happy new year

Well I am officially a bad blogger. This is the one and only post for the whole month of December and it is on the last day. This has been one of the busiest Decembers of my career. What wonderful thing that is to say. Many thanks to all my clients that have followed me and supported me on my first six months of business. I appreciate each and every one of you. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. I wish you all much happiness and success in the new year. My resolution for this next year is to be a better blogger and keep doing fabulous hair!

christmas is coming........

How exciting it is to be in my new space for the holidays. I get to decorate how I want to. Unfortunately for my graphic designer I love glitter. I know she is worried about me being set loose to shop for Christmas decorations and getting things too over done. I have been using made up words like glitter-frication. Makes her very nervous. It is beautiful though and it makes me very happy. The smallest things make me happy. Wearing the cloths that I want to. Working the hours that I want to. At first I thought I would loose all control and go wild with freedom. Funny thing is that since I am allowed to do what I want, I find I want to be at work. I love my spot. I enjoy the people that work here. I delight in the fact that the other day I could watch Oprah's man makeovers while my clients hair was processing. It is all about the finer things in life.

november deals

Well November is upon us. With it comes one of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I have a new salon, and new car and a new lease on life. I am so thankful for my clients that I have a great promotion for the month just for you. When you purchase a Matrix box deal of shampoo and conditioner for $20 saving you $11 you can also get a free Matrix hairspray. That way you will be thankful your hair will stay in place in our lovely Kansas wind.

halloween fright

Beware! Colored hair spray on fair hair children often times leaves it stained. If you are spraying a lot of hairspray or using hair goo to get a ghoulish look the best way to take it out is to mix baking powder with your shampoo. It will remove the residue and leave your hair clean. No it does not take the whole box just a handful. The makeup you ask? Baby wipes.

no stinky feet allowed

Well color me disappointed. My foot bath quit working. What good does it do to get a pedicure in cold water with no bubbles? I guess I could get a really long straw and blow the bubbles myself. Probably end up light headed and pass out though. I called the service number and now I have to mail the whole thing in and hope they send me a new one right away. I will do it though just to prove a point. It isn't even 6 months old. It is professional grade and I have only used it 7 times. Wish me luck!

smell my success

Why are dumb celebrities allowed to make perfumes? I would never buy this particular fragrance simply because it has Paris Hilton's name on it. That does not stop me from rubbing the free sample in a magazine all over me.I even love the packaging on this one, but it has Mariah Carey's name on it. People will ask me what perfume I am wearing and I would have to say Luscious Pink. How embarrassing. I just can't do it. I guess I will have to keep searching for my signature scent. One that does not scream out that I support really wrong celebraties and their great noses for fragrance.

now is the time

Welcome to the static season. Hats and coats seem to bring it out in all of us. Spray the inside of your hats and hoods with a little aerosol hairspray and that will help a lot. Makes no sense to me that the wettest time of the year is the driest for your hair so good to deep conditioner this essential. If you do not have one at home or do not have the time to do it yourself feel free to call me. I can get you in for a great scalp massage and deep conditioner for only $10 extra. Your hair will thank you.

rain rain go away

I would love to give you guys a product that would hold up in this crazy rain, but I doubt anything would help at this point of the game. Redken has a great humidity control hairspray. I went outside and sprayed it in the air. It is still raining. Good luck and wear cute rain boots.

the power of touch

I went yesterday and had the most wonderful massage. Marie is so great to me. I don't go often enough. I find it funny how I touch people everyday and yet I forget how heavenly it feels to get a massage. She listens to my problems and encourages me. I imagine it would be like having a really great husband except I just pay her and leave. I never have to deal with her drama or wash her underwear. So therefore I am staying single and getting a lot of massages.

mission impossible

Nothing like not posting on my blog to learn how many people actually read it. Truth is that I have not been very inspired to write lately and was hoping that the fall hair shows would do the trick. Unfortunately without having found a car yet I am not going to the shows. So my new inspiration is going to be the bad hair of the world. My aim is to make it better. I have chosen to accept the mission. This message will self destruct in 10 seconds.

