Toner is powerful!  It can transform a blonde in less than 20 minutes.  Often when I mention it to someone in my chair, they haven't heard of it and don't know what it does.
So what is toner?!
Toner is a glorious little thing.  It comes after bleaching the hair and neutralizes unwanted tones from the bleaching.  When you're going blonde, hair naturally pulls a lot of warm tones, thus leaving orange/brassy or yellow tones that aren't the most flattering.  The yellow I always refer to as "french fry yellow".  Who want's french fry yellow hair?!  Not this girl!
Toner is extremely helpful for hair.  It only effects the lighter hair, therefore not doing anything to your natural hair color.  Got french fry yellow?  A purple based toner helps neutralize. Hating the brassy orange tone of your blonde?  A blue based toner will take care of that.  What about that red hue left from lifting really dark hair?  A green based toner is the key!  
So, next time your stylist is mentioning that toner is an important part of the process, don't be afraid to ask about it and how it works.  I love chatting with my clients about why I'm doing something on their hair and seeing the "a-ha" moment when they get why it works that way.  

With love and hair,
Megan

I officially have shelves! Do you want to know what the shelves are for???

SOAP!

That's right y'all, I am LOVING making soap and I am moving forward with coming up with my own recipes to bring to the shop for you to enjoy!

I am so excited for this you guys.  Everyone that has tried my soap so far has given me such good feedback and it makes my heart so happy that what started as my little hobby is making sweet people happy in their homes!

Above is a before and after of the start of blonding sweet Jess!  This is a perfect example of going blonde, slowly!  We don't want to damage her hair, so rather than take her to that brighter blonde she ultimately wants, we've started by going to this medium blonde.  Stay tuned till next time we do the next round to see her process!

I hope you enjoyed getting to see what goes on in my little salon and out!  Tell me, what is your favorite part I shared and what do you want to see more of???

With love and hair,
​Megan

Mia's mom has been coming to have her hair done by me for probably 8 years now.  I got to hear stories through her mother's eyes of her growing up, finding herself and finding her true love.  So when she came to me about doing Mia's hair for her wedding, I was overjoyed!  
If you haven't followed me for a while, I got married in October of 2016 when hurricane Matthew came threw.  The day after we drove off to the beautiful North Carolina mountains where we had this precious honeymoon cabin.  It was glorious and I am always trying to figure out how to get back there.  So, when Mia came in for her trial and told me this was a mountain wedding right outside Asheville, I jumped for joy!  Come to find out, her venue was literally right down the road from our cabin we love!  So I packed up my stuff and my husband and away to this beautiful wedding we drove!
Mia had this vision for this soft, ethereal bridal braid that flowed like her dress.  It was EVERYTHING I have ever hoped and dreamed for.  I do hope you enjoy seeing her on her most special day!  

Photographer: Thirteenth Moon Photography
Wedding Gown: Modern Trousseau - Hayden Olivia Boutique
Hair: Megan Pirrocco
Makeup: Nina McCaskey - Wedded Kiss Beauty
Coordination: Erica Batstone - The Farm, A Gathering Place
Officiant: Jeff Marsocci and Rev. Dr. Clay Macaulay
Florist: Flora Boutique

With love and hair,
​Megan

It's that time of year where the weather is hot and and we are all excited to head to the beach and pool!  That's a fantastic time of year to be in!  But our poor hair does not fair well in such conditions.  Salt water, chlorine, and sun rays all take their toll on our lovely locks.  So how do we help prevent that and keep our hair healthy???

I hope this helped you in your summer plans!  As I'm sure you can tell, I wrote this blog using images from a recent weekend getaway :].  I'll leave below a few more photos that aren't as related to hair, to share our adventure!  Where are you vacationing this summer?!

Sunrise

Sunset

We explored Fort Fisher with my adorable grandparents!

With love and hair,
​Megan

Often I find myself discussing people what they want to do with their hair, and we hit this point in which they really aren't sure which way they are wanting to go with their cut or color.  That's what my job is, to help YOU find what you want to do with your hair to make it not only in it's most healthy state, but also most flattering state.  I want you to feel gorgeous!  So, I'm going to start sharing at the end of each month, some inspiration for you from what I did on others that whole month.  My intentions for this type of blogging is to help give you inspiration and help on how to choose your hair change, even if you aren't local and can't have me do your hair!  SO, let's get started...

