10/24/2010
Never Stop Learning
I am here in Toronto attending the second in a seres of seminars on managing your salon. It can be challenging when you have only had to deal with yourself all your career and now suddenly you are responsible for others in a way that your not used to. I take my role as salon owner very seriously and wish much success for my salon but also for my employees.
My focus is to my staff and making their working invironment pleasant and giving them the tools they need to feed their creativity. When it is needed I will help my staff where ever I can.
Now tomorrow is the first day of the managment seminar and I will see if my methods are on track or whether I need tweeking. It can be humbling to see that there is much to learn but it can be, and also should be very exilerating to have alot to learn, and I vow to never stop learning.
To be continued...
My focus is to my staff and making their working invironment pleasant and giving them the tools they need to feed their creativity. When it is needed I will help my staff where ever I can.
Now tomorrow is the first day of the managment seminar and I will see if my methods are on track or whether I need tweeking. It can be humbling to see that there is much to learn but it can be, and also should be very exilerating to have alot to learn, and I vow to never stop learning.
To be continued...
10/11/2010
Thanksgiving
I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for our salon, Mix Salon and Spa. We are now 13 months old and growing every day in so many ways like new clients and repeat clients which shows me how hard my staff is working to build not only my buisness but their own and that makes me very proud (and yes very thankful.)
Thankful is also how I would describe how I feel about my profession and grateful that I get payed for doing something that I love so much. My niece is now in beauty school and I am so excited for how much joy she will feel not just learning everything she will be taught but actually practicing what she has learned.
One of my buisness partners, Bruno, just got back from a cruise in Greece put on by our colour company Schwarzkopf (the first picture is of their academy in Athens at the Grand Opening!) now WOW that's learning. In this buisness things are always changing and it is always great to see someone who still enjoys learning. Hope you enjoy some of his pictures. I know I did.
9/19/2010
My time at TIFF 2010
Well it's the end of another film festival and although I didn't work as I usually do with Chanel I still had a great time. There were alot of stars walking around on the streets of Toronto and some I took pictures of as if I was one of the paparazzi ( I did feel bad about it, I would have prefered to have asked permission) non the less I was glad to have documentation that I was really in presence of some of my favorite actors and celebrities. Some who were running from crazy fans, right to me by the way. I hope you like some of my pictures. I was surprised to see Minny Driver, I don't think she noticed me. One if my favorite directors Ivan Reitman; best known for Ghost Busters. And of course Twilight's Jackson Rathbone (Jasper). There were even celebs whose back I took ( I know crazy right). I know the first picture is hard to see but it's Martin Sheen. I was only a few feet away and I was so nervous taking his picture. I don't think he minded. He was one of the few celebs that stopped to talk to fans sign autographs and pose for pictures. All in all it was a great festival. I can't wait for next year.
9/09/2010
Toronto film festival
Well I am here in Toronto and loving it. The city is electric with antisipation of star sitings and buzz about the Gala taking place tonight, the movie that will be screened is "Score" a hockey musical with an all Canadian cast except for one actor; Olivia Newton John and that is a great exception that we are honoured to have. For the gala tonight some of the talent will be wearing Birks jewlery and Damiani. I was at the Birks Stylist lounge today meeting with the director of public relations talking about futur plans of working together. The meeting went well and I am looking forward to our futur collaborations. I have so much to be thankful for. Meeting with my colleuges from Chanel, it's great to have co-workers that I consider friends. The festival is like our yearly reuniion to catch up on all that transpired since the last festival. Well I will be blogging from Toronto as things happen. Hopefully there will be lots to blog about.
8/22/2010
TIFF
It's that time of year again. The Toronto film festival.It's like getting those back to school butterflies in my stomach. Once the nights get a little cooler that means fall is near and the Stars are nearer. Who will I meet this year? Will there be any diva's, I haven't come across any (negative) divas but I would be lying if I said there were none. But my lips are sealed. The dates this year are September 9th to the 19th. Anyone that has not been to the festival should give it a try. The city of Toronto is electric with celebrity sitings and huge cast parties. But you have to keep your eyes peeled because the stars walk among us; you could be crossing Avenue street and the man having a conversation with his friend right beside you could be Anthony Hopkins. It happened to me. You just never know. There seems to be alot of celebrities attending this years festivities. With all the interest in the pictures I come back home with I have decided to create a new blog that is just dedicated to my pictures with the celebs. I hope you take a look. The address is celebstylesbythesuze.
