The Bleaching

Josh: The Daily Talk Show. It's a Daily Talk Show episode 413.

Tommy: It's weekend banter. What's going on, guys? Clap it in. Well, it doesn't sound like a normal show because we are not in our studio. We are right now at Joey Scandizzo Salon in South Yarra. And Mr. 97, he doesn't have a mic. I've got a mic in my hand.

Josh: He's shaking. You can't hold a mic today.

Tommy: I've had to hold it for him. Where are we, mate?

Mason: Oh, we're getting my hair bleached.

Tommy: This is happening. And we do have Queen Gronkh.

Gemma: Here she is.

Rachel: She's back.

Tommy: Queen Gronkh, who's by your right?

Gemma: Rachel Vitullo, 2019 Australian Colorist of the Year.

Josh: Oh, is this your award? Yes, it is, guys. Oh my God. I was wondering what was underneath your bomber jacket just now.

Tommy: Rachel, you won Creative Colorist of the Year 2019.

Rachel: Yes, I did.

Tommy: We're in safe hands with you doing Mr. 97's bleach job. Is there any difference between going blonde and bleaching? Because we've been like using—

Josh: we've got no idea.

Tommy: We butcher the terminology.

Gemma: Rach, I need to— for context, they are just big babies. If they aren't fed and watered, they will shit their pants.

Josh: Rachel almost looked like it was a trick question, but no, we're just pretty stupid. So yeah, is there any— is there a difference between bleaching and blonde or no?

Rachel: Yes, there is.

Josh: —Okay.

Rachel: So depending on the hair that I'm working with. So if your hair is natural, never been coloured before, there is the option of using other things other than bleach to achieve a blonde result. But it all depends on how blonde you wanna go, the underlining pigment of your natural color, how light you wanna be end result. So that's what's going to change between whether we use bleach, which is like a lightening powder, Yeah. Which is like the professional way of saying it, lightener powder.

Josh: Is it actually powder? 'Cause I remember my mom used to put a paste on my hair. Is that different? What she would do?

Gemma: Did your mom win colorist of the year?

Josh: No, no, I think in Berwick maybe, no, no, there was literally no awards. But yeah, is there a difference between the at-home bleach that you do and this type of one or is it fairly standard?

Rachel: In terms of the way it looks, it looks the same. But essentially it's a lightening powder mixed in with like peroxide to create a paste, but sometimes the cheaper lightning powders don't perform as well as what professional.

Tommy: Queen Gronkh, before we— before I give Mason the microphone— I've gone serious, I've called him Mason— before I give Mason the microphone to ask questions to calm his anxieties on this whole thing, a little Q&A between Rachel and Mr. 97. You got any questions?

Gemma: I mean, not really. I just— this has been a really good opportunity for me to show how much industry pull that I have. I've sort of done it under the guise of being like, you know what, I really care about Mr. 97 and I don't want this to be a hack job. But in reality, it's been me going, let me make a few calls. Yeah.

Tommy: Let's book him into the best salon in Melbourne. In South Yarra. I got this. All right, Mr. 97, microphone over to you. I know you've been feeling anxious all week.

Josh: He's been meditating. It's Organized August. And so you were meditating. Yeah. You've meditated today. So he's calmer than what he was at the beginning, to be honest. Yeah. But go on. Feel free to ask Rachel something.

Mason: Yeah, no, so with— well, I've got a few questions to knock off.

Tommy: Ask away.

Mason: The difference between the bleach and blonde, because the guys were talking We had Andy from Fixo on the show yesterday, and they were talking about me bleaching my hair, and then I said that—

Josh: We asked you what color.

Mason: Yeah, and I said blonde. Yeah, and so what is the difference between bleached and blonde?

Rachel: Oh my, well, essentially bleach is the application, like, so the actual product that I use. The end result is is you being blonde. Okay.

Gemma: But blonde has a full spectrum of shades within it.

Rachel: There's so many different versions of blonde that you can be. Okay. What a lot of my clients like to do is leave it in my hands.

Tommy: Okay. In regards to—

Gemma: I'm happy to do that. That's what they will be doing. Don't ask him questions.

Rachel: Totally.

Tommy: That's when she brings up this and just says, "Leave it in my hands." Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rachel: Perfect. So essentially you want to make sure that like, To create the perfect blonde is really hard. And it all comes down to the client that sits in my chair. So whether or not they've got a pink skin pigment or a yellow skin pigment, whether they wear a full coverage foundation or not. Guilty. Yep, storey of my life. Whether or not they wear bright colours or whether they go more neutral tones, if they want low maintenance, high maintenance, that sort of thing.

Josh: So based on Mr. 97's wardrobe—

Gemma: I was gonna say, the timing couldn't be better because— The new wardrobe is very neutral, very Ted Mack. Yes.

Josh: And so what would that, based on his wardrobe of a khaki green, is that, or what sort of green? It's a green color. Yeah, you know, more of a neutral.

Mason: Yeah, yeah, neutral.

Rachel: Yeah. Well, and I can tell that you have more of a pink skin pigment naturally. So essentially with pink skin pigments, cool tones suit a lot better, especially with males. Cool tones actually complement a male's skin tone a lot more than what warm tones do. When you are colouring a guy's hair, whether or not it's like keeping it brown or blonde, keeping it on the cool flat tones just complement really well. So in what I'm going to try to achieve today is more of that cool neutral result. Okay, perfect. This is why I'm using— No M&M. Yeah.

Gemma: Where you went wrong circa '03.

Josh: In '03 it was very— it was yellow.

Gemma: Yellow is warm. Yeah, your skin tone, not warm.

