DIFFICULT CLIENTS

The Difficult client syndrome only occurs maybe the most three times a year.
You get that one douchebag that thinks his/her hair is that of something really special
And nooooo hairstylist on the planet EVER gets it right.....

Well listen up

This is the one way to get yourself Blackbawlded from any salon

Seriously!

Us hairstylist put up with very little drama

And if there is drama we want to be the ones creating it!

A thorough consultation is the only way to avoid this disaster

But then there's always the client that wants to always create trouble

Never come into any salon and play the stylist against each other!

In a TEAM salon environment we will nab that sh**** in the butt right away

In New York the foreigners always play a mean game and obviously were  never taught the meaning of team in their countries. Those stylist from poor third world countries have the attitude...
One for all and all for one!

But those of us that were trained in the best salon fashion houses on the planet understand the meaning of team

Back to the client....,

Yes, a good consultation is always the best approach
Repeating back to the client is another approach

If all else fails!
Record that dang pain in the a****
And hit replay when they call to complain!
BUSTED!!!

KIDS AND THE SALON

In Manhattan there just are no kids in the salon.
At least not the ones I ever worked in.
I'm sure the nannies take them to some secret kid salon in Queens or Brooklyn
Where the sign on the door says, "We Welcome Children"

How painful for those stylist!

In suburbia America the story is completely different!

The over bearing, micro-managing mother just can't let her little darling make a decision!
And this starts from the beginning....

The latest for suburbia American  moms is to make sure her 18 month old all the way up to teenagers
Are wearing what "she" thinks is the "in" look

Causing us in the fashion world to want to just step outside and have a complete melt down

Like I said before.....

Most of these mothers could use a MAJOR makeover themselves!
Over weight, no makeup, wearing an outfit I'm sure she stole from some poor homeless man

The other day in strolled one of these such mommies
Strapped around her waist an 18 month old who she said was in desperate need of a style

REALLY???!!!!

The look on my face priceless

I'm not quite sure what goes through these mothers minds
He was a baby!
I'm not quite sure what baby fashion magazine he was being offered a job for
But seriously his hair was just fine for a baby

She literally asked me to give him a style

I had to bite my tongue and ask her if I could give her a style before him!

It's the same way with the teenage boys

Now teenage boys are pretty much like that baby......

Especially 14 year old boys.....
They ain't talking!

These micro-managing mothers are certainly loose screws

And they are in noooo position to offer fashion advice!

An 18 month old baby is in NOOO need for gel in his hair

And teenage boys are deaf mutes
But most likely because they have decided to stop talking because mommy monopolizes every part
Of their lives.....
Including every sentence they go to utter
What a better way to get back at that sort of mother......
Let's just make a fool of her she'll never know.....
So they just stop using their own brains

Most teenage boys are wearing their hair either 2 ways.....
Long!
Or whatever David Beckham wears

All day long that's allllll we do......
The David Beckham haircut

The preppy nerds.....
Mommy comes along to make sure and guide me into making sure I only take a half inch
Of his very Ralph Lauren nerdy look. His name is something like Archer or Woodley.
Nice staunch, embarrassing "family" names that the poor child wants nothing more than to commit
Suicide for having such a name and dreams of one day when he can change it to something normal....
Like Mike

But, we are hairdressers and this is the salon life we endure

SUBURBIA AMERICAN HOUSEWIVES

Sometimes when I'm not in New York  I live in the suburbs of Philly. That's what those of us raised in and around Philadelphia call the city.

The most annoying thing for me are the house fraus of the suburbs. Not all of them but most of them are just a dang pain in the a**!!

Their an interesting breed. Most went to college to catch their current husband or their first husband and can be quite well education. Some of these chicks are strapped tight with PHD's but using their prestigious education for volunteer work or just working part time as adjunct professors. 

These less than lovely creatures can be found most days micro-managing their entire home. I'm not quite sure who marries these sort of women but they must be Doing something right most of their husbands seem ok with being micro-managed & bossed around. 

