ep119 Lupe Voss

Show Notes

She co-founded the highly successful Julian August Salon in California, where she spent 32 years perfecting her craft behind the chair. Her passion for teaching—combined with her unmatched technical skill—made her one of the most sought-after colorists and educators in North America. While working full-time in the salon, she also founded Hair Color Magic, an education program that helped colorists around the world thrive. Most recently, she co-founded both CCB Collective Color Brands and Color Space. If you ask me what Lupe Voss represents, the answer is simple: creativity, quality, dedication, discipline, and inspiration. Let’s get into this week’s Head Case with the incredible Lupe Voss!

1:15 Lupe Voss’s Journey and Early Influences

12:59 Discovering a passion for hairdressing

26:42 Founding Color Spaces

59:11 Innovations and Education in Color Spaces

59:29 Personal Reflection and Industry Insights

Chris Baran 0:00
How great would it be to get up close and personal with the beauty industry heroes we love and admire, and to ask them, How did you learn to do what you do? I’m Chris Baran, a hairstylist and educator for 40 plus years, and I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success.

Welcome to another episode of head cases with the incredible Lupe Voss. She co founded the highly successful Julianne August salon in California, where she perfected her craft at the chair for 32 years the enthusiasm that she brings to her teaching, mixed with her unbelievable technical skills, made her one of the most sought after hair colorists and educators in North America. While being in the salon full time, she founded hair color magic education program where she helped countless colorists around the globe to flourish. Her most recent venture is CO founding CCB collective color brands and Color Space. And if you ask me what Lupe represents, that’s easy, creativity, quality, dedication, discipline and inspiration. So let’s get into this week’s head case. Lupe Voss,

Lupe, I’ve been an admirer for years, and I just can’t thank you enough for being on head cases. And I just wanted to say welcome, and it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you and have to have this good chance to chat finally. Well, thank you for inviting This is on honor, on my side, too. So it’s mutual. Love it. And you know, I know we had a for everybody, watching, listening right now that the we were chatting beforehand, and it’s really interesting, because I was saying that we’ve paralleled one another on the show circuits and on the stage and et cetera, et cetera. And like I said to you earlier, I’ve always been too damn afraid just to come up and say, Hey, how you doing?

Lupe Voss 2:17
Well, you have to start. You have to next time you see me. Now, well, now we will be there. I’ll be, I’ll be, I’ll be looking, I’m saying, Look, we’re going up for a cup, for a cocktail, and you’re buying, and I’m buying.

How do you know I’m not carrying?

Chris Baran 2:31
Well, you know, I live, listen, I live in Arizona, you know.

So, listen, first of all, it’s been great. It’s great to have you on here and, and I know you’ve got, I was, I was stalking you recently on on the internet and, and I want to talk a little bit down the road. I want to talk about that you’ve with color space. And I am even when I find that, when I do these that so many people, we parallel one another in so many levels,

and you just going out on on your own with a business partner, and you’ve co founded that. And I want to talk a little bit more that later, but I first want everybody to know like you and your history. So because we’ve all got into this beautiful business that we call hair and beauty. We got into it for a reason, some because they wanted to, and some like me who just fell into it. But what’s your hair story?

Lupe Voss 3:32
Well, I was raised on a military base in the Azores, largest Air Force Base on in Portugal. I love Portugal, so beautiful. And then when I left, my dad was civil service, so I was there for till I was 16,

where you were born. There, I was born there. My true, you have Riverside California, but he was, he was civil service. So we went. He went there. And had 10 of us. There’s 10 years, yeah, wow, because it was affordable, and then

Chris Baran 4:04
we had to, we should have bought him a TV. I’ll tell you that. What something, you know, how the Catholic Mexican family, my god, yeah.

Lupe Voss 4:13
So I was raised there. I always thought I would be in the military. We had to move back to the States. My grandfather became ill, and I hated it, and I wanted to get hated it. Oh, you were more you were European at that. Yeah, I consider myself you’re more European. So, yeah, came to California and where my family was from, and I could graduate from school early, because being in a DOD school, we had extra credit. Department of Defense got it so we had seven credit, you know, like every we had seven classes, so I had credits. I had enough credits to graduate when I was 16 and a half. But I wanted to join the military.

I wanted to be a fighter pilot.

It. Can you imagine, ah, you and Tom Cruise, totally, totally, as long as you weren’t goose that was, yeah, I wanted to be Tom so. And my dad was like, No way, hell no. He was like, you’re not getting behind a machine like that. He because I was so.

He thought I was naughty. I don’t think I was naughty. I was a little naughty. Listen, everybody that says I don’t think I was naughty, was not naughty? Yeah. He was like, No. And I thought, okay, and the principal agreed to let me finish school early if I went in either to the military or trade school.

I come from a family of hairdressers, and I thought, All I need is a year I’ll burn a year in Cosmo because it sounded easy, and then I’m going to join the Air Force without my dad’s permission. I didn’t need my dad’s permission. Then Then, wow, went to Cosmo, and I loved it. I cosmetology school was amazing. I went to school during the day, and then I they hired me to work at night, so I ran the lab, so I would make perm trays. And back then, I don’t know if you, I know you remember this, we didn’t have 30 and 40 volume, so we would make that. You know, every night we had to make 30 and 40 volume with distilled water and a hydrometer, right, right? I think that’s where the chemistry started. That’s love it. I want

Chris Baran 6:19
to tell it, because you

this, I wanted, I’m going to take you back, because when we didn’t have those, those volumes, but we never had the hydrometer, but we had the the, what would they call oxygenation? Oxygenation tablets. Yeah, you take 20 volume, and every tablet that you put in would bump it up another 10 volume. Oh, wow. And I remember it was, it was, it was pretty fascinating, until you found out that it was almost like coloring the hair with a cigarette with a burning cigarette.

no idea what we were doing with it. But I remember the very first competition that I was in, I had this amazing client. Her name was Annabelle, and they soon became good friends of ours. But I remember, remember that’s when everything first went from sassoons, went back real short, and just after you had the wedge, then everything was just shorter, but it would be combed down and then combed off the face at the sides. And Annabelle was Jewish and really beautiful lady. And I remember that they I went to the distributor, and the distributor said, there’s only three people that are entered in the hair cutting competition. And I went, No, they said, we only have two people in the competition. I went, I’ll take third. So I immediately went home. I didn’t have much time, because we had the cutting competition was that night. So I got Annabelle into the salon, and I put in, I think I, God knows, I must put on three or more oxygenation tablets in this, in this thing, and I just painted them over the surface layer, and I left it on, I think, five seven minutes, not knowing what the hell I was doing, and the color was beautiful.

No, I didn’t have to put anything over top of it.