Josh: Yeah, did you say caramel? It was a caramel.

Gemma: Not even close to caramel. It was yellow. It was slightly yellow.

Rachel: Was it a professional job?

Josh: Uh, absolutely not. Right, I'll bring up the photos.

Rachel: Yeah, because I was gonna say, you're so fair naturally, you could achieve white blonde really easy.

Gemma: Yeah, well, I mean, so hot mess.

Josh: And so from, from color-wise, what are you thinking, Tommy?

Tommy: Oh mate, I mean, it's up to you. I trust you more than anyone in this room when it comes to anything to do with hair.

Josh: So 2003. You're welcome. So this was, uh, this is my hair in 2003.

Rachel: That's Eminem. No, that is Slim Shady.

Tommy: Wow. Now it's much worse.

Josh: Did gel change the colour though? Because there was a lot of gel in the hair.

Rachel: So what happens is when you use like a high shine product and you take a photo, it reflects more light, which adds into the warm result. So yeah, 2-minute noodles for sure.

Tommy: Just to know what you're dealing with, Mr. 97's hair is pretty much bamboo. It's very thick, luscious. He uses coconut oil on the daily.

Gemma: Bamboo is a weird choice of analogy.

Josh: It's abundant. It's almost a weed. I mean, this is coming from a guy who's losing his hair rapidly. So I'm projecting slightly.

Tommy: So Rachel, I'm happy for you to just do your thing. Great. And what do we do from here?

Rachel: What's the next step? So because you've never coloured your hair before, that cancels out consultation in that sort of point there. But I always like to under-promise and try and overachieve.

Josh: So it's gonna look shit. Yeah, 100%.

Rachel: So I always just let my client know but I will try my best to get you there. Can't make any promises, but, and then also like to let you know that having an on-scalp lightener, you will notice you'll have a tingling sensation on your scalp. And if at any point it is too much, scream my name out, I'll come and take it off. But you'll be fine.

Gemma: Like I've done this, you'll be fine.

Rachel: And I was actually watching your podcast when you were talking about when you, were saying that you were coming in and getting your hair done and all of that. And so obviously like there's a lot of pressure on all of this, but you were on the podcast, they were saying, I think you guys were saying, I wonder when it was the last time that I've actually done this on someone. It's actually really common. Like I do this a lot, especially on a lot of guys. I actually did this last week. So it is a long process. —Okay. —So essentially I'll put the colour on and then it may take about an hour to process. So once it's lifted to the level that I need, we're gonna tone it. And then we'll talk about at-home care.

Tommy: —Well, here's the problem.

Gemma: —Toning is where you went wrong as well.

Josh: —Which I saw, yeah. —I had purple hair shampoo all the time. Like I actually thought that was the only shampoo you could buy for a while. 'Cause mum was always buying toner. She was trying to fix your hair, mate.

Tommy: Yeah, it was a secret. Yeah, all right, because this is going to take some time. Yes, we're going to— we're in a bustling salon that's— it's pre-open, so it will be going crazy pretty soon. Uh, I think you can take it away. Great. So do we just sit here?

Rachel: Can we just get in there? Yeah, of course you can.

Tommy: Yeah, this is amazing. Are you ready?

Josh: Yeah. Gem, all right, uh, the YouTube— your YouTube— you did a video one, was it— is it called balayage?

Gemma: Yes, I think, I think at the time we were calling it ombre, but it has many—

Josh: see, is balayage correct or no?

Gemma: Yeah. I can do home stuff because A, I don't have virgin hair, and B, I mean, you can't really go wrong with this. I have excellent hair. It's important to know your strengths.

Tommy: That is one of them. I feel like, you know, when you go to— I feel like we're a kind of show that will do it from a place that's won Best Vanilla Slice, but also on the window, Salon of the Year.

Gemma: I did this for you.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who would call in the PR favour for a bakery of the year. Yeah, well, there's someone out there.

Josh: Yeah, surely we— Trev Long would know somebody. Next time, uh, we come in, because we're obviously— 97's gonna have to get some touch-ups. Uh, actually, that's a great— he's gonna love it so much, he's gonna keep doing it. Rach, is it gonna get better over time? The microphone— 97 is— he's rattled. He's absolutely rattled. Uh, over time, do you think that this sort of hairstyle gets better? Like, day 1 versus day 30 and 60 and 90? What's it gonna change?

Rachel: It really depends on what look you're going for. So a lot of my male clients that I've transitioned into an on-scalp lightener, professional terms, than a bleach, an on-scalp lightener, they've actually preferred how it looks in the first week versus 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 weeks. But it all depends. Like if a lot of guys like to have that darker, like their natural pop through on the root for a bit of regrowth or tonal texture. Yeah, 100%.

Tommy: This is Adam Levine. I'm trying to— I mean, that's what I like. Love that. He looks great. I mean, I put his face on— Mr. 97's face onto Adam Levine's head.

Gemma: Do you think you'll pull a Victoria's Secret model after this? Because he did.

Josh: He did. So we'll get him on the books with a few agencies, Vivienne's and all that sort of thing. Because I think there's definitely the opportunity for some form of modelling because it does seem to have the—

Gemma: I was in at Chic head office during the week. I'm sure they'd be very keen.

Josh: I mean, so what will he— from a hair point of view, I wonder what sort of brands are looking specifically for the, what did you call it, Rach? The scalp-lined, what's the official term?

Rachel: On-scalp lightener.

Josh: On-scalp lightener, which is the only way I refer to it now.

Tommy: Hang on, wait, what's that term referring to?

Josh: Bleaching. On-scalp lightener.

