It all began many, many, MANY moons ago when I was about 3 yrs old and took the scissors from my nursing kit (you know, way back when they had real scissors in them) and cut off the beautiful golden wavy locks of my sister Teresa who is 21 months my junior. Oops meant to say just one side! It was during that beautiful summer's day that the 'hair dresser' was born - I can not tell you what year for fear of age discrimination LOL!
I was always encouraged to 'spread my wings' and leave the very small town (probably considered a village in the great USA), go to college,being a hair dresser would've meant I would be stuck there. My Dad really gave me the courage to go out in to the wild yonder and see more than Leiston, Suffolk. I did.
Fast forward a couple of decades; meeting my husband, moving to California and the USA, then Arizona, working in the medical field, oh yeah - cutting my sister's hair again, one side again, at some point in there ;) , and finding myself at a crossroads of what to do. With the enthusiasm, encouragement and persuasion of my darling husband, Paul, sisters, family and friends I FINALLY went to cosmetology college. Surprisingly, I was not the oldest student there!
I worked at a large, corporate salon immediately upon getting my cosmetology license. I worked there knowing they had advanced training and education - one of my passions! I love learning and knew that I wanted to expand my basic knowledge. During my employment I had to take a leave to go home to England to help care for one of my sister's and her 4 children. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on how much I really liked the culture that this salon had created - I didn't like it. I left there with much knowledge and never looked back.
I was lured into helping a friend manage a concierge physician practice - loved the patients, hated the office environment - STIFLING!!! I had to return a T-shirt to the Gap and in asking my mechanic husband to drop me off at the mall so I could nip into the Gap he, of course, dropped me off at the entrance to the tool department of Sears! As I was leaving the mall just 10-15 mins later I bumped into Julie (the ONLY other normal person that I worked with at the first salon and missed terribly!) - we had lost contact. Some one was watching out for me that day!!! Long story short - I ended up working at Cloud 9 with Julie and met sooooo many wonderful clients/friends.
I worked at Cloud 9 for over 2 1/2 years taking on the role of Network Educator, becoming a leader amongst the stylists. Things were changing at Cloud 9 and I was becoming increasingly frustrated so during a dinner conversation with my husband he just said ".. why don't you do your own thing?!". I had him expand upon that to find out that he had to point out my passion - to have my very own salon! It had been my dream from the time I cut Teresa's hair with the nursing scissors :)
With those words to the day of opening only about 8 or 9 weeks went by. I found this location at Raintree Ranch, signed the lease contract and at approximately week 3 the construction began! My passion and dream was happening with my husband holding my hand all the way!! It was not long before some of my dear friends took a leap of faith with me to come to " ______ " ??? What were we going to name the salon???
Within a couple of days I was talking to my friend, telling her about our new endeavour. Guess what she asked me........... "What are you going to call the salon?" We talked about how my vision was for it to be different; modern, urban loft, art gallery and with English subtleties. As we stood there it came to me "NEXT! And the "x" can be a pair of shears!!" - I got chills down my spine, that was it! Wasn't it??? Oh no! Family and friends, near and far, all partook in an intense analysis of possible names but it always came back to NeXt. Next is the name of one of my favourite clothing stores in England. It was full speed ahead to November 2nd, 2009!! Eight months after collecting our very first dollar bill, we are growing with the addition of fabulous new team members and are looking forward to planing our 1st Anniversary party.
We hope that you find our first blog enlightening, providing you with an understanding of how a strong passion brought us here together as an outstanding team of professionals?!!
Our blog has been created so that we may share with you each of our passions for everything hair! We, also, want it to be informative and educational as far as choosing the right products, styling tips etc. Should you have any suggestions for our blog we are 'all ears'!!
Thank you for following us and coming along on this journey!
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