The generous beauty professionals at Troy’s Beauty and Barber in San Bernadino teamed up  to provide women at the Time for Dreams Sweet Change Foundation shelter with the gift of confidence-inspiring beauty. Click here for the full story.

I have always been inspired by the generous hearts of those who work in the salon and spa world. These professionals don’t just  make people look and feel beautiful – they also listen to their guests’ life stories and take on a part of their burden during the time they are together. But that’s only part of their generosity. They raise money for many wonderful causes across the country to help people they may never meet.  A recent event shows this spirit of giving beautifully . . .

The Tyler Mason Salon Spa staff, with help from students at Tricoci University of Beauty Culture and Harrison College massage therapy students, co-hosted a “royal” fundraiser with Spotlight Photography in Indianapolis on March 3.  Princess for a Day benefits the Flashes of Hope organization.

Parents were invited to bring their little ones to the salon for some princess treatments including mini-updos, mini-manicures, makeup applications, face painting, and a princess photo shoot that included a complimentary portrait – all for a donation to Flashes of Hope.  The beauty industry volunteers arrived and went right to work making each of the 300 little princesses feel special. Another payoff? They raised $8,000 for Flashes of Hope.

Flashes of Hope is a nonprofit organization that raises money for pediatric cancer research and changes the way children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses see themselves, through the gift of photography.  The money raised at Princess for a Day will help the Indianapolis chapter provide over 300 Riley Hospital for Children and  Peyton Manning’s Children’s Hospital patients with a personal in-hospital photo shoot including framed enlargements, proofs and a CD of the images.

Tyler Mason stylists volunteer once a month at Riley or Peyton Manning’s Children’s Hospital, providing hair and makeup services as patients and their families prepare for their photo shoot.  The portraits help children feel better about their changing appearance by celebrating it.  For families of terminally ill children, it’s especially important to have a portrait that preserves forever the beauty, grace and dignity of their child.

For more information on: 

• Flashes of Hope                                flashesofhope.org
• Tyler Mason Salon Spa                     tylermason.com

Every day, you and I are part of a great business—the professional beauty industry. From the products we market to the designs we create, materials we ship and even down to the freight we haul—everything goes into how positively the public experiences the salon industry. As our industry has grown, so have we, and now it’s our chance to return the favor.

My friend Reuben Carranza of Wella is being honored with the Spirit of Life award from City of Hope. With this honor comes the responsibility to raise funds for City of Hope’s research into life-threatening diseases and the compassionate patient care it provides. Reuben has chosen to raise funds for diabetes research. And I have chosen to help him.

Here’s why: City of Hope is doing some of world’s most breakthrough research into the links between diabetes and cancer, while breaking the mold for how to treat the sickest patients. As you may know, I’m an eight-year prostate cancer survivor. My diagnosis and recovery was a rocky road, but I learned that it doesn’t have to be that way during a visit I recently made with Reuben to the City of Hope campus. Laboratory researchers rush the latest drug therapies to patients in the next building; doctors use both high-tech and mind/body techniques for healing; and nurses relieve pain while treating patients with dignity and tenderness.

City of Hope is part of our community. It has made its consultation and referral service available to you, me and every other member of the professional beauty industry. I’ve made the choice to thank them by supporting Reuben’s campaign, “Hope is in Style”. Please join me.

You can help in many ways:

1) Buy a ticket to this year’s Spirit of Life dinner on July 13 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas;

2) Make a direct donation to the cause;

3) Start a “Hope Is In Style” fundraiser in your community. Any level of support is welcome!

What’s important is that we join, as business associates and as friends, in giving back some of the health, wealth and happiness we’ve enjoyed as part of this wonderful industry. Visit cityofhope.org/hopeisinstyle to see how easy it is!

Ask your vendors to join our efforts and give to a cause that we believe in and support. Because in the beauty business, hope is always in style.

Beauty Changes Lives … I believe in this 100 percent. We all can hide our imperfections, but never our hair. Our hair has the power to make us look young, or old, or feel beautiful or ugly. Because we must expose our hair, with a bad cut or bad color we can get ridiculed by classmates and people around us. We feel ashamed and begin to withdraw. But once that bad haircut or bad color grows out or gets fixed, we feel much better.

