Ruth Roche on Using Products That Protect Color

Ruth Roche

Ruth Roche

When owning a color-focused salon, it’s important to find a manufacturer that supports our color work and the client’s investment with color protecting products. At my New York City salon, Rare, we've partnered with Pureology, and I've found many benefits to using color protecting hair care and styling products on clients, as well as educating clients about protecting their hair color with the right products at home. Here are a few benefits I’ve discovered: 

  • Opens doors for add-on services. At Rare, we use the color protecting styling products as conversation starters with our clients. They ask questions about what we’re using to style their hair and why. This gives us the opportunity to talk about the science behind color and why the technology helps color last longer. You now have an opening to ask if they’ve experienced color fading in the past, or, if this particular client doesn’t have color on their hair, to suggest a color service that can be added on that day, boosting your bottom line
  • Boosts retail. Purchasing color-safe products is an investment for clients that protects their color investment. I used to be shy about suggesting products to clients. Not anymore. We are not ‘pushing’ product on clients; we are educating and helping them maintain their color, ensuring they have the best looking and feeling hair they can possibly have. Who doesn’t want that?
  • Builds your profile as an expert. Using and recommending color protecting products to your clients protects the integrity of your work and ensures that your professional reputation stays as wonderful as it is!

Ruth Roche is a salon owner, editorial stylist, platform artist and educator, whose work has appeared in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Vanity Fair, Interview, Self, More and Cosmopolitan. Her celebrity clients have included Sheryl Crow, Claire Danes, Lindsay Lohan, Kelly Ripa, and Mariska Hargitay. With almost two decades in beauty, Ruth has been honored multiple times by the North American Hairstyling Awards, including Master Stylist of the Year, and is featured in the newly released documentary, Stars Behind the Chair: The Leading Ladies of Hair. She opened Rare Salon in 2003.