Some years back a salon manager who believed that stylists should continually take hair color classes and constantly upsell their clients to color told me that she walked her staff over to the nearby mall and said, “Look around. Do you see any women with gray hair? Not many, right? Well, most of them have at least some gray, so if you’re not seeing it that means they must be getting their hair colored somewhere. Since I don’t recognize any of those women, I assume they’re not getting their hair colored in our salon.”

Today it’s even more true—women are better than ever at tricking Old Man Time. They have not only full gray coverage but also the subtle highlights that nature stole from them long before they ever saw their first gray strand. While there will always be women who color their hair at home, when you see those expertly placed highlights or an underneath flash of lowlights, you can bet they didn’t do it themselves.

Color is where the money is. If you increase your color business, your income will multiply. You can make it happen. Sharpen your skills with color classes. Tell your clients you love doing color and have some great ideas for giving them the vibrance of youth. Plant the seeds even if they’re not ready to go for it yet, or start them slowly with a color gloss. Learn everything you can about color so that you become confident. That’s really all it takes.

Photo credits: Style by Tyler Caswell; assistance by Angela Carroll; photography by Roberto Ligresti; make-up by David Maderich; photostyling by Viviana Rodriguez.

We’re so American; sometimes we forget that there’s a whole world out there. Now that other countries have finished watching us conduct our election, maybe it’s our turn to watch them. Do you ever pick up a foreign hair or fashion magazine? You’ll find a wealth of hair styling education in there even if you just look at the pictures and don’t read a word. Italy, Great Britain, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Russia, African and Mediterranean countries—they all influence what you do for your clients in urban, rural and smalltown USA.

You can learn a lot in online hair education as well. In fact, on Intercoiffure Mondiale’s website you can literally leaf through, page by page, the organization’s entire 2008 magazine. Intercoiffure’s 3,000-strong international membership is dedicated to celebrating high-quality hairdressing across the globe, so this is a good place to start. Or subscribe to Estetica Magazine’s world version.

There are two great reasons to know what’s going on in hair and fashion globally. One is that the U.S. isn’t always ahead of the game; often a trend starts in Europe or Asia before crossing one pond or the other to reach us. So if you see a look that you’re not doing today, you may be doing it next season. The second reason is that America is a melting pot of nationalities. The guest in your chair has some other ancestral home and the hair texture to prove it. Learn how to make her look fabulous. She’ll love you!

Photo: Part of the Intercoiffure Mondiale collection from Sydney, Australia. Hair by the Intercoiffure Oceania Team under the direction of Jamie Carroll; photography by Felicity Jenkins; make-up by Alan Deikman; photostyling by Eye of the Tiger.