There’s No Substitute For Looking and Feeling Good

Since I’ve been employment challenged of late, I decided to take a friend’s advice and substitute teach. The plan was to stay busy, earn a few dollars and perhaps, jog my memory a bit. (Ask me about Newton’s third law of motion. As of last Thursday, I know it again.) The plan was not to have to dodge F bombs, wake kids up or tell a male student that it’s impolite to sing Paul Anka’s “She’s having my baby” to a pregnant classmate.

It’s been more years than I care to admit since I was last in a classroom for anything other than a parent/teacher conference and, I must say, I’ve been pretty shocked by all of the changes. (Notable Exception - Betsy Y’s Gifted English Class. Betsy, I will sub for you any day of the week!)

I thought I’d share a poem I wrote while gearing up to face the first day of this new school year. After reading it, I am almost certain that you’ll a) appreciate your own job a little more and b) want to smuggle your child’s teacher a sedative.

Quite long ago, though not far away
I sat on a football field on a toasty June day
I wore cap, gown and heels and the future looked bright
As I moved my orange tassel to the left from the right
I left high school behind and set out on my path
And all was OK 'til last Fall's economic bloodbath
Now I'm back in the classroom... this time as a sub
Trying to outsmart kids who text under desks ‘bout hot nights at the club
I’m facing rolled eyes and language that’s blue
Incomplete lesson plans and now the swine flu
What are my fears about this year’s day one?
Can’t think of any. Bring on the fun!

Wondering why I’m sharing this on a website about style, fashion and great hair? You can blame an amorous high school student.

This past Friday, I had lunch with some friends. During lunch, we updated each other on our respective lives. Of course I shared a tale or two about my adventures as a sub. A friend sympathized. Seems one of her other friends, I’ll call her Melissa, has been subbing as well and she, too, has been caught off guard by how badly a lot of the kids behave. Apparently, Melissa was just told by a randy high school student that she has a nice #**.

I have to be honest…. This just burned me up! I’ve been dealing with all measures of disrespect from students of every race, color, creed, gender and national origin, but NOT ONE SINGLE KID has had the decency to complement my figure in the process.

I’m going to make this reason number fifty eight why I have to keep hanging out at Hot Heads. I’ve got to get my groove back. I have to start turning heads again.

(No worries! Mary Kay Letourneau, I’m not. I don’t actually want sixteen year old boys telling me I have a nice #**. I just want to have one. If I can’t, I want advice on how to properly package what I do have … or I want to have hair so cute and swingy that there’s nowhere else anyone’s eyes could possibly travel.)

Have a great week and stop back by! XXOO

How Do I Love Thee, Hot Heads Coupon? (Let Me Count My Change!)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Thou hath brought my hair shine and shape and height
And color that shimmers in the light
And a gorgeous, fresh and flawless face.

But I love thee most when it’s time to pay
Because saving cash seems so very right
At a time when my budget's really tight.
I love thee purely!  Thou hath made my day!   

I love thee with a passion deep and true
For off'ring highlights at a price divine
With a scalp massage and a shampoo
For making me look so very fine. 
God, I love my new stylish hairdo
And I love thee as much, coupon of mine!

Special thanks to Elizabeth Barrett Browning for allowing her famous poem to be altered in this manner. Said Ms Barrett Browning: “It’s the least I could do. If I had lived in your millennium, you can bet I would’ve been all over that coupon!”

Gems from Georgette, #1 - Skin Care Basics

Hot Heads Groupie: Georgette, if I was told to grab two items from my makeup drawer because my home was burning down, my initial thought would be to grab hairspray and a handheld mirror. Obviously the hairspray is flammable and could make the fire worse and the handheld mirror might protect me from falling debris. After further reflection, however, I think I would want two items that would make me look as fetching as possible for the firefighters and for the reporters. If I could only take two items from my makeup drawer, what would you suggest that I take?

Georgette:

HHG: Alright, that’s a ridiculous question. Let me rephrase it. Most of us have makeup drawers full of lotions and potions and creams in all shades, shapes and sizes. I am at a complete loss as to what to do with them all. Since this is our first session, why don’t we start with the basics. If our faces are blank palates, what are the first two things we should put on them?

Georgette: Without question, the two most fundamental items in any woman’s beauty arsenal are a good cleanser and a moisturizer.

HHG: Is there anything particular we should know about either of these items?

Georgette: Well, there are lots out different brands and formulas out there. I happen to be partial to a line called, BeautiControl Cosmetics, but there are a number of good ones on the market. Like a lot of things, the most expensive ones aren’t necessarily the best. Ideally what you want are products that do the job without breaking the bank. That’s why I’m particularly partial to BeautiControl Cosmetics, which I do promote, by the way.