Gemma: Scalp bleach. Okay, okay.

Tommy: It's just a professional term. Yeah, it's a much nicer term. On-scalp lightener. 'Cause it doesn't have undertones of suburban fish hats.

Josh: Or bleach you use in the toilet as well, right? So there's like many uses of bleach.

Tommy: I just wanna tell you a bit of a nightmare story, Rach, that I've told on this podcast quite a few times. Because it, you know, it was horrific when I was young. Josh and I, we both got tips, used the skull cap, but then we also— I also just got some like foils because this is what you did in the '90s, of course, early 2000s.

Josh: Foils! When we found out that you could use— you could get a look that didn't involve your mum poking, stabbing.

Tommy: I know, your mum did.

Josh: Yeah, that's why. That's the problem.

Tommy: I mean, it still hurts to sell on.

Josh: Gemma has said I can't mention my scalp conditions anymore.

Tommy: Anyway, I, um, the woman dropped some The woman dropped some bleach on my t-shirt and then just wiped it off, right? And I was like, oh, is that going to be okay? She's like, yeah, it'll be fine. The next day, my favourite t-shirt went orange.

Gemma: Story of my life. Still salty.

Tommy: Story of my life. So watch out for his fast fashion.

Gemma: Rach might be developing something to counter that. Oh really? Watch this space.

Rachel: Yeah, watch this space.

Josh: Like a big curtain or something you sort of wear? Not quite.

Tommy: A little more scientific. A little sexier.

Josh: A little sexier. All right, I'll take the motorhome.

Tommy: Mr. 97, you can put one arm out just because I want to know just every few minutes how you're feeling and how, you know, he's shaking. How are you feeling though? How are you feeling, Mr.

Mason: 97? Surprisingly not too bad. I actually, I thought I was going to be way more nervous just like leading up to it, but I think with, with Gemma pulling some strings, it's, uh, yeah, it's perfect.

Josh: What about us? Are we helping?

Gemma: No, no strings. I just, I just made a call. Yeah, I made one phone call.

Tommy: Have you thought I mean, this really makes you think about your visual appearance. You're thinking of self. Your aesthetic. If you're going deep, you're a meditator now. I mean, you've been in the game for quite some time.

Gemma: 2 days, 3 days. Was today the food meditation?

Mason: Did I see that? That's tomorrow. Tomorrow's the food meditation. A piece of chocolate.

Tommy: What do you mean? You're thinking about chocolate or you eat chocolate?

Mason: No, you eat chocolate and you have to be mindful about the sensations. Josh has been so down to meditating.

Gemma: I get super erotic. Though, but it's— you've got to be like thinking, because when you learn to meditate, you learn about, you know, the feeling.

Mason: Yeah, it's about the sensory, about being aware of what's happening.

Tommy: Yeah. So sense of self, like really identifying as this character with, you know, brown hair, chiselled cut, just an absolute fox. How— like, are you thinking more about how you look? Like, are you thinking about your appearance a lot more?

Mason: Um, no, not really. I mean, I think about it when it gets bad, as in like my hair's like all thick and stuff. I think about my appearance then when I've got like my hair's getting long. But other than that, do you think you're vain?

Tommy: A little bit.

Gemma: Really? Your bang looks great. Yeah, no, I'm just looking at it now.

Mason: It looks Really nice. Yeah, he's done an epic job. Yeah, yeah.

Josh: And yeah, so you've, uh, because if you haven't watched the, uh, the video online, you wouldn't know that you've actually— you went over, uh, to King Domain's, uh, barbershop and Aaron did a cut. He's done a fade, which I think is, um, he described it as an optical illusion. Are you not meant to be able to see the line? Yeah, yeah, we're getting some hairdresser terms.

Tommy: You got a fade? Otherwise known as an optical illusion in the barber world.

Josh: It looks great. I mean, this is the thing, like, I think that I'll be interested to know the, the products and stuff. Like, what is it going to take?

Tommy: God, the questions you asked over there, dude. Selfish. I removed myself. Yeah, I got out of there because you just asked—

Josh: it was just like, I just wanted to know, like, well, Aaron was saying every 3 to 4 weeks. Yeah, to get a haircut.

Gemma: Definitely.

Tommy: If you want to keep that cut. So, okay. Right now Rachel has got a comb. She's got her black gloves on, very stylish. Any reason why you go black? Is it just on fleek at the moment? Yeah, just matches everything I wear.

Josh: We've worked out that's a bad idea.

Rachel: Nicer than the really clear, gross gloves.

Josh: Not on brand. Yeah. Not on brand. The black looks great. I trust like an American barbecue place when they're dealing with the brisket with the gloves.

Gemma: So similar as well. That's my preference.

Josh: I mean, where you spend most of your time, That's what your references are.

Tommy: I'm seeing a thing of like, it looks a bit purple, this bleach.

Rachel: No, it's blue. Oh, it's blue. Yeah, it's blue-based.

Tommy: Oh wow, look at that. Don't get too close.

Josh: Can I have a little sniff?

Tommy: Oh my God. Mm, I mean, I like the smell of being at the hairdresser. That's all good. I love it. One of my favourite things is actually getting my hair washed at a salon. I just lie back and the massage.

Gemma: Usually I don't like contact with other humans, but oh, you don't mind that?

Josh: Scalp massage. What's the craziest haircut you've ever had, Gem? Have you ever gone super short or done a perm?

Gemma: I do all sorts of— I've been fully blonde before. I am— my sort of MO is I grow it really long and then I cut it to sort of, you know, collarbone length. It's what I do. Just to really shock people. Fringe? Wild. I've done a fringe. I think I want to bring the fringe back.

