Stardust

September 4, 2012 | Shikote

The photos from Grateful Dreads’ first photoshoot are here! Ashley is so gorgeous! I really love her style. We met up early that morning, so I could make her hair platinum and touch up her mohawk before the shoot (you can view the process in the next post). Then I made her hair huge and added some bright purple and deep blue to the back! Ashley did her own make up then we drove out to a beautiful spot on the river.

All photos by Amy Hubbarth:

I love Ashley’s confidence! And I really love the one-lens sunglasses! What a special treat to work with these two amazing artists. Thank you I love you guys!!

Platinum Mohawk Session

September 3, 2012 | Shikote

Amy Hubbarth took some cool pictures while I worked on Ashley’s hair. They drove from Detroit for Grateful Dreads’ first photo session!

Finished Look! This is what platinum looks like!!

We liked Ashley’s roots, so I used foils to apply the bleach. After a double process bleach, we then applied a toner by Goldwell. I dried her hair and made it big and billowy and then touched up her sides with Oster 76 clippers, faded her nape, and lined her up!

Special thanks to Denise the barber for teaching me all about clippers. Denise owns and operates Goodfellows Barbershop in Royal Oak.

Summertime at Grateful Dreads

September 2, 2012 | Shikote

I am so thankful to have started something that people love! Grateful Dreads gets busier every week, and that is thanks to all of you. Thank you!

Here are a few pics of what I did this week:

Ashley came in to get her dreads freshened up! Look at the pretty yarn in her hair!

Ashley’s baby likes to pull on her dreads which caused a lot of loose hairs. We got those all worked back into her dreads!

Stu is my newest regular! I’ll fade you!!

Jeremy’s hair felt a little dry, so I nourished his hair with some Original Moxie products. We got all the loose hairs tied in, and I put some Emollience salve on his ends.

Jeremy Porter does Quantum Touch Massage and is an Orgonite vendor. His studio will be open in the next month! I’ll post links. He is amazing!

So beautiful and on her way for the big presentation!

I’ve been studying for my audition in my downtime.

Summer has reached it’s peak, and fall is in the air.

Gluten-free Dog Food in the sign out front!

This flower is inspiration for hair color.

Cool Video by Mai Truong, Melania Sneak

August 30, 2012 | Shikote

Mai made this from our Tuesday shoot!

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Mai Truong, Melania Plasko, and I got together at Grateful Dreads this Tuesday afternoon for a photo shoot! Melania makes clothes and collects them, so we used her clothes and designs. You can look at Melania’s Lookbook to see more of her designs. For this shoot I did her hair and make up in the salon, then we ventured out to an older cemetery in town. I love Melania’s bangs, so I styled her hair around them in every look! We did a smooth first look and agreed to get bigger as we went. I did her makeup using lavender and metal tones. I added some huge thick eyelashes, and we made lipstick out of a mix of eyeshadows.

The first look was very smooth and sleek. I did this with rollers and clips and using an Ibiza boar’s bristle round brush.

I used Kevin Murphy Color Bug at her roots!

These are just shots with my phone! Mai got some beautiful, high-quality shots which I will post as soon as they’re ready.

A Fun Day at Grateful Dreads

August 22, 2012 | Shikote

I really love this shop! It’s a good time!

Teymour and Andros stopped by for a visit. Two of my favorite people!

I put out signs, and people were pouring in!

I wasn’t able to get pics of everyone, but here are some really good ones!

Naveen is an herbal healer in town. He came in for his dreadlocks! We did them on the spot! They took about 3 hours.

Sarah came in feeling like a wild animal, so we went with it and did some peacock ombré.

I love that deep blue! I’ve been doing Sarah’s hair for a while now, and this was her first visit to Grateful Dreads! We had a really nice time catching up.

Thank you to everyone who came in today!

Kevin Murphy Products are Here!

August 22, 2012 | Shikote

I like the new Kevin Murphy line at Grateful Dreads. The products smell great and make your hair feel amazing! I’ve been exploring a lot of new ideas for styling with them too! Kevin Murphy is a session based company which means they do a lot of photo shoots and fashion events. They’re based out of Australia, and the whole line is animal and earth friendly. They use essential oils and leave out the additives which I love. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this line with excellent results!

The color bug is a huge hit! Everyone loves it!

The products came with a manual that describes every ingredient and talks about why Kevin Murphy chose them.

I already notice a change in how I style hair since using Kevin.Murphy. I’m really impressed and having a lot of fun with this line!

Clayton and the Cool Kids

August 18, 2012 | Shikote

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Clayton came for his first haircut at Grateful Dreads!

