Featured Corner #3

There is nothing like being in the presences of passionate people that truly love what they do each and every day! And when you come across a family owned and operated salon that invites you in with huge hearts making you feel at home is one of those many things I am grateful for and say I Love my job! I recently had the pleasure to teach in Chicago and one of my visits was the Taylor Stevens Salon-Spa. Andrea Swanson who opened her salon in 2000 and has become a part of Aveda’s Prestige’s purfessional (educational) hair color team in 2008 invited me back to inspire her team. I first met Andrea in 2005 when I got a request to come to her salon and teach her staff Aveda hair color we instantly connected and I fell in love with her and the staff, Steve her husband and partner in crime and a beautiful little girl who gave me a hand massage at age nine Taylor. Seven years later that beautiful little girl has become a stunning, intelligent sixteen year old beauty who is the next generation in the family business, she already knows what customer service is all about and working part time in the salon as an assistant, shampooing and doing makeup finishes for their clients and doing it full-hearted with a smile I was impressed.

Andrea and Steve's passion is to teach and help salon owners with their business focusing on hair color as well as colorists to be successful for the long term but above all to ensure in their daughter Taylor that hard work, core values and a giving heart is success and together they can create a legacy of making a difference each and every day. The Taylor Stevens Salon-Spa group are not only doing it right behind their chairs they also give back to their community with several fundraising causes. Hats off to both Andrea and Steve for inspiring and teaching the next generation of a home grown Star.

 

2005

Salon: Taylor Stevens Salon-Spa Algonquin Illinois

The Pink Hair Color Wave

Pink hair color is oh so here! With an increase in popularity we haven’t seen since 2000 when we first saw Pink sing. And whether someone is 10yrs or 60 everyone seems to be asking for some form of Pink hair color, how cool is this? In fact if I think of soft pastels first color that pops into my head is cloud-pink.
One of the exciting approaches for this spring I am encouraging some of my blonde clients to do is to add a little blush of soft pink even if it is on a small strand of hair hiding underneath. There are many variations of pinks to choose from now with Aveda's thrilling new  Pure Pigments the costomization is endless. Something I like to do is to pair pink up with  a hint of  soft violet, these two tones on blonde hair looks stunning and gets better as they fade.
I feel that there is a place today in our markets to do exciting and sometimes eye-popping hair colors and what I am hearing and seeing are the requests are coming in from all sorts of backgrounds, everyday people like business women, mothers, students etc. I so often hear from hairdressers that they are bored of doing highlights after highlights or tints and I always say "plant that seed of change" not only for your clients but for you as well, you would be surprised how many of your own clients would love a burst of change here is an opportunity.