Giving some Love to the Social Media Writers.

“A hairdresser who is a writer? That’s crazy!” That’s one of the tag lines I’ve seen written about me and I’ve even used the tag in my own pitch letters to media platforms to net additional comments and publicity for my writing. Additionally, I could use this tag line to add sparkle to articles I might write about many of my friends. All I’d have to do is take out the word, hairdresser, and replace it with “mommy,” or “tea peddler,” “refrigeration specialist,” “real estate agent,” or “environmentalist.”
We’ve all become writers. I believe it’s required of anyone who wants to succeed in business, whether you are an entrepreneur, a stay at home mom who wants to create a non-traditional revenue stream, or an employee who might be in a position to interact with customers via PR or social media.
I’m not going to tell anyone how to write or what to write. Because writing, for me, is mostly an artistic expression, when I have the time. The artistic writing is what I sell and what I would like to get attention for. It’s the “other” writing I want to talk about. It’s the writing and words we put together to get attention to sell our books, candles or TV shows and to “snare” new customers. We have all become writers; we write blogs, comment on each other’s websites and we tweet 140 characters--multiple times a day. Most of us use email and snail-mail to send our own press releases. I’m the only one who can keep up my personal informative & pithy Facebook updates. In this Information Age it’s key to keep the “content” going out “there” to keep our business in the minds of those people whom we are trying to reach and interact with.
This is a love letter to you, my fellow writers. Many times I get tired of blogging or writing press releases. I wasn’t born with a fondness for typing informational fliers to fellow staff members about book-signings or advice on how to be green. I do love to tweet. But it’s hard to keep it all up, isn’t it? Writing may or may not be a talent we possess. It may also not be our passion. Some of my friends are women with families & have a passion for children or tea. Or, like my friend, Mitch, has his own refrigeration repair business and loves specialty beers. And Lynne & Dr. Sarah have inspired passion for environmental issues. All of these people have businesses which encompass their passions and they also have blogs or books, and use Twitter and Facebook, to name a few, to make sure their business or passions makes them a good living. My hats off to all of us--just know that you are not alone.
I wish we could all hang out more, my writer friends and me. I think then that I wouldn’t feel so tired and alone in the writing that I do. For writing is a very lonely thing. We have to shutter out our friends and families, and even our goals and passions to do it. I want to hang out with all of you, have a beer, and tell you that I’m with you. Whenever you write, I’m doing the same thing. I feel glad to do it but it’s tiring and it’s not always my passion and I know I have to do it. I’m just like you and I know we all feel like we are juggling a million plates in the air to make sure our business, our voice, our books!, and all of our writings are heard, seen, and read. A hairdresser who is a writer? Yes. And sometimes I just want to be a hairdresser and sometimes I want to write books and write blogs. And sometimes I just want to know that someone else is out there doing the same thing as I am and that it makes you feel crazy too.
Please comment here if you like. Or you can tweet me up or even buy my book at www.mafiahairdresser.com
My first promo books will be signed and delivered by mid March! Whoo-hoo!
Love ya,
j-d

Drinks: Vegas Bombs & Lemoncello Martini

Vegas Bombs
Everyone in Chicago seemed to know what this shot drink was except for me. I had them at McGee's the very first time and then served them at New Years. Warning: What happens after you drink a Vegas Bomb may not remembered. "What happens in Vegas..." Get it? And I guess it's not so smart to mix Red Bull with Vodka. We drank them anyway and most of us stayed up til 3 in the morning playing charades. We forgot to open the expensive champagne everyone had brought. We forgot to toast to New Years. And two guys completely forgot that they invited us all over for brunch, Jan 1st. I'm just saying. In fact, don't drink Vegas Bombs--ever. They must be a health risk. But here's the recipe anyway.

1 highball glass full of Red Bull (about 1/2 a large can)
1 shot glass filled 1/2 Peach Schnapps & 1/2 Jack Daniel's Whiskey

Drop the shot glass in the Red Bull and drink up! Even people who don't like Red Bull like this stimulating mind-erasing drink.


Lemoncello Martini
I got this one off the Internet and I liked it and served it at an Italian themed night at a friend's house.

3 fluid ounces vodka
1 fluid ounce limoncello
1 teaspoon simple *syrup (I use half of what recipe calls for simple syrup. Too sweet for me otherwise.)

lemon twist
Directions:
Prep Time: 5 mins
Total Time: 15 mins
1 Fill a shaker with ice.
2 Add vodka, limoncello and simple *syrup.
3 Shake well and strain into oversized martini glasses.
4 Garnish each with a lemon twist.
5 Note: Simple *syrup is made by combining 2 parts granulated sugar with 1 part water. 6 Simmer, stirring, over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

Jon-David is the Mafia Hairdresser on JenChicago.com

Snowmeggedon Super Bowl Sunday.

