It is easy to see how unsafe chemical lab, mines or nuclear facilities can be. But in the soothing, comfortable, spa-like atmosphere of a hair salon it can be difficult to hone in on the harsh reality of the hazards employees face every day. Hazards that require a good salon safety plan.
Salon workers have daily contact with flammable, hazardous chemicals. They use high-voltage electrical tools in a water-rich environment, breathe harmful fumes from chemical solutions used in coloring, bleaching, perms and straighteners. And they handle and wear flammable products and clothing.
Stylists, shampoo staff and nail techs are at risk for contact dermatitis, eczema, asthma and respiratory illnesses, allergies, musculoskeletal disorders, slips, trips and other accidents. The World Health Organization has classified the occupation of hairdresser and barber as “probably carcinogenic”.
OSHA recently issued rules on the use of formaldehyde-releasing products. The safety organization is requiring employers to give employees appropriate gloves and other personal protective equipment such as face shields, chemical splash goggles and chemical-resistant aprons, and to train them on how to use this equipment while mixing and applying the products.
In partnership with hairstylist Cori Bardo of The Magnet Agency, René Furterer is supporting the Los Angeles-based, nonprofit organization, The Art of Elysium, dedicated to the needs of mentally disabled and critically ill children, with a special donation. The French hair care line, based on pure essential oils and active plant extracts that is loved by celebrities and top stylists alike, is donating their FIORAVANTI Shine Enhancing Kits—each one includes the FIORAVANTI shine enhancing shampoo, shine enhancing conditioner and spray gloss—to support a cause that Cori, a stylist fan of the line, devotes her free time to.
Along with providing artistic workshops in acting, art, comedy, fashion, music, radio, songwriting and creative writing to bring out each child’s creativity, The Art of Elysium also runs a makeover program designed to increase their self-esteem. Believing every child deserves the opportunity to shine, Cori says that she and her fellow volunteers have found “a little pretty goes a long way,” regardless of the child’s condition, be it a physical disfigurement, mental or physical delay or any serious illness. Cori and the volunteers, including make-up artists, hairstylists and nail technicians, will introduce the FIORAVANTI SHINE ENHANCING KITS to their young makeover subjects as they help them to look and feel their best.
In addition to being an advocate for The Art of Elysium, Cori Bardo is one of the most sought-after hairstylists working today. Trained by Vidal Sassoon and a former spokesperson and creative consultant for Sebastian, Cori’s work has appeared in publications including Vogue, Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, Lucky and Rolling Stone. Her ever-growing client list includes a number of A-List celebrities and musicians from every genre.
We’ve known about the curly guru Shai Amiel, owner of Capella Salon in Studio City, California for quite a while. In fact, Capella Salon was one of the first salons to ever promote themselves as a curl-friendly salon in Southern California. Over the past years, Shai has been busy; most recently he started raising money for clean water and hosted the always-fabulous Lorraine Massey for a Curls Night Out event. And he continues to build his business one curly head at a time. We had a few minutes to chat with Shai and get his perspective on things.
NaturallyCurly: You have a huge curly following, and many stylists don’t work with curly or textured hair. How did you decide to become an expert with curly hair?
Shai Amiel: Curly hair to me is just like life. It’s always changing and you never stop learning. This curly thing just happened over the years. I never planned to have this focus on textured hair, but I believe that my dedication to the curls paid off in the long run.
NC: Yours was one of the first curly salons in Southern California; how have you seen hair change in your region? Are people moving away from the straight and narrow to embrace their curls?
SA: Many of my clients who were die-hard blowfryers are now committed to their curly hair. It is a hard sell to convince these girls that a little frizz is ok and your natural texture will always look better than that forced straight hair. Women have been told that straight hair is prettier. It has taken me many years showing some of my curly girls the benefits of the natural texture. Luckily, Los Angeles has great climate for natural curls. It’s much easier to let your natural curls air dry than sitting there with a hot blow dryer and frying your hair straight.
NC: What are the biggest mistakes you see with women (or men) and their curly hair?
