn path from the streets to the masses, where traveling companions include fashion or music.
"It's all about innovation and filling voids," said Barney Bishop, president of New York-based August Bishop, a marketing and trend-watching firm. "Something that's underground produces itself in a way that the mainstream has to take notice."
Locally, word on the "magic straight" procedure has spread outside the Asian community to the point that the majority of Salon Juno's clients who seek sleek hair for up to six months at a time are not Asian.
Rachel Marinos, who hated growing up with curly, frizzy hair so much that she wore a French braid every day in high school, says "magic straight" changed her life. She goes to Salon Juno to smooth her hair every five months and watches DVDs during the three-hour procedure.
"It's the world's greatest thing for curly hair," said Marinos, 35, of Issaquah. "I love it more than Christmas and my birthday."
Marinos discovered the procedure in May and was an instant convert. But others have already moved on to something else.
"It's not so popular with Asians anymore because it's not a new thing," Lee said. "Hair extensions are very hot in Korea and Japan right now."
Once relegated to those who could afford to spend thousands on their hair — and kept hush-hush by celebrity stylists sworn to secrecy — hair extensions are poised to be the next big thing to trickle from Hollywood to the masses.
"Hair extensions are more like fashion jewelry," Lee said. "It's nothing to be ashamed about."
Lee offers the service at Salon Juno, using human hair from Asia — dyed to match the client's hair color — to lengthen locks by gluing strands onto existing hair just below the scalp. The service starts at $400 and can take up to four hours.
"It looks really real," she said. "You can color it or curl it or perm it. You can do anything."
Of course, the art of applying hair extensions is not new. It started as a braiding method that has roots in another ethnic community: African Americans.
Kay Matthews has been doing it for 11 years at Seattle's Madison Avenue Salon, where she attaches hair extensions for several clients a day. The price varies greatly depending on the quality of hair used and method of lengthening, from several hundred dollars to more than a thousand.
"I kind of compare (the quality of hair) to leather shoes," Matthews said. "You can get a cheap pair of leather shoes, but you're not gonna get the wear and tear, the fit, the smoothness."
Madison Avenue Salon offers the braiding method, which involves attaching sewn-together pieces of hair to cornrows at the base of the scalp, and the newer fusion method, which is similar to the glue-on method at Salon Juno. It's pricier, but lasts longer — up to six months.
"Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce ... they all have the fusion," Matthews said. "Fusion is more customized. It's most popular."
So enough about hair on the head. This part is for anyone who has experimented with $2.99 false eyelashes from the drugstore or applied multiple coats of mascara, only to wind up looking like Tammy Faye: There is another way. (But unless you're J.Lo, it doesn't have to involve fur.)
Adrienne Miller of Seattle got hooked on false eyelashes six months ago, when she first had individual lashes professionally attached after seeing it on actresses on TV. Now she says she feels "naked" without them.
"It helps me have a really fresh look without any makeup," said Miller, 32. "My eyes look more twinkly. It sort of makes you look more girly without wearing pink and frills."
The false lashes cost from $20-$45 and stay on for a week or 10 days, depending on the customer. To extend the life of the lashes, stylists recommend going without mascara and washing and sleeping carefully (and don't rub your eyes!).
"This is a trend right now in fashion. Lashes have been really hot," said Diane Marcel of Savvy Salon in Bellevue. "It's a service that people come in asking for."
Marcel charges $20-$35 for the service, which she performs about five to 10 times a week — twice that during the holidays. Madison Avenue Salon charges $45 to apply individual lashes.
Meanwhile, Gene Juarez salons have been researching both hair extensions and false eyelashes and are considering adding them to their services, said spokeswoman Laurabeth Peterson.
Pamela Sitt: 206-464-2376 or psitt@seattletimes.com
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