When they enter the salon they now have NOOO idea they have just entered a different ball park! Welcome to hairdresser world where the name of our game is "We are the coach" 

To their dismay their micro-managing skills are usually retained to being banished to the waiting area. 

RULE OF THUMB

NEVER TELL A HAIRDRESSER HOW TO DO THEIR JOB

The latest trend for micro-managing their child's hairdo is nothing short of entertainment 

Usually poor little Brittany or  Josh want nothing these creatures suggest and that's when we gotta step in to mediate. 

I don't mess around anymore with these ridiculous women. Most of them in dire need of complete makeovers themselves!  I also always wonder how these women have left themselves go and still manage to keep their husbands. 

They arrive into the salon with children in hand dressed in their yoga pants or an outfit they wore back in 2001. Never any makeup and usually sporting a version of the suburbia American Classic "mom" Bob. 

I usually find myself wondering...... 

Are there any mirrors in your house

And DO you actually look in them?! 

These mommies are VERY bossy 

They want their disgruntled child to either wear something that the kid at 14 completely does SO NOT want to wear! 

I actually had to tell one of these gals last week...

"He's not eight  he's fourteen!" 

The kid which was a fourteen year old boy actually returned to the salon and said, "Thank you for giving my mom the beet down, she just doesn't get it." 

I sent that broad right to the street! 

I now know my mission in life was to save every teenage kid from their micro-managing clueless mother. 

Wanna talk hair, makeup and fashion?!

Don't mess with your hairdresser! 

BACK TO THE BAR........ BRYANT PARK

Like I was telling you.....
In the summer 2015 I started working for the Hottest blowout salon in New York.....
Drybar

Alli Webb was the brainstorm behind the fun salon that I call home in New York
The company was started in Brentwood  Cally and when it hit the scene of Manhattan it became all the rage

There's now, I think, ten locations throughout the city. My home salon being Bryant Park.
The Bryant Park salon is lovely, the minute you walk in the door it's elegence beems at you.
everthing is white and exhumes feminity. The countertops are white marble, the mirrors are not in front of you like at your traditional salon, their behind you, but even the mirrors are suedo feminine.

The Bryant Park salon is the newest location in the city. And it sparkles like a new salon. It's just pretty.

Drybar is fun......  The first thing every girl is offered is a complimentary glass of champagne, wine, coffee or tea. Of coarse most gals go for the champagne.....

Theres a catalog of hairstyles you are to chose from and probably the most popular is called the Cosmo, I call it the now a days Farrah Fawcett hairstyle.

Girls from near and far come to our salon in Mid-town.

I have had clients from as far away as Australia tell me that on their NYC bucketlist was Central Park, the Highline and Drybar.

Celebrities do come in. They give us no trouble at all and always disappear back into the streets of NY as quietly as they came in.

It's our mainstream pretentious beotches that give us the most trouble as we blow dry behind our chairs.

It's the usual millenial, college educated, brown hair, pompous ass, unattractive, low self esteem chick opening her not so charming mouth.

Whats she beotching bout????

Who the hell knows?!

I'm not even sure who marries these disgruntled charmers, most likely some guy who went to some boring Law school and has no personality himself, with visions that the perfect wife come with a long list of fine crediantials, a staunch personality and the future micro-manager of his family. This sort of man is not looking to marry a Barbie or have a life filled with laughter and fun.He's looking for more shallow reasons to marry. Who will mommy, daddy approve of who will the family be impressed with and who his fraternity brothers will most certainly say behind his back, "What a shame, he married such an unattractive beotch!"

But, yes, I must say these are the girls giving us the run for our money..... or lack there of

I welcome you, to Bryant Park
xoxo

MATTERS OF THE HEART..... DATING 101

Judgement day can arrive early on in any relationship. Thanx to all the musicians and the worlds  poets for the endless supply of ridiculious promises and inspiration of Love........ Oh how they all spew out that fairytale of blissful happiness.