revelation

I over think everything. When I decided to open my own spot I thought and thought about color schemes, curtains, accessories, etc. My newest obsessive musing has been about price stickers for my products. Yesterday I spent most of the morning going to three different stores never finding exactly what I wanted and still spent $75. That is right for price stickers. I get to the salon and am thinking I am going to be spending all afternoon making price tags by hand, ordering a custom made stamp, and creating a whale of a mess. Then an epiphany. Why can't I use my little cards that Holly designed for me? They already have my logo on them, and my phone number, and my blog address. Punch a hole in the corner and tie with a piece of elastic. Write the price on the back corner. Not only are they cute as all get out, now every product that leaves here has an extra card that could be handed out to another perspective client. So viola I look really smart. My products look like I have custom tags on them and I will take all the credit. Oh yeah thanks Holly for talking me into Moo cards. They ARE great for everything. And if you couldn't tell I used my dictionary today. A lot.

shoe advice

I am all for wearing cute shoes. Yesterday was a particularly cute pair, my favorite stripe wedge sandal. This is my advise too all us girly girls out there wearing those cute shoes. Keep an old pair of sneakers within reach in your car. I found this very helpful as I was surrounded by broken glass trying to climb out of my vehicle that was tipped on its side. I was able to chuck those cute sandals out the window and pull on my New Balances which were much better in glass and a pool of gasoline. A bonus too that the hot firemen were impressed with my preparedness. I did not tell them that I had accidently left them in there the night before.

comic hair

I have not read the Cathy comic strip by Cathy Irving in a long time but could not help but post this one when my sister sent it to me. It was particularly funny to me as I have had this client. Note to others: they usually do care by the end of the haircut.

fun new product alert

When the sales rep brought in this little bottle of powder and told me what it did I just gave her a skeptical look, smiled and nodded. Then I put some in my hair. Hmmm, I bought 6. The first day I had 1 for my use and sold the other 5. It is some awesome stuff. It gives you lift at the scalp. It is a dry powder so it does not look greasy. In fact if your hair is a little dirty it takes that right out. If your color is grown out it boosts the hair up enough to help hide that. It is the closest thing to a miracle in a bottle that I have found. It retails for $19, but the plus side to that is if I do your hair you automatically get 20% off. Who can really put a price on a miracle though?

back to school

Every year I get a little sad at back to school time. It is a busy time of year, which I am glad about, but it is another set of kids that are grown and usually gone. College. It is a wonderful experience and all that jazz, but that is when my kids decide they can do without me. They get busy. They find someone new. Someone cooler, hipper, what ever word they are using this year. Anyway they outgrow me. Like the many prom pictures I have been promised in the past, I hear all about them but don't see them. I am not bitter. Just sad. Luckily for me there is always a new crop of fresh faced clients to see. So as I send kids off all over Kansas, Missouri, and else where, I start over. I got a great starter with this one. Seth is about to turn 1. He loves me. He thinks I am cool. Sure that is mostly from the promise of a treat but I will take it. The next few years will be full of wonderful new adventures and experiences. I will see Seth go to his first day of kindergarten. He will sulk in my chair full of pre-teen angst. Then one day he will be in for a hurried trim and tell me where he is going to college. I will smile and nod, and think....... Honey, I know you are going to K State. I gave you your first haircut there isn't much I don't know about you. For now I am just going to enjoy him thinking that with a haircut comes a sucker and that makes me the most awesome person in the world.

i am so over the toes

At least I am trying to be. Oh well and life goes on. Especially when there are new nail polishes getting ready to come out. Oh so very exciting indeed. I love OPI. Sure they discontinue colors, rename them, and then reissue them. The new names are always fabulous though. This new line is called Coleccion De Espana promises to be full of passion and drama. I personally could use more passion and less drama but beggars can't be choosers. So check out this site it is full of OPI eye candy. www.nailpolishdiva.com

once bitten

twice shy. Friday night when I got home from the art crawl downtown I had 3 nasty looking bites on my leg. Weird. They didn't itch and I did not remember feeling like I got bit by anything. Saturday morning I had 10. Son of a gun they hurt. Saturday night I realized they were not bites, but a lovely case of Mycrobacterium Fortuitum. In other words a leg infection most commonly gotten from unsanitary pedicures. Oh I was mad. I paid good money for that pedicure the least they could have done was clean the jets in that basin. I had an antibiotic prescription at home that I started on and by Monday they looked better. I called my doctors office and most importantly emailed the Kansas State Board of Cosmetology. This is exactly what I was trying to keep my clients away from. This will take a long time to heal. I have to be on anitibiotics till it does heal. I can't swim. I can't shave over that area. When they do heal enough to shave over I have to throw away the razor after each use. It will be a while before anyone touches my feet again. I know not all nail salons are like this but it sure makes it had to want to get another pedicure.

