HairBoutique Blog

Throughout my lifetime I had made and sadly lost many friends.

I have also met people who I believed would be my trusted friends for life only to experience some sort of heart breaking betrayal over their actions. You know the drill, your best friend tries to sleep with your guy or steals your credit card. I’ve been there, done that.

I was very naive about friendship until I hit my 30s and realized that like everything else in life it requires ongoing commitment, caring and communication. When those ingredients are missing…well the friendship doesn’t usually endure.

At this point in my life I have several “dear friends” who have been in my life for many many years. I am very grateful for that blessing.

Which brings me to Ken Paves who is world famous as a celebrity hairdresser. As the story goes I met Ken Paves at a Dallas shoot for Seventeen Magazine with Jessica Simpson in 2002. It was love at first sight for me. I was mesmerized by his amazing hairstyling talent and his undying devotion to Jessica. I admired his loyalty to the beautiful star and her entire family. I had no doubt that he would move heaven and earth to be there for her or for any of her loved ones. (more…)

Besides the hundreds of emails I receive every day from a myriad of sources ranging from PR announcements to companies offering us new lines, I receive all sorts of random hair tips and snippets.

Most of the time I read them with interest and if they’re good, file them away for future reference.  Other times I read a tip and want to bang my head against the nearest wall because I’m so frustrated.

Nothing drives me crazier than misinformation.  I see it all the time all over the Web and even in well-known magazines.  Most of the time I try to ignore it but sometimes it really bothers me because I know hair consumers will believe the info and act on it.

I know I’m not always 100% perfect with the info I provide, but I try my very best to completely research everything I write about.  If I’m unsure, I just don’t include the info or I’ll consult with one of the HairBoutique.com hair and beauty experts who verify the hard core facts.

No, not everyone agrees with everyone.  Two experts may agree on the same topic.  Therefore, the more input I get, the better.

Why I am ranting at this moment? (more…)

Yes I agree that to be successful in business you have to make a lot of difficult decisions on a daily, if not, hourly basis.

Those “hard decisions” include terminating the kid you really like who is bright and shows so much promise but can’t seem to ever get to work on time, puts baking cookies with his family at Christmas over coming to work for the Holiday sales crunch and finally pushes you to the brink by forging a doctor’s note so he can call in sick when he’s really not.

Another difficult decision involves trying to be polite to a prospective vendor who is selling the most horrible looking headbands in unbelievably unattractive colors. I never want to be intentionally rude, disrespectful or unkind, so I always decline the opportunity to tie up my limited funds in a probable slow mover by saying I don’t have the budget. Which I don’t - at least not for a guaranteed deadbeat product line.
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Little did I know that I was missing one of life’s simple little pleasures. No, not a fine wine or a rare cavier but the big gaudy plastic ring that comes perched on top of a vanilla cupcake with swirls of white icing and edible glitter.

How did I discover this great find? After an exhausting day at the big accessory show I arrived back at the office to find my Marketing Guru aka The White Streak, wandering the halls with gigantic DayGlo rings on both of her pinkies. Thinking she had discovered a hot new fashion look, I asked to see her rings.

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Besides being HairBoutique.com CEO, editor-in-chief and writer, one of my other hats is buyer.

Now that HairBoutique.com has over 15,000 SKUs (and growing constantly), I don’t buy for all the many different lines, but I do still buy all the hair accessory lines.

(Side & Top Cuff views from Gerard Yosca - Photo from HairBoutique.com Photo Library - all rights reserved - HairBoutique.com).

Maybe because I have my own designs - Karen Marie - or because I have been buying hair accessories since day one of our Marketplace…hair accessories are my “thing”.

Everyone at HairBoutique.com says I have “the eye” for buying great hair accessories. Or maybe they say that because they don’t want to be bothered and it is a good way to flatter me into volunteering to do the deed (which I actually love to do).

Allow me to spiral off into a few memories and I promise to explain the “tingles” which is part of this title.

When the Hairboutique.com Marketplace was first getting started we have a few “hand made” hair accessories from a long haired designer out West. The accessories were very simple in design and construction but all I could find at the time.

After all, I went from telecommunications systems engineer geekette (they actually called me dudette at my last telecom job) to buying all sorts of hair goods and accessories. I knew absolutely nothing about what I was doing. Seriously naive about sooooooooooooo many things it is actually scary that I managed not to screw up more than I did.

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