Love's promise to be unconditional is the funniest joke on the planet! That promise of uncondtional Love is just bullsh****

It's a great place to visit, but no one really lives there.

The raw truth is.... we allll judge each other

here's the biggest kicker, being judged by the one you Love can feel like a huge betrayal!
it comes in the back door and kicks your legs out
that one person you should be able to trust the most on the planet is always the first one to denounce you.

Why is that?

It's a HUGE violation of that private contract that exist secretly between the two of you. The one that clearly stated in clause three, paragraph ten, "You will Love me and accept me no matter what."

Ya, right!

Most people forget to read the fine print that goes something like this, "I don't need you, there's 2 million single people in this city, I'll just dupe you and quickly move onto someone else!"

Judgement can tank any relationship

I think the wisest response to being judged

comes from the mouth of babes, "Your not the boss of me!"

DRYBAR

In the summer of 2015 I started working for the most popular blow out bar in the country.

I had returned to New York after a small fling with a United States Secret Service agent. This had taken me to one of our countries worse cities! Who the hell lives in Pittsburgh?! I suppose some do.....
but it's literally impossible to go from living in New York City to living in Pittsburgh! What was I thinking.

My exit from from this town was quick. I came home from work one afternoon and said, "I'm out of here!" I packed up my things and headed very quickly back east to my people.

The minute I walked through the doors of Port Authority Bus terminal and my feet hit the sidewalk of 8th Avenue I kissed the ground. There stood before me the famous New York Times building, and I knew I was home.

It was May of 2015 and I went on audition after audition searching for a salon that would be a good fit for me. A Russian friend whom I had worked for years earlier in the Village had heard I was back
in New York and gave me a call. They had opened another salon location and were looking for an American girl to be apart of their Upper West side staff.

Now, I have lived and worked in New York for the last ten years and knew this UWS salon situation
was not thrilling me.

The UWS is a totally different entity than the rest of the city. It's clean, quiet, has a suburbia American feel. There's a lot of liberal, conservative nuts in the UWS. After checking out my friends new location I was skeptical.  Don't get me wrong, the salon was gorgeous, but I wasn't feeling it.

Somehow I stumbled upon Drybar. My audition would take place in Tribeca. I was a seasoned hairstylist coming out of small town America. Us suburbia  Americans don't blow dry like these beotches from around the world!

let's just say..... I never challenge a Dominican girl to a blow dry throw down!!! I know I ain't winning.

I had three days of auditions. These people weren't messing around. On the third day I was told I had gotten the job and would return the following Monday for a week of training.

and the training would begin.

SALON CLIENTS 2016

Today I'm going to discuss real quick.......
the dreaded Micro-managing Mothers
this interesting breed of clients makes us stylist give the famous "eye roll"
she is an amussing character
and in 2016 she's a force that, yes, us hairstylist have learned to shut down
and tune out
most of us will actually tell her to please return to the waiting area

She can be quite amussing......
arriving in true suburbia America housewife form
she's the girl who most likely is well educated yet uses none of her degrees
because she went to college to find a husband to take care of her for the rest of her pathetic,
unhappy, miserable married life.

So..... this is where this gal enters the salon and thinks she's going to boss yet....
someone else around
ain't happening with my tribe

If it's one thing one does not do......
and that's tell a hairdresser how to do their job!

This is Taboo.... NEVER ever do this to your stylist!
NEVER!

This women will even goes sooo far as to tell us how to cut the hair
Like she even knows herself.......
last week I had one mother even say to me, "Do you know what I mean and how to cut what I'm
describing"
I literally gave her the evil hairstylist look, that stairdown that we give when you know
you have pushed us over the beyond angry edge and are now going to be banished very quickly from
the salon....... FOREVER!