Lupe Voss 8:37
Not. No, got it? No, it

Chris Baran 8:40
was actually surprisingly enough, I think probably because I only had it on five minutes, it, or whatever it was, but it came up to this really beautiful burnt orange. Oh, wow. And, and when i i Just combed it into place, and it was great. So I knew that I could, I could just take off enough off of the sides that it would make it work. Anyway, I we went in there, and I went, Okay, good look. And I looked at it, and we got third all locked up here. So apparently that was about 30 other people that wanted third place as well. Oh, and so we, I ended up getting second. And I think that’s what sparked it with me. But when you say, when you say about those oxygenation and you had to make that stuff, I that was just fond memories of of going back to then. And I must admit, after that, I did use it in a rather illegal manner. And you should have been spanked for it,

Unknown Speaker 9:36
especially with bleach.

Chris Baran 9:38
Oh, my God. It was just it was, it was incredible.

So you were, so you were in school, they you had, you were, you got in charge of the color lab in the evenings.

Lupe Voss 9:50
In the evenings, I had to run the color labs. It was fun. We made, you know, like I made perm trays. I’d mix color, they’d come up like a like a waitress, give me the tape.

I would mix the color for them. And then every night, I would have to, every night, dump the 30 and 40 we didn’t use because it wasn’t stabilized, yeah. And then the next day, when I spent there, just remade the next one, yeah, but we started with 120 and then had to dilute it down. Wow,

Chris Baran 10:17
yeah,

Lupe Voss 10:17
it was, I did. I did highlight my best friends at She was my best friend at the time. You remember in the 80s when we had the claw, you know, like part of it was down and the other part was up, yeah. And I highlighted she wanted him to be really blonde. So we did 120 in bleach, and I opened the pack and her, you know, like, how you open it and you move it, it just snapped. You could just see, think, think I was like, oops,

not so much for the claw. For you lady, no, as we walked to the shampoo, but we’re like, Let’s go rinse this. You know, the foil falls off with her. Oh, no, things in him. Let’s just, she just had to pull him back a little bit further more. Yes, I remember we used to do that with with apprentices in the salon that we would we would get them to rinse out the foils or a perm, and we would take hair that was wrapped up in a perm rod, just set it inside, or we take some hair and put it into a foil and then just stick it in the foils. So when our apprentices would take it back to the sink and rinse out that the foil or the perm rod would fall out, and

Chris Baran 11:29
everybody would be just watching them to see what their face was like. We were mean,

Lupe Voss 11:35
those were good days.

Chris Baran 11:36
They were fun. I don’t know if you can even do those anymore, like I remember. I remember we had this one thing that we would do, there was no such thing as we had zoldos rods. We used to use. We had, there was no such thing as a short brown rod. And we would say, Listen, we haven’t got any more short brown rods. Can you go over to XYZ salon and get their see if you can borrow some brown and we had a circuit that they would have to travel for about five salons, and they have to come back and tell us it didn’t have any more. Didn’t have any, they didn’t have any so, oh, it’s the stuff that we used to do is so fun. All right, I’m hijacking this. I can’t believe I’m doing this. Yeah, so for everybody’s listening that I was telling her at the very beginning that I was so afraid of talking to her at the beginning, and we just become like instant friends. And so I’m babbling on here. So let’s go what So finish up. So you, you, you are now in that position, yes, give a shout out to that. You said, There must have been something that tweaked. You said, you got there, you were only going to be there a year. You were doing your time. But something tweaked. What was it, or who was it? My

Lupe Voss 12:44
attitude. Tweet by Oh my I had an amazing teacher, Mr. Papik, and another teacher, Mr. Partita. And what was the school? The school was Riverside, City College. Riverside. Yeah, it was a city college. It’s still there. Sometimes I’ll go and I’ll teach the teachers, or I’ll go in and do the students a class for the students. I need to get back there soon. I’ve been really busy and and it was, it was the passion, I think that I saw in them. At first, I thought they were ridiculous, you know, here I am. I’m going to be, I’m going to be a pilot, you know. And I thought these guys, you know, I don’t, I didn’t get it. And then when I did my first customer, and she it, you could tell it changed her, the service changed her. And it wasn’t good. I’m gonna tell you right now. I mean, I don’t know if you can remember your first, your first, but it just wasn’t good. Took, it took four hours to cut her hair, but when I was done, and she got up, and she just felt so special. And I thought out we could change people’s lives about how they see themselves or how they feel. And then I thought, This can’t be, you know, this can’t be. And then the next one came, and I was like, Oh my gosh, you know. And then just seeing how lovely people are earlier we talked about this, I’ve, yeah, I I’m very curious about people, and I love to hear their stories. I like to get people to talk. I like to make people feel good. And it was something that I didn’t realize, and I don’t know if it was the birth or that I’m number nine out of 10 that I have that communication, yeah, he’s to it, but it just really was good. And I was and I loved it. And then I thought, Oh, this is cool. And then I just kept doing it. And my dad, you know, it was really interesting. He said, It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you do it 110%

and that’s, that’s what I did. I put 110% into it,

Chris Baran 14:44
you know, but it’s, it’s, I think that there is people that just have that ability immediately, I think, like for me, it’s been a learned skill, because I being on stage and then trained trainers and all the things that kind of got me out of bed and.

To my shell, but it’s funny, as soon as used, you know, and I’m always a bit nervous around people that I don’t know the first time, but as soon as you started talking, I don’t know if it was you, the aura, your voice, what it was, but it instantly became relaxed. And there’s got to be something to that. But even then,

Lupe Voss 15:20
yeah, yeah, there might be I, I don’t. I’m very what you see is what you get. I don’t have anything that I don’t. There’s no reason to be not. I don’t know. I’ve, I’ve had some great mentors in my life, and my grandmother was very much part of that. And she was, she was very much put that in my head, you know, give people grace, you know, be who you are and not without apologizing, and just care about people. So that’s why I think that connection. Really, I never thought about it, and I knew, you know, I watched my auntie, I watched my cousins do hair, and I thought that’s pretty cool, but I never thought of it at the level. If you would have told me in Cosmo school that I would be doing what I’m doing now, I would never have your liar. Yeah, yeah. And even when I get to speak to students, I did a tour in Michigan in some schools, and just to let them know the presentation was about

our path of careers in our industry. You could be a salon owner, you could be a stylist in that and be happy with that. You can be an education, an educator in a salon. You can run education in a salon. You can do education for a company. You can be a salesperson. You there’s so much that we can do. You can. You can create your own color line. There’s nothing that you can’t do as long as you do it 110% Yeah, you can’t do it halfway. Yeah.

