Did you want to see my new salon?

I shared all about the move here. And now that I am there and feeling the good vibes, I wanted to share pictures with you. Here you go:

My Saturday home. This is a great space with good lighting.

The place I make my magic happen.

And Ta Da, not only do they have a front desk, but they do also have a receptionist.

If you were with me at the last salon, you know this was not what we had. Even through I book my own appointments it is nice to have to stop and answer the phone, and I love when my clients walk in they are greeted by someone and not chaos.

A look into the place. This salon has 14 chairs, but they are spread out so you wouldn't know it, unless you were looking. Also for my good and faithful clients, notice the floor is NOT painted cement. Yay!

This place is really a full service salon, and is bigger than it looks from the outside.

Here are a list of the services available for my clients.

Haircuts & Styles

Colors

Perms

Hair Extensions

Spray on Tan

Waxing

Eyebrow/Eyelash Tints

Eyelash Perming

Eyelash Extensions

Facials

Dermabrasion

Chemical Peels

Nails

Massage

Permanent Make-Up

Make-Up Application

Here is one of the Facial rooms.

Pedicure Chairs, doens't it just make your toes tingle. One thing I love about this place is the nails are on the other side, and in their own room, so you don't smell the acrylic when you are getting your hair done.

Here it is, my little chair I pay to rent 2 times a week.

Okay, so now that you have seen the pictures, come and see it for yourself. I plan on being here for a long time. The people have been so great and welcoming to me. I am really loving doing hair again.

Also, I probably won't talk hair much more on this blog, because really it can all get a little too confusing for my little brain. I created a Page on Facebook, called "Kim Does Hair". There is a link on the sidebar, become a fan, and there you will see pictures and discussions, with different ideas and all hair things.

My Change

I have found myself in a hair funk the last year.

I knew this and thought about changing my hair, but didn’t really know what to do. Long story short I had to find someone new to do my hair, now that was not as easy as it sounds. Anyway, I had my appointment booked, it was going to be for the trim and the retouch of the hair color nothing new.

Then I walked into the salon, I was ready for a change and ta-da. Here it is.

The pictures are bad, I am sorry. There was 10 inches cut off the back! It is a mid-length ace metrical haircut, with the right about 2 inches shorter than the back. It felt so good. It is short enough that she had to cut my neckline. It was what I needed. I have to say it isn’t as short as I wanted, and we will get that and some layering issues resolved with my next hair cut.

I had to make sure I liked it before I told you about it, and infact I love it. I had grown my hair out a couple of years ago and it was about down to the middle of my back, but you would never know, because I always had it pulled up. It is so nice to feel like I have a definite style,

Changing salons has really pushed me out of my comfort zone, not only professionally but personally also.

Salon Prices

Kimberly’s Prices

Hair Designer/Color Specialist

Women’s Haircuts $25

Men’s Haircuts $25

Quick Fix Cut & Color $45

All Over Color $25

Full Color Weave $70

Partial Color Weave $55

Perms $30

Special Style $45

The Quick Fix is for when you are tight on time and money. It’s a haircut, plus 10 color foils weaved on top to help blend re-growth until your next appointment, and it will only talk 90 minutes.

Other Ways to Save:

Y Schedule 6 Weeks in advance and get $15 off (excludes Quick Fix)

Y Refer a friend and save $15

Salon move complete

I have had my cosmetology license for over 10 years now, (where has the time gone)? This is something I always did part time, while I worked at other places full time. But being a stylist is what I love to do.

It is so much fun to help people feel better about themselves. To teach them different techniques about styling their hair and helping them make a change is very powerful. It is a part of me; it is a lot of who I am. Wherever I am, I am always looking for new styles new looks, in magazines, on t.v. , movies, for me it is about the hair first. Then when I go places, I am looking at everyone’s hair for what does work, and what doesn’t and I will admit I do pick out the home haircuts, and giggle. I know you think no one can notice, but really they can. I will remember someone’s hair more than the clothes they are wearing. I know I am not the only one who does this.

So a few months ago I mentioned here that I was moving salons, well the move did not go as smooth as I had hoped, but in the end it worked out better then I could have hopped. I am working at a salon in Ft. Union. I would love to tell you the name, but for safe reasons we'll call it Ft. Union Salon here, I plan on being there for many years to come. Anyway, now that I am settled and I know this is the place for me, I am ready to tell you about it.