Tommy: Don't bring the fringe.

Gemma: They're like, no, no, no, it looks really good. I did it on my Instagram.

Mason: I did see that.

Gemma: Like a half sort of, that sort of thing.

Josh: Sort of like the halfie.

Gemma: Yeah, okay, done. That worked.

Tommy: Isn't it funny how— Like if only there was someone around here to do that for me. I need my neck fixed up. I might head back over to Aaron soon, get that done.

Josh: I actually shaved for today. No one noticed, but it's not about me.

Gemma: I was going to wear my tiara and I thought, hey, it's not your day.

Tommy: Rachel, how much would someone pay to come and have their hair bleached?

Josh: A scalp in— by me? Yeah, by you.

Tommy: What are we working with here?

Rachel: It's around, really depending on the hair length, but it can vary from around $300 to $500.

Tommy: Whoop, there it is! Have you got that server money on you? '97, I think this is. '97 built an online gaming server when he was a kid, made all this money and he's got it stored away, so we always You know, when the business is going pear-shaped, we dip into it.

Josh: We have had a Minecraft server business.

Gemma: Oh, I thought my custom MySpace coding business was—

Josh: Were you really doing that?

Gemma: Yeah, yeah, that was my first— that's how I first solicited money from people in high school.

Josh: You were like the Mark Zuckerberg of—

Gemma: Well, yeah, I would just make everyone's MySpace pretty for them.

Josh: Did you? I remember like having— the great thing about MySpace is it felt like it was more personality-driven. You could have your own songs.

Gemma: Choosing the song was— for a long time I had that, I mean, not theme song, but that bit from Psycho. So when people would come on to my MySpace, it was just—

Josh: Chilling. Yeah, it was nice. I remember using the view source feature to be able to see who people's top friends were. Of course.

Gemma: I just put, see, and then I realised people were doing that. 'cause like I'm really good at coding and stuff, really tech savvy. Then I just put my top friends as all like Britney Spears. Ah, that's a good idea. Paris Hilton. So then they had no idea. But couldn't you see?

Josh: What did you used to do to be able to reveal? Yeah, view source.

Tommy: Sorry, I wasn't listening. I was looking. Mr. 97's actually getting a paintbrush with the bleach going straight on there.

Josh: George, should we get Karen in nice and close?

Tommy: Yeah, so we've got Karen here who's our gimbal weapon.

Josh: Karen, come on in. Get in close. Don't mind the cameras.

Tommy: Don't mind the cameras. And we've got a full production here. Yeah, we've got Hayden Dibb. Hayden, you can pan between now.

Josh: We've got Carol on the case. Which the nickname for Hayden I want to—

Tommy: Oh yeah, so Hayden's going to be starting to spending some time with the Gronk Squad.

Josh: And the nickname that I want to give him is Honey. Honey? Honey Boo Bear? Honey Bear?

Gemma: Well, I've gone straight to the Jessica Alba movie. No, well, the reason— Are you a dancer?

Tommy: I mean, I just need to preface before that he usually refers to himself as the Lebanese Rambo. Lebanese—

Josh: I mean, he's—

Tommy: there's a lot of— I actually call myself that too, oddly enough. There's a lot of Lebanese jokes in the office coming from him.

Josh: But so, no, the idea of honey was because this morning before we got here, I asked if he wanted a coffee and he said he wanted a flat white with honey.

Tommy: Who is this guy?

Josh: And this is at a cafe. And so I asked him legitimately, I asked him, is that a stitch-up, like, order? Am I going to ask for honey and they're going to laugh at me?

Gemma: And he said no, people order it. It's just that they are 85-year-old women. But did you—

Josh: I imagine like honey in a green, like in a tea maybe, or like a breakfast tea, a chai. You'd have some honey. Yeah, it was so— it was one of those things where when you ask a bunch of people, oh, anyone want a coffee? And then you get the weird orders.

Gemma: See, as a long black woman, I just judge everyone that's having even a drop of milk. You bitch.

Josh: Can we get that as a snippet? That was something about Jen calling me a bitch last night.

Gemma: But there's a, I think if you drink long blacks, you're more likely to be a serial killer or a psychopath or something.

Tommy: That's 3D Gil. 3D Gil loves a long black. I got him yesterday an almond latte. Because Josh was having one. But Honey, like, I'm a bit worried about that. It seems— I mean, I'd be worried.

Gemma: I have honey in my sedative tea that I have.

Tommy: No, but I mean, just as a nickname. I don't know if—

Josh: Oh, you don't like the nickname Honey? Uh, I think this— You also thought Organized August wasn't going to be a thing.

Gemma: I'm into it.

Josh: Absolutely blown up.

Gemma: Love Organized August.

Tommy: Look, let's address the elephant in the room. Actually, he's not in the room, he's in bloody a studio in Sydney, 2GB headquarters, Ben Fordham. That was wild. All right, mate.

Josh: He's getting right behind Organized August. But I just think like the thing with Organized August is, I think it's a low barrier to entry. Anyone can get involved. Everyone has something that they need to organize. And so whether it's the wallet or whether it's yesterday's one was the taking your phone out of your room. Do you sleep with your phone near you?

Gemma: Yeah, but I— it's not next to my bed. Where is it?

Tommy: It's in your bed.

Gemma: It's in my hand. Um, no, I put it out of reach over the dressing table. Okay, but it's still in your room. Yeah, but it's so that when my alarm goes off, I have to get up and turn it off, and then I'm like, well, I'm already up.

Josh: Are you one to put your alarm on for, say, if you had to leave the house at 7:00, what time are you putting the alarm on for?

