Today, Tom Dispenza is a very successful and celebrated Master Hair Colorist, who is also co-founder and President of the Chromastics Hair Color Company. In the early 80’s, he had lost his job and his home. He ran out of money and couldn’t finish his last year at university. The only thing he had available was VA educational assistance for a trade school.
Dispenza shares, “I was in a strip mall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when I came across a small independent beauty school that was willing to let me enroll with the future promise of payment directly from the government. Once I was enrolled, I was able to get $300 a month in living assistance from the VA educational program because I was a Vietnam Veteran and spent a year stationed in Thailand on an Air Force base within 100 miles of the Cambodian border. Enrolling in that cosmetology school was one of the best decisions of my life. After graduation, I immediately got a job as an assistant in a small salon, where I met my wife. After a short time, I borrowed enough money from the Small Business Administration to build and open a salon.”
Eventually, Dispenza was hired by the Clairol Company as a salesman. He quickly moved into regional education and then national education after moving to New York City. A few years later, he joined the Clairol Research and Development Group. He also became their Worldwide Senior Manager of Education. Dispenza developed many of the professional Clairol hair color products, formulas and systems that are still the prestigious basis for this company today. He created a nationally respected educational program, while still working within their testing center on clients. It was during his time in the R&D Group that he learned so much valuable creative, theoretical and practical information about professional hair color. He studied hard and became an expert at how it really works, what it really does and what it does not do. Dispenza discovered many myths and inaccuracies in the information given to hair colorists. He made it his goal to correct as many errors as possible. His personal mission became to get the real information to the entire salon industry.
To this day, Dispenza continues to work 2 days a week in a top New York City salon where his clients keep him updated with their day-to-day requests for the latest hair fashion and hair color trends. Coming from both the corporate and salon sides of the professional beautycare industry; has given him a very unique and complete understanding of our business. Dispenza shares, “Having to learn how to deal with sensitive individuals and multi-million dollar corporations has been a major learning curve. Learning how to solve many challenges to everyone’s complete satisfaction was a major step in building the Chromastics Hair Color Company. Some level of compromise is almost always necessary!”
The one area, he would not compromise was to create a company with products that are “100% American made”. He adds, “We are proud to share that every component of every shade of Chromastics Hair Color; from the tubes and the chemical designs to the packaging and marketing is “Made in the USA! My inspiration for Chromastics Hair Color was somewhat selfish. I wanted to create a professional hair color line designed expressly for the salon colorist. Chromastics always wants to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I wanted to develop an innovative new product that was distinctively unique and helped the hair colorist excel by making the colorist more important than the product.”
Tom Dispenza notes, “Anyone can learn to color hair, but not everyone can stand out of the crowd as a great hair colorist. A great hair colorist custom formulates an individual shade for each and every client. This doesn’t mean the formula must be complicated. It only means that no matter how simple: each formula must have a special touch just for that client. As President of the Chromastics Hair Color Company, I have been able to ensure our business and professional philosophy is built first upon honesty and integrity. We don’t make promises that we cannot keep. We don’t exaggerate. We always tell the truth, no matter how difficult it may be. It’s easy to remain extremely motivated in our salon industry. Every year, there are fresh faces eager to learn. Helping anyone to get ahead is a great honor for me and an amazingly fulfilling thing to do. We never stop learning. I constantly search for new and relevant information. We do our best to share everything we can within our industry through hands-on salon educational workshops, distributor events and trade shows. For me, education is all consuming. Sharing knowledge through our ongoing educational programs is what sets an individual or company apart from the crowd. We know that a quality education program sets you above the rest, while supporting your professional products and services. Techniques are not as important as knowing how your products work. Knowing how your products work, allows you to predict and control the final result. There is an entire world of hair color information and techniques that most hair colorists never experience. Our workshops are perfect for the beginner and advanced master hair colorists alike!”
Tom Dispenza concludes with his personal philosophy, “In all things be true! My advice to hair colorists remains, “Learn your craft and products. Skip the hype. Always tell the truth and practice what you preach.”
Tom Dispenza is regarded as one of the leading Master Hair Colorists in North America today. Many seasoned and successful hair colorists travel from all over the world to learn from him. Dispenza is also the President of the Worldwide Hair Colorists Association. His hair color magic has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show and Good Morning America. He has been honored by BE! Magazine as one of the “Top Hair Colorists In The USA”.