The Chromastics Story

tom dispenza and peter ciottiChromastics Hair Color is a classic small American business success story. This company was founded by Tom Dispenza and Peter Ciotti in 2004, two very successful salon industry professionals. After Ciotti attended one of Dispenza’s hair color classes, they had a lengthy conversation. Ciotti asked “Why haven’t you launched your own hair color company?” Dispenza said, “Peter, that has always been my dream!” So, Ciotti then said, “Let’s work together to make this dream come true!” They pooled every penny and resource they had to start a uniquely new and different American hair color company.

Chromastics Dreams Come True: Tom Dispenza shares, “Chromastics truly was my dream project from years of experience working in the corporate world of hair color. After 9 years with a rocky beginning and 2 years of serious American business recession, we are very proud to be the primary hair color system used by more than 1000 hair colorists in many top salons across North America. We now have 7 regional distributors. I created the name ‘chromastics’ by combining 2 words; chroma which means color from the Greek language and the English word fantastic. Chrom + astic = chromastics. Chromastics is truly special in many ways! It puts complete artistic control back into the hands of the creative hair colorist. We understand that the hair colorist and not the hair color company, controls the deposit, the lightening and the tone of every hair color formula. Instead of having hundreds of shades of hair color in the salon dispensary; there are only 19 shades of Chromastics permanent hair color from which you can create an infinite amount of formulations. We offer 17 shades of deposit-only color as well as 15 shades of liquid toners and refreshers. The hair colorist should be the artist who creates the perfect shade customized for each client. Every shade of Chromastics contains hydrolyzed proteins that dramatically help the hair feel and look better.”

Ciotti adds, “Chromastics is a boutique hair color line. I often describe the salon industry as a boutique industry. As a result, we favor small to mid-sized boutique-style distributors who share personalized education with their affiliated salons and hair designers. We are able to offer our distributors and hair designers with a very affordable price range with the superior quality of Chromastics. We communicate regularly and share ideas with our team. We carefully listen to the special needs of our distributors and our hairdressers. It is almost like having a board of directors. Tom and I collaborate to make the final decisions together, while we are highly influenced by the people who are selling and supporting our Chromastics products. Tom supervises our Chromastics education and the product presentations. My job remains to seek out new business development, maintain our existing business and to help open up different market areas. We have a gentleman in Chicago who is one of our most successful distributors. Vince D’Astice has also become our Chief Operating Officer. He has put together a good structure for our growing distribution network.”

Chromastics Is Designed With Organic Chemistry: Organic hair color chemistry is based on a combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. These are the organic ingredients that are combined to create every shade of Chromastics Hair Color.

Professional Chromastics Hair Color Products: Chromastics offers permanent hair color, liquid toners and refreshers. When Chromastics was launched in 2004, the response was very positive. Hair colorists immediately saw the difference of the way the hair color performed. They saw the difference in the reduced “fade-age” that was not present as in other companies and the integrity of the hair.

Many of their hair colorists said, “You gave us a great product, but we don’t want to use just any shampoo or conditioner.” Their hair colorists asked them to create a compatible hair care system to help maintain the integrity of their clients’ hair color services. As a result, Chromastics now offers their special Tri-Organic Complex Haircare System. This is a simple complex of certified 100% organic green tea extract, aloe vera and ginkgo biloba customized with extracts of sunflower, wheat, rice, macadamia and more. These ingredients were selected for their special moisturizing and anti-oxidant characteristics. These ingredients are certified by the USDA, so they are food grade. The Tri-Organic Complex Haircare System is paraben free, salt free, sulfate free and it contains no aggressive or toxic ingredients.

They are launching their new Chromastics Shades deposit only hair color system designed for toning, glazing, refreshing and corrective hair color treatments.

Second To None Education: There is a constant flow of complete basic and advanced color educational opportunities available for the professional hair colorist. There is a new technical release of some variety shared every few weeks. It can be a new video, a technique sheet, a formulary of new hair color combinations, a makeover or a feature about one of our salons and hair colorists. The Chromastics Hair Color team visits as many salons as possible to hold many “mini” hands-on workshop seminars across the country. These hands-on sessions are often held with small groups of only 10 hair colorists, so each person gets personal time and attention. Chromastics’ regional distributors also regularly hold local hair color sessions to keep their affiliated colorists updated and informed with current services, products, trends and information.

