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Hair Coloring at Expressions Salon~Naturally

  • Posted on December 5, 2010 at 10:30 pm

We recently opened Expressions: Eco Salon for All Ethnicities in Little Falls NY. Blase and I are excited with the response from residents, extended communities, and press!

While Blase and I have decades of experience as cosmetologists and we each have had a previous salon, we both have niches that are not main stream. Blase’s expertise is ethnic/cultural services: weaves, locks, extensions and more; my passion is all salon services & treatments as natural, and even organic, as we can get, including colors, perms, relaxers, facials etc.

Some of the products we offer are very revolutionary so require special attention to application details. Even though we have decades of experience, we are still learning as well because the products we offer are so cutting edge they work differently that what we are used to.

We have heard other salons tell their clients that these products do not work…the reality is these products do not work the same as products they are used to working with; there are more steps, still the results are awesome! No burning scalps and hair is healthier!

In our learning curve we have  experienced a snag with color fading; but those wanting natural or more natural color treatments have been willing to try again (at our expense) while we have learned what it takes to ensure staying power of colors and even making them last longer than more chemical colors!

The other exciting coloring options we are working with are PURE MEHINDI HENNA, Indigo and other plant pigments for hair. These have a long lineage in cultural traditions and are more mud pack/ clay consistencies.

With these pigments the longer the pigment is on the hair, the better the color result. Many women LOVE this option! For local women we apply the pigment, wrap their hair and send them home for however many hours they want to “process” (while they do computer work, art work, house work etc) and then they come back for their wash and style. For those who are not local, they relax, read, do computer work (we are wireless!) enjoy tea & snacks or other salon services.

The thing about working with the various types of natural pigments is to know which pigments to use on whom!

  • Are you coloring for fun or covering gray?
  • Are you just starting to turn gray and have never colored before?
  • Have you been using salon/ over the counter permanent colors and have significant gray and regrowth?

All of these particulars must be taken into consideration to place you in the right natural pigment products for YOU.

Regular salons and cosmetologists will not have the understanding of these needs or the various different types of natural pigment lines and offerings to fit you in the right one for you.

They also may not have taken the time to learn what additional steps need to be done with the hybrid permanent natural colors or they may feel the steps are prohibitive and can’t take the extra time, hence they believe the products won’t work at all.

At Expressions, this is our forte, this is our priority, to enable you to achieve what you want as naturally as you want it, some real natural, others maybe less toxic. This is our pledge to you – to be the best wisdom keepers of which natural products and services you want, and place you in what will work for YOU.

With patience and dedication we will achieve this together.

Expressions: For the many ways YOU are

410 Canal Place, Suite 202, Little Falls, NY 13365

Christine: 315.868.7960     Blase 315. 219.2828

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A Door Opened

  • Posted on September 20, 2010 at 7:26 pm

I know you must be feeling it too…the energy of life is making us pay attention.Whether we are riding the wave or as the twig just able to float on the river’s surface, or perhaps finding ourselves subsurface, our attention is peaked.

It has been only eight months since I moved into the first floor of the Stone Mill; shortly after I arrived I bought a shampoo bowl and hired Betty Ann to Feng Shui the best place for it to be, the result was amazing. A lot of effort went into the move, then to reposition into the Feng Shui design was like another move, still it was SO WORTH IT!

Loved the location and so did clients and friends. I was in the same building as Spa at Stone Mill where I provide Aroma Therapy Acupressure Facial Massages, and Herbal foot soaks. The Florentina Salon down the hall from the Spa was Terry’s, a most wonderfully talented stylist colorist and human being.

After many years Terry came to a place of marching fourth. His heart is so big, none of us wanted to believe that he would go, though we all wanted his happiness. He visited family and upon his return announced his plans to relocate – still we all held our breath thinking that it may have been a mood that would pass, but it wasn’t, he actually moved 3 weeks earlier than projected.

Terry touched people deeply- he gave much and reaped much. Our daily chats were about to come to an end, his smile and walking art works would soon be missed, there would be an empty salon…

Did I have the stamina to move AGAIN? Chris Connolly owner of the first floor and Ole Sal’s Cafe & Creamery worked so hard to install the Euopean shampoo sink! I just got everything perfect. Was the Feng Shui moving me upstairs? The negative self talk went on and on.

It was one of the hardest betwix places to be. My colleague Blase, a Caribbean native, and I had been visioning adding ethnic hair services in my shop launching it during Little Falls annual Garlic & Herb Festival and now the salon was becoming available.

Not wanting to let Terry go, but if he was really leaving, it felt like Providence opened a door that should at least be explored. Terry and I had the heart to heart conversation; Blase & I found ourselves quickly purchasing items Terry was not able to take, then the keys were in our hands. Was I happy? Yes! Was I sad? Yes! The embodiment of what appears to be contradicting emotions is a peak state of awareness.

All I could do was sit with “it”…sit with the reality that my friend was leaving, and in his going, a gift of a dream fulfilled. His presence is in his absence because now, even though it looks very different, I am daily in his space, surrounded by his beautiful plants, and his clients finding me when seeking him.

Left: Florentina Salon Right: Expressions

Deep GRATITUDE to husband Steven Wood who hauled, painted, sawed, hammered, made manifest the vision (Yes we had Betty Ann Feng Shui us again and again it is AMAZING!)

Garlic & Herb Festival Grand Opening of Expressions Eco Salon for All Ethnicities was a full house complete with a ribbon cutting with Mayor, Alderwoman, friends, family and new faces.

