As I have transformed my hair throughout the years,
I have become more and more and more myself.
When my hair is looking good, I feel better than anything.
My name's Rachel Raquel and I'm getting my hair transformed
into an ink black color.
Before you see my hair transformation, subscribe below.
I'm originally from Iowa.
I first came to L.A. when I was 16 and I started traveling back and forth,
working here for music and modeling.
When I was younger, I swore I would never dye my hair.
And then when I first moved to L.A. six months in,
my best friend and I decided to dye my hair brown,
but we accidentally box dyed from
a dirty blonde into completely black.
It was terrifying at first.
But then we actually realized that it was way more me
than anything I had ever done,
and I've never felt more comfortable in my body.
I definitely think ink black will give me more confidence
on stage when I'm performing.
I feel like it will just make me feel more umph.
Good morning.
I'm Courtney.
Rachel.
Nice to meet you.
I hear we're doing a transformation to ink black today?
Yes.
My name is Courtney Anna Mason.
I'm a hair colorist at the Benjamin Salon.
My favorite part about doing hair is helping people create
the image of how they want to see themselves
and making people feel beautiful.
Why don't you tell me a little bit about your hair?
I have a perm.
Okay.
And then I had a balayage.
And I think they're still there.
Okay.
Ink black was definitely a good choice for Rachel
because she has a perm.
The color that we used on her won't
cause any harm to it.
I'm gonna leave it exactly as it is.
This is my assistant, Hannah.
Hi, nice to meet you!
She's going to get you ready for me and I'll be back in just a minute.
When I lived in Iowa,
I was definitely a super, super goody two shoes.
I had been trying to keep this reputation of this perfect person
since I was really, really young.
Part of that perfect person reputation in
my mind was never doing anything to my hair
and being completely natural.
So once I started coming to L.A. and I kept
getting bullied and bullied, I was like, what's
the point of me keeping up this perfect reputation
if that's not how I actually feel?
So, I think moving to L.A. finally really got me into that
state of mind of like just be you.
You ready?
Yeah.
Alright.
Let's do it.
Let's do it!
Today, the products I used to create Rachel's
ink black look was L'Oreal Richesse from roots to ends
and then I use Redken Shades to gloss it afterwards.
It's definitely important to go to a
professional to do something like this.
You want to make sure that you're putting
the proper product onto your hair.
It definitely isn't as simple as just putting
black color all over.
I love my current hair.
I've been doing brown for a while now and
I actually just got a perm.
So, I've been rocking the curly hair vibe,
but I get really bored really easily.
So, I would like to keep the curls going.
I'm down to like add a little more bangs,
fluff up the curls and full speed ahead.
Let's go.
Alright.
So, we're all done with your color.
I'm gonna send you off to your haircut and your blow-dry
and I'm going to see you after.
This is Michael.
He's going to be doing your haircut and blow-dry today.
Hey, Rachel. I'm Michael, nice to meet you.
Alright, I'll see you guys later.
Alright, I'll let you know when it's all set.
Have fun!
Bye, thank you!
So are you looking to reestablish some fringe today?
Yeah, like a hippie bang.
Yeah, no problem.
Woo, that's black for sure.
This is a look.
I'm hyped!
I constantly need to be changing things up
and I'm that type of person that's like, surprise.
Here's me.
I did that with my perm and everyone was like,
"Is this real? I don't know."
Lately, I really like the natural mermaid look
as opposed to a lot of different styling
tools that you could use.
I like to air dry the hair, diffuse it,
using some product just to kind of scrunch to get
that natural texture.
It tends to just be a little bit more soft
and a little bit more fluid as Rachel
or any client walks down the street.
You know, it kind of has a little bit more bounce.
I think changing my hair, making that first big step
when I moved to L.A. was so, so important
because you need to do what makes you feel beautiful
and sometimes it's not the way you
were born.
Now, more than ever, everyone's kind of realizing that.
Thinking you look good or liking your vibe and your style
is really important and a big step towards self-love.
Ready to check it out?
Oh, wow I love it.
The curls look so good with it.
It looks so good!
This love makes me feel more like me.
I know I've said that before.
Everything turned out exactly how I wanted it to look.
They're all there, the whole family and the family friends.
I love it!
It looks so dramatic.
Oh, it's gorgeous.
Thank you, Mama.
Taking Rachel from light brown to ink black
was a really fun transformation.
She wore it very well with her skin tone,
her texture, her eye color.
It really has a very kind of unique vibe,
which I think will be good for her.
She wants to stand out.
It just feels so good and edgy and fun.
I definitely think it correlates with my music style.
Because like I said, I'm pretty hippie,
but I'm still a little dark and edgy with everything.
I always look at myself in the mirror and I think,
oh my god.
Young Rachel would be like, "What did you do?"
Because I was so paranoid
with what people thought of me.
But also, at the same time, I feel like way better
as the person I am today.
And I don't think young Rachel even knew
what was coming to her at all.
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