HOW TO BE A NEW YORK CITY HAIRSTYLIST

Have you ever dreamed of being a hairstylist in New York?

Well then your like many who dream this dream

But....

I will tell you, this job is not for the faint hearted

Most of the famous styling houses start you off as an assistant 

For about two years you will be shampooing, mixing color, blow drying for a stylist with a large clientele

This will be a learning process

For all of you straight out of beauty school or new to our industry

A seasoned stylist will never take this job

Hell, they won't even hire you if you have too many years under your belt

The seasoned stylist will very rarely jump from salon to salon as I have over the years

But I did it so I could write about life as a stylist all over Manhattan 

It was more like a study for me

To see what was REALLY going on in New York City on the hair scene

Not everything I saw or was exposed to was pleasant

Some salons in the running for reality TV!

Some salon owners or managers not having a clue what the Hell their doing

To work at Vidal Sassoon, Frederic Fakki, DramaticsNYC, Bumble & Bumble and a few others I'm sure to be forgetting you start off at the shampoo bowl

All of them will provide you advanced education

Which is A l w a y s a plus

When you stop learning in our business you need to just leave the industry 

I'm a real hairdresser 

I've stood behind the chair for the last 

30 years

At this point I'm more interested in the psychology behind what we do

And the wants and needs of this new client we are servicing

The client of today is well educated

And they are knowledgable 

We need to be always an educated step above them  

A ROAD LESS TRAVELED

No matter how far down the wrong road you have traveled

You can always turn back

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

No one is coming to save you

Take care of yourself 

A relationship is not a job opportunity

Maybe 30-40 years ago it was

Most women went to college to get an education and if you all tell the truth

Find a well educated, successful husband

Now a days that's no longer the norm

I think I just recently read...

There's more women than men with college degrees now a days 

Women are no longer marrying for financial security

We provide for ourselves

Some of us rather be divorced and destitute than be with someone who's not going to have intelligence, integrity, and have good energy

With soo many Prince Harmings out there and having to filter through all of them

Life after divorce and on the dating scene can be quite challenging 

I myself need to be with someone who's quite capable of holding an intelligent conversation and having some substance

Don't settle for less

When you know you are worth sooo much more

WINTER IN NEW YORK

Send someone a warm happy message today 

Peace in the Heart makes for a Happy world

FROM THE DESK OF THE HAIRDRESSER

The latest salon gossip is Kim Kardashian's new look

Which we stylist must explain to the guests that it most likely isn't a new look

But hair-extensions removed and we are now being exposed to the look of her "Real" hair

She's pretty no matter how she wears her hair

Women are now sworming to the salon for Kim's look

The long Bob is beautiful 

IN SEARCH OF 50!

I turned 50 a few weeks ago

Met with much distain

50 entered my life with me kicking and screaming like a small child having a major temper tantrum

How the Hell did this happen to me?!

50!

So I went in search of 50

How was I going to pull this off?!

This is what I found....

Did you know that 50% of the American population is now over 50?!

I didn't!

How could I have not realized this! 

So.....

How does that change how we do business? 

How does that change what it is that I do as a hairstylist?????

A lot

That's how 

HOW YOU KNOW YOUR IN LOVE

You know your in love when the smell of scotch tape is beautiful

When the New York City  traffic doesn't faze you

When the only thing the ice falling from the skyscrapers peeress is your heart 

Senseless, mindless Love

COLLEGE

It's in my bucketlist to go back to college

NYU is sooo my dream college

Do you know what the Alumni list looks like?! 

MAC COSMETICS

Mac & Disney have collaborated 

This spring they will introduce their Cinderalla line

No Cruella Di Vil's need to buy

Xoxo

RULE #1

Rule #1 unless your served in a frosted glass never come within 4ft of my lips

BUILDING A SALON BUSINESS

Are you dreaming of owning your own salon? 

Truthfully, it's best if you have a large clientele, good business sense and can make that huge commitment. 