David Taylor (Stone Mil) Mayor Peters, Blase, Me, Robin Prinzhorn (CARE) Kim Kelley Alderwoman

As colleague Mary Gressler LMT said “You have to walk through the opened door or you will always wonder”.  Are we the Riding a Wave of self determination (manifesting our dreams) or are we floating twigs in a river whose current is too strong for us to do anything else (a door opened we walked through)? I would like to think the former although it feels much more like the latter; either way there is DEEP GRATITUDE for the wave or the river, for bitter sweet partings and beginnings, for Providence and for the profound expereince of how acutely interconnected everyone and everything is.

Come experience Expressions

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Me-volution

  • Posted on April 30, 2010 at 8:20 am

Well Beauties it’s so amazing to see “it unfold”.

“It” not only happens to be a life journey but “me” too so I am calling this time in my experience Me-volution. Sometimes I wonder if I really know me, even when I think I do!

I have been “doing” and creating without really understanding why. It’s as if the thought moves into the deed and while I am “doing” I keep thinking “do I really want this?” Do you have this ever happen to you or is this my personal malady?

It’s not that I am not loving creating and the creation – I do! It’s just so interesting how “things” are turning in ways I would have thought a year ago “not interested” or 2 years ago “crazy” but now is a reality!

I bought and, my great landlord Chris, installed a salon sink in my newly Feng Shui’d shop. Now the Feng Shui part I have always wanted to do – thought it would be the house.

I have read some books and thought of taking classes but when the sink wanted to come into my shop – and that’s how this feels, I definitely did not want to place  it in a wrong location … that’s when I called Betty Ann. She lives in Little Falls and is a professional Feng Shui consultant/designer and YES I am amazed and thrilled with the results!

But this is about THE SINK and the puzzel it is to me! Years ago I had a full service salon but I never saw retuning to it – I enjoy the educational/consulting part of my mission; but there are not many non-toxic natural hair coloring cosmetologists and I was moved to install a sink and provide this much needed service.

Sink is installed! sink included

My first reunion with the shampoo bowl was actually for a wash and style for a mom and grandmom of a groom. My God/dess the stress around “did I do what they expected”, “were they on time”, “am I their crazy experience”  was enough to make me rip the sink out!!

This self beating after services  was one of the reasons, aside from kids hanging from the salon rafters, that i decided to let go my original salon! I carried that stress … and let it go… repeatedly  through out the whole weekend (Sat-Tuesday) Picking it up – dropping it – pick it up – drop it…

I kept wondering do other cosmetologists go through this or is this just my personal negative self talk? When I returned to the shop on Wednesday – there was a small hand written thank you note that helped the bees (they were not butterflies!) in my stomach to sleep.

Here’s to doing and creating and not knowing why! Just because the journey must include a sink?! Onward with Me-volution!

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It's ALL ABOUT ME!

  • Posted on February 7, 2010 at 5:41 pm

February 13th is my Valentine Grand Re-Opening celebrating my new digs! There will be Free Mini Facials using Aubrey Organics Skin Care, 3 min MakeOvers with Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, Prizes and Refreshments! I was visioning the food fare with Patricia a most amazing cook/caterer; “No sugar and no meat” I said. Maggie teasingly retorted “I want sugar and I want meat – she thinks it all about her – and it’s not…”

Food by Patricia & Melting Pot Caterer

It’s true, an Open House is about serving others but a healthy dose of Self-love is always in order. I choose food for others that I can share in, because I WILL cheat (“special occasion” ~to hurt myself!). I feel it when I cheat; I am really just cheating myself of the liberation that comes from feeling healthy, energized and vital when I consume positive choices.

We  “know” the dangers of sugar but moving away from it can be as challenging to the average person as quitting alcohol is for an alcoholic. The average American, including children, eats almost 2 lbs of sugar a week!

John Robbins book Healthy at 100, reveals that our children are not outliving us due to their food and lifestyles we as parents have given them.

As a Holistic Beauty Practitioner it is ALL ABOUT YOU, but you could not receive knowledge that is not lived. A favorite story of mine is about a mother who took her child to the guru asking the guru to tell the child to stop eating sugar, since “it’s not good for him” The guru responded, “Come Back in two weeks”; when they returned the guru said “Stop eating so much sugar it’s not good for you” The shocked mother quipped “We had to come back in two weeks for you to tell him this?” to which the Guru smiled and stated “I had to quit first”. There are some mentors who merely tell the knowledge but do not live it.

We can “feel better” ease the emotional pain of living… or we can experience Total Transformation. Kat James’ book The Truth About Beauty has the tricks on how to break the sugar addiction with success – I tried 3 or 4 times always relapsing until I read her book and incorporated her “food upgrades” it has been 4 years now that I am sugar free and free of cravings for it!!!

Counselors mentor us to SURROUND ourselves with people and places that are “good” for us; the same goes for food. Deepak Chopra said to eat “real food” defining it as “having no label”.

There is more than enough scientific research concerning effects of sugar on our body ecology from simple inflammation to severe diseases. As for my not wanting to offer meat – that is more of a personal option and while I have been a vegetarian over 20 years with a “moral” perspective that ending violence begins on my plate, I am aware that ALL life forms, including veges and fungi etc. are consciousness; my main reason for not offering meat is due to cost since grassfed hormone free meats are more costly, plus skipping meat on occassion is ok! I splurge on other very yummy options. By focusing on ME and MY health for MY events – all the foods YOU will consume will be DELICIOUS, DECADENT AND HEALTHY FOR YOU TOO!!

It’s ALL ABOUT ME and it should be ALL ABOUT YOU too!

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