George Alderete has established himself as an International Master in the World of Hair Color.
He’s the Hair Color Director at Keune Academy/Salon Keune Haircosmetics USA, a coveted Hair Color Educator, and a Celebrity Hair Colorist! His ability to make technical concepts easy to understand has enabled him to become a Top International Educator. We had the pleasure of interviewing George, and we’re thrilled to share our exclusive interview with you!
1. What do you think this season has in store for you?
“Growth! I’m working on a variety of projects including creating New Color Courses for the Keune Academy in Atlanta, introducing Keune Color into beauty schools with our recent partnership with The Process Institute and The Salon 124 Group. I’ll be back behind the chair soon coloring hair a few days a month at Salon 124 and I’m super excited to be blogging about Hair Color for BangStyle!”
2. What makes Keune different?
“The Family Heritage, values, and commitment to the salon professional and our dedication to providing the best salon education available. Keune is 90 years strong, globally. That’s important to me.”
3. What inspires you most often?
“Nature is often the strongest influence to me. Colors ebb and flow with the seasons bringing us unimaginable combinations of complimenting contrasts. It has special rhythm I love to mimic with dimensional hair color patterns.”
4. Who’s is your hairstyling idol and why?
“I have many. Beth Minardi is the colorist I try most to emulate. I respect her no nonsense approach to hair color education and her commitment to the salon professional, helping other colorists achieve their best.”
5. What current trend do you love and hate, and why?
“I love that colorists are moving towards creating modern, sophisticated color with dimension. This application of color can not be duplicated by an unprofessional at home… this I love. I loathe the trend in the last couple of years of bleaching hair out to white and replacing color with an unnatural pure tone overlay.”
6. Name the biggest styling disaster you’ve had and how’d you recover?
“I misjudged the porosity and how depleted my client’s hair was. Turning her newly lightened hair an opaque shade of wet mud, I took a deep breath and began a four hour process of removal and treatments until it was perfect.”
7. What’s the best two cents someone’s ever given you in the industry?
“Never believe you’ve reached success. Constantly strive to improve what you’re already good at and seek out what needs improvement, when you’re long gone you will look down at the combination of your successes…then you’re successful.”
8. What celebrity would I like to style and why?
“Madonna! Her Iconic Style, her pushy attitude, incredible vision and ability to stay relevant has always been an inspiration to me and I’d love to be apart that engine.”
9. If you could have dinner with 3 people dead or alive whom would they be and why?
“Madonna, for the reasons above. Paula Kent Meehan, what an incredible visionary, aura and mentor she was, who wouldn’t want to sit at dinner with such a successful fabulous woman?!! And Yves Saint Laurent, to hear his life stories and imagine just for a few hours how it would be to entangled in such a glamorous, luxurious, extravagant and flamboyant lifestyle.”
10. What are some of your guilty pleasures?
“Sweets – I’m eating Ben & Jerry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake ice cream while I’m writing this now! Movies, at home or in the theatre. I’m on the road so much this is my favorite way to get out of my head, relax and reload.”