do as i say...

not as I do. I gave you all the look fors and do whats for pedicures yesterday I and now have to tell you the sad story of mine. I thought it would be great to start at the closest nail salon to me. Most of the Sola salons refer out to Mani/Pedi. It is just down the strip from us and had rave reviews. Twenty minutes into the pedicure I had made up my mind to not go back. The girl was nice and very polite, but when she slid over from the first pedicure she was working on to me, a brunette, there was no hand washing. She then started trying to sell the add ons. I did not mind. That is how they make their money when they work on commission. As she did that though she handed me a menu and there on the bottom was ....waxing. Dang it I thought to myself, I know better than to just go on referals. She did a great job and my toes looked awesome as I went to sit under the dryer. I started flipping through a magizine and paid $45 as I had the add ons. In walked a tall blonde lady looking to get in right now for a pedicure. Must be the day for it, I thought as I was humming to myself. The music in there was horrid and was about to drive me mad. I looked up right as the blondes feet were going into the basin from the first chair. The same chair that the brunetter was in. There was no cleaning going on. No bleach. No barbicide (the blue stuff). Nothing. Well dang. My first pedicure in 4 years and it was going to be a bust on here. I had such high hopes. So to sum up Mani/Pedi on east 37th is a 10 toes down.

spa day

I have never been a "spa" kind of girl, but today I had a massage and a pedicure. Not many of my clients know that I do pedicures. Well I do. My new space is how shall I say... cozy. I do have room to do pedicures and I have clients the seek me out for that, but most people want the throne chairs. (You know with the water basins and massaging backs.) I have no problem referring people onto another place that is more to their needs, but where? The news stations in town broke stories (we had known about for a couple of years) about the infections caused by improper cleaning of pedicure basins and all of a sudden everyone wanted to know where it was safe to go. I have decided to find out where to get a good, clean, safe, reasonable pedicure in Wichita. So now once a month you will be privileged to hear my adventures in pedicureland.
First things first. Do NOT get a pedicure if you have any open sores on your feet or legs. This includes mosquito bites.
Second. Do NOT shave your legs right before you go. In fact you should have a couple days growth. These women are already scrubbing your feet, some leg hair will not offend them. Even if you do not nick yourself shaving the skin gets roughed up.
Third. Pay attention to your surroundings. There should be lots of hand washing going on. No mani/pedi tools laying about in the open. Clean not cloudy Barbicide (the blue stuff) in jars. If they are finishing up on a pedicure watch what they do to the basin. Did they just rinse it out with a hose? Did they pour something in it to soak?
Most importantly. Try not to just walk in off the street. Go in at least once and get info. See if they have a menu with pricing. Get a card. Ask about busy times. This will give you a chance to look around and see if the place is clean without committing to an actual service.
Waxing alert. If your nail salon has waxing as a service and they are licensed only to do nails this is illegal. They have no training in this except for some other girl showing them how to put it on. There has been a lot of burn complaints going to the state board and they were never supposed be doing this in the first place. Ask the person before they wax you. Are you a licensed cosmetologist? If they say no....run away. If they are doing this service out of their salon illegally they are also doing other things illegally i.e. not cleaning their pedi basins properly.

summer hair

Here are a couple of quick summer hairdos that are definitely a do. Braids are back and a simple addition to fun summer messy hair. Being Blake Lively and Jennifer Aniston helps too but as long as you do not get to structured and formal anyone can pull this off. I love Jennifer's bangs braided off to the side keeping it out of her face but not looking like a 10 year old.

there's no place like home...

