I will be in town the weekend of March 8-10 for a Kadus event.  Any salon owners in the area who want to meet and brainstorm, leave a comment below and I will contact you.  This is the cheapest consulting you will ever get:  just buy me a drink!

My father got his pilot’s license and joined the Civil Air Patrol last week. For the record, he is 61 years old. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine a world where countries and cultures as well as individuals could forgive rather than seek revenge.

For so many people, the only thing standing between them and happiness (and in a larger sense, Peace) is the unwillingness (or seeming inability) to forgive.

Forgiveness can seem like the biggest hurdle we have to clear on the road to happiness. For many of us the identity of Victim is all we know. I find it so sad that there are so many people living in pain when they have the power to heal themselves through forgiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you heard of this? A planned event that is supposed to appear random….

I found it tag surfing here on WordPress. I won’t be there, but, if you don’t have anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon in Seattle….

Invitation: Seattle Flash Makeout, February 24th Read the rest of this entry »

(You can pick up this children’s science book at Amazon.)

Many of us spend the early years of our lives wishing we had someone else’s hair. Mine was straight and fine and stringy. In third grade my mother grew tired of listening to me whine that it hurt when she combed it (Me: It hurts! Mother: Oh, it does not. Stop whining or I’ll give you something to cry about.) and cut it off and I got my first perm of many.

One of my co-workers had curly hair in the hippy-like B.P. era (Before Product). She has many frightening pictures of this time.

In the salon, we have come to believe that it takes most women some serious time to make peace with their hair. Into their thirties, usually. I find it so sad that we waste those years (when we are the cutest we will ever be!) bemoaning our imperfections rather than embracing our beauty.

My female child seems to have a fine opinion of her hair (wearing it curly some days and straightening it on others) and seems not to care what other people’s opinions are about her personal style. I think that’s pretty good for a teenager, and may or may not have anything to do with having a hairdresser for a mother and unlimited access to hair product and tools.

I read a touching post this morning from a woman who was learning to make peace with her hair (and her Self.) Check it out.

Do you want to communicate with the clients you have and attract new ones?

Get your own blog!

It’s FREE!

It’s easy!

It’s effective!

I like WordPress. Other people like Blogger. Check them both out and see what you think. As I read in Business Week today, any dolt with a working computer and an internet connection can have a blog up and running in ten minutes. There is no reason NOT to. What are you waiting for?

Here’s an example of another salon’s blog.

(If you have a salon blog, please leave the link in a comment so we can all visit!)

Here is a “how to” guide about blogging for beginners.

Here is an article from Wells Fargo about blogging for small business. 

A friend of mine (you may recognize him from my post on skin tone) has been putting up a selection of haircolor technique videos on YouTube. Click on over and subscribe to his feed, then you can get notified by email when a new one goes up!

Here is the newest one.

Well, you just can’t please some people. It seems there is a bit of a counter-movement against the pursuit of happiness. My friend Hayden over at Persistent Illusion has written a response. Click over and read it. And if you agree with these miserable sots who think happiness is a waste of time, let me know and then take your grumpy self somewhere else!

For the record, I have been happy and I have been miserable. Happy is better.

Happiness: Enough Already

February 20, 2008 The happiness backlash has begun. “Against Happiness” can now be found in bookstores, while “Rethinking Happiness” is winging its way to one in the next several months.

Written by men who attempted to ‘get with the program’ and get happy, their failure - they believe - is a function of the flawed nature of our existence and not, one might conjecture, their own fault.

Read the rest of the article here.

The salon industry has an advantage over many others. While places like Home Depot can enter a market and push mom and pop hardware stores out of business, salons are different. Many customers prefer the intimacy of a small salon to the hub-bub of a large salon. There will always be a market for both. So my advice to small salons is always the same. Don’t try to be like the big guy. Be yourself! Stand your ground. Create a space where your clients and your staff are happy. Remember what Cinderella said in the Rogers & Hammerstein musical. “In my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be who ever I want to be.”

from www.collegehumor.com posted with vodpod

As we get get older, (with any luck) we get wiser. As the parent of two teenagers, I am constantly trying to give them perspective on the things in their life that seem SO IMPORTANT right now. (It is exhausting!) Perhaps if someone else gives shares the perspective that comes from having lived through some events, they might listen. (Mother is an idiot, after all, and knows nothing.)

Click over to Zen Habits to see the full list of twenty.

Number 15 is my personal favorite (surprise!)

15. Forget the drama. Focus on being happy. There have been many things that have happened to me, professionally and personally, that seem like the end of the world. And while these things were bad, they get blown up in our heads so that they become major drama. They caused me to be depressed from time to time. What a waste of time. If I realized that it was all in my head, and that I could be happy instead if I focused on the positive, on what I did have, and what I could be doing … I could have skipped all the moping about.