The BeautiConrol Cosmetics line is compared to the higher price cosmetics in the department stores but is generally about 1/3 the cost of Clinique. I’ve tried everything out there and I absolutely adore all of the BeautiControl Cosmetics products.

With moisturizers, one of the key elements to consider is whether or not they contain sunblock. If you put nothing else on your face when you leave your home in the morning, you should put on a moisturizer with sunblock.

HHG: I usually do that when I go to the beach, but what about days when I’ll be indoors for the majority of the day. Is it really that important under those circumstances?

Georgette: It is. You still have to walk to and from your car. You may be heading out to lunch. You only get one face. You would be wise to take care of it in the best way possible.

HHG: I’ve seen SPFs as low as 8 and I’ve seen some that go up to 100. For daily use, what SPF would you recommend?

Georgette: I’d go with a minimum of 20. You also want to take a look at the ingredients. A good sunblock will include either zinc or titanium. What you’re looking for is protection from UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays are the ones most responsible for aging and UVBs put you at risk for skin cancer.

HHG: Alright, so if I do meet that dashing, adoring firefighter, I’m going to need to have more than clean and subtle skin. Where do we go from here?

Georgette: One of the services offered at the salon is make up application. Obviously this is a service we provide to a lot of bridal parties and teenaged girls getting ready for homecoming or prom, but it’s something other women should consider having done, as well. Properly applied makeup can do so much to improve a woman’s appearance and to accentuate what is already beautiful about her. If a woman knows what she’s doing in this area, it can make such a difference in how she presents herself in the world and in how she’s received.

HHG: So, in other words, if the only things in a woman’s make up case are pale blue eye shadow and Bonny Bell Lip Smacker, it might be time for new look and a little one on one guidance?

Georgette: Most women have read enough magazines to have a general idea of what they should do and of what color families work best for them, but there really is no substitution for a customized session with a trained, objective expert in the field. In addition to being the Salon Manager, I am a certified imagine consultant. As such, I am able to offer our clients a number of different services. One of them is makeup application. I love helping women achieve their potential. I love being a part of making them look and feel absolutely beautiful.

HHG: If it’s OK, I’d like to sit in on one of your upcoming sessions… with the client’s permission, of course.

Georgette: That would be great.

HHG: Georgette, thank you so much for your time… and Ladies, get out your lip and eye pencils and prepare to take notes. Our next session promises to be an eye opening (and lip defining and cheek bone emphasizing and dark circle concealing….) adventure. I can’t wait!

The Hot Heads Salon Manager Plans To Help The Rest of Us Sizzle Too!

If Hot Heads is the Central Florida equivalent of The Charm City Bakery, then Salon Manager, Georgette, must be our Mary Alice. The similarities between the women are many. Both are friendly and self assured. Both have thriving side businesses in the creative realm. Both are crucial to the successful operation of their respective organizations and both are smart, knowledgeable and resourceful. How do they two differ? Well, for starters, Georgette would not wear that color yellow.

Left:  Charming Mary Alice Yeskey, Office Manager of Charm City Cakes, and
Right: The Unforgettable Georgette Marable, Salon Manager at Hot Heads  

I was interested to hear this. I know as much about fashion as Steven Cojocaro knows about this year’s BSC football standings, but even I know that yellow is a hot color this season. The idea that Georgette is willing to pass on it piqued my curiosity.

Though Georgette and I are just beginning to get acquainted, one of the things I do already know about her is that she is a certified image consultant. Why would an image consultant pass on an “it” color? Simply stated: because yellow isn’t her color. It wasn’t her color in 1999. It isn’t her color in 2009 and it won’t be her color in 2019.

Per Georgette, style is about more than just opening a fashion magazine and attempting to duplicate whatever you find on page 119. Style is about knowing what’s timeless and what isn’t. It’s about adapting trends to suit your lifestyle and it’s about knowing yourself. I like that!

I was raised by practical folk. My childhood wardrobe was not selected because it complimented my complexion or was in style at the time. My clothing was purchased because it was on sale, because it didn’t require ironing, because it would conceal stains and because I would grow into it. My sister had even less luck in this department. If she wasn’t sporting one of our mother’s sewing projects, she was wearing my hand me downs.

Me (far left) with my brother, sister and Mom at Busch Gardens in the late 1960s.

(Note the matching sundresses).

My Dad told me once that what he initially noticed about my mom was that she “carried herself well”. She still does. What she doesn’t do, however, even now, is follow fashion trends. She has great posture and an abundance of confidence. She exercises. She eats right and she rocks her signature look – matching, monogrammed sportswear in plaid or jewel tones, white walking shoes and short Anderson Cooper – colored white/gray hair.

