Products

VSI have been receiving e mails from some of you who are new to using the ceramic irons. The two products I am seriously down with would be the CHI Thermal Spray and the Elasta QP Elucent spray. These two products aid you in a successful outcome when using your ceramic irons on your clients. Mainly I use Chi however the Elasta QP is a serious contender and would enable me to pinch my pennies! (lol)

Both products enable you to  flip,feather, and flat iron. However the Elucent spray by Elasta QP also enables you to sculpt, wave, and dry mold(a sculpting or molding technique used in creating styles). Both products hold their weight, I think when it comes down to it, it's going to be a personal preference.

Happy Birthday Dr. King

Today is the day we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Known as one of the most famous members of the civil rights movement. He is mostly quoted for his “I have a dream speech.” In a time when racism was the blatant norm(as still it is today) in America, due to the treatment of how African Americans were treated Martin Luther King Jr. spearheaded a bus boycott that would go down in history as one of Americas most organized statements in a demand for fair treatment, and integration.

In celebrating Dr. King’s birthday I really can help but think, “how far really have we come?” Are we as African Americans really living out our lives as grateful legacies to the struggle of those who came and fought before us or if still here today would those people who fought for equal rights and equality for us be sorely disappointed? IN his speech Dr. King says “I have been to the mountaintop.” I am wondering if he visited that same mountaintop today how full would his valley be?

We interupt your styling broadcast to bring to you an important announcement!

This is a special service announcement going out on behalf of every hairstylist out there! I think I speak for us all when I say that many of us enjoy what it is that we do. For the most part we do the best that we can and give you the best service possible (there will be a “service post coming soon!). However we can’t mention the good without recalling the bad, the difficult and the impossible to our remembrance.

We have all had that one customer to come through our doors wanting us to pull out a Christ like miracle out of the sky. Especially! With weave, now any stylist with the ability to grant a good weave knows that either you can perform or you can’t either way the weave is going to tell on you. However you take the client on you go through the prerequisite elements and it’s time for them to hand over the hair they wish to have installed (some stylist have chosen to provide the hair to avoid this type of pit fall). They hand you the hair and in your mind you already know this is not going to go well as the brand is even off.

I am going to say this only one time in 2011 if you want the best weave installment, then you are going to have to do your part! For the best outcome please invest in a brand that has a great reputation. When making your appointment, dialog with your stylist on the brands the brands they prefer working with. When at the hair store advise your customer service rep that you want hair that works best with both ceramic, and Marcel irons. Your stylist is required to give you the best work possible, and by all means you are able to have a wonderfully installed weaved but it still look bad due to the horrible quality of hair you have chosen to invest in. Now in this recession the number of us who are able to purchase hair at $60(and up) per pack is very slim. There are some great brands out there at pocket book friendly prices that still yield you a sweet result!

As a stylist who deals with weave on a regular basis I can only speak on brands that I know, have, and do work best giving my installations maximum results!

Saga

Remy

Milky Way

Chocolate

Jaguar

Outré

Dream Weaver

Sensational (great for coloring blends)

Princess

Harlem

These are brands that I trust! I have been around the block more than a time or two and when all else fails I usually send my clients for these brands!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness!  The one thing that releases us from the negative situational tie to another in a form that is unhealthy for our being. It is the one element that has tested every human being on earth at least one time or another. Forgiveness is a part of life that not only frees us, but in many ways it testifies to our maturity.

It is safe to say that if you live on this earth, at some time or the other you will be tested with the mandate of forgiveness in some way shape or form, and if you have not yet then please! Keep on living! In my life I have experienced much and though much of it was wrong it would be easy for me to play the victim, however I choose to look back at life and declare! “It did not kill me!” In being honest I will say that it took some time to let things go and walk forward. You see in my mind at one time I thought forgiveness was simply moving on.

True forgiveness and the ability to move on do work together hand in hand, however you have truly forgiven until you can see the person for who they are and not what they have done to you. You are only able to move on after you have forgiven.  You can’t skip over in the process. I will admit that though I have had to learn to forgive, and have practiced forgiving often, I will say there are still times that I am challenged with the ability to do it.

The bible says to forgive for with the same measure you forgive others, you will also be forgiven. No matter how difficult you must always toggle through and forgive those who have trespassed against you, as if you don’t, you bind yourself to them and their action. Forgiveness not only allows you to let go but to also force the situation to let go of you with, out sowing seeds that would eventually cause you to birth bitterness.

Today choose to forgive, and let go, walk I this life freely, without being tied to the past! If we consistently think about the fact that we have done wrong and would like to e forgiven by those we have wronged, it makes it easier to forgive those who have wronged us!  

Loving An Artist

I would consider myself an artist. Anyone who has spent any time with a person who operates out of a continual creative flow will tell you the mind of arty or creative people can be rather complex and difficult to understand. I have seen many creative people retreat to the background of life due to a continual feeling of always being misunderstood. It is easy for them to disappear but reveal themselves through the gifts they have learned to master. Art is the creative expression of one’s heart and the finest most pure interpretive manifestation of the contents of one soul.