8/08/2010
Going to the Circus
I love a good staff outing and what better place for a hair salon outing than the circus. We felt very at home. We are all very individual. I wonder which character I most resembled? The ring leader, the dog trainer or the crazy acrobat who walked blindfolded on the outside of the rotating wheel. I think I feel a bit like all rolled into one. My staff all enjoyed the show. Some parts were a little cheesy but we left all our judgments at the door and just watched with the eyes of children and with that attitude we were WOWED at some of the acts. We laughed, we stared opened mouthed, and we screamed in terror at the acrobats deathdifying feats; just what a circus should do. I hope they all had as good a time as I did.
Until the next time we have an outing lets not wait for permission to channel the child in ourselves. We should sit wide eyed at the wonders of the world even in our everyday lives.
7/25/2010
Deals coming your way
Well we are coming up to our first year anniversary and I am feeling pretty proud of what we have accomplished. We have a wonderful team of experienced hairstylists, Rosetta, David, and Maria, and myself Susan, our friendly and licenced esthetician Natalie. Assistants Angela, Gentiana and Franceska some of which are not in the picture and Victoria our full time receptionist who greets the clients and keeps us all on track and of course Lucy our part-time receptionist who will be leaving us at the end of this month to pursue a career as a teacher in the U.K. we will miss her terribly.
We are on the verge of many promotional deals that I am very excited about. One of which is ottawasavers.com, this web site will be launching mid August. Keep checking to see the awesome deals that are offered there. We of course are very much involved and am ready to offer some spectacular deals that will blow you away. Please check it out.
7/16/2010
7/10/2010
Canada Day In The Capital
O.K. this is now the third time I am writing this blog and I hope it works.
This is the seventh year that I am doing hair for the Canada Day shows on the Parliament hill, and I am as excited this year as the first year. We are all the same team with the exception of three newbies. We all geled (excuse the expression)as if we have been working together since that first time. And in all those years this is the first picture of all of us we have ever taken together. Starting from the left we have Sharon our wardrobe magician, Cathy our newbie make-up artist, me the shortest and the only one wearing white; Tina the head of the team of hair and make-up, and Pina; make-up artist extroardinaire.
Our day started very early this year 8 a.m. to be exact, though it never seems too early on this special day. We all have our schedules of who's hair we will be doing but things can change in an instant. One of my clients was the co-host of the noon time show Mr. Ron Mclean and what a nice guy. As is evedence of the picture we took together (his idea really). In the afternoon I did Rebecca Makonnen. This was her second year as host of the evening show. She remembered me from last year. It always makes you feel good to be remembered.
Now not so say that all of the acts we took care of were not fabulous because they were but the piece de resistance was Christopher Plummer. He is an icon from stage and screen. He is debonnaire and dare I say handsome and a gentleman. And he was gracious enough to have his picture taken with me. That did it for me. The day was exilerating humbling and exhausting and I can't wait for next year.
7/08/2010
6/27/2010
Cherish the ones you love
Well it's been two weeks since my last post. Things have been very busy at the shop. My part-time 
receptionist Lucy will be leaving us to go back to the U.K. we will miss her terribly. But we still have a month before she leaves. Its funny how you change when you know someone will be leaving and will not be around anymore. If we could live our lives like that we would be living at our peek all the time. Think about it, now that we know she's leaving we cherish all our moments together where as the day before she gave her notice we loved her just the same but I don't think we "cherished" her.
receptionist Lucy will be leaving us to go back to the U.K. we will miss her terribly. But we still have a month before she leaves. Its funny how you change when you know someone will be leaving and will not be around anymore. If we could live our lives like that we would be living at our peek all the time. Think about it, now that we know she's leaving we cherish all our moments together where as the day before she gave her notice we loved her just the same but I don't think we "cherished" her. Which brings me to my thoughts this week; cherishing our clients. At Mix we want our clients to feel special, so when we can make an extra effort we will. Our assistants love making a beverage for our waiting client. I have included a few pictures of our satisfied clients drinking cappuccinos. Chris was waiting for his shampoo and wanted you all to know that this picture was taken before his haircut although I think he looks pretty darn good. Now Susan was a real sport. I think you can tell what service she was having done. But she wanted to be included in the photos for the blog because she felt cherished. I love all our clients. And if you are one of our clients or would like to be one I want you to know that you will be cherished as all of our regulars are.
