Your Questions, Answered

  • It depends on your length, how dark your colour is now, and how much contrast you're willing to live with. What it doesn't have to be is twelve months of a hard line down your part.

    Roughly, it runs in three stages:

    • Week 0 — 45 minutes mapping your silver, your growth and your real life into a written timeline. This is where expectations get set, and where we start training your eye to be OK seeing some sparkle.

    • Months 1–3 — the hardest stretch. A mix of high and low-lights eases your eye into seeing more sparkle each month. Sometimes a semi-permanent colour takes the shine down; it washes out in a few weeks.

    • Months 4–12 — outgrowth looks better, you're in the salon less, and appointments settle into a scheduled colour every 8 to 10 weeks.

  • The studio was built for exactly this. Every colour is ammonia-free, washing is sulfate-free, and no formaldehyde smoothing treatment is used here, ever. That said, this is a hair studio and not a medical practice — if you're in active treatment, check with your oncologist first, and tell Alise when you book so she can plan the gentlest option.

  • A treatment for the skin under your hair rather than the hair itself. It purifies, cleanses and removes dead skin, then calms the scalp with anti-inflammatory tinctures and tonics. Diagnosis, treatment and blow dry take 75 minutes and start at $125.

  • Colour starts at $175 and books up to three hours. If you're not sure what you need, a consultation is $90 and is credited toward a booked colour service.

  • Ammonia-free colour, sulfate-free washing, and no formaldehyde smoothing. The lines carried — Hairstory, Kevin Murphy, Keune, Cult & King, HuiHui, Maria Nila, Reverie — are chosen and used by Alise rather than stocked by a distributor.

  • Yes. One guest at a time. No front desk, no waiting room, and no stylist stepping away to another chair. You have the room for your appointment.

  • In most cases, yes. Cutting it all off is one route to grey, not the only one. Bring what you want to keep to the consultation and the plan is built around it.

  • 4289 Piedmont Ave, Suite 208B, Oakland, CA 94611. Thursday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm, by appointment only.