"Cool Candy"............

Do you ever have one of those days where you think that just by getting a haircut it will fix everything?  Sometimes it's true, and sometimes it's not.

I think it was middle school or early junior high when I woke up so frustrated and for some STUPID reason I agreed to let one of the "cool" girls at school cut my hair. Her name was Candy. She was the one with the most safety pins holding her pant legs tight together with bandanas wrapped around them.  You see her mother was a hairstylist in a very high class salon, so we figured of course she knew what she was doing.......another poor choice.  Live and Learn, luckily my hair grows fast.  

It was about this time my mom and I became the favorite customers of our local Avon Lady.  She would drop by a few times a month and bring us samples.  I was so into the blue and pink eyelids of the 80's.  I look back at pictures and wonder if I was the inspiration for Rainbow Bright?? 

I tried the Pat Benitar look ( Which consisted of lining your complete eye with very thick and very black eyeliner).  This lasted for only about 2 weeks til my best friends mom was kind enough to say " Dear, that eyeliner you are wearing makes you look cross-eyed!"  That ended that.   Back to pink.

Perms were all the rage.......

When I was about 14 we moved from the country into town.  Perms were all the rage.  I begged... I pleaded... so for my birthday I was sent off  for my first salon experience. 


 Nancy was to be my stylist.  She was pretty and looked very hip.  I was scheduled to have her full undivided attention for the next 2 hours.  I WAS THRILLED! 


 I pointed to a picture of a model in a magazine with large lovely curls. "This is it, This is exactly what I want!" I said. 


 After 3 hours of excruciating pain, burning sensations, and the most awful smell I had ever experienced I left looking much like our neighbors dog "Fifi" the French poodle.  SO NOT THE LOOK I WAS GOING FOR!!!  


"Never Again" I cried "Never".  Ya right, you forget, you go somewhere else 2 years later and oh wonderful, it happens again...... and again you vow never.....

Old Lady Cat fights....

A few days ago I literally was standing outside the salon door trying to help break up a cat fight between 2 ladies.  One was 85yrs old while the other is in her early 90's.  I was trying to get my other 2 clients finished and the 90 yr old lady was waiting outside the door was getting impatient. The 85 yr old lady was walking down the hall when the 90 yr old started hollering at her " It's gonna be mine turn- so don't you even think about going in there!" A bit in shook Mrs. 85 says " No need to be yelling at me".  I cross my fingers that she will just keep going, but then Mrs. 90 sticks out her foot to try and trip Mrs 85. By this time Mrs 85 has had enough and begins ramming Mrs 90 with her walker yelling " Stop yelling at me, you leave me alone you old witch!"  Believe it or not this does not go over well....... Just as Mrs 90 starts to reach out to grab Mrs 85's walker she sees me approaching and sits back real fast saying " I wasn't doing anything- it's all HER fault."  Another staff member comes and escorts Mrs. 85 away while Mrs. 90 comes with me.

 It's all in another day of making people beautiful......

 at least on the outside......................

If I would have known.....

A few years ago I had a client  named Vera who was turning 100 years old.  Her daughter gave her a certificate for a manicure.  I was very surprised to hear that it was hear 1st one ever! She was so cute, during the massage  she said " Oh if I would have known how wonderful this would be I would have started having them 20 years ago!!"

Rose  another of my cute little ladies, came to get her hair fixed for her 100th Birthday. Of course I asked how she planned to spend her day.  She was celebrating by taking her first plane ride ever. We all stood outside as he plane passed over and waved.

Proof- That really we are never to old to try new things- We just have to be brave enough to do it!!

The Queen........

How did I get my title you may wonder..... Well it was given to me a few years ago by one of my clients. She likes to be known as “ The Queen” because she shares the name of a famous one. For the last few years or so I have been working with a lot of senior citizens, many of whom have Alzheimers or Dementia. Some of them can be quite challenging, occasionally accusing me of trying to drown or murder them, and others are more entertaining. After working in this setting I tell people that my goal in life is to live well each day, make lots of good memories so that if something like this happens to me I have good ones to hold on to and relive often, and to treat people well, in hopes that when I am old I will be treated well in return.

