MAGAZINES have long been oracles of beauty advice for women. These days, beauty bloggers, celebrities and tweeting makeup artists also dole out tips and tout must-have products — that they may have received free. But Makeup Alley, a 12-year-old low-frills Web site that focuses on user-generated reviews, has quietly come to be the standard bearer for the unvarnished truth about beauty products online.

According to its New York-based founder, Hara Glick — who, unlike most beauty editors, is so low-profile that she didn’t even want to be photographed for this article — Makeup Alley now has 1.1 million members, which is roughly equivalent to the circulation of Allure. They hotly debate the finer points of Clarisonic skin-cleansing gadgets on the site’s message boards, which get 45,000 posts daily (the site had 2.1 million unique visitors in June), Ms. Glick said. They also swap their used blush, lipstick and other items, so no ill-suited purchase goes to waste and something “new” is always in the mail, even if funds are low and outsiders think it’s gross. Read More…

NEW YORK — Turning his head from side to side as he checks his reflection in the barbershop mirror, Terrell Mack seems pretty pleased with his haircut — a tight, neat crop — but he can’t get up from the chair just yet.

The hair-dusted cape is swept away with the usual toreador flourish.

Mack’s sleeve is pushed up and the cuff of an electronic blood pressure machine is tightened around his right arm. It rapidly inflates, as do the numbers on the machine’s digital read-out screen.

“One-twenty-six over 80,” Dennis Mitchell, Mack’s barber, announces, although his 19-year-old client is briefly uncertain what to make of the reading.

“That’s pretty good,” Mitchell explains. Smiles all around.

The news makes perfect sense to Mack: “I don’t really eat fast food,” he says, to Mitchell’s approval.

The machines arrived at the Denny Moe’s Superstar Barbershop in New York’s historic African-American neighborhood of Harlem in May, making it only one of the latest examples of barbers and beauty salons Read More…

Wedding hairstyle with curls

Flowing locks, elegantly framing the face, give the image of romance. This hairstyle fits any of the fair sex and harmonious look with almost any wedding dress. Locks can be decorated veil, Fresh flowers, tiara or a beautiful clasp. But wedding hairstyle with curls can only afford the bride long and medium length hair.

Bridal Hairstyles tips

Girls with heavy long hair wedding hairstyles for the rehearsal to discuss ways of fixing a barber, because locks are not reliable and can lose their shape due to the heat or humidity.

Idea! If you wear medium length hairYou can use the overhead locks for the wedding day. Read More…

Yesterday afternoon, Emma Watson joined the rest of the Harry Potter cast in London to promote Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II. Besides Rupert Grint (swoon), the first thing I noticed was Watson’s piece-y pixie—and the two sections of hair smoothed down strategically in front of her ears.

A perfectly manicured hand is one where the nails are strong and smooth, with no discoloration, jagged cuticles or other signs of abuse. So what about nails that are less than perfect? Since many health problems have an impact on the nails, it’s worth listening to what your hands have to say.

Next time you have a client sit down for a manicure, if you notice any of these signs you may want to point them out. According to Dr. Ariel Ostad, a Manhattan Board Certified Dermatologist, nails can say a lot about your client’s health. See what he says to watch out for:

Beware of Dangerous UVA Rays at the Nail Salon: Doctors raised the alarm after two women developed tumors on their hands from exposure to ultra-violet lamps used to fix artificial nails. The lamps can also be bought for home use. But experts now fear the high dose of UVA rays—the most dangerous form of ultra-violet light they produce could be damaging skin cells. “Regular users should have their hands and fingers inspected for signs of cancerous growths,” says Dr. Ostad. Because the matrix originates under the cuticle, getting a manicure can harm it if the equipment isn’t sterilized. And when a drill is inserted under the cuticle to smooth it, the matrix cells can be ground up so badly that they cannot regenerate. Nail sculpture chemicals can also drip down into the matrix, causing damage. “When the matrix cells are damaged, they may never grow properly again, and the nail will always be deformed,” says Dr. Ostad.