Gemma: 6. Oh, it depends.

Josh: Why is that funny?

Tommy: It's just the question.

Josh: Even Mason laughed. What, is that not a legitimate question?

Tommy: Well, and then we're going to run through your breakfast routine and, um, we've already done that.

Josh: We're working through it.

Gemma: But it depends because often I don't have to leave the house at 7. Yeah. I normally exercise in the mornings because like I'm really fit and stuff, but this morning I didn't do that.

Josh: No, well, no, because I find it interesting.

Tommy: Quick cheque in with Mr. 97. He's got a mic in his hand. How are you feeling?

Mason: You look great. It's good. It just feels like there's a bit of paste on my head.

Tommy: There is. I had a moment where I was like, there is no turning back right now.

Mason: Oh, I know. I was thinking that just before.

Tommy: There is no turning back.

Rachel: Well, you can always change it back to his natural colour after.

Tommy: For another $540. Do you have to?

Josh: I believe my brother, when we were kids, did that, but he had to dye it red before he went to brown or black. Is that a thing?

Rachel: Well, when I was in high school and I had a lot of friends that went from blonde to brunette, that was essentially the way to go. But now with technology of color, as long as you re-deposit the pigment that was lost when lightening in your color, if that makes sense. So To me it does.

Gemma: Yeah, to me too. So when you—

Rachel: so there's 3 stages of lightening really depending on how dark you are naturally. So in this situation here, the first colour that will appear is red, then it'll go to orange, and then it'll go to yellow. Interesting. And then we counteract that tone once we get it to the lightest level possible. That's the aim of the game today. So essentially when you're going darker, you have to re- to put those pigments back in in order for it to not look green or blue or cac.

Gemma: So cac, cac, what's cac? Like that Carrie-Anne Kennerley.

Josh: Is cac the colour of '97's top?

Rachel: Yeah, yeah. So you do have to re-put that pigment into your colour when you go back to your natural, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that two-stage process like it used to.

Josh: Do you always have— I'm so glad we're not doing this ourselves.

Gemma: Yeah, I cannot stress to you enough how good this will be.

Josh: I mean, and we're also like, the carpet at the office is going to be fine now because TJ was like, Tommy was worried about the carpet.

Tommy: Like if we spilled a little bit on the carpet, that's a full— I got stressed.

Gemma: I was in Sydney and I had no involvement with this and then I am listening and then, oh, we'll have to get Gemma in. Oh, I think she's in Sydney at the moment. And I'm like, hang on. I didn't put my hand up.

Josh: We nearly did it in the garage from it with a little— So do we have to put toner in this no matter what? Do you always end by putting toner in a scalp lining session? Not necessarily, really depending.

Gemma: You said lining? Lightning.

Josh: Lightning. Lightning. You're getting confused between the other—

Mason: what was the other one? Yeah.

Tommy: Look, he's thinking about his folliculitis, let's be honest. You were not allowed to mention folliculitis.

Josh: Oh yeah, you're allowed to.

Tommy: I'm just— I said the F word.

Gemma: I just woke up this morning and my first thought was just, this is a whole morning of folliculitis.

Tommy: Yeah, well, look, it's not about Josh or me today. It's about Mr. 97, Gemma, and Rachel.

Josh: Yeah, and so, um, We won't talk about the scalp then. I did have a scalp-related question, but you know—

Gemma: No, do it, do it.

Josh: I mean, do you— Rach, I know you're not a dermatologist, but have you heard of folliculitis, and do you know anything that you can do to help it? No, explain. Oh, it's sort of like a pimply thing on your head. It's like pimples on your head.

Tommy: Oh, it's actually like infection of the scalp surface, dude. So it's not a pimple. You got a pimple?

Gemma: It's like psoriasis but on the scalp specifically.

Josh: I mean, it's a little bit like that, I guess, but it's there is some form of element that antibiotics can be helpful.

Tommy: Yeah, which is antibiotics are for bacteria, fungal infections. I always think, I've got a son, he's 2 and a half years old, he goes to daycare and I'm a cool dad. I mean, I didn't have to say it because you said it. Yeah, I was helping you. I did repeat it, but it was, I'm glad you said it before me. You're welcome. Um, nits, lice. Oh no. Like, I always think, imagine I mean, you deal with hair, Rach. Like, have you seen them before?

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, and I've had it multiple times.

Gemma: Yeah, I've had them as an adult.

Josh: The cleaner the hair.

Tommy: Now there is a bit of bleach on it. I'll turn that around.

Josh: Do you want to actually just wipe it off?

Tommy: Yeah, I'll wipe it off.

Josh: You're just going to keep it on? Unbelievable. Rode microphones, we're so sorry. It's gone, it's gone, it's gone white. Are you sniffing it?

Tommy: I was just smelling it to see. But so you've—

Rachel: have you ever had someone come in and you've just looked at their hair and you've gone, "Oh, dull." Yeah, but the hard thing is now we as hairdressers in this industry, we actually can't refuse service when a person comes in with head lice. Can't you? Oh, really? No. So because it's kind of like—

Josh: Do you have to charge extra at least?

Rachel: Discrimination and stuff. Really? Yeah, so what we have to do is still complete the service, let the client know that they've got head lice and that it needs to be treated, and then we have to disinfect everything.

Josh: Could you— do you ever say it up front so that they, out of their own sort of options, say, actually, you know what?

Tommy: Well, I think a lot of us, like, you see something wrong like that and you kind of, you feel awkward about bringing it up for them. Like my scalp. And so you kind of make it— again, it goes back to yourself because you're not wanting to feel weird.

