Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Get Gorgeous Hair with Colorist Sherry Ratay

We're doing a rare "off-34th Street" post today as I had an opportunity to get my hair done by award-winning, celebrity colorist Sherry Ratay this morning at the Julien Farel Salon, a wonderful oasis for hair located north of 34th Street on Madison Avenue. I was too ecstatic with the results to not share.

#LobbySelfie

First up, the woman herself: Sherry is a personable, talented, and honest colorist (every girl's goal should be to have an honest colorist on speed dial). She immediately sat me down and asked me about myself. Our conversation went a lot like this:

Me (elevator hair pitch): "I'm busy, I'm broke, I'm a mom, I'm going grey. And I sometimes use box color."
Sherry (reacting only to the latter): "OK, don't do that. But if you have to, only do the top section."
Me (grey pitch): "Maybe I should go all grey?"
Sherry (emphatically): "No."
Me: "Maybe by 55?"
Sherry: "Maybe 60."
Me: "I want a good grey transition color."
Sherry: "Yeah, there's no such thing"

God, how I love a forthright and frank exchange. Next, Sherry and I talked color. I told her how I love a rich brown, but don't like red tones in my hair. She said today we would stick to a darker brown, but I should someday do a subtle reddish shine on the ends. In my mind I went "OMG IS SHE TALKING OMBRE?" Turns out no, but soon the actual conversation turned to ombre.

Me: "Sometimes I make fun of ombre on Twitter."
Sherry (slightly disapproving, like I should know better than to make fun of an unstoppable hair trend): "Ombre is very beautiful when done correctly."
Me: "..."
And then Sherry said something that might have changed the way I think about ombre forever.
Sherry: "When it looks like a young girl's hair when her color is growing in darker from her baby color, then ombre is beautiful."

I'm not quoting Sherry directly in any of this, but the way she said the above was damn poetic. And she knew her audience: my girl's blond hair is now coming in darker. Sometimes I hold her very blond ends up and think "goodbye, white blond!"

At this point Sherry went off to mix my color, and I Instagrammed a #BeforeSelfie where it's really hard to tell my hair color or see my grey roots (#godblessfilters).


Then Sherry applied color (she uses Beth Minardi Signature color), we had a comfortable chat, and I sat under the heat. Next up, the wonderful Alicia Delbrey, who is Creative Artistic Director at Salon Ratay, Sherry's salon in Orlando, Florida. They travel together to New York about once a month to work their magic at Julien Farel. Alicia trimmed my bangs and styled my hair into some kind of perfect, natural, yet mega-bouncy superwoman hairstyle. The end result? Beautiful, shiny-beyond-shiny color with tons of body. Bouncy body. 

We all said goodbye, and I went down to the lobby where Julien Farel has the perfect post-salon selfie mirror. There I took a million photos while wondering if the receptionist was watching me on the security cameras, debating whether she'd have to call security to get me out of the building. Or perhaps she's totally used to endless selfies in the lobby, because why else would you put that awesome mirror there?

So many ways to pose for the shine.
I then bounced my shiny hair down 57th Street to catch a bus on Fifth Avenue, because I wanted to keep all that glorious hair care above ground. Here's a good #NYC tip: Don't waste a good hair salon visit on subway lighting. 


To book an appointment with Sherry Ratay at Salon Ratay in Orlando, Florida, call (407-330-5151).
For NYC appointments contact the Julien Farel Salon Madison Avenue location, (212) 888-8988, for when Sherry and Alicia are in New York City.





0 comments :