Chris Baran 16:54
I love that, even the fact that you said halfway there, because, you know, and interestingly enough, and you and I talked about, you know, I have, I’m a bit of an introvert, and we talked about about that. But you know what’s funny, I started school when I was four. So I was, it was, is weird thing. I was born in December 26 so somehow they could, you could get in when you were five, into school that you were you weren’t allowed to get into your six but in Canada, you could get in if you were five, if you had the right thing. Somehow, my parents talked them got me in when I was four, and so I started grade one when I was four. So I was always the I was always the runt of the litter, you know, and I always in. And I say this in jest, because it’s a joke that I heard and I fitted into my life. But in school, and especially in beauty school, I was in the half of the class that made the top half possible, you know. And I found that even in school, I think, because I was so young, you know, I was always in that half of the class that made the top half possible. And I think that that’s probably what this profession has allowed me to do as I matured, that it’s given us all what you talked about, we can be anything we want in this industry. Yeah, you make the choice. It doesn’t. We’re not. We shouldn’t be. Think that we’re pigeon holed in one in one category like that. Whenever I saw a challenge, I would go and figure out, how can you fix this? How can we what’s the answer to this challenge? And that’s what I would do. There wasn’t great education where I was, so I learned how

adults learn, yeah, and then I started doing education in the salon with my team, because we couldn’t find great education, right? But you and you had, you had the salon the in California, you had that for what, 30 some odd years,

Lupe Voss 18:50
33 33 years. Yeah, we had the salon for 33 years, and then once we started color space, I actually gave it to someone, to one of my my team, because she had an entrepreneurial spirit, and I could have sold it and, you know, made money off of it. But here’s this girl who wants to do this, and I remember when I first started the salon and how hard it was, and I didn’t this girl deserved to have a break. She deserved to she has that Spirit inside of her which I could recognize. I recognize it, and instead of selling it, and it was during COVID, right? So I was like, that would have been a really jerk move, is to sell it to her at that moment. So everyone deserves a leg up, yeah, so I gave it to her, and she’s doing really well. That’s awesome. And I have,

Chris Baran 19:43
I’ve only heard of two people in our industry that have done that you and I’m trying to remember, oh, Alan Carver, he gave his salon, and I so I just. That is such a blessed move. You know, I just give somebody else that that chance I might not have gotten.

Lupe Voss 20:09
I think it is important, and I do think it is a blessed move. There’s my grandma, and again, I’m gonna, I’ll keep referring to her. I remember us having, I love yard work, and I would be with her because of her, we would be weeding in the yard. And she would say, if you the more you give away, the more you get back. And it never, I never forgot that. I never, I’ve never forget, forgotten that. And I do believe that has to be from my in my educator heart, yeah, the more you give, you’re opening up to receive more. And it is true. It has been my experience. The more you give, you open up to get more. Yeah, and whoever you know the the one thing that I find to be interesting, people can smell BS, oh, yeah, yeah.

Chris Baran 20:59
And there’s a lot of that floating around, and there is a lot of that floating around. And that’s one thing I notice about the youth right nowadays, is that their their bullshit meter is pretty active. It is very sensitive. They have a sensitive BS meter, and it is, and rightfully so. I really, I really take my hat off to them for that, because it keeps everybody in check. I do think that that honesty piece is important. I do believe, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that if people would do a if they could in, it wouldn’t be incredible world if we could fit honesty in with kindness, and just have a lot more of that floating around right now? Yeah, I think we, I think we need it.

Wow, let’s not go down that avenue, because I think that we could be a whole different that would be a whole different podcast, exactly. Quick question, so do you think, and I realize that you were in the middle military as as a military child. I’ll do that, because brat word always well, that might imply to your Yeah, that

gave you the naughty Okay, so, but Did, did that? Did any military upbringing help you when it came to running your businesses and now that with your in color space, etc,

Lupe Voss 22:22
yes, I think the first person that really influenced me was my father, because he when we moved to the Azores I I mean, here’s my dad, my mom with two of the eldest and she’s pregnant with my brother. And he was a refrigerator repair man, and he worked his way into getting his engineering degree through snail mail because we didn’t have, they didn’t have computers. And here, this man worked so hard that he was deputy Marshal in command and ran the Civil Service Department on the bases, on two of the bases. So I watched, he really, he really influenced me to show if you work hard, you will get the reward. And he did. He did. He did an amazing he had an amazing career.

Chris Baran 23:11
Was it was he like the what they depict the military dad on TV, that very strict authoritarianism? No, my dad would.

Lupe Voss 23:19
My dad was goofy and fun. Well, his nickname was goofy, his goofy, yeah, yeah. He was just fun and card shark. He taught us how to count cards. He was he’s my dad was fun.

Chris Baran 23:32
You know, my, my, for those people listening, my son is, is producing the show, and he’s in the background and and my, my dad, the kids always would call him goofy grandpa. Of course, no silly grandpa. Silly grandpa. That’s what it was. Silly grandpa. And, and my dad was a card shark as well. Oh, really, big time gambler and, and he gave me he was,

he was playing cards. This is in Vancouver, British Columbia, playing cards. I don’t know. I don’t know. Pick the year, I think I can’t remember. This was before, before my mom and dad were married that but he was playing in a in an evening gambling session with Errol Flynn. Oh, wow. And and dad won this Lucien Picard watch, gold and pink of what’s called rose gold watch off of them and and he gave that to me. I have it stored away, but he gave it to me, and I said, What was that like, Dad? What was it like meeting Errol Flynn. He says he was the biggest I was the worst card player and the biggest asshole that I ever met in my life.

Lupe Voss 24:49
Obviously, he lost his cut.

Chris Baran 24:50
Yeah, so I guess we have similarities. We have similarities in our background with our dads. Yeah, he was so, tell me more about goofy. Oh,

Lupe Voss 24:59
He, he really, he really influenced me. And I think the discipline, you know, there was this my grandma. And then going back to my grandma, she would say, every day, when you get up, make your bed, and I would be like, why? I’m just gonna get in it. And she was like, that has nothing to do with it. And it doesn’t have to be perfect, just do it. And it was like, to teach she. And she would tell me, if you have children, you teach them every day, get up and make your bed because you’re teaching them discipline, discipline there, yeah. And I do think I’m very disciplined, and that was something that both of them had taught me. So I do think a lot of my personality has that in it, very disciplined, yeah. And it does that is that the area you found that helps you within the businesses that you’ve done? Yes, yes. Because how many times have you been screw this when something you know, terrible happens? You know, we’ve with the salon. We had to go through AB 1513 the the AB 1513 through the California laws, where the salon owners were being sued. You know, every every, and we talked about this earlier, about every challenge that I’ve come across, it was really about the making the right decision, but having the discipline in order to know how to work through a problem or how to maneuver a challenge, and that you have to have discipline to do that. You have to have a strong heart, yeah, and sometimes

a set of COVID as well, you know, yeah, it’s not always, you know, holding hands and singing Kumbaya. That’s what business is about. You know, it’s, yeah, I there’s, there’s someone who she is, our CEO, Karen Wilkin, Donahue, with, with, with, and I watch how she maneuvers through challenges or or anything that’s happening that’s not as smooth as it should be, and the calmer she becomes. And I find that to be interesting. Yeah, I watch, I watch different people, how they how they maneuver through and and how they get, not, a reaction. What do you call it like a an outcome? How to get an outcome? That’s great because not you know, not mine. Mine may not be right for the for someone you know, we’re only as good as our last consultation or our last hair color or our last whatever fill in the blank, but how we deal with people, and how we how we honor people, I guess really, yeah,