I use to own a salon

I owned a salon for many years

But before that I was always a successful hairstylist

Successful defining itself with how large a client base you have

Are you asking yourself should I invest in my own business

Here are some factors to consider for opening your own salon

#1 Location

Most people pick any business they use out of convience. Think about it, your dry cleaner, the pizza shop, the grocery store. So why would it  be any different with their salon. 

Most people pick a business within 3-5 miles of their home. Let's examine this.... On your way to work you pick that coffee spot to quickly stop at. On the way home the grocery store to quickly grab a few things. Why would someone picking a salon be any different? 

#2 PRICE

Huge factor. Most women will pick that "In" salon that all her friends frequent or the people in her social circle go to. 

Men.... Most of the time are looking for a low cost, quick stop to get in and out. 

Both sexes are looking for quality at a decent price. 

#3 THE STAFF

This could make or break you. Your only as strong as the people you have working for you and without them offering a pleasant, relaxing good environment with quality service your sure to be doomed. It creates customer satisfaction. Will that customer come back? I know why I don't go back to some businesses.... Do you? 

#Marketing Strategies

I know from experience the best advertisement is word of mouth. You can spend thousands of dollars on advertisement trying to convince your community your the "Movers and Shakers" of your community only to find out the community has immense distain for you. When someone walks into your business they need to be welcomed warmly. Condescending beotch we all know doesn't sell well and will never win client satisfaction. I don't care how beautiful, handsome, well dressed or how wealthy you "think" you are. Sometimes some of us in the salon industry our "egos" can get in our own way. Some of you are sooo full of your own virtue you can't see past the cash register or yourself in your own mirror. 

Best advice....

Create an atmosphere that's inviting. Make people want to come back. When that guest leaves make them say to themselves, "I like it their, it's a fun, relaxing, comfortable environment . Plus my hair looks great! " 

LIFE OF A DIVORCEE

I'm divorced five years

In the last five years I have gone in 

Search of myself 

After a horrible rebound relationship

I took a step back and new there needed to be a change up 

Yes

I had to say, "I love you, but I love me more" 

I asked myself, 

How do I get my life back and where do I want to go from here 

Watching most of the divorcees in my life or circle running around like chickens with their heads cut off 

Desperately dying to get back into another relationship....

I became disgusted and disillusioned 

to do the same 

My whole theme after my divorce was

"I always imagined my life to be so much more"

And I went in search of that

Disillusioned with ever part of my life

Including the salon scene

I went in search of finding my part of the world that made me happy

Made me jump out of bed in the morning

Rush off to

You know what I'm talking bout

If your a divorcee

Cool your wheels 

You just got out of a marriage

Take time for the kids 

Don't date people they don't like 

Seriously 

They were given to you forever

THEY come first 

How would you like to come to mom or dad's house and have to deal with a boyfriend/girlfriend in "Your" home that you can't stand 

My kids have  hated it! 

My boys actually are happy that I haven't dated in a long time 

I also think I'm setting a good example for them

I'm showing them that working my bucketlist and trying to make a decent living is more important to me then serial dating 

I'm showing my kids that I'm not co-dependent and can find happiness in life through other things other than in one person. My life isn't defined by who I am by being in a relationship. 

I'm not looking to a man for financial security

It's dating and a relationship

Not a "Job opportunity" 

I'm proud to say being divorced has been heaven & Hell all rolled into one

But the life experiences I have encountered after my divorce has shown me who I am, how strong of a women I am

It's also shown me the real character of those whom I've had to deal with

Make your divorce journey a postive one, set an example for your kids, they are apart of the show and their watching 

Go....

Go work on fixing you before you get back into another serious relationship

I know what I needed to fix and I've worked on that 

Don't make your kids come home another day or night to "Their" home with that man or women you are dating that they don't like!

It needs to work for everybody

Not just YOU! 

ITS A BLONDE GIRLS WORLD