Rachel: We try to not make it like it's an issue because it's not. But it's a fucking issue. It is a fucking issue. But because it's not like someone will get sick from it or anything like that. So we just let them know the correct way to treat it. I'm seeing the color.

Tommy: It's coming out. It's coming out.

Gemma: I don't think I've ever been in an environment with people who are this, I don't wanna use the word clueless, but.

Josh: No, but I wasn't expecting to be able to see, I would expect that we would wash it off and then.

Mason: Do you actually see like just brown coming off?

Josh: No, no.

Tommy: How about a brown coming off?

Josh: You think that we're washing the brown out of your hair? No, bro.

Tommy: How about we get an update from Rachel? What's happening?

Rachel: So when you can see— oh, I don't know what you guys can probably see. See, right off his scalp is slightly lighter than what it is on the very ends. Yeah. So naturally our head releases a lot of heat, so about that much of the root area will always lift further and faster than the hair on the rest of the head, which is why I like to lighten all the way through on shorter hair. So we are getting really good lift, but I can tell by—

Gemma: Lift is the color, not the white hair.

Rachel: Yeah, it's lightening up, it's lightening really well. It looks quite flat. But I can tell this is gonna need to process under like a heat machine.

Tommy: Really? With a little prompting, it'll come out. Rach, are you single? Yes, I am. For a single woman, uh, you know, wow, probably. How much does—

Josh: how much they got? Like, Tommy's great in the sense he asks all the questions.

Tommy: Look, I'm a married man with a kid. It's like, I just—

Josh: the only reason he's married with a kid is so he can ask these questions, to be honest.

Tommy: No, but, uh, if you saw a young strapping man that, um, had this kind of hair, what, what's your thoughts?

Rachel: As in like the end result he's gonna have?

Tommy: I mean, say you nail it and you see him walking down the street, you're like, is that Adam Levine? No, it's just some other guy. But is it appealing? What is it going to increase his sort of—

Rachel: it's a peacock— dating capabilities? Yeah, 100%. I think that once I've created this amazing color, it will— as he's walking down the street, a lot of women will be like, oh, he takes pride in the way he looks, you know, he really tries. Yeah. And I think that's really important.

Josh: And because Mr— I think that's a brand value that you stand by, 97, which is you do try. Yes. And so it's finishing off the brand.

Tommy: He'll be the guy— I mean, he's young now, he's 19, but when he's that 35-year-old bloke, he'll be the friend to us that has his shit together. Yeah. And it's just taken—

Josh: we're relying on his superannuation, but we've set up our bucket Yeah, no, it's great. I'm loving seeing the whole process.

Tommy: Are you, I mean, this is where we're like in the daddy set. I think you have types, you have, and we've, we all know Mr. 97's type. He's gone into detail about it. He got forced to do it. Well, he got forced to do it. We don't need to go there, but Gem, I mean, what do you think?

Gemma: I have thoughts on what he said his type was because I feel like he was put on the spot and perhaps he doesn't have a physical type. Yeah.

Tommy: Well, no, that's what I mean. It was a bit, it was bullied into it.

Gemma: I feel like he panicked and he said some crap.

Tommy: And he was just using words.

Gemma: He was using words.

Tommy: And so what's your boyfriend? Yes. The tradie. Scotty Cam. Yes, Scotty Cam. I was tradie. I got there. Scotty Cam.

Gemma: What colour is his hair? Light brown.

Tommy: Light brown. Is he a bloke who takes pride in his visual appearance?

Gemma: Yes, not as much as I would like him to. It's a real point of contention because he lied to me about using a face scrub that I gave to him and really doubled down on the lie and then I realised it still had the like Alfoil seal on it.

Josh: That's why you need those seals, you know.

Gemma: That was several months ago now and I'm still not thrilled.

Tommy: Not happy with it. Has he got real tradie hands? Appalling. Do you want to feel Josh's hands? Feel my hands. Like these are the softest baby hands. They haven't— they are soft, aren't they?

Gemma: What are you using?

Josh: I use nothing. It's good I use no effort to do do any hard work. It is, yeah, it is interesting, isn't it? I do, I actually shock people when I shake their hands out of the softness. I don't know what it really is, but it's just—

Gemma: I think it's lovely. Chris's hands are like an exfoliating mitt. Real sexy stuff.

Tommy: No, I think Christian, I need to get this fake tan off my, uh, yeah, just my stomach.

Josh: Get it.

Gemma: It's a bit of exfoliation. Now I use a foam and it— yeah, my sun's tan eraser.

Tommy: There's, uh, coming to a place like a hair salon that you need to go through all of the interactions that us humans need to. There's the greeting. Mr. 97 went in for a hug with Rachel.

Josh: I think there was the confidence of the camera.

Gemma: She's a very warm person.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I did give her a kiss. Your ego boost. Um, but it's something like— Rachel, do you think about when you're meeting a new client for the first time, how you interact, because you are a professional, what's the go-to?

Rachel: Always to make sure that the client feels comfortable from the moment they walk in. With our salon, we are sitting at around 29 staff members, so on a day that everyone is all here, walking in for the first time can be really intimidating. So I always make sure that from the moment a client walks in that they feel comfortable and confident in what they're going to have. With the evolution of this industry, it's not necessarily about the end result anymore. It's about creating an experience and having a client have a really amazing service. So that's what we really heavily educate the staff here to make sure that from the moment that client walks in to the moment they leave, their experience is exactly what they wanted.

Josh: I mean, when I walk— when I was walking past, I actually thought this was a trophy shop. Significant amount of trophies. Do they— are there any awards that are specific in the industry that actually awards or measures that sort of stuff? Because to your point, I guess like we're all into the colour and all that sort of thing, but is there anyone or any awards out there specifically for the experience?