Chris Baran 27:47
it’s interesting. I heard you say that with the CEO that you have, it’s I was having that it’s funny how everything parallels in life. And I find that universe will give you a nugget, and then all of a sudden, there’s other these things that just fit in the same way. I was having a, we’re having a conversation with our business coach this morning, and he was saying, you know, the creatives and the family, there’s, he says here, there’s two rules that you have in in in business, the creatives, they’re generally the ones that are the founders and the ones that that put the things together, because they’re the visionaries. They’ve got the idea, and they’re the one to push it. And he said, and the idea of a visionary is to push it so far that could go into bankruptcy, yes. And then you have a CEO that makes sure that the finances and everything fit together so well that you’ll get all of that before you get to the brink of bankruptcy. Yeah. And so oftentimes that people always think that the creative that’s involved in the business should be the CEO the company. And it’s not necessarily true, because they’re the visions. They’re the creative just to do this. And I know that’s what we do in our business. We have a there’s another project. Let’s get started on this other project. You don’t even have the first one done, you know? So, yeah, I love it. So tell me. Tell us we’ve been talking about, and if I gave it the name of this color space, yes, yes, color space is the color line. Yes, is a color line. So, but the whole, the whole umbrella is called what

Lupe Voss 29:12
collective beauty brands love it. CB, tell us

Chris Baran 29:16
what? How did that come about? Because I think that it’s even if it’s not a dream, that people because they recently go start my own color line, my own product line, whatever can be, it can be hell, and I don’t know think it’s ever heaven, but it can at the end results. They always say when you sell, it’s the heaven part, yep. But what that must have been a really ordeal, something that was there. Tell us a little bit about how did all of that idea and all of a sudden, okay, we’re gonna start this business. What happened? Well,

Lupe Voss 29:51
it there’s a story behind I’ll try and make it quick.

In my past career in the company that. Used to work for I met Ray chavelo. So Ray, I know he’s so he’s great, right? So, yeah, he was the education VP for the company. So that’s how we met, maybe 30 years ago. I when I first started teaching, yep, and I didn’t even want to be a teacher, you know, the you know I was, I was really challenged to do it, that they needed my help. So I started doing it, and Ray and I met each other. So through my career of owning the salon and teaching, I created a hair color education company that was for hair color, called hair color magic. Even through that every through the years, he mentored me, and, you know, gave me advice and helped me with some business decisions, because I never worked for a corporation before. I owned my salon, I owned my own education company, I had employees in both and then became North American art director for the company that I had been working for. And things changed. You know, they didn’t renew my contract, which was okay, you know, I was okay with that.

And I found out, and he found out, and he was like, you want to do something?

Chris Baran 31:40
Oh, well, can I I’m going to copy you there for eight for a second, and I want to take you back a couple years. And you were doing a a podcast with Gerard from Hairbrained, and he asked you, what was in your future. Do you remember that? No, tell me, what did I say? You said, well, there, there is something that’s going on that is going to take about two years to put together. And I can’t say anything about it right now, but it’s really, I think your words were, it’s really sounds fun and interesting.

And I think because now I know where you’re at, and I was listening to that podcast, I went, Oh, I think I know what that was. Is that what it

Unknown Speaker 32:30
was? That’s what it was, yeah, yes, that’s what that took about

Chris Baran 32:33
two years to put together. It was,

Lupe Voss 32:37
it was really weird, because if any time would have been perfect to have COVID happen. It would have been then, really, because that’s when we put everything together, because we had and there was nothing else to do, right? So why not? Yeah, and it was really, it worked out really well. We worked our tails off. It was, and that’s where the discipline comes in, yeah, like, everything that’s happened, that’s where the discipline comes in. And even now, we’re last, like, March, I’ve been home five days because of this. We’re at the point now where we’re, we’re really got, we have traction, and we’re in places, in creating spaces for people. And I’m, I have to be out there to do it, you know, when you start. So it was, it was something that I never thought could happen or would happen. It’s been the hardest thing that I think I’ve ever done. Every time I I’ve done something new, it’s, it’s been the hardest. But I do believe everything that I started, from the day I walked in that cosmetology school, everything that I’ve gone through, to the day that I started working with Ray on color space, it prepared me for this. Yeah, yeah. All of it how I learned, how adults learn, training trainers, having my own education company, the cape being capable of writing curriculum,

Chris Baran 34:08
systematizing, yeah,

Lupe Voss 34:10
great mentors, David Adams, you know, taught me and Rudy miles, they taught me how to present on stage, working teach learning how to work In on video, you know, when we would do collections and how, you know, like, even on stage, you know, I would tell the camera man, I’d introduce myself, you know, like, Hi, my name is loopy, and whatever his name is, I’m right handed. You’ll get the best shot if you’re over my right shoulder. Yeah, just the little, yeah, yeah, the little details that were shared with me that I get to share with the next one you know, that wants to do it.

Chris Baran 34:47
I bet we have something in common. I have this love hate relationship. I hate paying for something that I’m not using. I hate working in a small, cramped box. Yet I. Love working in a cool salon that impresses my clients, and I love the culture and synergy of a team while enjoying the freedom of being my own boss. You too. What if all that was available to you at the salon you rent from meet artist on go, a game changing way to rent salon space with artist on go, you only pay for the time you’re behind the chair. You can choose a salon that fits your vibe, location and amenities. With artist on go, you’re a part of a stylist community, not hustling alone. Plus, you get to enjoy perks like clean towels and back bar supplies. Check out. Artist on go, built for stylists serious about their clients and growing their brand without the hassles of managing a space. Here’s the kicker, you can save more than 50% on your rent to find out more. Go to B, i, t, dot, l, y, slash, artist on go. CB, that’s B, i, t, dot, l, y, slash, artist on go, C, B, as well. What would you in that in the process? Was there anything when you’re when you and Ray were going through this planning session. Was there any time any that you went? Is this gonna work? Or did you have doubts in it at all? Or is it forward always,

Lupe Voss 36:29
because it’s really

Chris Baran 36:32
you find the hardest thing to do? Oh, I didn’t even tell you this