If you've followed me for a while, you may recognize Sarah.  Sarah is a friend from middle school who has entrusted me with her hair since before I was even licensed to do it.  I can honestly say I've made Sarah just about every color.  She's been platinum to a deep, deep brown, to different vivid tones. She's a blessed lady in that she can wear anything!  So a few months back, she decided she wanted to go away from the blue and purple and try a red.  What you see pictured is her hair after growing out a while from that first phase of red.  The thing with vivids is, you have to take out all the pigment.  So she was very blonde when we started this red journey, so she decided to stay a light red.  It has been so cute on her!  Red, however, is such a high maintenance color. If Y O U are considering red,  remember that it fades quickly.  See her before picture?  That's is from the fading with pre-lightened hair.  She faded to a nice, light copper.  

Jo has so much hair!  Thus why we love adding in some highlights to give her amazing dimension!  Highlights help break up color, give dimension and brighten the hair.  If you want to try out color without deep commitment, highlights are a perfect option.  You can do anywhere from just a couple around your face to your entire head!  Gently woven in color allows you to try out so many different options!

Brooke has those gray hairs that love to be seen!  She was wanting something to freshen up in between her root touch up appointments so she they would be blended in for some photos.  So, we decided on a glaze to help blend her grays.  A glaze is a demi-permanent color that gently fades over 4 to 6 weeks.  Another way to try out color without full commitment, a glaze also blends gray rather than fully cover.  Therefore it was a fantastic option for her in between appointments to help her gray keep from popping out too much! 

I hope this helped you in some way.  Remember that I am here for you!  If you ever have any questions about anything hair related, please leave me a comment, sent me an email or find me on one of my social media platforms where you can reach out.  I love helping people and I am always here to help!

With love and hair,
​Megan

Summer is upon us!  That means hot days spent in the sunshine by the pool or at the beach, basking is the warmth of it all.  I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no desire to blow dry my hair this time of year.  It's too hot to start blowing hot air all around.  So enter one of my favorite summer styling products: Sea Salt Spray!
What exactly is it?
A sea salt spray is a product that comes as a spray that you add into damp hair to crazy a beachy texture in your hair.  
Who is it for?
Anyone with a form of wave or curl.  If you have really fine, straight hair, it will break up the straightness a bit and add texture, but it's not the magic product to produce curls.  The best trick for you would be to put it in damp, french braid your hair and leave it overnight.  If you do have some form of wave/curl, it really helps to enhance your curl pattern. 
How to use it?
The best way to use this fantastic little product is to spray it in hair that is somewhat damp.  I don't mean straight out of the shower.  You want your hair to air out a little bit and not have so much water in it, but still have a little wetness for the product to work with.  Spray all throughout your hair and gently work your fingers through it to help add to the texture.  If necessary, twirl some top pieces of hair to get them to form the wave you want.  That's it!  All that's left to do is let it finish drying while you go enjoy life and save time from blow drying in the summer.

Below is the video in which I talk about sea salt spray and my love for it.  I ask in the end of the video if you guys would like to see a DIY Sea Salt Spray sometime and am realizing I never made such a video!  I have to say I am a lover of DIY, so if you would like to see that, drop me a comment and let me know!  I will purposefully make sure it happens this summer!

With love and hair,
​Megan

Red is that color you see on someone else and gush at how vibrent their color is but shriek at the thought of putting it in your hair.  It takes a lot of confidance to pull off red, but honestly there is a red for everyone.  Did you know I was a violet based red the majority of my high school years?  It wasn't until cosmetology school when we really started playing with colors that I went away from it.  It's that color that has so many possibilities but yields up keep, which can be intimidating but pulled off correctly, is SO so good!

Take B for example.  She has always loved a good red.  She never made the full commitment until recently though.  In her high school days, she tried the Kool-aid trick to get some red. (I have to be honest, she taught me that it was a thing, I had never heard of it before.  But I can't help but wonder, who was the first person to try it and what made them think to do it???)  She had been sporting her natural for a good while and finally decided to take the plunge.  Can I just say, it was perfect for her!!  Check out the before and after below and let me know your favorite type of red!

With love and hair,
​Megan

Being involved in the wedding industry, I always get involved in friends weddings beyond the title of bridesmaid.  Back in 2016, my friend Sarah asked me to be her Maid of Honor and her hair/makeup team for her big day and I graciously accepted.  I've been close with Sarah since we met in 6th grade.  Our friendship is at this date over 15 years old!  ​

Today I celebrate 8 years since graduating cosmetology school!  That means I've been doing hair for 9 years now and I wanted to write a blog post to share some images over the years and just simply state how grateful I am for everyone that has been there for me all these years. 