Ciotti adds, “Tom and I were traveling the world and we would put together focus groups of 300 to 400 hairdressers from around the country. We asked them very pertinent questions. What hair color line do they use? How long have they been using it? What kind of support do you expect from your hair color company? What is most important to you? The number one answer to each question was always education, education and education. That’s why I know that by working with Tom Dispenza and his expert knowledge as one of the most renowned hair color educators in the world, I knew we had the quality products backed with an education based formula to be very successful. Plus, Tom’s hair color expertise is globally respected and shared with his well-accepted hair color books. The knowledge that both of us have available today to share with other hair colorists, has convinced us that we could influence the entire beauty profession in a very positive manner.”

Chromastics Vision: Their vision remains very consistent for both the short and long term. Chromastics offers superb quality technical and creative educational opportunities that are easy to understand without any fluff or hype. Chromastics uses formulas, techniques and products that have long-term usability. They offer products that the salons and independent hair designers can afford with products that are easy to learn and use. They continually work to raise the level of understanding and awareness for both the professional hair colorist and the consumer. Chromastics always provides real usable information at workshops and through their toll-free hotline telephone support.

chromastics hair colorChromastics Hair Colorists: Chromastics hair colorists are those who are seeking out something different. They want to break out of the box. They want to be able to create something different. Many salon professionals are attracted because of their special interest in the unique dynamics of Chromastics Hair Color, whether it is from a positive referral by another hairdresser or salon. This has become a very select group of top quality creative hair colorists who don’t want to be “lazy”. They
don’t want to merely be the hair color applicator. They want to artistically create beautiful haircolor solutions for their clients. Most competitive companies have well over 100 tubes of hair color that are already pre-blended. All the hairdressers need to do is go into the dispensary, open up a box, pour in a required amount of the hair color and an amount of the developer … and there it is. With Chromastics, you can still do that. However, if the hair colorist really wants to artistically tweak it to make it a very specialized and unique formula, they can easily do that with Chromastics.

Chromastics Is The Evolution Of Hair Color: Most traditional beautycare companies grow their brands by increasing the number of products and the number of SKU’s. Chromastics grows by educating the professional hair colorist with advanced and superior information. They teach hair colorists how to get better than ever results, using fewer and less costly products.

The Chromastics hair colorist custom designs the perfect color formulation for each client. Salon owners and hair colorists have the special advantage of knowing that with Chromastics, they can do much more than only replicate any hair color shade they or their client wants. They also know that no one will be able to duplicate their work, because they have created the unique formula. Chromastics is particularly beneficial for the independent hairstylist and the small salon owner. Because of the economic advantages, this is a distinctively different small hair color system that is completely intermixable to consistently achieve amazing results. Chromastics is very cost efficient; costing less than most other major brands. It requires a smaller investment with less inventory.

Chromastics Opportunities: Chromastics is rapidly growing across North America, while always looking to partner with successful regional distributors, salons, educators and Master Hair Colorists. They look to grow internationally in the future.

Chromastics Shades
Chromastics Shades

Chromastics Integrity: Chromastics has been built upon an essential foundation of honesty, integrity and quality. These are the basic credibility and pride necessities that make the complete Chromastics Hair Color Company formula for success work so well. Ciotti adds, “At Chromastics, we are proud to be a 100% professional American hair color company. We are a professional only hair color product line. Many major companies say that, but do they hold true to that? We will always stay true to our hairdressers. We do not offer hair color service products to the consumer. We only sell our service and retail products to and through the salon professional. You will never find Chromastics in drug stores or supermarkets.”

Create Your Own Evolution! Ciotti describes their slogan noting, “Create your own evolution! We were working with innovative, creative people in Chicago. Chromastics was initially started as ‘The evolution of hair color’. As we progressed into development of the supportive retail product lines, we decided let’s go to ‘Create your own evolution!’ This means that with a minimal amount of products, you are easily able to blend them together to make multiple customized formulas. The hairdresser is now capable of evolving their haircolor formulas into something they have only dreamt about before.

The same concept is possible with our wet line products. We have seven different hair styling products that we use. We have gels, cream foam and molding creams that are meant to be mixed together as a customized haircare cocktail. Our hair colorists are able to create unique hair care product systems that they can custom design and prescribe for their clients for use between salon visits, so their hair color will always look beautiful.”

Peter Ciotti notes, “Our mission remains to provide the hairdresser with state of the art hair color products that are backed by a world class quality education program. This combination allows serious hair colorists to achieve the status of masters of their craft.”
Tom Dispenza concludes, “At Chromastics, we will never make any promises that we cannot keep. We will always tell you the truth about our products, services and ingredients. We will always remain positive, staying true to our hair designers and the professional beauty industry. We will never negatively mention another brand. If we can help the hair colorist become smarter and better at what they do every day to enrich the evolution of their professional careers, we will have fulfilled our mission to raise the level of our entire salon industry.”