Lupe Voss 36:38
during all of this, our company that makes our hair color, they’re academics, and they’re these genius scientists that are in computer scientists, chemists that deal with they write papers like our hair color has a thesis written on it. So here they are, yeah, yeah. Even the hair color mixer has a thesis written on it. And they said, One day I have to tell you a story real quick. So we’re on a zoom. We’re talking and the guy said, the manufacturer said we would love for you to do a presentation. Well, I’ve been on stage. I can talk in front of 10,000 people. I’m fine. I can do a technique in front of I’m fine. Oh. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. My friend is texting me. His name is Sherman Wong. I don’t know if you know Sherman from No, I don’t. Amazing haircutter. He says, say no. And I said, No, I could do this, thinking I could do this. He was like, say no. And so when during this I commit to this presentation, he says, it’s for the AIC, which is this huge European organization that celebrates color. Anything that has to do with color is in this organization. So I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to do a presentation. And then when we got done, he calls me. He calls me, he goes, Do you know what you just committed to? And I said, Yeah, to do a presentation. I’m fine. I’m thinking, Oh, I’m going to come out doing like a TED Talk. In my head, I’m thinking, I want to do it like a TED talk. And he said, No, you just committed to writing a thesis and presenting it to this hair color or, you know, this color organization. And I said, I don’t know how to write a thesis. And he said, I know I was telling you to say no. And I was like, Oh my God. And then I said, I’m gonna write it. He said, You don’t know how I will study how to write it, and I’m gonna write it. And I did. I wrote a paper. We’re the first in this journal, the scientific journal, that has a thesis written about hair color, and it’s called more than a tube of color, and it’s about our relationship with our hair color, and then the relationship we have with our clients, and then the relationship the client has about themselves when they look in the mirror, or how they want to be seen. And it was the that was probably the hardest piece when you say, was there ever a moment where you were like, forget it? That was the only time I ever felt that way, not not creating the color, because I was pretty solid about what we’ve made, and I know all the science behind it, and we got the most amazing chemists, and the innovations that we have are off, off the charts. So never, ever did I ever feel that way about the color, but I did when I was writing that paper, because and I had to some great mentors. Okay, so earlier, the girl I gave the salon to her husband writes papers for Edison. He writes these. He’s on. So he mentored me. No, yes, do you see the connection? Like everything that happens happens for a reason. So he mentored me at the beginning, and he helped me get out, like show me all the steps. And then Sherman, who is dear to my heart, was my co writer. I wrote everything out, and he helped me put it in paint on the paper, and I didn’t understand that you had to have it certain font size. Yeah, oh my gosh. I had no idea. I’m people smart. I’m people smart. I’m okay with that. I’m not book smart, but that was the hardest thing that I think I’ve ever done.

Chris Baran 40:38
I can’t even imagine it was fun. Now

Lupe Voss 40:40
it’s fun, but I have to tell you this, the actual thesis we wrote, that I wrote was 24 pages, and then Sherman had to call me and say they only want six pages. So after I got done crying,

we could just put it in, and then we, we submitted it. Okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna look. I’m looking straight in the camera here for everybody’s watching. You know, see me looking over the side, because that’s where she is.

Chris Baran 41:56
So me and a lot of words and everything like that don’t get along real well. So I have this other amazing person. There’s a part of our team called Adrian who Adrian Tavenner, when I’m finished writing stuff, then he takes it all and he mixes the words all around and makes it sound really good. So he’s my, he’s my Mr. Wong to you, and so I’m always so grateful for him on that. But that’s my that’s my point is that I, you know, people see all this stuff coming out for our advertising and all that stuff. I might write the little bit of it, and then on, Marjorie or Adrian will always take over and make me sound quasi intelligent. So,

so be careful. Any of you that are around this lady, you’re gonna be baring your soul around, so just go make sure we’re ready to go to Confession right after that.

Lupe Voss 42:50
Oh so funny. Yeah, I think that is that was the getting the hair color. It was exciting. And I am, and the hardest thing to do is to change a colorist mind into thinking, well, not thinking, but seeing that they need something that is innovative, and changing their mindset of what it is that they have in front of them. And you know, when we first launched, we launched very scientific, and the influence was from the company that we that manufactures us. They’re very academic. Everything that they do is about the, you know, like the chemistry, the innovation, but and then we had to figure out how to balance it and understand, really, the colorist, you know, we have different kinds of colorists, right? We have the ones that want to come in to their clients and go home and be with their families and take care of their children, which, you know, they want to get a grab and go. They want, they don’t want to be the creatives, right? And then we have the creatives who are in there, and they’re mixing, you know, like this, I’m gonna put two drops, not even measuring, you know, I’m just a little bit, yeah, yeah, Windex, yeah. But in a Sweet and Low, whatever, yeah. And then they’ll go out and be creative. So we, we had to, we, I really wanted to create something for both. And we created, and it was really important me being a teacher, the education company, and having 15 educators, North American art director, I had a team that would go out and teach, we heard and we saw, and even me, I still do hair behind the chair. I don’t know that I

Chris Baran 44:40
do, I do, yeah, I still do hair, and you still manage the what is it your call line and do

Lupe Voss 44:47
I am on the hotline? Yeah, yeah, wow. So I there was something about

the color line. Had to answer. Had to have an answer. I. To all the challenges that we have in the industry. As a colorist working behind the chair, we had to have, we had to have a color line with innovations, and it had to have answers that would help us as colorists that work behind the chair every day. That’s why I can’t stop doing here, because I’ll keep I’ll use it. I’m not testing, but I am kind of testing to make sure that this product line is still working and that there’s not any challenges that we have with it. So if someone calls and says, Hey, you know I’m this happened, I’ll I’ll make sure I do it to make sure to see if it happens, so that I we have answers, and then we have our teams that we we always connect with. We have we have amazing teachers, we have amazing educators. And you got within your within your company, uh huh, yeah, and a lot of them followed from hard Color Magic team, yeah, yeah. Well, that, why not? That’s That was your peeps before, yeah, did you you? So what? So the year you launched was when 2021,

Chris Baran 46:18
do at any point in there, do you and I’m just going to use this, don’t hate me if it’s not a good analogy. But did you kind of feel like David and Goliath? Yes, I know. My God, I get that. I understand. Funny that you said that because my husband, when we first launched, he sent me this illustration. I don’t know if he made it. I have. I should find it. I’m going to send it to you, and it was, it was David and Goliath. I’m going to send it to you, yes, I’m going to send it to you, and it was David and Goliath, and it was, yes, I will tell you yes. It is really hard for us, being the small company up against big companies, to launch a hair color brand. And the challenge, I think

Lupe Voss 47:06
the challenge, is to be innovative, to have something that has and this is how I knew we were doing something right, because even still today, there’s there, there being Goliath, yeah, even today. So if we didn’t have something that wasn’t, like, amazing, amazing, then they would not be Goliath. Yeah, yes, you are correct Absolutely. Because we were just talking with Beth Menard. It would just, I think it was, what? A couple days ago, we did a podcast with Beth Minardi. She’s great. I love her. She’s great. And she’s like this. She there’s nobody. If anybody says it like it is, Beth will say it like it is. She’s great. But what I and I asked her, I didn’t know that her company line had been discontinued, and she told me right there that it was with a big company, and they just said that blah, blah, blah, and incident was done. So I think that’s where your leg is up, because you don’t have somebody else that made it. You made it. We have so the only ones that are going to make it thrive, or thrive and survive is you. And I’m a scrapper that discipline that no Sherlock,

I’m a scrapper. I’m very, very nice until I’m not

Chris Baran 48:25
well. You know, it’s funny when you say that we bear so much in common. One of my dear friends, he mentor. He started off as my teacher, mentor, very good friend of mine now, Blair Singer, and he has, he talked about sales, dogs and his type waste sale, et cetera. And I took his test. Be interesting. You should take it.

