Remember when we all had to mix our own toner formulas from scratch?

I had a client yesterday who wanted a perfect match for a 20 year old photo, a specific ash blonde. I figured I'd just grab a bottle, but nothing was right. I spent 45 minutes at my color station, pulling out old swatch books and mixing tiny test batches. It took me back to cosmetology school in 2004 where we did this for every single client. Ended up using a 7A with a drop of a 6N and a tiny bit of violet additive to get it just right. Anyone else miss that kind of hands-on color work sometimes, or is it just me being nostalgic?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_hugo3d ago

Wait, you still have swatch books from 2004? That's wild... mine got ruined in a basement flood years ago. I can't believe the paper didn't just crumble to dust.

val_wilson3d ago

What can I say, I'm a hoarder for old color samples. They're stored in a hot attic too, so honestly the fact they haven't just melted into one big beige lump is the real shock. My organizational system peaked around the Bush administration and never recovered.