SA: Curlies don’t trust their instincts. They tend to believe a story someone has sold to them that they must contain and tame their curly locks. They underestimate the value of the conditioner. Hydrating the curls is the key to healthy hair. People still think that they need volume so they use mousse, which is horrible for curls. It expands as it dries and it creates frizz. Curls need moisture and a holding product like a gel that seals the shine in the hair. We want to capture the look of the curls when they are wet and let them dry that way. After the curls are set and dried, we can fluff them and shake out any stiffness created by a holding gel.
NC: What are your go-to methods for treating damaged curly hair?
George Gonzalez, HARPO celebrity hairstylist and owner of George The Salon in downtown Chicago, opened his doors and heart to the On Your Feet Foundation (OYFF) by donating his salon services and space to raise money for this nonprofit organization. OYFF is dedicated to providing personal support to birthparents to help them get “back on their feet” after making an adoption plan for their child. This small not-for-profit foundation gained national recognition after one of their retreats, a weekend in Michigan City, Indiana, run by birthmothers for birthmothers, was featured on the MTV TV series “Teen Mom.”
Attendees enjoyed haircuts, color and styling sessions with George The Salon’s top stylists with a $100 donation for each service provided. $5,700 was raised during this 3-hour charity fundraiser, an accomplishment owner George Gonzalez is honored to contribute to.
“Having a business gives me a platform to do what I feel is necessary in order to give back to my community. George The Salon’s main focus is on helping victims of domestic violence regain self-esteem,” explains Gonzalez.
“I know firsthand what domestic violence does to a woman’s sense of self. As a child, I witnessed my mother abused by my former step-father and I watched her struggle with her own sense of worth. Whether a woman’s self esteem is damaged due to another person or a difficult situation, I find it is important to support organizations that can provide the resources they need to improve their lives. When I heard of what OYFF did for birthmothers—women who for a number of reasons place their children with adoptive families—I wanted to help. I have been blessed with the talent of making women feel beautiful and I want to share my gift with as many woman as I can.”
Famed celebrity hairstylist James Corbett sat down with Paltalk’s own Diana Falzone to discuss what the “gotta have it” spring 2011 hairstyles are while answering user questions and tips about best products, style tips, celebrity icons and even a little Real Housewives gossip.
Highlights of the interview included:
Advice: “Look at the trends as a source of inspiration but not necessarily actualization”
Theme for spring 2011 hair: Be adventurous this season with the new “pixie cut”
Celebrity style inspiration: Halle Berry
Product tip: Pomade over mousse
Celeb throwback: It used to be “The Rachel” but now Jennifer Aniston’s “Reincarnated Bob” is the hot talk of the town
Color tip for 2011: “Going Blonde” got big again but it’s not right for everyone as Corbett points out for some of the “The Real Housewives of Orange County” cast members
Bridal tip: Paul Mitchell Soft Spray gets a shout out as one of the best products for the perfect balance between hold and flexibility on the big day
We meet companies on a regular basis, but not many compare to the folks at Schedulicity and their mission to build your business. We had the pleasure of sitting down with the folks at Schedulicity at ABS Chicago this year, and learned more about the online booking company.
Headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, Schedulicity has the promise of any small company with a big idea. With board members from Netflix and Google, they have knowledge and expertise to back up their ideas, and the statistics to help stylists use social media to their benefit.
Schedulicity lives on your Facebook page, and a widget on your salon’s website makes it ultra-convenient for new and existing clients to schedule their service when it’s most convenient for them. With more than 50% of most services being booked between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., you can benefit from Schedulicity doing the legwork for you and ensuring that appointments will be waiting for you in the morning. They also make it convenient for you to confirm appointments from your phone, iPad or computer.
With Groupon and Living Social (among many other daily discount sites) saturating the market, it’s harder for stylists and beauty professionals to keep lifetime clients. This is why it is so refreshing that Schedulicity’s main goal is to keep your clients happy without your having to discount your services. We can’t wait to watch this company grow as more stylists learn about the tools that are available to them!