It is called sales dogs. That tells you what kind of in relation to sales, what kind of dog you are. In other words, you know, I’ll set it up right away. I’m half retriever, which means like me, like me, like me, and then the other half of me is pit bull, which means I’ll go for your throat if, yeah,

Lupe Voss 49:02
when it has to happen is when it has

Chris Baran 49:04
to happen. Yeah, so.

But that’s that’s really interesting, and I kind of feel that way about you as well, that you’re kind of that, that person, that’s retriever, everybody likes you and they want to be around you. But if you’re a scrapper, that’s probably your pit bull coming out there. And when I say that is when, when it’s not right, because I am someone that takes a lot, I think I have a big draw. I could take it until I until it’s enough. Yeah, and I don’t expect much from people, but I do think that we should respect each other. I do think that we should respect each other, yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. Because, you know, I find there’s so many mediums in our life right now

where contextually can be taken so out of, out of, I’m not saying that, right, it just emails or things that are said.

In a short sentence, and you might mean it with the best of intention, and the perception that the other person gets is totally off base, and then, and it starts a war, you know, and, and I think that that’s so much a part of, I think our social media, which is, I’m not knocking it. I think it’s a wonderful place. It gets us to where you are probably helping you guys amazingly. But I think it’s so much can be taken out of context. I

Lupe Voss 50:29
do too. I do too. I I think that there’s enough space, there’s enough there’s enough salons for everyone. Yeah, not to be,

I don’t know, I kind of even with salons. You know, when we moved here to Redlands in California, we were like, I think there were 50 salons in the city. And I would say, 10 years later we had maybe 225 salons. Yeah, I didn’t care, because what it did to me is made me work harder, be different, more different. There was something that I really liked, that what are we going to do next to stand out, besides everybody else, let everyone else be everyone else work. And I never looked at what other people did. I don’t I don’t look at what other people do, because I don’t want to be influenced. I really don’t want to be influenced. And the one thing that I found was the more you just kept your head down and did what was a What was your idea, then that’s how you walked in your truth, and that’s how I keep it. I’ve taken that into this where it has nothing else to do with what the other companies are doing. I really don’t care. I really like working along. I do think, I think that we should all really get along and just help each other out. Because, yeah, there’s, there’s the color lines that are out there. There’s some, if you look at salons, they want two or three lines because they can’t find a line that does everything that they need. Yeah, so it’s okay. I

Chris Baran 52:07
was listening to you the other day and, and I think we were talking about your thesis when you said part of the relationship is

when somebody has to give up, like, let’s say I’m not the owner. And and the the stylists that are working around them, then they’ve got, they’re making Boku bucks, and they know how to make Boku bucks because they know how to work with that color.

And now you come in and you say, let’s say, use my color. So how? How’s that? How does that work? Like, what? What’s the what do you maybe I’m not saying that, right? Is that I know that that’s out there, and that’s the hardest thing for people to do, to change their line, to change their line. So how do you as a company, let’s face you’ve got all the people that are out there, the big boys, the big girls that are out there in the companies. How do you, how do you, how do you fight that? How do you work around that? What, what’s, what’s the philosophy that you do,

Lupe Voss 53:01
there has to be a connection on to the colorist. For one, something has to connect for them to even want to hear it. Because we’ll go into a salon and say, the colors like 98% of them are on board, and you have those 2% that are like, No, I like what I got because they’ve mastered that. You know, there are a lot of there’s a lot of fear behind changing color lines, and there’s a lot of like what you said, I don’t I’m booked. I don’t have time to learn another color line. I don’t have room for error. So each one right there it is, it is. It really is room for error. And the one thing that we’ve created was ways of testing the color before you put it on a client to make sure that it is going to be the color that you want. Tell me more, it’s as simple as mixing up your color, what you’re going to what you want to see, what it’s going to look like if you paint it on a paper towel or these little cotton squares that you can use for estheticians. Have them for taking makeup off. Paint it on lightly, not a whole bunch, not a lot. Don’t, don’t saturate it. Just brush onto it, let it dry. You’ll see what the reflective tone is in the color. And if you look on the edge, you’ll see what the background is meaning the brown. How much Brown is it? Tan? Is it gray? You know, like, is it? Is it? Is it dark tan? And you can actually see what it is, so that you, when you put it on the hair, you’ll know exactly what you’re going to get

Chris Baran 54:36
So, and this is when you said, this is they can tell with all color lines, or they can do that with your color line. Oh, oh, really, that’s what we do. I heard that, right? I heard that, right? If I painted on that strip, yep, I’m gonna look at the outside of what I painted on lightly, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna see the browns or the tans or whatever the base is on the outside of it, on the outside of it, and I’ll see the tone and reflect.

Activity of that I have on the inside, yeah, that’s brilliant.

Lupe Voss 55:03
And you can paint the color on the hair, and then you could put that swatch right next to it, and you could see it really, yeah, it’s really, there’s so we give them. What we do is give them ways to feel confident. You have to give them confidence, another confidence that we do as a hotline. You know, we’ve got incredible people on our hotline. I was saying that because you’re a part of it. Well, well, go figure. Well, and if I’m traveling, or if I’m really, you know, like on zooms or whatever, I don’t get to but I really like it. And people, they DM me on we have a Facebook group, and we have it’s for it’s a Rolodex formulation. We’re always posting. We have message groups. We give them everything that they need in order to feel confident. Because once you give a colorist confidence that the line is that they’ll have that safety net, then they’ll do it, yeah, then they’ll do it. But I would never, I would be I’m one for if you want to take away your color line right away and you want to do it, go. Let’s do it. If you want to wait and do it, little by little, we even have we teach, our team teaches all of your new clients formulate with color space. Yeah. And then number two, look at all your formulas that you don’t like, or your clients don’t like their color or you’re having challenges with reformulate them with color space. Everyone else that you’re happy with. Leave them for now. Leave them for now. Yeah, until you feel so confident that you already know when you look at them, I’m going to use blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then change them that way. We give them different ways. But you know, like, there’s different people that will connect to a different answer. That’s why. That’s why, like, even to our education, there’s, there’s everything that the colorist can do or needs to be able to change their color line. Confident, confidently, the education is, hands down. Our team is so strong, yeah,

Chris Baran 57:21
yeah, that’s wild. That’s wild.