We watched some really huge bees ravishing these flowers.

We saw about five distinctly different bees. This is a honey bee. My favorite kind!

After a short break at Crazy Wisdom to look at some pics for editing, and a lovely little tea party, I met with Sydney back at Grateful Dreads! We put in her dreads exactly a year ago! I like that she left out her bangs. It adds softness and design.

We went to The Espresso Bar afterwards for yummy almond milk lattes!

A very hip spot! I’m so happy to have them as neighbors!

A Very Busy Week!

August 14, 2012 | Shikote

Grateful Dreads has been so popular this week! I’ve had many clients come for their first appointments in the shop. And I’ve met some new people too! I’ve been doing lots and lots of hair! I wasn’t always able to snap a pic, but here are a few:

Kirsten had her first curly cut! We had a fun appointment with amazing results!

Rodney came by for a visit. It’s been 5 weeks since we put in his dreads.

Special thanks to Karina for bringing me flowers! (in the background) The colors are so pretty together!

We did some pink ombré real quick with the new Kevin Murphy Color Bug. It looks so cool!

Saturday Morning Farmers’ Market

August 5, 2012 | Shikote

Farmers’ Market is across the street from Grateful Dreads. I walked through on my way to pick up my special order of triple tea tree shampoo for cleaning dreadlocks. Yay!! Here are some of the highlights!

Tasty Bakery
gluten free and vegan yummy desserts!

It’s important that anyone with EBT know about this. You get double your food money when you shop at most farmers’ markets. Eat fresh!

The Kerrytown Concert House is getting a makeover!

The Espresso Bar hosted the Batata Shop for a pop-up! I went right inside to say hi to Tawnya! She’s really cool and makes very yummy sweet potato goodness. She really radiates a bright light.

So good to see you Tawnya! Next time you’ll have to come by the salon for some relaxation and yumminess for your hair!

Curly Hair, Before and After

August 3, 2012 | Shikote

Monique came into the salon on her way to a lunch with friends. I nourished her hair with some deep conditioners and yummy hair products, all by Original Moxie. Then I twisted her hair into a cute set!

Before:

And after!

Thank you Monique! So good to see you again!

Original Moxie products are made locally in Ypsilanti by someone with curly hair for people with curly hair. The products are all natural and organic when possible. They’re made of herbs and flowers and natural butters. They smell so yummy you could eat them! This is one of the best product lines I’ve ever used; I am so happy to have this in the salon!

Inside the Salon, Some New Additions

August 3, 2012 | Shikote

A butterfly stopped by at Grateful Dreads.

Knotty Boy is in the House!!

August 3, 2012 | Shikote

The Knotty Boy products arrived a couple days ago!

Bob Marley watches over Grateful Dreads.

I really love these bar soaps. They make the whole shop smell yummy!

Tightening gel, conditioning sprays for mature dreads, freshening sprays, and a cooling spray. The one on the right is a pre-dreading soap and also removes wax.

The beads are here too! Made locally by the lovely Rebecca Ariel-Michelle

Knotty Boy products are all natural, organic, earth-friendly, and cruelty-free. They smell amazing, and they WORK!

Maeve, Daighna, and I

August 1, 2012 | Shikote

Måeve, Daighna, and I got together on Sunday and had the first ever photo shoot at Grateful Dreads! We got very creative, worked hard, and had a lot of fun. I love that I get to spend time making art with such wonderful people and am so thankful! The pics below were all taken with my iphone. The real pics were shot by Daighna Rayner and are currently being looked through and edited by her.

Here’s a sneak of our last look. Måeve in a beautiful grassy meadow. She’s wearing the wrap dress designed by Fotoula Lambros for Fotoula Lambros Design. This dress was the closing look in FLD’s most recent Detroit fashion show but in white. She graciously loaned us the black one for this shoot.

Look at those clouds!

The rest of these photos are of the salon after the shoot. I really love my new salon! And I really loved this shoot. Everything about it.

Most of those clothes are by designer Kelly Lynne. She and I pulled from her newest collection which was totally fun!

Thanks to everyone involved!

Big Ones!

July 19, 2012 | Shikote

These dreads are huge! They will matt down over time and become solid. They’re so fluffly when they’re fresh!

Rodney’s headband is perfect for his dreads!

Look at that huge one on the bottom ^

Rodney’s hair is going to take some daily maintenance to get his dreads where he wants them. Keep them separated and twist the ends. Wrapping them at night will help a lot. I do not recommend palm-rolling these locks. It would disorganize the rope pattern.