Well I am back from the big cities. Saw a lot of hair. Some of it was even good. I am officially caught up on my phone calls and laundry, at work anyway. It was good to get away but even better to be home. No more vacations for a while. A hair show or two coming up in the fall but that will only effect my day off. So for now everyone is stuck with me for a good long while.

california dreamin

I am off to California tomorrow. Mainly I am looking forward to the weather. Kansas in July is not great on the hair business. There is only so much you can do with your hair when it is supposed to be 105 degrees. Everyone please stay in and enjoy the AC. I found this fun little website to play with so that you can stay in and still have some hair fun. You can do your hair and makeup in every style and color out there. I highly recommend it for no other reason than to see what you would look like in a long black wig. I will be keeping up with my email and voice mail while I am gone. My first day back will be Thurs July 23.

coffee anyone?

Ahhhh, Saturday morning and the coffee is flowing. The count down has started for the trip to California. I have thought many times about calling it off. I have only started here and now I am already taking a week off. Well I am going. I mean really would you rather be here with 100 degree weather or in San Fransico where it is 65. So if yall are keeping track you have four days left to get in here before I leave.

time flies

Wow! I can't believe that two weeks have gone by. Time flies when you are having fun. It has been more fun than I even imagined. Now it will not be long till school starts and fall will be here. I finally got my sales tax license so if there any products you hair junkies need just let me know. I can officially sell them now.

happy 4th -n- july

I can not convince Olivia that it is the 4th of July. It is truly an independence day for me this year. In my own salon making my own decisions. Working a half day today to get clients in on their day off but I am off tomorrow so I can sleep in to recover from too many fireworks. Thank you to our forefathers for our freedom, and thank you to all the armed service men and women that have allowed us to keep it.

sweet hair poster

I got this print ordered today to put on my wall. I am so excited. Peter Bekke is the artist. He entered this poster in the sweet hair poster contest in Minneapolis MN to benefit Locks of Love.
http://www.sweethairpostershow.com/

i have the best clients

I really do. My first client this morning was sitting with color processing and I did some eyebrow waxes. After they left she smiled and told me that my clients are fun and what fun my job must be. You know what? It is! That is why I can not imagine doing anything else. I look forward to coming to work. Everyday is a new adventure.

cards and menus and voicemail oh my!

I just did a haircut on a 15 year old. He was impressed with all my techno skills. How funny. I have an aversion to any new technology and here I am with a blog and a blackberry. Most exciting news today is that my menus and appointment cards came in. They are so beautiful I am not sure I will let anyone take them home. My books are picking up. More and more people calling everyday.

i heart sundays

I love working Sundays. I know everyone thinks I am crazy, but Sunday is so relaxed and serene. It just flies by. I was the only one working on the west wall. Anne and Lisa were hard at work on the east side. I went over and bugged them a little. I need a new dust pan. I am in hate with the one I have. They do not like theirs either. I guess keep shopping. Will it never end?

mini cards

Today I got my mini cards in. They are called moo cards. How cute is that? Mostly they are for networking outside the salon. I did put some on my door and at the front card holder at Sola. My full size cards will be in at the first of the week. Holly has posted a preview of the appointment cards. They are beautiful. Isn't she talented? She has been remarkably patient with me and my lack of computer skills, bless her heart.

appointment cards

They should arrive early next week along with your price sheets!


© creativeholly

opening day

Can you believe I have my own salon? Many thanks are in order. Holly thank you for making everything beautiful. Mom thanks for making this possible. Tamara thanks for making me do this. At least I know who to blame.

inspection

Good news! I passed my inspection. That means I have to put my big girl panties on and quit my job. After 12 years that is no easy feat. I still have lots of shopping to do. How many coffee cups do I need?

furniture

Furniture is in. Thanks Tam for the time and much effort. That girl is awesome with an allen wrench.

paint

Paint! I have paint! It is beautiful. Well I was a little unsure at first. It could have gone either way. Hospital room. Jail cell. It landed just right. Hope everyone loves it. My sister says we are never painting it again.

keys

I now have keys. I am very nervous but also super excited. Now I can start painting and getting things set up. All I have left is shopping and the big inspection. Lots of shopping.