It's Thursday, and “The Queen” is coming for her weekly appointment. “Hello” I say to her. She looks up and says “Do I know you?”. I tell her yes and that I have been doing her hair for a few years now. As soon as she sees the chair she says “ Well, of course I know who you are .... You're the Lady with the red chair! How are those little boys of yours?” I tell her they are doing well, but not so little anymore. She asks me what are we going to do to her hair today? I let her know that she's due for a color and a set and ask if she feels up to it. “Well of course I do, I don't want to be looking shabby” she says. Another lady is sitting under the dryer and proceeds to tell “The Queen” that she doesn't think she ought to color her hair...That she thinks she should leave it natural, which would be snowy white. This does not go over well with “The Queen” and she politely says that she must color her hair after all she doesn't want to look like an old lady!! A little while later she asks again how my children are and announces that she thinks she is to old to have anymore. I ask her how old she is.... her reply is “Well now, I must be at least 60 or so. You tell me I was born in 1918”. I smile and get out the calculator so she can see me type in the numbers. I say “ the year is 2011...take that and minus the year 1918 and what do you get? 93.” She almost jumps out of her chair with surprise “93, I am 93!!!!” “Well then I am definitely to old to have anymore children!!” I tell her to look on the bright side- that she feels 30 years younger than she actually is!

She is a wonderful lady and makes many of us smile. The blonde lady, the tall man who fixes things, the bingo lady, the lady who plays the piano....We all have our titles from her.....It makes you wonder, what she would name you?

No Fly Tape Please..............

It was a lovely summer day, one of those kind that inspire you to try something you have never tried before. I went to the grocery store because pears were on sale just $4.99 a lug! Perfect to try out the process of canning. I grabbed the pears and a box of Kerr canning jars, paid and took them home. I set them on the table next to the Blue book of canning I'd found earlier. I was running late for work so I figured I would go to the basement later to bring up the canner and stockpots that would be needed for my big experiment.

When I came home for lunch I was greeted by a disgusting bunch of fruit flies hovering over my pears......YUCK!!!!

I proceeded to get out a fly tape and hung it in the big tree near the basement door in hopes to lure the flies away from the fruit. Now I should have hung it over the table above the pears, that would have been logical, but the idea of that grossed me out.

I went back to the salon to finish up my day and that evening when I returned home I rushed to the basement door .... FFFFTTT AAAAAHHHHH!! The fly tape had gotten stuck in my hair!

My very short hair that I was trying to grow out! I yanked out the tape, returned it to the tree then ran to the bathroom to shampoo my hair. Guess what happens when you try and wash the sticky glue out of your hair...... It turns it ROCK HARD!!!

Oh no was I going to have to shave my head?? Crying I picked up the phone and called the salon.

You have to understand that I had only graduated from Beauty School a few months before, this was my 1st job, and I worked at a shop run by 2 older barber guys ( Bob & Sid) and Bob's wife Donna. These guys were always full of jokes and fun stories and ... I was about to become one of them.

Bob answered, after listening to my story he was laughing so hard he had to give the phone to his wife Donna. I could hear him trying to catch his breath and give her directions. I heard her say " WHAT do you mean W-D-40?" Then calmly she said " Listen Dear, just spray some W-D-40 on your hair and it will get the glue out."

They were right, it worked. I slept with conditioner in my hair that night and felt much better.

(by the way it also works on duct tape, but that's another story)

The next day..... It happened again!!! This time I threw the fly tape in the garbage, ate the pears, and although I did learn to can it took me 8 years before I was willing to try again and thankfully a dear friend to taught me........ but I'll never ever can pears!

12 years ago today........

I guess officially it was the day before 12 years ago today, I was 3 days overdue with my first child. I had completed the nesting phase and couldn't cook, decorate or scrub 1 more thing. Bored out of my mind I decided to walk down to the salon where I was officially on maternity leave from since my belly was so big it was rubbing on my clients as I tried to cut their hair. Thankfully I lived only 3 blocks away so it was ok. I remember the look on my bosses face when I got there- she really thought I was going to give birth right in the salon. I chatted for a bit, then when the snow looked like it was getting heavier, they convinced me to go back home. I made a nice steak dinner for my Hubby and myself and finally excepted the fact that I was going to be pregnant forever...... 30 minutes later my water broke, and in the middle or the 10in snowstorm off we went.

It was one of the happiest days of my life, and what's extra special is that 2 years later, history repeated itself and we had our 2nd child on the very same day! They are the greatest sons any mother could ask for.