Lupe. I just, you know, I don’t know where the hell time goes in this, but it’s, you know, it’s been just a marvelous I wanted to jump to, to the rapid fire here in just a minute. Okay? Because, no, no, no. But just before I do because I again, like I said in my research, I like research. Just nice, nice, fancy way of saying stalking. When I was stalking you, I researching you.

I came across your, your the line that you have for your hair care, etc. And I love the name. I absolutely love the name. So tell us what the name is, tell it what it stands for, and tell them. And I want to know who came up with the idea,

Lupe Voss 58:12
Ray chavelo. No, this is Ray Chavelos, baby. Oh, you gotta tell him. I absolutely I will tell him. I will tell him back of bottle. We call it Bob bottle, and it is an amazing wet line. It there’s shampoo, styling treatments. The reason why it’s called back of bottle is we pick up the bottle and we look at the ingredients. So it is an ingredient story. You know, there’s a lot of it’s clean. It’s very clean. There’s a lot of clean green products out there. I feel that this one actually makes your hair feel like hair again. There are no silicones. There’s one spray, a hair spray that has a little like minute piece of silicone in it to help it come out of the sprayer so that the hair feels like hair again, and there’s no build up on it. My hair, it feels clean. I can only tell you that it feels clean the scalp. Care the scalp,

the scalp, the focus on the scalp is so important to both of the lines that there are ingredients that actually have scalp care that are really involved in it. The ingredient, the botanicals to you know, our Demi has seven desert blends that are antiseptic and anti inflammatory, shea butter, you’ll see a connection to shea butter in both lines, which is the most hydrating and repairing. Yeah, Bob is a beautiful product. And

Chris Baran 59:43
what I love that you put at least or forgive, unless I have it wrong, you can call me out on it, but you took the back of the bottle, put it on the front

Speaker 1 59:52
of the bottle. On the front, yeah, put it on the front. That’s what I raised, brilliant when it came that is, this is freaking

Lupe Voss 59:59
brilliant. He’s been working

on this for a very, very, very long time. His heart and every pump of that shampoo or conditioner has so much love put into that work.

Chris Baran 1:00:12
Well, you have to, I don’t even know if you’re ready to remember who the hell I am, but I’ve got, I want to get him on the podcast as well. I’ll tell him. You tell them that I’m okay,

Lupe Voss 1:00:25
he’ll do it because you’re Canadian, from one kid, yeah, one can never

get totally good. And that’s it. And it’s, you know, what’s so beautiful about this is he has, he’s created CBB. It created CBB, and then has two beautiful, innovative products that he’s launched under his under his name, yeah, that’s like that, right there. Everything that he’s done in his career, salons. Own a salon, hairdresser, editorial, yeah, um, had the distribution, creative, stage work, which I know you’ve seen, and then to have this,

these two brands that he’s brought out, I can’t how proud and honored that he is. He deserves it. He really does. He’s put a lot of work into this, yeah, well, he’s an industry force that’s been there, and then, you know, and I, and I know huge, huge name in in Canada, and now you know that that’s going to be a huge throat here, too. So I wish you guys all the success in the world. It’s an honor for me. I It’s an honor to work with him. It really, yeah, thank you.

Chris Baran 1:01:41
So listen time for rapid fire. So just first thing that comes to your brain, the so can’t wait to hear what this this first one is not scared, yeah, just Drum roll, please. Okay, so what turns what turns you on in the creative process?

Lupe Voss 1:01:59
Hair color,

Chris Baran 1:02:01
what stifles it,

Lupe Voss 1:02:04
ego? What’s

Chris Baran 1:02:06
the thing in life that you love the most?

Lupe Voss 1:02:11
Dirt plants? Oh, when you went dirt, I went, that was interesting. Plants. I like to I like to be out in the yard that I love it. And I do butterflies. I raise monarchs, so that anything else? Yeah, well, you got to tell me. You have to tell me, what, what, what flowers to plant, to get them in our yard too.

Chris Baran 1:02:28
So in life, what do you dislike the most,

ego? Oh, a thing that you love most about our industry, Oh, can’t say color the humans. No

Lupe Voss 1:02:44
humans. Say humans. Oh, the humans. I love our humans. Yeah,

Chris Baran 1:02:51
we’ve gotta that’s, wouldn’t that be great to be on stage. Walk on stage. Go look at all you humans. Yes,

Lupe Voss 1:02:57
I love our humans.

Chris Baran 1:03:01
Okay, and then in, in, in our industry, what do you dislike the most

Lupe Voss 1:03:06
ego? Hmm,

Chris Baran 1:03:09
well, there we do get there’s, it’s a pretty easy place to have it happen, though, isn’t it? It doesn’t

Lupe Voss 1:03:14
bring the best out in our exactly

Chris Baran 1:03:18
a person that you admire the most. Annie Humphries, Oh, I love her. I love Do you know what she’s doing? Of you is she, from what I understand, she’s retired, living her best life. Oh, I’ve got to get it. I don’t even know if she I wish. I wish our industry researched this, this person more, because they would see where all the color concepts have come from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and that’s what if you were, if you followed them through from like the early 70s and on,

when you looked at all the people that were there that that, whether they were the directors for sassoons in the design or in color, Annie Humphries was always the one that was just so brilliant, brilliant, brilliant person. Yeah, most prized possession.

Lupe Voss 1:04:11
Oh, wow. Oh my gosh, my puppies. Oh yeah, I kind I have a wiener dog named Charlie Brown, and then a little micro mini golden doodle, who’s a Canuck Cody. So we rescue. Yeah, he’s so cute.

Chris Baran 1:04:31
How did you get him across? Oh, was there tariff bringing him across the border?

Lupe Voss 1:04:37
The people who didn’t want him paid a lot of money for him, and I’m enjoying them.

Chris Baran 1:04:42
God bless you for rescuing them, a person that you wish you could meet. Annie Humphreys, Oh, me too. Listen, if you can, you know they Christopher Brooker, who just married Terry Donnelly, and they’re living in California. And I mean, he was always one of my. Arrows too. I mean, I just when I watched the work that he did, and it was just those people should be honored, and they should have all of those people together, and because they were the next ones down, the ones that really made it for sassoons, yeah. So they should be all honored.

Lupe Voss 1:05:14
I agree. I agree with

Chris Baran 1:05:18
something that people don’t know about you.

Lupe Voss 1:05:21
I raise butterflies. Oh,

Chris Baran 1:05:25
I love that.

That’s got that’d be a whole different podcast.

Lupe Voss 1:05:29
It is, it’s, it’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Baran 1:05:36
I think this would be something you could probably use right now. But if a month off. Where would you go? What would you do?

Lupe Voss 1:05:42
I would go to Portugal and do absolutely nothing. I would read, knit and be on the beach and go

Chris Baran 1:05:50
or go down the Douro and and drink red wine. Oh, I absolutely adore Portugal

thing. That terrifies you.

