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.