Now … imagine having an uncontrollable disorder that causes you to pull out your hair leaving you with noticeable bald and thin spots. Imagine trying to cover your self-inflicted shame constantly. Imagine being the only one, not joining the pool party, afraid of people laughing at your “guilty pleasures.” Imagine never having had your hair professionally cut or colored ever in your life.

HelpMe2Stop.org is a non-profit that connects sufferers to salons and raises money to fund services such as a year of haircuts and/or hair pieces installed and maintained. HelpMe2Stop.org knows that “Beauty Changes Lives” and is recruiting salons across the country as “Pull-Free” hubs and will provide the necessary tool kits, salon training to gain and service new clients and to help salons create community awareness of ‘Trich.’

Before

After

We think Alana deserves a hand. How about you?

Throughout your career you can work behind the chair, as a platform artist, on movie sets, in salon management consulting or you may even decide to create your own product line. You may even develop a whole new direction for salon and spa operations! The possibilities are endless. Of course all this comes from getting you license and always participating in continued education.

For me, a career in cosmetology all started with a fascination with hair, mainly mine.  I wanted to know how it could be cut, styled and colored.  So it was an easy decision for me to go to cosmetology school.  I really didn’t know how much I’d grow to love the profession until I got started.  That’s the great thing about being open to trying new things; you never know where your adventures will take you.  Over the last 25 years, I have spent 15 behind the chair and at one point I decided to compliment my license by getting a bachelor’s degree in Business as well as a degree in Interior Design.  I’ve spent the last part of my career working as a Distributor Consultant, helping salon owners in all aspects of running a salon and managing a design studio for a salon equipment manufacturer.

But the adventure doesn’t stop there! With the economic downturn in 2008 came a new opportunity to increase my field of expertise by obtaining an MBA in Sustainable Business and LEED-AP in Commercial Interiors. I am now building a career transforming our industry from earth plunderers to Eco-Friendly stewards of the environment. Every day is a new adventure with new mountains to climb! You never know where your path will lead you, and I wish you great success in all your endeavors. Allow me to end with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Seuss:   “You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” Dr. Seuss

- Tamara Jercha, Salon & Spa Sustainability Consultant

In 2009, I once again got to realize how beauty changes lives. I would like to share a story about a client of mine that was in her transitional stages of breast cancer. She asked me to come to the hospital to provide her normal nail and body services prior to her radiation treatment. She insisted that she would not start her treatment without looking her best.

After a 12 hour day, I was determined to visit her at the hospital to honor her wishes. When I arrived, she was sleeping. I stood there for about 60 seconds trying to figure out how I could perform a pedicure with her being connected to her various medical equipment. I decided on a strategy. I positioned myself and began treatment on her feet. She opened her eyes and called out “Maisie” in a very soft voice.  I answered “yes.” She proceeded with, “Oh my God, I feel like Jesus,” as I washed her feet. With tears streaming down my face, I thought to myself what an amazing career I have for someone to compare me to Jesus.

This is one of the million ways how beauty changes lives. The power in it is how it has changed my life. Regrettably, she passed on. Her spirit lives on and I will forever miss her. She rests in perfect peace.

- Maisie Dunbar

As a celebrity beauty and lifestyle professional, venues such as Fashion Week and Hollywood red carpet events are familiar turf for Maisie Dunbar, owner of Maisie Dunbar Spa Lounge. 

 As a private first class in the 82^nd Sustainment Brigade, I began my career at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where I transported troops to different locations; however, I was soon shipped to Afghanistan where I served for four years. A few years after returning to the states, I had another life-changing experience during a conversation with a friend in the hair industry who inspired me to pursue a career in hairstyling. I knew I wanted to express my creative side and could use the discipline and focus I gained in the military in this field.

 I currently work at a Sport Clips in Katy, Texas and love it! The atmosphere is fun, and I enjoy working for my boss Cheston Syma, a former U.S. Marine. Along with my team, I participated in Sport Clips’ nationwide fall fundraiser, Help A Hero, which provides free calls home to deployed and hospitalized U.S. service members through the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Operation Uplink program. I was proud to know that my location contributed to our company’s $500,000 to Operation Uplink in December!

I know most people don’t think of these two fields coming together, but for me, they’ve made me the person I am today.

- Jessica Cobb, Sport Clips Haircuts Stylist