Russian terriers are popular guard dogs in some countries

Meet Ringo Tsar - a dog who can pack a knock-out punch with his paws. Owner Russ Williams has trained the 15-month-old black Russian terrier in the art of kick-boxing.

Mr Williams, from Caerwys in north Wales, is a former world champion in the martial art.

“If there was a British Thai boxing championship for dogs then Ringo would win paws-down every time,” he said. “There are a few humans he could beat as well.”

Mr Williams, who runs a gym and a security firm, said he came up with the idea after seeing Ringo play-fighting with another dog.

“All his strength seems to be in his legs,” he explained. “I just thought about how I could develop that.

Russian terriers can weigh up to 85lb

“I have only been training him for three weeks but he has picked it up really quickly and is incredibly strong.

“He can jump and kick to command with his two front feet at a punch bag or kick pad.

“It seems much better to teach a guard dog to do this than to bite.”

Russian black terriers, also known as Russkiy Tchiorny terriers, were specially bred in the former USSR and originally used by the authorities for riot control.

When I read about the political pollsters hanging out in salons, I emailed my friend Mary Atherton at Modern Salon. She has posted about it in this month’s magazine and in her blog. She is interested in hearing your thoughts. Click on over and tell her what you think.

Today is Valentine’s Day and, coincidentally, the salon’s 17th anniversary. We always celebrate with champagne and chocolates. (Did you know you can live on champagne and chocolate for a day?) Today we also had a little corrective color drama.

Corrective color is the most difficult thing a professional haircolorist does. It requires a combination of skill, knowledge, critical thinking and sometimes luck. I like to think that my success in this arena is due more to my critical thinking than to any other aspect. Sometimes you have to spend a few minutes thinking through your options before jumping into the project.

Here was the problem:

Read the rest of this entry »

My husband was in the Phoenix airport and saw a man that looked alarmingly like my brother who lives in Houston. He wasn’t sure it was him and didn’t want to look foolish walking up to a stranger if it wasn’t him.

Here is the back and forth dialog of me trying to see if it was, indeed, my brother in the airport:

Me: Hey! Any chance you are in the Phoenix airport? Al says he sees a guy who looks just like you.

Brother: Nope. I’m not there. But what a lucky guy!

Me: Is it a burden to be so handsome AND so humble?

Brother: It is, but I can handle it.

If someone said they saw someone who looked like me, I would be amused at the coincidence. It would never occur to me to think that the person who looked like me was lucky to do so. Perhaps we can all borrow some of my brother’s self-esteem on the days when we don’t feel fabulous.

I think he can spare it.

I was surprised by this recipe from Betty Crocker. A sweet version of my favorite savory holiday snack never occurred to me, and I am ashamed that it didn’t! I haven’t made this one yet. Let me know how it turns out! Read the rest of this entry »

This came in my monthly newsletter from my favorite wine bar, Vin Grotto.  I thought I would share.

THIS IS FUN: To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine…and those who don’t. As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila,rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting. Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health.  Therefore, it’s better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of crap. There is no need to thank me for this valuable information: I’m doing it as a public service. Your friend, Kris Blondin

I have a weakness for small leather goods. I love bags and pouches and cases more than your average bear. (Wow! It feels good to get that off my chest.) Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t tattoo your boyfriend’s name on your body.

Don’t tattoo your boyfriend’s name on your body.

Don’t tattoo your boyfriend’s name on your body.

A new client last week has “Matthew” on the inside of her wrist. (The photo above is not the client’s wrist. She is not that hairy!)

Problem is, Matthew is no longer the love of her life. (I know, you are stunned. This never happens.)

Laser removal of the tattoo is:

a. painful

b. expensive

c. not guaranteed

She has found a resolution that will mitigate the damages.

Under “Matthew” she will add 7:7. Biblically speaking, Matthew 7:7 reads:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

I am sure that someday the tattoo will mean that to her. But for a long time every time she looks at her wrist all she will see is a reminder of her short-sighted impetuous youth.

When will we learn that a relationship is far more likely to fade away than a tattoo?

At least the boy’s name wasn’t Fred.

If you know nothing about me, then you don’t know the story of my book (Get Some Hairapy) and my adventure getting it published. I looked at so many options it would make your head spin. What I settled on was using a micro publisher (Infinity Publishers) who allowed me to create and design the book while using their quality press and network to print it. The result? A professional finished piece without the expense and hassle of having to print 1000 copies. Read the rest of this entry »