Because of my Mom’s no-nonsense approach to style and because of my limited resources, I had very little access to the world of fashion in my youth. Anything I learned, I learned not when sitting at the well heeled feet of a style mentor, but rather by flipping through the pages of a friend’s Glamour. Even if I had studied every issue, there still would’ve been much to learn. I didn’t read them cover to cover though. Basically, I looked at the cute male models in the “How To Keep Your Boyfriend Drooling” stories, then flipped to the back of the magazine hoping I wouldn’t recognize myself as one of the fashion “Dont’s”.

Me, on Ft Lauderdale Beach, Spring Break 1982 or 1983, 

committing an unpardonable fashion “Don’t”

I guess that’s why I’m so excited about having the opportunity to spend time with Georgette. While I spent my childhood climbing trees and making mud pies, she was undoubtedly creating a fall clothing line for her paper dolls. It’s apparent that she knows her stuff and that she’s had a lot of experience.

I’m hoping Georgette will become my Nigel (Stanley Tucci’s character in The Devil Wears Prada). I’m hoping she can take this 5’8 ½” frumpy cerulean blue sweater wearing lump of clay and mold it into a head turning fashion dynamo.

What Georgette shares with me, I will share with you. We’re going to call these little lessons, Gems from Georgette, and they will be a recurring feature of this blog. In Gems, Georgette will pass along tips about everything from skincare and makeup application to wardrobe essentials and seasonal trends. I can’t wait ‘til we get started. Georgette will share her expertise. She'll answer questions. She’ll make recommendations about "must have" pieces and she’ll show us how to shine.

On Cloud Nine Feeling Like a Ten!

This past Monday, day two of my newest year on this planet, I found myself at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet somewhere above the Carolinas. The prior night, I ate birthday cake in The Signature Room restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building in Chicago. A black belt day dreamer, I have often been accused of having my head up in the clouds. Early last week, however, there was nothing figurative about that assessment.

Friday my head was in the clouds again. Friday my head was tended to by a couple I will reverently refer to as the hair gods of Sanford, aka the husband and wife team of Barry and Diane Rovelto, owners of the Hot Heads salon in Seminole Town Center. *Disclaimer to my church pals… No intervention is required. I don’t actually believe that Barry and Diane were dropped from Mt Olympus with golden scissors and sparkling bowls of color in their hands. That would be an easy miscalculation to make, however, as I do believe that what they are able to do with hair is nothing short of miraculous.

I arrived at the salon, after a lengthy absence, with straw – like, over processed hair in a shade that didn’t even come close to resembling the model’s picture found on the $7.95 box of hair color I had used this past July. Not only had I ventured into the wild, wild west of hair coloring, I had done so with both hands tied behind my back (not really, of course, but it was as if I had). Gloves were tossed too early in the process and I ended up with mocha colored fingernails for about two days after the final rinse. Errant drops of color stained my bathtub. A fear of a speckled brown forehead kept me from getting “too close to the edge” and resulted in the “gray at the temples” look that is said to make middle aged men look dashing, but which did nothing of the sort for me. My hair was a mess!

In a fact, my college friend, Vicki, who I saw soon after I had defiled my hair in this manner, took one look at me and offered the following words of wisdom:

“Cutting corners is one thing. Gray roots are another. We don’t do gray roots.”

Our server at The Signature Room last Sunday had been kind enough to skip her rendition of “The Old Gray Mare, She Ain’t What She Used To Be” following the Happy Birthday song, but, honestly, she shouldn’t have.

Vicki ( who probably wouldn’t have gray roots even she let nature take its course, but who certainly wouldn’t show them if she did) celebrating the same birthday I just did. *I have to point out that we were born within weeks of each other.  Maybe it will make you think I’m really in my late 20s.

Me (with my beautiful niece, Ashley) at The Signature Room in Chicago last Sunday night. Doesn’t Ashley have great hair, by the way?

I liken my “before” do to Tom Hanks’ look in the movie Castaway. My hair had that same unruly, dried out, fly away look to it .... and don't even get me started on what I had been referring to as my Susan Boylesque roots.

This past year was kind of a rough one for me.  Like Hanks’ Chuck Noland, I, too, suddenly found myself without a job to go each morning and without the company of a significant other. Also like Chuck Noland, my downward spiral wreaked havoc on my appearance.

Noland’s misfortune came about as a result of faulty equipment… mine, largely as a result of faulty judgment. Note to self: In the future, try to avoid going through a breakup or a breakdown during an economic freefall. One crisis at a time please!

Noland’s own handiwork proved transformative. From his hand and a little color sprang a whole new persona. I’m sure it gave him quite a lift.

My physical transformation came at the talented hands of others. Diane gave me a little color. Barry gave me a little lift and voila….

I felt like a whole new person…

I can say with certainty that I have never before quoted RuPaul, but his song, Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous” sort of sums it up!