Rachel: Miscongeniality is what you're asking? Well, we do have like a mystery shopper sort of person that comes in around every 3 months or so.

Tommy: Undercover boss?

Gemma: Yeah, pretty much. Mystery shopping. Yeah, same.

Rachel: And I can pick them out straight away. I know them. Really?

Josh: What's I used to do that. Really? Did you? Yeah. I feel like you don't have much mystery. I feel like you'd walk in there with a crown.

Rachel: They still fucked up. Well, majority of the time, the mystery shopper that comes in has more hair experience than the average person. So they always ask the questions that not your average client would. So that's when I can kind of pick up on it.

Josh: Perfect. I sound like a mystery shopper.

Tommy: I ask a lot of— Yeah, it's because you'd get the mystery shopper job because you're a dad spy. Yeah. You'd be at, you know, it's fine to be caught as a mystery shopper. It's not fine to be caught as a spy.

Josh: Actually, I remember that when I was a kid, that was a big sort of job that a lot of people were vying for. Like when you're growing up, the idea of being a mystery shopper was a huge thing.

Tommy: Maybe in the suburbs.

Gemma: I did it when I would have, when I had just finished working in retail and my old boss was like, hey, you're at RMIT, can you duck into insert name of retailer here? And just do a quick mystery shop in between classes.

Tommy: Very easy money. So Rachel, the sort of, you know, they come in, they experience the icebreakers. Mr. 97 has brought to our show before as a piece of content some icebreaker questions for conversation. Show us your Spotify. Yeah, what's on your, you know, what's your latest Spotify list? Like, I mean, when you—

Gemma: I really liked that. I think it's a much better question than what music do you listen to. I mean, it's just—

Tommy: do you have any go-to questions, Rachel?

Rachel: I do, and but I carry— I kind of carry this on through life whenever I meet anyone new, but my favourite question to ask is how much do you make? 100%. No, I've got two questions. One question is if you could live in anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? I like that one. And I always ask where's your favourite place to holiday? And why.

Tommy: Okay, let's, um, role play this. Take it away, Rachel. You're talking to your client, Mr.

Josh: 97.

Rachel: So, random question, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Josh: Oh, if he says fucking Melbourne.

Mason: Melbourne? No, uh, somewhere maybe like, uh, somewhere in Spain would be sick. I have no idea where. Like, some— been? Have you been? No, it just looks sick in photos. Just, you look at one thing. Yeah, it looks like John Olsen and stuff, just like where he lives.

Josh: He's a YouTuber. You're referring to rich YouTubers? Yeah, you're talking about having a mansion. Wife is a billionaire.

Tommy: Wife's family are billionaires, so they've got villas.

Gemma: I mean, Tommy's keeping his— One of my girlfriends is living there right now. Really? She works in music publicity. Does she love it? She got there 3 days ago, so yes.

Tommy: Ah, well. Great. So next icebreaker question is gone, son.

Gemma: So weird of me to make that about I love that.

Rachel: I always ask my client, you know, in the consultation what they do for work, and that always helps me sort of work out what colour to do as well, whether they're in corporate, whether they can have something high fashion, or whether they need something a little bit more natural.

Josh: Is this high fashion? Yes, it is.

Gemma: Oh, good, good. I hope your bosses are okay with it.

Josh: We love high fashion. I mean, look at us, we're high fashion.

Rachel: I also ask if they could have any career in the whole world, what would it be? Like, if the sky was the limit. Carefully. If the sky was the limit and you could have any career what would it be?

Josh: I like these questions. The one that I go to is, if you had to, uh, have one cuisine for the rest of your life—

Tommy: I can't believe it's food related, can you, Gemma?

Josh: What a shock. What would it be? And then once you— Rachel, what would your answer be to that? One cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be? Italian. Italian. You're Italian?

Tommy: Yes, I am. Perfect. Mr. 97, what is, um, what's, what was that other question? Uh, what job What job would you have? Any job? Any job. You know you can fuck this up royally right now.

Mason: Any job.

Gemma: Enjoy your new hair. You're fired. I don't know.

Mason: I always thought I'd have my own like business or something eventually down the line, but it's starting to move away towards that just with like the show. I don't know, being a producer is pretty sick. Yeah. Being involved in the show is pretty amazing.

Tommy: You wanted to do marketing and look where you are. Yeah. You're in a salon. Yeah, it's crazy.

Josh: It looks so good. The blonde is really like—

Gemma: it's so heavy.

Tommy: I just didn't put it up there because it's just such a—

Josh: it's prominent. Yeah, it's very thick, thick set. Um, yeah, the blonde is looking, uh, beautiful. If you are listening to the audio, go on.

Gemma: Yeah, this is one of the ones where you need to jump on. Yeah, absolutely.

Tommy: Karen, feel free to jump in there and get like a, you know, Nice above shot, show the people.

Josh: I mean, you really have— the thing is that you realise how full Mr. 987's hair is because where his hairline is, is very close to sort of— it's on his forehead, which for me starts a bit further back. Rach, when it comes to eyebrows— I'm absolutely not. Do we need to do anything with the eyebrows? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What could we do? What could we do with the eyebrows? Brows?

Mason: TJ? Mike? If someone, yeah.

Rachel: I would leave the brows for a guy. Yeah, great. The weirdest thing is like, say a person gets like bright pink or green or blue. The weird thing is, is if they match their eyebrows to that color, it kind of works. Like it looks natural, but it's not. But the trend for the longest time was to have really blonde hair and really dark eyebrows. So he's gonna have that.

