The colored Kauffman Skein relation and the head and tail of the colored Jones polynomial

Using the colored Kauffman skein relation, we study the highest and lowest 4n coefficients of the nth unreduced colored Jones polynomial of alternating links. This gives a natural extension of a result by Kauffman in regard with the Jones polynomial of alternating links and its highest and lowest coefficients. We also use our techniques to give a new and natural proof for the existence of the tail of the colored Jones polynomial for alternating links.