6/26/2010
6/15/2010
Happiness is yours for the taking
Happiness is right under your nose. We try so hard to find happiness. We buy the self help books. We watch Oprah. We ask our friends what makes them happy. We even meditate over it. Now I am not saying that any of those approaches are bad its just that we have happiness all around us we are just too busy looking for it to see it. All we have to do is to be still for a moment and take in our surroundings. Look at our family, even the annoying members and appreciate them for who they are. Who knows maybe we are the annoying ones. We should look at the bright side of life even in its darkest moments. Each event good or bad gives us an opportunity to choose which path we take. Sometimes it is easy to choose and sometimes it is not, whatever the case we should pause before choosing because that choice then leads to other choices that might not be so easy. Choose to be happy. It sounds juvenile but it really can be that easy. Try it, see what happens.
6/06/2010
Helping the world one cut at a time
We are registered with "A Matter of Trust" to donate all our hair clippings to make hair booms . The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the number one topic of conversation at the shop. We are all devastated by this disaster but we are not helpless, the more hair we cut the more hair we can donate. So please tell your friends and family to come and get a great haircut and make a difference in the world.
Matter of Trust is also asking for donations of nylons as well as other things, if you go to our web site we have a link to their site. Check out the utube video on our blog showing the effects of the hair booms vs conventional booms its amazing. We sent our first box of hair to Alabama, one of the volunteer warehouses. We hope to send as many boxes as are needed. We also wish there wasn't a need. The way they use the hair is to stuff the nylons with it which then becomes a boom , then put these booms into the oil filled water and the hair attracts the oil therefore creating clean water. I know I am simplilfying but thats the jist of it.
I don't think I have ever seen my assistants as well as the stylists and receptionists sweep up the hair clippings with so much care. Every strand is like gold.
Matter of Trust is also asking for donations of nylons as well as other things, if you go to our web site we have a link to their site. Check out the utube video on our blog showing the effects of the hair booms vs conventional booms its amazing. We sent our first box of hair to Alabama, one of the volunteer warehouses. We hope to send as many boxes as are needed. We also wish there wasn't a need. The way they use the hair is to stuff the nylons with it which then becomes a boom , then put these booms into the oil filled water and the hair attracts the oil therefore creating clean water. I know I am simplilfying but thats the jist of it.
I don't think I have ever seen my assistants as well as the stylists and receptionists sweep up the hair clippings with so much care. Every strand is like gold.
6/04/2010
5/23/2010
Well I am here in Toronto. I arrived late last night after a relaxing trip on the train. I was by myself for five hours. Thats alot of time to think. I thought about what my client Lucie had said to me just a few hours before that we must live in the present. I agree with her whole heartedly but it is not always easy. I am who I am because of what was before and I am doing what I am doing to get what I am working for. But to live in the now really NOW. I am happy to say that I do it every day. Yes with my chosen career I have no choice. I am a hairstylist. When I am consulting with my clients, looking them in the eye and finding out there likes, dislikes and sharing with them what I recommend, I am very much in the now and it is a very exilerating place to be. As I cut their hair I am 100% present all the minusia of the day at that moment is gone. Once the cut or style is done I get an immediate response. When I see the shine in their eyes that I HEARD them and created the image that they desired I can't tell you how that makes me feel. Well I can try, I would say it is Bliss in the most spiritual sense. There is a connection that is so basic that in its essence is TRUTH. I hope that all hairstylist take advantage of this wonderful career that can only be done in the NOW. Don't be afraid of it embrace it.
5/21/2010
One Fine Day
Yesterday, my boss tells me "we're starting a blog."
She gets the craziest ideas sometimes: She's created hairlaces (headbands made from shoelaces that don't pinch or slide), children's storybooks, some kind of special hair elastics... i forget.
She's got enough on her plate as is: She's owner and stylist at her hair salon and spa, a contracted stylist for Chanel at special events like the Toronto Film Festival, professional entrepreneur and inventor of accessories and literature, and etc. as thoughts come...
And now, this blog.
i hope you like it.
love, vic.
She gets the craziest ideas sometimes: She's created hairlaces (headbands made from shoelaces that don't pinch or slide), children's storybooks, some kind of special hair elastics... i forget.
She's got enough on her plate as is: She's owner and stylist at her hair salon and spa, a contracted stylist for Chanel at special events like the Toronto Film Festival, professional entrepreneur and inventor of accessories and literature, and etc. as thoughts come...
And now, this blog.
i hope you like it.
love, vic.
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