If you don't know my back story,  I grew up in North Durham and went to cosmetology school right after high school.  I wasn't too far away from home, in fact I lived at home and commuted to Chapel Hill where I attended the Aveda Institute on Franklin St.  Oh Aveda, there were so many photos I had to go through to pic out a top few to share.  It's incredible how fast it all went by and how ultimately it laid down the foundations of my career, but I've learned so much more over the years from being out of school.

Those images above of the girl with the HUGE hair are from the Fashion show we were a part of.  We were put in groups of three and had to come up with a style based on a particular fashion icon.  (All things that if you know me, you know I am so bad at keeping up with any of that!) So, that girlie with the blonde bangs in the bottom middle picture, had the fantastic idea of us giving our model a huge, blonde afro.  It was AMAZING.  Would you believe we made this poor girl sleep with her hair up in bobby pins to get that z pattern so we'd have the texture?!  I think the fashion show is really the highlight for everyone in school.  It's a time to really get outside your comfort zone and do things you wouldn't do everyday.  

After graduation, I already had been working on my day off at a salon in Durham.  So I went full time there and started building my clientele of the sweet people that have followed me around the triangle.  Here are some images styles I've done over the years.  Note how the pictures aren't taken to really look good and the styles aren't my style today, but all these people have helped shape me into the stylist I am today!

We can't walk down memory lane without peaking at a few works from the cuts and colors all of you have let me do!

Thank you SO much for walking down memory lane with me.  If you read this whole blog and I do your hair, how long have you been with me?  There are some stories of those of you that have watched me grow up, I've watched you grow, we've grown together.  It makes me happy to have such connections with people and I thank you ALL for so much support!

Who loves the look of fresh highlights?   There is just something about that out of salon look that puts a pep in your step and turns on the sassy.  But how often should you be going in to get your highlights touched up?  I have some people who come in every month to get a touch up so they don't look like they ever have new growth.  But sometimes we don't all have the time to be in the salon for a couple hours every 4 weeks, so whats the proper balance?    

The above photo is roughly 6 months of new growth.  No touch ups, no glazes, just wear and tear of everyday hair.  Now, this blonde loves her blonde.  But when she came back in this state of color, she was frustrated with her look and almost ready to pull a Britney.  But I calmed her down by going over steps we can take to keep up with her highlights without her always having to be in the salon.  (Although I do love catching up with everyone,  but I understand we can't see each other nearly every other week!)

Check out the before and after side by side.  It's miraculous what fresh highlights can do.  Can you tell how many colors are in her hair though?  I used FOUR different shades to create this seamless blend!  F O U R!  Who knew there were such options?!  The beauty in highlighting is we can have bright highlights, blending mid-lights and contrasting low-lights.  When you use more than one color, you get a more natural looking dimension, which helps the new growth to not stand out as much.  So you could potentially get 8-10 weeks out of this one highlight!
Check out the close up of all those colors...

I like to do what I call "melted"highlights.  These are basically highlights that are purposefully painted to not all look like they are coming directly from your scalp.  Some pieces do, some pieces do not.  In this particular example, I "melted" two of the four colors the help increase the blend.  This melted look, depending on what the desired result you chat with your stylist about, can get you anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks out of your highlighting session! I know those are the numbers people are wanting to see!  But wait, there's more!

Something new I am incorporating into my appointments with my highlight gals, is an in between services, quickie touch up.  Basically what I mean is a mini highlight, in which you really only spend 45 minutes in the salon.  It's a quick, few highlights right on top where your part is, where they are seen growing out the most.  This service is super helpful for longevity.  We know exactly what to do before you even get there because this is part of the overall plan and scheduled at your previous appointment.  Those few highlights on the part are going to give you the blending you need so you don't look overly grown out.  With this service being a "walk out wet" service, it's quick, efficient and cost effective for keeping your highlights fresh.​  This option is going to help your normal highlight appointment stretch out to around 10 to 14 weeks with a mini appointment around 5 to 6 weeks. Fear not also friend!  Just because it's a "walk out wet" service, doesn't mean you can't get a blow dry.  It's the type of service you have to chat with your stylist about before hand and plan both for time and cost of what it is you're looking for.

I hope you found this blog post helpful!  Please feel free to ask questions either in the comments section or email me your questions!
With love and hair,
Megan