It’s the Pits. When the normally smooth surface of the fingernail has several small dents or pits in it, that can be a signal that something is going on beneath the nail. Most often, the cause of those dents is psoriasis  Read More…

By: Kerri Lee

We focus so much attention on keeping clients safe in the salon, but what about the salon employees? Injuries in the workplace are inevitable, but highly preventable with a little planning, communication and proper execution. Here are five ways to help eliminate and reduce workers’ comp injury claims in the salon:

1. A Healthy, Stable Environment – The best way to eliminate or reduce injury claims is to create the safest work environment humanly possible. Take a step back and look around the salon. Are cords untangled, confined and bundled together? Are shears put away in their proper place? Is hair getting swept up during and after each and every haircut? To make sure everyone is chipping in, create a top-to-bottom safety checklist in the salon and have each stylist and station adhere to it. Better yet, laminate 10 checklists and require employees to submit a completed checklist before they are allowed to walk out the door at the end of their day or shift. It will only be a matter of time until these small steps becomes part of their daily routine.  Read More…

Hair has no serial number - so stolen extensions cannot be traced

A spate of hair extension thefts across the US has put the spotlight on the lucrative market for human hair.

It may sound an unlikely source of income – but salons across the country are on alert after a series of raids in which hair worth tens of thousands of dollars has been stolen.

In the latest theft, thieves rammed a car through the front door of a beauty supply shop in Atlanta, Georgia, and escaped with an estimated $10,000 (£6,119) in hair extensions.

In Houston, one raid at My Trendy Place hair salon earned the perpetrators $120,000 (£73,432) of Indian “virgin hair” – unprocessed and untreated. Read More…

The kind of ideas for beauty salon grand openings that you use can go a long way in influencing your prospective clientele because it is their first interaction with you and your services. This article can help you with some ideas that might appeal to your customers.

The opening of any kind of business must take off with a bang so that people are made aware of the existence of such an entity. A beauty salon is an endeavor that survives mainly on word of mouth publicity. Because as much as you would like to believe that glossy ads will get you clients, the work and the service you provide is the only thing that will speak for itself. So, to give the people a glimpse of how well you know your job and how well you’re prepared to serve them, you need to make sure that you use some really good ideas for beauty salon grand openings, which will compel people to return and try you out. This Buzzle article has some inputs for the same. See if you like them.

Free Services
Many might consider this a very cliche method of getting attention, but they simply cannot argue with the success rate that it has. Everyone loves to get something free, whether it’s a CD player with a TV or a box of pencils with a sketching book! So, use this appeal and target the people in your locality and city or town. Entice them by offering free services on the day of the grand opening. Give away free haircuts (you can ask them to pay for the styling), manicures, pedicures and other small services that you can afford on the first day. Advertise these well using attractive flyers and maybe an ad in the local newspaper.

Goodie Bags
Giving away goodie bags is something that you need to think of with a very practical mindset. You want people to know that you use superior quality products for them, but at the same time, you need to have a decent budget for the grand opening. So, pick the goodie bag items carefully. Pick items that are universally accepted as inexpensive and people won’t judge you. You can choose a nail clipper, hair clips, head bands, lip balms, nail color, etc. Such small, inexpensive but useful things can make for some really nice goodie bags. If you want, you can organize a small contest, and the winner gets Read More…

By now you know how Gift Cards increase sales as well as how popular they have become as gifts for every occasion in this busy world.

Gift Cards can also help you increase sales and build loyalty with your current clients.

For example, offer a deal in which a client buys a Gift Card for $100 or more. When they do, you give them a $20 Gift Card as a bonus free gift for buying the first card.

This allows your Gift Cards to work for you the same way loyalty cards work for coffee shops and restaurants. The client is buying a Gift Card, but what they’re really buying is $100 in future services and getting $20 worth of services or products for free.

You will be amazed at how excited your clients will be about this offer. It’s just too good to pass up. Plus, as you recharge their Gift Cards, you will find that they will make larger and larger purchases over time. After all, it’s money “already spent.”

If you’d like more information on setting up a Gift Card loyalty program, call us at 800.373.1684 or visit salonsupplies.com and click on “Gift Cards Made Simple” to see our selection of cards for every occasion.

Guest contributor: The Chefanies

It’s Cinco de Mayo and we’re celebrating here at Spa Week Daily with one of our favorite south of the border imports: avocados (green and sexy!). Before hitting up tonight’s parties, get soft, glowing skin with our Avocado Honey hydrating facial mask. Avocados are great for you, inside and out. They are super rich in vitamins and minerals, especially Vitamins A, C, and K – all of which help brighten and tone the skin. Both avocados and honey contain natural humectants, which are chemicals that attract and hold water, making this mask a great moisturizer. Read More…