HairBoutique Blog

Since I promised myself I would get with the blogging program, like everything else I do, I threw myself into it 1000% percent.  Since the time I started working hard on my own blogging, I’ve been finding all sorts of great new blogs that are expanding my horizons.  I’ve been finding great blog treasures in a lot of different subject areas other than hair, beauty and fashion.  Which is a very good thing since I tend to be myopic about those topics.

Blogging has become yet another form of a scotoma for me.  I never really saw all the fabulous blogs (in my defense I do work lots of hours) on the Web until I started creating my own blog.

Recently I happened upon a very cool blog that celebrates Girlfriends.  The blog is charming, inspirational and  really got me thinking in all new directions.  The fabulous blog is called Girlfriend Celebrations.  The blog is cheerful, fun and very inspirational.

The blog is written by Dawn Williams Bertuca who is a professional writer, editor and a mother of two and Tina VanZant Bishop is a Registered Nurse, photographer, and mother of two.

These two fab girlfriends brainstorm girlfriend party ideas and spend precious “girl time†drinking coffee, dreaming, trading CDs, feng shui-ing, and thinking of all the fabulous places they will go when they get a spare moment.

Dawn and Tina honor and celebrate female friendships.   As these two women suggest “not enough women make “girlfriend” relationships a priority”.   I completely agree.  (more…)

I was always one of those Type A kids that always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up although it didn’t agree with the vision of my parents.

From the time I was in the 2nd grade I wanted to be a writer. I loved to write little plays that the neighborhood kids would put on. We would assemble a series of milk cartons covered by a large piece of cardboard and the requisite sheet. We also would bug the different parents to string clotheslines so we had a curtain to open and close for each act.

I remember the first play I wrote. It was about the poor little country girl who travels to the city and one day becomes a huge success and marries the man of her dreams. Yeah, lame but what would you expect from a 2nd grade kid?

Around that time my dad decided I should grow up and be a professional musician. Which meant lots of piano, clairnet, guitar and organ lessons with tons of practice, practice, practice. I didn’t particularly share his vision so I was not all that keen about the music part of my life but somehow I managed to thrive and figured all that keyboard work would help my typing.

Actually it did. By the time I got to high school and took keyboarding I was the fastest in my class. At least be chained to the piano helped me in school.

By the time I was in my senior year of high school I had decided the road to being a professional musician was not for me and business seemed a possibility although a little risky. I also decided being a full time writer was folly. I opted for a more practical path and decided to be a sociologist or psychologist. After all, I loved reading true crime books and studying people. (more…)

When I was younger I loved to travel.  That was then, before 911, airport security checkpoints, sky high gas fuel and extremely overcrowded airlines.

In my 20s I worked for one of the top software companies in the world and spent most Mondays and Fridays at airports around the US.  I racked up lots of frequent flier miles which I used for even more travel for vacation.  I become a whiz at learning all the ins and outs of the major airports and having fun doing it.

As CEO of HairBoutique.com it’s a requirement for me to travel from time to time.  I have become proficient at delegating trips to other HB team members whenever possible, or doing business via conference calls, net meetings or email.  Sometimes you just have to get on a plane and go do face time.  There’s no other way.

When I do have to travel, I employ every trick in the book to make it as painless as possible.  For trips requiring multiple changes of clothing I have learned to ship my clothes in advance and pack suits that are interchangeable.  I also prefer to stay in hotels with comfy beds to minimize jet lag and guarantee a good night’s rest. (more…)

I started studying traditional Feng Shui - the kind the Chinese study in college - back in 2000 when I realized there was something amiss in the HairBoutique.com warehouse. No, it wasn’t haunted but pesky things started happening. A friend of a friend - you know how that can go - urged me to try having the building “feng shuied”. OK, whatever.

The Feng Shui “expert” who told me she was practicing Black Hat Feng Shui did a complete study of the building and deemed that certain doors be painted red and mirrors installed. After following all the advice, absolutely nothing happened. The clouds didn’t open up and rain masses of customers with unlimited black American Express cards. The energy stayed the same and the odd things kept happening in the warehouse.

(more…)