America’s Beauty Show will play host to the NaturallyCurly, CurlStylist & Modern Salon Texture! panel for the second year in a row, which will showcase the most influential curl experts in the world. We won’t lie—we almost can’t contain ourselves.
The high-power panel will include brands such as Hair Rules, Ouidad, Deva, Mizani and GK Hair. This group of experts will also be hosting a demo where they style curls for you to see. American Crew will also join the demo, showing us all how to care for our curly male clients’ curls.
This panel is comprised of the hottest names in curls, who will be speaking about how to make your business profitable in the curly niche market, the evolution of keratin treatments and smoothing systems and the latest cutting and styling techniques—just to name a few. The panelists will also be available to answer any questions you may have about your own curly business.
Make sure to check out the Texture! panel at America’s Beauty Show in Chicago on Sunday, March 14, at 1:00 p.m.
We admit that here at CurlStylist.com, we get a little psyched when we hear about some of our favorite salon brands coming out with more diverse curl-specific lines. Needless to say, when we caught wind that American Crew has produced a curly man line, we went nuts. Maybe it has something to do with spring in the air around our offices, or the gorgeous curly guy on the cover of this season’s “Texture!”, but we are a little curly-boy-crazy these days.
American Crew has designed a 3-part line for their curly men including Boost Powder, Boosting Cream, and Curl Construct, specially designed to help our curly men celebrate their natural texture. We (much to our disappointment) don’t have any curly men working here, so we had to branch out to two of our favorite curl-loving male stylists. Who better to give us a little perspective on this new line, than the most important men in our lives: our stylists!M
We know that men gravitate towards any cheap gel that they can get their hands on, so we asked Ron Valdez, Redken educator and owner of Estilo Valdez in Austin why he would recommend these products to his clients. “The one thing I love about all three is that because they are all low to no shine, they will have a great appeal to men. Our male clients prefer that their hair not look ’styled’, as you know most styles for men, especially young men, look more relaxed.” We couldn’t agree more, with the Boosting Powder adding a little to damp hair brings out a full, loose appearance on curls.
Michael Victor, co-owner of Delineation Hair & Skin Essentials in Toronto, offered his own spin on the Boost Cream, “I know it says to use on wet or dry hair but for me I liked to apply it on damp hair. I found I was able to control the distribution of the product better. The curls formed well, and the second day it was also easy to re-work. I found it too strong when I applied it to dry hair, but it was good for spotting on the sides and front to create a different look. I would say use with care and not too much, as it goes a long way.”
Ron King of the new Ron King Salon in The Four Seasons Austin has also been experimenting with the three products, stating that the Curl Construct was his favorite for curly clients with finer hair who wanted more of a boost. He also cautioned us that a curly man who didn’t want too much volume should use the Boosting Powder with caution.
We’re so excited to find this line on our local professionals’ shelves, to share with the curly men in our lives!
Throughout the past year, we have all had mixed emotions about the various keratin treatments available to us. I, like any good researcher, went and had a keratin treatment last year. Like a lot of people, I was happy with the results, but the process left me with irritated eyes, and a lot of questions.
In response to concerns over the safety of traditional aldehyde-containing straightening treatments, CHI has introduced the revolutionary Enviro Smoothing Treatment that is completely formaldehyde-free and safe to your clients as well as yourself. The CHI Enviro American Smoothing Treatment (CurlStylist has dubbed it the CHI EAST) is composed of amino acids, pearl and silk. No harmful chemicals means you have a clear conscious when that client asks for the treatment.
I didn’t understand how the treatment could actually make the hair straighter and smoother without chemicals, but CHI Enviro’s protein and amino acid complex allows temporary change in the structure of hair fibers, leaving hair easier to comb and hair that is silkier, smoother and shinier, so its protein and amino acid complex is what allows the system to straighten the hair.
