Runs Businesses With Scissors

I was enjoying a short break in a sunny café in the middle of a busy hair day, sitting across from my lovely young marketing assistant, Katey. We were discussing my blog and how it is going so far.   Katey said that I should mix it up a bit. Even though I agreed with her I could feel myself becoming self-conscious. Writing is different than standing behind the chair with my trusty scissors in my hand.   In the words of the late Lyal McCaig my first hair mentor, “you're only as good as your last haircut” – is this true of your last blog too? Lyal McCaig was the founder of Capitol Beauty School where I got my first Cosmetology License.   I loved Lyal McCaig. For a man from the Midwest he was very hip, a breath of fresh air for my then twenty something self, recently immigrated to Omaha.   From the streets of London to the streets of Omaha - Lyal was my savior. And I suspect   he liked having a girl from London with punked out hair in his co...

Run towards your life And look in the mirror At your beautiful self along the way I have noticed over the many years that I have stood behind my chair, that one or two of my clients have a bit of a hard time looking at themselves in the mirror, and in that moment my work has begun. My client has made up their mind that there is no hope for a transformation from old to young, plain to pretty, awkward to gallant, no hope for a physical change let alone a nice cut and color. Before and After Make-Over articles are very popular in magazines and in the media.  It is true that I can transform the outward appearance of my individual clients but it is beyond my scope to transform their spirit when they are down in the dumps and having a "bad hair day." Recently, one client sat in my chair with a serious case of the "old and uglies."  I  listened, and listened some more. Then I took a breath. I know more about this client than just her hair.  I know...

Life is short, love your hair. It begins when you look in the mirror and are grateful that you can see. Grateful that you can see the hair you have or not. Feel the skin on your body and scalp. Smell the soap and shampoo in the shower and hear, yes hear the blow dryer. Daily rituals of beauty, we can so easily take for granted. After seventeen years of owning and operating a salon just one block from my home in Old Oakland , I relocated to Right Angle Salon in Rockridge, Oakland. At first I was uncomfortable, it has been a long, long time since I have been the new girl. And just as long a time since I have had a commute, taking BART some days and some days driving the car I share with my husband. One day, shortly after the move I came home with a new hat.   One of the stores between my new salon home and the BART station had sucked me right in.   My husband said “this move could be expensive” and he was right, because shortly thereafter I came ho...