Ft. Union Slon is a full service salon; they offer every service you could think of. Waxing, massage, spray tan, pedicures etc. I needed this for my clients. It is clean, it is fully staffed, it is bigger. Oh, I just love it.

Plus I have been doing more training on color, color techniques, and styling. So I can teach my clients how to better style their hair. I feel so energized and excited about my work now. Education is empowering!

I want to share what I have learned with you. You know how I like to talk too much, so here is another element/subject I am adding to this blog, I will call it “Hair Talk”.

Someday I will have some pictures of the place and show you what I am talking about.

Moving Day

After a bad experience in my first booth rent salon, I went searching for another place to start over, there was a lot of options, but nothing that seemed to fit. I walked into Salon By Design in Murray and they were so friendly, busy and I loved the way the place was decorated. The owner Pat showed me around the salon, in her jean capri pants and flip flops, she was nice but very matter of fact. This was her new business and she was taking care of everything. It was a good fit, I had a good feeling about it, so I moved in my stuff and started working.

My first day working there, I got a ticket on the way to work, and it was only 5 minutes from my house. Hair Stylists are flaky, so there was a lot of different people who came and went, the last 10 years, oh, the stories I could tell you. The ego's, talking about personal things, borrowers, the crazies, thankfully there was always a few nice, stylists that evened it out. I don't know if I could even stop and count all those people who came and went. To say the least it was always entertaining there.

We have had lots of fun, with the Christmas parties, summer parties, showers, birthday's and just talking and laughing. You can learn anything about everything in a salon. Oh, all those conversations.

But over the last couple of years, things have changed, the decorations changed, the colors changed, even the floor changed and it just didn't feel as good anymore. This is how it looks now.

I am awake thinking about all of this, all the things I have learned there over the years, all the hours I have spent there, and all the people who have touched my life when they walked through the door.

In a couple of hours, I am heading out the door with boxes, picking up my stuff. My last haircut in that chair is finished, no more using the shampoo bowels, no more mixing my colors over the washer. The time has come to move on.

The updated decor, has faded, the businesses around us are gone, it is not a place where my business can grow, so I need to move on, I have to move on, there is nothing more I can do there. I need my business to grow, I need to move on.

My heart is breaking, I have been in tears all week, I grew up there, I lived my twenties with that salon in my life. I am going to miss seeing my friends every week. It just isn't easy, but I know we all experience this at different times through our lives.

I am excited for the new things happening, I can't wait to share them with you, but right now, today, I am letting the old things go. Change - what a word!!

Changes

This is Cindy and I, we have worked at the same salon for 8 years,

do I go with her or start all over somewhere else?

I woke up at 4:30 this morning with a decision on my mind.

Where am I going to be doing hair after October 1st?

I have been at a salon in Murray for the last 8 years, when I started it was newly remodeled, had fun new stylists in there.

However, over the last 5 years the owners have not updated it, and it has slowly gone down hill, as all of my clients could tell you.

I really should have made this move years ago, but I was comfortable and staying was easy, plus it was something I did on the side just a couple of days a week so I put up with it.

Nothing with the ownership has changed or with the salon, I have just hit my breaking point where I am done with it, and I gave myself the date of October 1st to be in a new location.

The problem? Finding the right location. This is the needs I have for the next salon I will work at:

Clean

Modern/Trendy

Convenient location off a freeway

Only need 2 days a week

Good. professional stylists to work around

Right now I have two options, and I can't figure this out.

Option A:

3 girls from my current salon are opening a studio salon

The Pros: I know them, flexible with the days I work, reasonable booth rent rate

The Cons: Location not ideal, don't love the space, its new for all of them so lots of unknowns.

Option B:

An established salon that has been there for 9 years

The Pros: BEAUTIFUL space, modern, updated, trendy, full service salon that my clients can use, meet experienced stylists that I can learn from, great location

The Cons: Not flexible with days, 2x as much booth rent as I am paying now

I am thinking I should do option A for 6 months to a year, build more clientele, do more education and help the other girls get started and then go to Option B, next fall. Or I just keep searching for a better option??? I hate these types of decisons.

What's your thoughts?