Megan after her CHI Enviro American Smoothing Treatment
I had the treatment done last weekend and I will have to say that the process is fairly similar to other treatments I’ve had; many steps of washing, drying, flat-ironing. A few things that were drastically different: no smell, well, actually, there was a smell, and it was vanilla, not the eye-watering chemicals of other systems. When Rafael (my own personal CHI Educator) was flat-ironing the treatment onto my hair, there was literally only steam coming off of it, and it didn’t make my eyes water, or make my throat close up. I actually didn’t notice until halfway through the process.
All in all, I was one happy camper. Many of us felt like we were lied to by various companies in the past, and we were more than skeptical with this new treatment. We can’t wait until this safe (physically and environmentally) treatment is offered in all of the salons instead of the harmful keratin processes. You’ve made believers in us, CHI.
Recently, NaturallyCurly.com launched its two-month long Salute To Stylists contest, asking for your vote for your favorite stylist. Here are your picks for winning stylists!
Congratulations to Grand Prize Winner Sandy Marino of Santo Salon & Spa in Pepper Pike, OH!
Regional Winners:
Region 1 (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY):
Tracy of 7 Salon, Bellevue, WA - 2 reviews
Region 2 (CA, NV, AZ, UT, CO):
Melanie Brown of Curls Gone Wild, Gilbert, AZ - 96 reviews
Region 3 (ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, KY, IN):
Natalie of Natalie Clark Studio, St. Louis, MO - 5 reviews
Region 4 (NM, TX, OK, AR, LA):
Anna Craig of Trashy Roots Salon & Spa, Round Rock, TX - 102 reviews
Region 5 (TN, MS, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC):
Stacy Hill of DyeVerCity Salon, Augusta, GA - 127 reviews
Region 6 (MI, OH, WV, VA, MD, DE, PA, NJ):
Sandy Marino of Santo Salon & Spa, Pepper Pike, OH - 155 reviews
Region 7 (NY, CT, RI, MD, ME, NH, VT):
Julie Washington of The Estuary Salon & Day Spa, South Portland, Maine - 25 reviews
Region 8 (Ontario, Canada):
Nadine Bastien of Aphrodite’s Sanctuary, Toronto, Ontario - 4 reviews
The number of reviews were calculated from 12/15/10 to 2/15/11
Business is booming for Vicki Vela-Cambruzzi at Curls On Top in Laguna Beach
If anybody had told veteran stylist Vickie Vela-Cambruzzi five years ago she would be opening a salon dedicated to curlies, she would have told them “Get out of town!”
That was before Vela-Cambruzzi, a curly herself, saw the light. Or in her case, experienced the magic of a Deva cut, a cut at the hands of “Curly Girl” author Lorraine Massey at a hair show. The cut was her best ever—changing her whole perception of her curls—and she saved her money to go to a DevaConcepts Curlaboration to learn the dry-cutting technique herself. Less than a year later, she opened Curls On Top Salon in Laguna Beach, a salon focused on the needs of curlies. Business is booming at the 1-year-old salon, where curlies travel from outside California to get a Deva cut. “It’s been incredible,” says Vela-Cambruzzi.
Many curlies grew up at a time when few stylists knew how to work with curls, and most now have numerous war stories to tell about the bad haircuts and the botched chemical services they received. When NaturallyCurly.com launched 13 years ago, a handful of stylists and salons focused on the needs of women with wavy, curly and kinky hair. Most stylists once viewed curls as something to “fix” by straightening it or shearing it short.
Vela-Cambruzzi is part of the growing legion of stylists who have made curls their focus to help girls—and guys—with curls love their natural texture. This trend has been fueled by rising demand from women who want to work with their natural texture as well as the increased availability of curl training, thanks to curl specialists like DevaConcepts and Ouidad.
During the two-month Salute to the Stylists contest, which wrapped up yesterday, more than 315 new salons were added, promoting the skills of stylists around the United States and Canada.
Salon owner and cutting expert Anna Craig offers tips on running your business.
Ron King, L'Oreal educator, writes about his "easy-wear" philosophy.
Globetrotter Antonio Gonzales got his start doing his sisters' hair in Trinidad.
Ivan Zoot addresses haircutting.