Lupe Voss 1:06:06
I think losing my eyesight

that scares that scares me. Wow, yeah, that terrifies me. Wow.

Chris Baran 1:06:14
Favorite curse word,

Lupe Voss 1:06:16
pass, pass. Okay, good.

Chris Baran 1:06:19
That’s hard to fit into a conversation. Listen, you

Lupe Voss 1:06:24
know what?

Pass you? Pass you. I like that. There’s a good one.

Chris Baran 1:06:31
The pass, yeah, hey, oh, I’m gonna ask you this next one, and then I have a question for you. Your favorite comfort food?

Lupe Voss 1:06:39
Oh, my gosh. I love this is weird. Pho. I love pho. Oh, me too. I love pho. I can make every day you do. I do

Chris Baran 1:06:51
okay, and that you and Lee, because Lee loves fall as well. Okay. Oh, I can every day. Okay. Now I’m gonna break apart this for just a second. I’m gonna take you back to Portugal. Okay, I was there doing, I did some shows there, and they took me out for this lunch that I can’t remember the name of it, but it was like enormous, and I can’t remember if it had beans or whatever had, but it was served with a raw egg. I’m not a raw egg, a cooked egg on top of it. And they called it this name. They said it’s a local comfort food that you have at lunch, etc. No, or maybe they were passing

Lupe Voss 1:07:31
on the mainland.

Chris Baran 1:07:33
Yeah, no, it was on the I was at, I was at Porto.

Lupe Voss 1:07:39
No, I the islands had different the islands were different, like they had their one of their main dishes is called Alcatra, and it’s more beef. They they ate a lot of potatoes and yeah, but I don’t

Was it lima bean?

It might have been, might have been. Anyway, I’m gonna phone them and find out. Because this has been, it’s been bugging me for there’s a dish called Lima,

and what’s that there were the Lima bees, the big ones, they were the big did have an egg on it. I think that sometimes they would serve it.

Chris Baran 1:08:12
Maybe that’s what it was. Because I remember it was like a it was like a hodgepodge of stuff that was all put together anyway. I wanted to take away from that, the something, I don’t know what this would be, but something in the industry that you haven’t done, but you’d still want to

Lupe Voss 1:08:28
cut hair on stage. What? I’ve never cut hair on stage. I’ve always done color. They took me out of the cut, they took me out of the cutting and put me in color. We got to do a show one time. And, oh, I wouldn’t pay for this one if I was doing it, but you cut no color,

that would be I’ve always wanted to do a diagonal pixie on stage. Don’t add it all diagonal. Yeah. That was, that was a that was a favorite for saints the diagonal doing the all diagonal partings. Oh, it’s so cool. Yeah, I watched Gerard cut all the time. And, yeah, he’s, he’s brilliant cutter. He is a good cutter.

Chris Baran 1:09:18
Yeah, and anybody wants to know how to use a razor. Go see, go see Gerard.

If you had one do over, what would you do

Lupe Voss 1:09:28
in the industry or just in life, in weather industry, life, whatever.

I don’t, I don’t have one. I know

I have, I don’t have them come to brain, because then, then I wouldn’t be where I’m at. Yeah, true, true. Because all the hardships that have kind of put me where, yeah, made you who you are. Yeah, love. It made me appreciate where I’m at, yeah, so if I redo it, then I. Yeah,

Chris Baran 1:10:00
it’d be like that. The moving what was that? Sliding doors. Sliding doors. Yeah, two different people.

Lupe Voss 1:10:07
The only, only thing I would redo is, if I found a pair of shoes I liked and I didn’t get

it

Chris Baran 1:10:18
tomorrow, you couldn’t do hair, couldn’t have anything to do with the industry. What would you do?

Lupe Voss 1:10:23
I would go to University of Riverside and get my gardening certification. Oh, I would. I would

Chris Baran 1:10:36
Lupe, Lupe, Martha Stewart, boss,

Lupe Voss 1:10:40
hashtag, hashtag, get your garden on.

I would, I would definitely get a certification in dirt. I would love to do in dirt. I would love to, like design yards and backyards,

Chris Baran 1:10:54
and love it to hook you up with Adrian. I wanted to get a hot tub put in our back, but I wanted it designed in, and so he’s, he’s going to do a whole change of backyard for me just to put in this thing. And when I can afford it, it’ll go in, send it to me. I’ll pick your plants. Okay, there you go. And one, I’ve got one more question for you, but just before I do,

excuse me, if people are if they want to get you a hold of you for whatever, for teaching to want to find out more about color space, etc. How do they do that?

Well,

Lupe Voss 1:11:29
Well, they can go on to, um, Instagram, Lupe Voss and DM me, or my email is Lupe@colorspacehair.com always reach out to me in the in I’m pretty easy to get a hold of everyone you know, like, normally will DM me if they need any information or if they want to contact me. Yeah, I’m very I have to be, as you know, we have to be active on Instagram too, yeah.

Chris Baran 1:12:00
All right, so last one, if you had one wish for industry, what would it be

Lupe Voss 1:12:08
at this moment? I would love our industry to standardize our hair color level system, yes, so that we don’t pigeon hole colorists and give them fear into trying other color lines. Because the first thing that I hear is, is your level six? My level six? Yeah. And we should. We’re the only industry that deals with color that is not standardized. If you look at the Munsell system, the one, even the paint chips, you know, they have, Hue value and Chroma value, would be the level system for us. And that’s what our color line is based off of. That’s the thesis where they measured the equidistance between each of the levels, so that it is a true level system. So all the ranges that we have permanent ammonia, non ammonia and Demi all have the same level system because so it’s not that hard to do.

Each of the companies, that hair color companies I find, do their own level system. Ours is a computerized which I would love to share with them and get everybody on the same level, and that way we can everyone. There’s no fear in what we do. There’s, like I said earlier, there’s enough people to go around to try all color,

Chris Baran 1:13:30
yeah, yeah. And what I loved about you, what you were saying in through this whole thing, is just coming from a place of abundance. You know, there’s enough for everybody. There is okay. I have not had enough of you. I do want to have you back on here, even if it’s just for shits and giggles. Sure. Maybe I, maybe, I don’t know if it’s maybe too dangerous, maybe I’ll have to get you and Ray on at the same time. Oh my gosh, that now that would be fun. Yeah, that would be amazing. So, but listen, I want to you’ve taken time away. I just want to thank you so much for everything that you’ve done and what you’ve given on here. And you know, one of my taken away from you as well. So thank you warning everybody that if they get a hold of you, just catch your confessional out.

So Okay, thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me, and this was a great day. That was a pleasure.

Thanks again for watching this episode, and if you liked what you heard, remember to smash that like or follow button, depending on your preferred platform, and make sure to share it with anyone you know that might be a fellow head case. Head cases is produced by cut action media, with Marjorie Phillips doing the planning parts, Lee Baran on the video bits, and Adrian Taverner mixing the audio jazz music.