I woke up this morning, it's a brighter day
I looked in the mirror, saw a new face
cause I got myself together, steppin' in time
everything's better, this day is mine

Yes I'm confident and self - assured
no holdin' back, not like before
cause I know what I want, can't settle for less
not tryin' to flaunt it, I just want the best. 

I don’t plan to make a habit of posting pics of myself on this blog (particularly not unflattering ones like the “before” and “during” pictures above). I felt it a duty to post these though. Since I have been so bold as to declare Barry and Diane hair divinity, I figured I’d have to provide some proof. I think I have! At the risk of being immodest, if the rest of me looked as fetching my hair does right this minute, I’d be getting an agent…and being mistaken for a soap star and getting date requests from men other than my five foot two, seventy year old neighbor.

These are challenging times and quite frankly, they’ve been wearing me down. It occurred to me recently, however, that being stressed on the inside shouldn’t keep me from trying to look fabulous on the outside. OK… fabulous might be a bit of a stretch. I think I’ll amend that to “better”. There’s no reason I can’t try to look better. There’s no reason I can’t rebrand myself a bit and spruce up the packaging.

Anyway, that’s what I intend to do. I intend to glam it up more than I have in quite some time, to take a bit of a mental break from all of the serious issues, to share what I learn when hanging out at a great local salon and to try to inform and entertain.

That’s the basic premise. I don't know exactly where we'll be going or what we'll be doing, but I know it will be fun!  Hope you’ll come along. For those who plan to…

“Ladies, welcome aboard. Please take your seats and fasten your wide leather statement belts. We’re ready for takeoff!

The Spotlight Is About To Shine On A Seminole Town Center Salon… Sweet!

Like a lot of people I know, I’ve scaled back on my expenditures this year. One of the things I reluctantly gave up is cable. I went through the typical withdrawal symptoms one might expect… the nervous, involuntary clenching of my remote control hand, the dazed, distant look in my eyes while I re-acclimated to network tv, and, of course, a sugar crash (brought on by the sudden absence of The Food Network’s Ace of Cakes).

As of today, I have recovered from the first two symptoms and I am now invested in the outcome of NBC’s America’s Got Talent. (I’m pulling for either cancer survivor and opera singer extraordinaire, Barbara Padilla, or the Fab Five, a group of Utah bred Moms/tap dance divas. I do, however, also have a soft spot in my heart for Jacksonville’s “Grandma Lee” and for the adorable siblings who make up The Voices of Glory.)

What is still vexing me in this new world without cable is my need for a Duff Goldman fix. Per their website, Charm City Cakes, the bakery owned by Goldman and the setting for the popular Ace of Cakes TV Show, “has grown to a staff of eleven friends who make cakes, listen to music, and eat a lot of sushi” That doesn’t begin to do it justice.

Ace of Cakes is a feast for the senses. The employees of the bakery, an eclectic group, comprised primarily of Duff’s friends, friends of his friends and his family, are all quirky, entertaining and extremely talented. In addition to making cakes that look like tubs of popcorn, favorite childhood pets, Viking ships and replicas of famous landmarks, members of the Ace of Cakes staff write poetry, play in rock bands and collect cat memorabilia.

I love cake (who doesn’t?) and the cakes produced by this Baltimore-based bakery are, indeed, a sight to behold. They are whimsical, outlandish and, on occasion, gravity defying. The cakes are not what I miss most about this show though. What I miss most are the people. There is just something about being in the company of smart, diverse, creative, hip, amusing, hardworking people that I find invigorating. (Let me take this occasion to give a shout out to my former co-workers: Alexis, Amy, Betsy, Carissa, Christine, Dahlia, Elianna, Ericka, Frances, Heidi, Janice, Jay, Jeff, Jessica, Jody, Jorge, JP, Karla Lee, Lee Ann, Liz, Noreen, Patty, Sharon, Shelley, Tammy & Tommy. To my knowledge, not a one of them can bake a cake that would fetch $1,000+ a pop, but, like the Ace of Cakes staff, they have all proven to me that you can have fun in the workplace.)

Anyway, since I am no longer working with the awesome group mentioned above and since reactivating cable just isn’t in my budget right at the moment, I’ve decided to do the next best thing. I’ve decided to create my own Ace of Cakes.

In this new blog, I will be your window into another hotbed of fun and creativity, the Hot Heads Salon, now located in the Seminole Towne Center. The Hot Heads staff has been kind enough to invite me into their world, a world of highly trained stylists and colorists, who in addition to being hair geniuses are every bit as likeable, entertaining and multi-faceted as the Ace of Cakes staff.

I will be telling you more about them, showing you some remarkable before and after shots, discussing fashion trends, passing along a few style tips (which believe me, will not have originated with me) and sharing a bit of my life and a few of my thoughts.

Hope you’ll be along for the ride and hope you’ll invite others to join us. It promises to be a hair raising adventure!