"What Is a Hairdresser?"

I wrote this post a few months back about being a hairstylist and why I love what I do and I figured it would go along great with the Bargain Blonde's link-up "How I make that money honey." So here it is again.

 I once received an awesome gift from my boyfriend, Aaron for Valentine's Day. It is one of my favorite gifts I've ever received. It was a bag full of old hair styling books, magazines, and a plaque that looked like this:This is what the plaque read:

"What Is a Hairdresser?"

A Hairdresser is a complexity dedicated to beautifying hair; she bends it, bleaches it, tints it, tones it, washes it, waves it, teases it, combs it, She cuts it, conditions it, curls it, rinses it, shapes it, straightens it, pins it, and sprays it...which naturally makes a woman beautiful. She is a pixie- Joan of Arc with sore feet- Florence Nightingale in a white uniform and brown fingernails. She is a businesswoman, a professional, a mother and a wife.

At one time or another her hair has been red, brown, black or blonde... and maybe all these colors at once. She can always "Squeeze in" just one more customer, but is constantly on-half hour behind her booking schedule. Her lunch "Hour" is about 8 minutes, usually spent discussing new products with her salesman. For lunch she generally has coffee, a cigarette, and occasionally a doughnut. She works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and attends Beauty Shows on Sunday.

To her customers she is a Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Psychoanalyst, Advice to the lovelorn, Tax Consultant, Marriage Counselor, Fashion Coordinator and just plain friend.

In her salon she is stylist, financial wizard, cleaning woman, stock clerk, receptionist, purchasing agent, and very, very tired.

Sometimes marriage and a family take her away from her profession but just wait 'til those children grow up a little and she is back in the salon behind her styling chair doing the things she loves best. To her, hair dressing is not just a job, it is an emotion. Although she is paid for her services, her greatest reward comes when her customer turns in her styling chair, caresses her new hair style, and says...."I love it."

ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT....couldn't have put it any better myself. Every time I read it, it makes me smile. Aaron found these items in the attic at his mom's office. I guess the lady who lived there previously was a hair stylist and had left these items in her attic. Aaron thought I would enjoy them so he passed them along to me. Here are a few pics of the books/magazines:

Barber's Journal magazine: 1936

Flair Magazine: 1950

Hair style book....how cool are those styles?

The inside pages of the book tell you how to do it.


Ever since I could walk and talk, I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be a hair stylist. It has always been my dream. Just ask my aunts and they will tell you that's all I wanted to do. Here are a few pics to prove it:

Playing with my cousin, Miako's hair

As you can see from the above and below pics, my Aunt, Terri was always my best client. She was always willing to let me play with her hair for hours. I love that she lives in Austin and every time she comes into town she comes to see me at the salon so I can do her hair :)
Her are two more of my sweet aunts and my cousin, Blondell participating in a hair train.
My brother was also a trooper and played along
Most of the time for Christmas I asked for something that had to do with hair. One year I asked for a mannequin head, portable hood dryer, and a ponytail wiglet. Here I am with the hood dryer and ponytail clip in, haha.
This picture might come off as a little bit creepy. I had a friend make me a mannequin head stand and I spent numerous hours doing this for fun.

I LOVE my job. I don't think I will ever get tired of doing hair. There is rarely a day that I go into work in a bad mood. Most days, I don't even feel like I'm going to work. That's what I love most about what I do......that and making people feel good about themselves. It will never get old. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend beauty school in high school at almost no cost. I'm thankful for my job, my wonderful co-workers,  and my boss. It's amazing how well we get along for having only 9 stations and almost 20 stylists. We are like one big family....however, there are days we fight like one big family too! I love all my clients...I look forward to catching up with them every time they come in. It's amazing to me how much you can learn about someone in the short time they sit in your chair. Eventually, my goal is to own a salon or to work my way up in the salon industry, whether it be management, sales, teaching, etc. When I was younger, I used to sit around and brain storm names for my salon. I came up with a bunch of different weird, crazy names. At one point I didn't want it to just say salon on the front sign so I thought of beauty parlor, house of beauty, friseur shop (I looked up beauty or salon in the thesaurus and friseur was one of them)....what a strange child. I also came up with the name, "Curly Q's Beauty Parlor." Oh my, how that makes me laugh now!