Real-Life Decision Making
You are a cosmetologist and you've just started working in a small salon.
A client comes in and wants her hair colored to a medium neutral brown. Her
hair has been colored before, but her roots are 90 percent grey.
You look for the straight color in the stock room and realize the stock
is very low. All you have are colors with a lot of red, purple and green in
them. When the client first arrived, she complained that they didn't have
the exact color she wanted the last time she was at the salon. You don't want
to give her this news again.
You know that you can get a neutral color by mixing colors on the opposite
side of the color wheel. But you also know that some colors are more potent
than others.
You talk to the owner of the salon. You let her know that you are low on
stock. She tells you to mix two tubes of color that have the base colors of
red and green. That would make a neutral color.
You are hesitant. You want to provide the client with the service she wants.
But you fear one of the colors will be more potent. If it is, you could turn
her grey roots green or red instead of brown!
Cosmetologist Kristin Ploof faced a situation like this when she was a
student working at a beauty school salon. "I was a little irritated with this
situation. It was the third time my client had come in and we
had not had the exact color she wanted," says Ploof.
Do you use the red/green mix to color her hair? Or do you send her away
without coloring her hair?