The Purple Thread
Back in the ’80s, when I was in Advanced Training in Chicago’s famed Pivot Point International, I was accused of being obsessed with the color purple.
They weren’t wrong.
I distinctly remember being insulted—or at least she thought it was an insult—by Blanc Zappata, an international hair coloring and hairstyling instructor in the world of what was then called Pivot Point International.
It happened during lunch.
I commented on how impressed I was that she could eat lunch and still keep her lipstick perfectly in place. I genuinely meant it as a compliment. She looked at me and said,
“Unlike you, who is the messiest hairdresser I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Then she added,
“I know every place you’ve been on all five floors of this building because I see drops of hair color everywhere—My fave at the time was Wella’s Black Cherry soon to morph into Socolor’s EP4 for Eggplant purple.”
A few decisions got made in that moment.
One: I’ll show her.
Two: She was absolutely right—I did have an obsession with purple.
Three: From that point on, I decided I would be the neatest, cleanest hairdresser you’d ever meet.
What I didn’t know at the time was that this so-called obsession with purple would stay with me for decades—and eventually become the backbone of the secret to our success at Belegenza, and for our customers to this day.
In 1985, I began working at one of the top color salons in Houston, Texas, serving local models and entertainers. One of my clients asked for a very specific hair color—the color of the Vogue cover model from January 1984.
Back then, there was no internet. I couldn’t just look it up. I had to remember. And even finding a physical copy would take longer than we had. Time was of the essence—she had an upcoming show.
But I remembered something.
I knew there was a detail in those golden tones and highlights—something in the background—that simply didn’t exist in any hair color formula available at the time.
So I set out to create it.
What I realized was that a purple tone was missing.
I went to a local printer and pulled a color chart. I began comparing it to our hair color charts. To my surprise—and eventually to the industry’s surprise—the reason people could never get the color they saw in print using available hair color was simple: print included a soft, smoky purple tone at a specific depth that hair color simply did not have.
The closest thing we had was ash—which is based on blue, gray, or green undertones. Completely different.
Without getting too technical, I saw the gap immediately and decided to recreate what print already understood.
And here’s where it gets fun.
I realized the answer by studying another favorite of mine: a jar of peanut butter and jelly—specifically grape jelly—swirled together.
Up close, you see the peanut butter highlights.
From afar, you see the overall family tone.
That was the secret.
So yes, when I applied this color using foil packets of purple-based hair color woven throughout, nearly everyone thought I had completely lost my mind—especially given that she was about to be on stage for the world to see.
But it was a sensational hit.
Two months later, she found a copy of that 1984 Vogue, held it up next to her hair, and said,
“I can’t believe you accomplished this without even seeing it.”
My obsession with purple was decades ahead of its time.
Here we are almost 40 years later, with access to all Vogue covers in an archive, and hair colors now include violet undertones, smoky purples, and refined pigments that can recreate some of the most sensational highlighting effects ever imagined.
This is how we work at Belegenza.
It’s not about status quo.
It’s about digging deeper.
Some people get bored because they want something different.
We get excited because we want something finer.
More beautiful.
More effective.
More precise.
More satisfying.
Some chase flashy, dashy, sparkly trends—things that shout for attention and are often remarkable only in their tackiness.
That has its place.
It can be fun.
But our focus is different.
We take what’s already beautiful and take it to sublime.
Many of our clients, standing side by side with us for years, almost get “bored”—not because something is wrong, but because their hair is always beautiful, always high-performance, always consistent, always excellent.
No flashy disruption. (maybe once in a while for a disruptive party event or something)
No gimmicks.
Just powerful, reliable, extraordinary hair.
Hair that requires very little effort beyond providing it with an exceptional base—foundational nutrients, elements, and ingredients that unlock each person’s hair personality.
To this day, we are obsessed with food-grade ingredients and hidden truths—just like the hidden power of purple pigment that was forty years ahead of its time.
We never want anyone to be bored.
But we take it as the highest compliment when someone veers off to try something new—because when excellence truly matters, the phrase we hear again and again is:
“I always come back to Belegenza.”
- Color WOW Dream Coat vs. Belegenza VirgINity Hair Repair: Two Paths to Humidity Control
- Vitamin D Derivatives, Scalp Science, and Why the Environment Around Hair May Matter as Much as Hair Itself
- NULASTIN vs GrowOUT: The New Era of Hair Fitness and Why Scalp Science Is Getting Smarter
- How to Create a Scalp-Friendly Hair Routine
- Hair Growth Mistakes That May Be Slowing Results
2