As a stylist it is also my responsibility to be a great counselor to my clients that I’ve had for years (some say that’s why they keep coming). As I prepared my lady for her service she began to  release to me personal things going on with her husband( a man I went to school with and who is a great undiscovered writer and musician)she stated that often times she felt as though she was not good enough, or could not compare to the music. She expressed to me how often times she longed to captivate her husband in deep conversation but always proceeded with caution as she stated “her husband’s mind was so diverse and intricate that she feared she may not be able to keep up.” She went on, and through conversation I discovered that she had began to tighten her grasp on her husband. Limiting his space, sitting in rehearsals, planning her life around his as her insecurity began to eat at her and it for a moment cause her to react in a way that seemed right.

This was something all too common, many of my other friends who have spouses or significant others stated like things about their relationships. In the beginning of my marriage my wife shared the same concerns. One statement she made very early was “It is difficult to compete with what’s in you.” I admit I wish at that time I had the right words to say as my other half longed to be number one over my gift. To be honest I must state that a real artist or being or thrives on any type of creativity may always be a challenge due to the fact that our emotions, our inner sight, our thoughts, our mind are almost always with that which we have thrived on derived from the true spirit of creativity. Yes! It’s expressed differently, some through song, some through painting, others through acting, the gift of dance etc. The thing is that art itself is the elevated form of expression that’s conveyed from heart to heart speaking one message many different ways.

In any relationship there must be trust set in order. Your connection with trust is one of the most important things to establish. Just as you spent time learning your significant other you must learn how to read them through the love that you share, and the connection you have. In any relationship the connection must be so strong that your heart beats with theirs, your mind reads theirs, it’s something developed but it’s something that aids you in times when things may become a bit challenging. Lastly as I explained to my client, you can never love anyone with closed hands, I explained to her the moment you began to treat their creativity as an opponent you set yourself up to fight a battle you will lose. As you must remember, that these gifts have been with these people for most (if not all) of their lives. They have learned to download thru them, grieve, process, and or simply live. In everything there must always be balance, and in every situation we must learn how to still feed through our creative needs and still support and meet the needs of our relationships.

Every relationship has its challenges, its ups and its down but always remember that life must have a greater need for you to be together doing more to affect positive change with each other as opposed to separate! I think in any relationship at times it may be difficult, however I feel as though with arty individuals it may be a bit more difficult as if you are a person who has established creativity as your first love(in any form) you feel divided between the two loves of your life. The gift you've always been able to count on. Or the person in your life that you have now promised to be there for forever. It’s hard on both parties however these are some of the individualized issues you face when entering into a monogamous commitment with an artist. I hope this helped someone today!

The Historical Prada Building in Milan

Ted Williams Encourages us to accomplish!

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Today was a rather interesting day for me; I came to the realization that no matter what I should and can never let go of what dreams and goals I have for myself.  At the the place where I decided it was over I was forwarded an e mail of "the homeless man with the golden voice!"

I read his story, I looked him up, I identified with the things I read and the things he said about himself. This man was honest about his life, he was grateful for whatever he could get in the form of help from passersby. What intrigued me most was his humility but I mean how can you be homeless and uppity (no offense). This man said he “prayed to God for one more chance.” In a time when the power of God is continually questioned, and the ability of prayers strength is continually talked about as something that needs to be proven, this man got an answer!

Who would have thought a reporter from the Columbus dispatch would have stopped by and changed this man’s life for the rest of it. Yesterday this man had nowhere to go and today it has been made official that he has signed on to be the announcer for the CAVS. Along with the job the man was given a house by his new employer. This man was so blessed with the opportunity of a second chance it is stated that various entities went into a bidding war for the gift this man has.

“The homeless man with the golden voice,” is living proof that strong faith supersedes factual doubt, and that your gift will indeed make room for you. This story screams to us that life never gives up on a person who has not given up on themself. I think what’s greatest about this story is the fact that through all the years this man was reunited with his mother. What a blessing! After years of living beneath who he is, he returns home to see his mother to show her how he has cleaned himself up and turned his life around.

This man gave me some hope! Many times we mistake “no” for “not right now” or we may be seeking something beneath what we are entitled to and until we get the vision for more it seems as though we live life stuck in/on pause until the moment clarity interrupts our current vision to take it on as the continual sight to see with. We are entitled to all the greatness we can believe for, through that it is promised that we can have success if we work for it!

Even in a world turned upside down, with a housing market systematically gone to pots I still believe in miracles! If a homeless man can come to himself miles away from home, still live on the street and survive to one day become one of the most sought after individuals on the face of the earth with millions viewing his viral video, to in turn to ink a promising job that he enjoys, land a home, and end up reunited with his mother.

Then I too can achieve that which I have set in my heart as a goal and a dream for my life. I hope that you all who dream, decide today to dream big, to live on purpose, and to execute to the best of your abilities, I hope that you understand that you in deed are the greatest miracle walking, talking, and breathing. If life had no use for you then it would do away with you, the mere fact that you are still breathing, and dreaming, proves that there is great need for you now! At this time!

I challenge you today to live your life maximizing your gift and your usage of it. Open up the box that contains your treasure given to you and work it!