Josh: I've got that.

Tommy: Yes, he is. What about, um, dyeing my beard? Because I'm not doing my hair because it'll probably You've dyed a beard?

Rachel: Yeah, I have. I've like ombred a beard, so it's gone from dark to light.

Tommy: Oh, it must have to be longer than mine. Can you do mine?

Rachel: I can colour it 100%, but I wouldn't.

Tommy: From the best 2019 Colorist of the Year, definitely taking that advice.

Josh: Oh, well, this is great. Thanks so much, Rach, for doing this. We know that like early morning, especially after a big day of working. We really appreciate it. My pleasure. Gem, thank you so much for booking this up. Also Indy as well, who's done an amazing job connecting it all.

Gemma: Simply Social Management, Simply PR Management.

Josh: Yeah, and you've got a podcast too, don't you?

Tommy: The Social Report. The Social Report. Live on Spotify. Yeah, it's on Spotify. Joey Scandizzo Salon, Aaron from King's Domain Barbers. What legends everyone's been.

Josh: Yeah. Yeah, getting behind Mr. 97. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, if it was to— when we do this sort of stuff, I always think how lucky we are that we have Mr. 97, who's a great sport. I mean, the fact is, on Monday or Tuesday night, I literally just did a comment saying if this gets 50 likes, Mr. 97 is going to bleach his hair. He lowballed it, Rachel.

Tommy: We got a lot more than 50. A lot more than 50. It's funny because a lot of people want to get behind these things and see someone do something that they wouldn't normally do. And this is— Mr. 97, proud of you, mate. When you started with us, you were a timid little fox, and now you're a lion.

Josh: Yeah, you're a peacock. Well, I'm looking forward to— after this, I'm gonna go take out the 1DX with an 85mm lens. I'm gonna do a few headshots. Oh yeah, this is gonna be really beautiful.

Gemma: And yeah, I need I need to teach him how to model. Great. I got a little worried.

Josh: Yeah, he's a little, uh, as Karen described him, stiff. A little stiff.

Tommy: And Rachel, you've got a YouTube channel, what is it?

Rachel: I do have a YouTube channel, it's called How To Hair.

Josh: You do stuff on like loose curls. I was learning about loose curls the other day.

Rachel: That is my most recent video. I just have hair on my face.

Josh: Can you get that? Yeah, classic.

Tommy: This is friendship. Classical friendship, right?

Josh: It's developing, just like the hair.

Rachel: Essentially, I break down hairstyles So people watching can learn how to do their hair at home?

Gemma: Get around the high pony one. We did a masterclass together. And when they said, oh, she's gonna teach everyone how to do the perfect high ponytail, I was like, how are we gonna stretch that out into an hour? It's the best thing I've ever seen in my life.

Josh: What is the secret of a high ponytail?

Gemma: Well, it's all about getting the line right. 'Cause too high and it gets a little bit cheerleader, too low and it drags your features down. But if you go, is it from the— high ponytails, cheekbone line. So you go, zhoop, and then it lifts everything. What about Tommy?

Josh: This is the first time he's ever done a man bun.

Tommy: Oh, it's just at the point where I can pull it back now.

Josh: But the—

Tommy: I just need to get it sort of trimmed. Yeah, I need to get it cleaned up. I don't know, can you just—

Josh: I mean, previous to this, the thing is that Tommy has I think I pride him on having really great hair.

Tommy: I've got a few comments in my time.

Josh: And so, but I think the man bun is a bold— I don't think it's like the go-to.

Tommy: I mean, a few gays have said to me it's a bit late, two years late. Yeah, I just tell them to fuck off.

Josh: But yeah, no, there's been a few stylish people who have said that. I'm trying to find a photo on Instagram before we go.

Tommy: What are you trying to— what is it?

Josh: Of you with your hair. Here you go. See the one that— there's Tommy with his hair put away. I just prefer it where it is now. A quiff? A coif? Quiff? Quiff? Coif? What is it called?

Tommy: A quiff? It's definitely not a quiff. What's that word I thought?

Josh: Anyway, you can Google that. It's a daily talk show. Happy Saturday, everyone.

Tommy: Thanks for everyone who's in this room right now. Yeah, absolute ninja on that— on the gimbal. And working title, Honey. Do you like Honey? Working nickname.

Josh: No, he's— I'm a fan of Honey.

Tommy: Lebanese Rambo, you'd prefer that? I can't remember what I called you on the phone. I call you many things. Lebanese Warrior. Lebanese Warrior.

Josh: 3D Gil also behind the camera. It's a big operation here.

Mason: It's stinging a little bit. Yeah, it's okay though. Yeah, yeah, it just feels like a few chilies have just been rubbed on.

Gemma: Yeah, you've never had a face peel, doll.

Rachel: Wait, was your hair washed before? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh: Would you not have washed it? Should we not have it?

Rachel: With a non-scalp lightener, I wouldn't recommend having a fresh, fresh wash because your cuticle's still open.

Josh: Okay, sure.

Rachel: Um, but you'll be fine.

Josh: He's fine. We'll be fine.

Tommy: He'll be fine. The coconut oil, the coconut, it's fine.

Rachel: Coconut oil, you'll be Sweet.

Josh: This is perfect. It's a Daily Talk Show.

Tommy: Make sure you cheque out tomorrow's episode. Oh yeah, because if you'll see Mr. 97. Yes, with this on the desk at the Daily Talk Show.

Josh: We've got Trev Long on tomorrow as well. Otherwise, have a great weekend and we'll see you tomorrow. See you guys.