Beauty, communication, health and wellness, Uncategorized

Paging Dr. Ruth…

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In these days of Shades of Grey, I feel I must speak about our relationships with our significant other. EVERYDAY, in the salon I hear of someone’s romance woes. How their husband doesn’t pay them enough attention, or that their boyfriend keeps doing the wrong thing, or may all time favorite “we haven’t been intimate in months”. (sometimes I cannot help but wonder if the third complaint listed is not a direct result of the first two.). Now, If you are single, I get it, it is hard for the singles out there. There are a lot of crazies and it seems as though everyone has enough baggage to fill a 747. For those of us in a relationship/marriage, I believe we can be the crazies bringing more baggage into the relationship than we had when it began.

Ladies, and I say ladies because in all honesty we are usually the ones that turn nothing into something. Come on now, lets be honest, we have all been her. You can blame your boss, the kids, PMS, whatever – you know you have done it, started an argument for no real reason. Ladies, it is time to take a breath. Again, a deeper breath this time. Now that I have your attention, listen carefully….It is not your husband’s/boyfriend’s/partner’s job to keep you happy and satisfied – in all areas. Yeah, I said it. Yes, we deserve kindness, honesty, respect and love – everyone does. That being said, it is your responsibility and yours alone to achieve satisfaction and happiness – in all areas (nudge,nudge, wink, wink). It is uncalled for and unfair to expect another human being to make you happy when you are not happy with yourself. It is just plain mean to complain that your significant other doesn’t satisfy your needs when you have never told them what those needs are…come on, even Christian Grey had to ask Miss. Steele what she wanted.

Men are simple creatures – no offense or disrespect implied. All they want is a little peace and quiet, a good sandwich, a little lovin’ and a big T.V.. Oh and just so you know, and your children will someday know -when it come’s to the “bow chica wow wow” they don’t care if your roots are showing, they don’t care if you gained weight, all they care about it that they have a woman in front of them who they love and they get to touch her, plain and simple.

I know, you are thinking “this is supposed to be a blog about beauty” – well this is an important part of beauty. It does not matter how pretty the present is wrapped if the box is empty. It is time to be accountable to ourselves, about ourselves. It is time to be kinder and gentler to ourselves and those we love. It is time to stop having everyone else’s arguments, or blaming our significant other that our lives aren’t what we planned – it is not their fault you are unhappy – Yeah, I said it! It’s true. We teach people how to treat us, so go out there and educate those you love, you may find you learn a little something along the way.

Beauty, Business, communication, Hair Care, health and wellness, Uncategorized

Tales of truth…part 3

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I am sure you have heard of the “zombie apocalypse” ….well, I believe it has begun. There I was, talking with a customer, explaining to her how she was going to LOVE the Kpak Revitaluxe (you all know how much I love it) and I hear the door chime behind me. I excuse myself for a moment to greet the newest arrival, smile and say “good morning” to which I hear “ughk”. I kid you not. The woman I was helping gasped and looked at me with the “what the hell?!?” look in her eyes. I leaned over and whispered “it’s okay, welcome to my world.” to which she giggled and relaxed. I walked her up to the counter, looking over at the woman (zombie) and told her I would be right with her, to which I got the blank stare and a mumbled statement which I hoped didn’t translate to “I’m gonna eat your face”. My lovely lady paid for her purchase and looked a little worried, I told her I was fine and to enjoy her day, she left the store walking the long way around to the door. (you see, thanks to my glorious hubby, I have seen Zombieland, I am prepared, I know what to do.). Back to the tale at hand. I walked ever so cautiously to the woman and asked what she needed help with….she just looked at me. About 30 seconds went by and she finally said “I need peroxide”. Whew….speech… No need for shovels today.

It was a beautiful summer day in 2011, a day I will remember for as long as I live, or until dementia sets in (family trait). A women in her late 40’s or early 50’s came into the shop, dressed in a beautiful designer summer dress with the cutest sandals to match, clutching her Coach summer tote. I asked if she needed a hand finding anything, “just looking for the nail polish” she innocently responded. I showed her our collections and went to answer the phone. After my phone call I turn around to see this women sitting on the floor, tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth and putting nail polish on her toes. The first thing that sprang to mind was the childhood rhyme “I see London…I see France…I can see your underpants”. I kindly walked up to her and said “Oh honey, first, you can’t try on the polishes, second, we can see up your dress”. I still can’t bring myself to buy pink underwear…enough said.

Last but certainly not least… I know people are lonely and in this age of technology many people email or text, so there isn’t much human interaction. I love to help all the ladies and gents that come into the store to look beautiful and feel good about themselves. That being said, I don’t really need to know everything about them. I don’t need to know about your latest gynecological finding, don’t really need to see your fungal infection on your toe nail, don’t need to see the oozing bumps on your body, don’t need to be shown your body hair on places I didn’t know hair could grow. I will gladly look at your baby pictures, not their dirty diaper. I will be a shoulder if you have lost a loved one, don’t need to hear about the embalming process. Oh, and please…don’t flash me your bikini line asking me “what is this?” and don’t throw a flat iron.

