Becoming Santa!

As has happened for the last couple of holiday seasons, my friend has been coming from Syracuse to see me for that special alchemy that takes his beard from black to Santa White!

It's quite a challenge.

In fact, it's probably the most difficult thing you could ask a stylist to do.

It involves removing nearly all of the pigment from the hair without leaving it so fragile that it might disintegrate. Then you have to tone off the remaining yellow to create the illusion of no pigment left in the hair.

In this case, it takes a lot of bleaching -made more challenging because it's done on his face and his skin is quite sensitive to the bleach. So we do this over the course of a few visits and he goes through various shades of blonde along the way.

Fortunately, he's very patient with the process!

But it can be a lot of fun too!

Last year, he was in for services when a neighbor stopped in with her 2 grandchildren and I was privileged and amazed to watch him go right into Santa mode and interact with those delighted young visitors!

He's a natural!

You can follow him on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/santacuse/

-even better, you can contact him there if you'd like to enhance your (or your children's) holiday experience with a visit from Santa!

Be sure to ask before you tug on his beard!