Hair Care, health and wellness

For the boys…

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Today I bring you a tale of a delicate nature. Today’s tale is about hair loss. I know I usually come at these tales from a woman’s perspective, not today. Today I represent the men. Ladies – it is time to be kinder to our men, to remember that they like to look good  for themselves too. We always talk about how women hate their hair or hate the way they look…guess what? Men feel the same way too. I have heard too often a woman teasing her boyfriend/husband about his receding hair line or beer gut. That is not nice, plain and simple. Think about it – what would happen if he teased you about your roots or your muffin top? He’d be pushin’ up daisies and you know it.

Men feel they have no where to go or no one to talk to about their hair or lack there of. Well, here I am and I am going to shed some light for y’all. I have one word for you – NIOXIN.

Nioxin is a professional hair care line created to stop hair loss in it’s tracks and in some cases help the hair grow back. (*If there has been no hair growth in a spot for over 6 years – unfortunately no hair will ever grow in that spot again.). Nioxin is a 3 step program – The Cleanser(Shampoo), Scalp Therapy(Conditioner), and the Scalp Treatment(a leave on foam treatment). The key to this system is you have to use all 3 products. The Scalp Treatment is the kicker – it cleanses the hair follicle and rids the scalp of debris such as dead skin, product build up and DHT (Dihydrotestosterone). Big word – I know – look below…

*Testosterone converts into the toxin DHT which resides in the hair follicle

* Stress can cause over production of testosterone – so chill.

There are other regimes to help with hair loss on the market. I speak of Nioxin because I have seen first hand many success stories, both for women and men. It has won awards 10 years running. Redken has a line out for hair loss – IntraForce. It has been on the market for over 1 year now. I have had some clients try it and have yet to see major results, not like what I have seen with Nioxin. Nioxin has formulations for those who don’t chemically treat their hair – #1 for early stages of thinning, #2 for noticeably thinning. For those that do chemically treat their hair – #3 for early stages of thinning, #4 for noticeably thinning. Nioxin offers an array of styling products from pomades to gels to hairspray.

There are many factors that cause hair loss. Stress, diet, genetics, illness, medications, your teenager learning to drive. Next time you see your man frowning in the mirror or refusing to leave the house without a hat – show them my blog, forward it to their phone or their email. Let them know they are not alone and there is an answer. Remember ladies – you teach people how to treat you – so if you are constantly nagging and teasing what do you think you will get in return?

Beauty, Business, communication, health and wellness, Uncategorized

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This tale is for all the women out there that are afraid of their voice. You know who you are. At some point we have all been her. You know the one…the one who keeps her opinions to herself , the one who doesn’t speak her mind, the one who goes along with everything out of fear of rocking the boat. The one who still speaks in a cutesy high pitched voice. The one who hates her hair cut so much she cries on her way home from the Salon but won’t tell her stylist because it might hurt their feelings or the stylist won’t like them anymore.  I know, we have heard all our lives, “be the good girl”, “just smile and be polite”, “boys don’t like girls who talk too much”, “the stylist knows best”. I have come to realize, all these lessons were taught to us out of fear. Our parents, teachers,mentors (take your pick) only knew fear, so that is what the majority of girls were taught, fear. Fear of what may happen if you speak your mind, fear of what may happen if you choose not to go with the flow, fear of being alone. As Maya Angelou says “when you know better, you do better”. Ladies, (and gents), it is time to “do better”.

Every day, I mean EVERYDAY, a woman will come into the shop or the salon, her eyes at the floor, mumbling a request. I make it my personal mission in life to raise these people up. I ask them what they need, what they are looking for and I always get the same response “I don’t know, what do you think?”. In turn I answer “I think you should have pink hair”…and then I give a gentle friendly giggle and tell her I want to help her feel better about her hair. I ask her what picture she has in her head of what she wants her hair to look like. 9 out of 10 women tell me they don’t like the style they have now, that their stylist doesn’t listen to them and that they hate the color of their hair. This is when I tell them “it is time to find your voice”. I reassure them, the world will not open up and swallow them whole if they speak their mind. That if they are able to yell at the girl at the drive thru for getting their coffee order wrong, I think they can talk to their stylist about what they want.

As women, we worry about what people are thinking about us or saying about us. It is time to stop worrying. As my Dad often says “worry is a debt that never comes due”. He’s right. People are going to talk no matter what, it’s what they do. Live the life you want, have the hair style and color you want, wear the clothes you like. Find your voice, embrace it, walk with your head held high, make eye contact. If you are still a little worried you are going to hurt someone’s feelings – get them a present – buy them “knitting for dummies” and tell them “here is your new hobby.”.