Winter. Snowmeggedon. Super Bowl Sunday. For me, these are a few of the events that make me stop my doings and disrupt the planned-out timeline to my goals. I think these events actually become the true markers in my memory so I can always recall what I was doing when these events occurred.
I’ll always remember snOMG (that’s “Snow: Oh My God”) as the day ALL of my clients cancelled a day in advance. It will be one of the favorite days of my life where me and my partner watched 5 episodes of Dexter, played with our three dogs, and we spent hours doing our separate “homework” while watching the blizzard begin to hit us on TV which intensified our excitement while actually seeing it and hearing it pummel our high-rise and wreack havoc on the streets below.
The next morning I woke up to an incredible sight. There were 10 foot snow drifts against buildings and snow so high that only tops of street signs and half of bus stops were visible. There were no people that I could see and there was barely any indication that anyone had been up that morning or had ventured outside because only our building’s sidewalk had been shoveled and there were not a lot of footprints or dog prints in the 20 inches of snow. Moving cars were non-existent because the snow plows could not keep up with the pure white stuff that whipped down from the sky and blanketed the cars that were parked on the curbs. The few cars that were in the middle of the street were abandoned and covered by snow as well. You’d think the dogs would have loved running wild in the middle of our usually busy intersection without leashes, but our morning walk/play time was a little exhausting for them because the shallowest snow was up to their necks.
As the dogs and I came in from our first foray into our winter wonderland, we passed Lisa, and Tom, my next door neighbors (on either side) on our floor. Lisa looked exhausted and was telling Tom that she didn’t get home till 3.a.m. that morning.
In my head, I was thinking, jon-david, you do not have anymore time to waste! You have a book to publish, you don’t even know how E-books work yet, you have to call Billy Dec and Carrie Fisher to ask them to review your promo copy book, the spare room is not going to paint itself and your writer’s ass is going to be a fat-ass if you don’t get to the gym today. Seriously: I had stuff to do and I hadn’t done very much, the previous day, during the blizzard, including make money. My goal oriented mind needed to get back on track. But the little voice in my head that makes sure that I actually enjoy my life of “doing and accomplishing” made me stop & listen. This was going to be a once in a lifetime story that Lisa wanted to tell and I wanted and needed to hear it.
Lisa was one of the few Chicagoan’s that worked past 3pm on blizzard day because new boss at her new job ignored the three days of news pre-warnings that was to prepare us all for the blizzard that actually became the 3rd biggest storm that Chicago had ever seen. He was obviously a man who didn’t listen to his little happy voice in his head very much; work had to get done, regardless of the weather warnings, so he made his employees stay at work. When Lisa finally left work, she had the foresight to call the city’s transportation department to ask which route to take home to Uptown. They said for her to take Lake Shore Drive, the 40 MPH “highway” that runs along Lake Michigan: the same lake that that every news agency had been saying to stay away from because of possible 25 foot waves which would ice-up and stop all roads it would come in contact with.
Well, Lisa was one of those unlucky people who were imprisoned in thier cars for 10 hours. Luckily, she had enough gas to keep her car running and she was finally plowed out only to drive all the way home to find our parking garage closed in drift. Her car was one of the ones in the middle of the street abandoned that I saw that morning. Here’s a YouTube video. It’s says it all.
I grew up in Southern California. It’s sort like its own one-season continent held together by freeways and ambition and it is mentally sectioned off into only five areas: L.A. basin, San Diego, desert, Orange County and Magic Mountain. There is no winter there and there is never going to be a Snowpocalypse. So there is never a forced opportunity to put aside the to-do list. I actually moved to Chicago to become a writer. My life as a salon owner in Long Beach was wonderful but there was no down time. It was: wake-up, run on along the beach, go to work, teach a class, go to a cocktail party, chamber meetings… And since it was always sunny, that “surf’s up—gotta go” attitude is always with you and you are outside, in the water, on your motorcycle or playing with your dogs outside all the time! I need angst. I need to stop and reflect. And I need a little friction to write about. I know my Chicago friends complain about being over the winters here, but listen-up people: it takes stamina to be sunshine happy, go-go-go all the time. Do you think you’d ever stay indoors to watch 5 episode of Dexter, or write books and blog or watch football indoors when you could be sitting on your back porch barbequing all the time? Speaking of sports—forget about it. Everyone in So. Cal. is apathetic when it comes to sports. We lost the Rams because no one went to see them—everyone is too busy achieving and being outdoors doing activities. Very few people support sports team there because no one, except me, is really from there anyway, so nobody gets attached to them.
So, today it’s Super Bowl Sunday and I double booked myself. Do we go over to Lisa’s? Or do I go to my buddy Mike’s because I kind of told him that his Glee party was not what I really wanted to do today and I reminded him that it was Super Bowl Sunday--so he switched it to a Super Bowl party.
And it snowed again! After the dogs’ morning play-time in the new snow, I soon realized that I wasn’t going to make it to church or finish my book’s screenplay or get anything else on my to-do list done. There won't be any time to get to the gym because by the time I finish this blog, my partner and I will have to have breakfast and spend a few moments together, before I have to make my way to work to do that one client from Indiana I had to reschedule from Blizzard Day—and then it’ll be time to start drinking beer and watch the game.
I will get my book out to Chicago and the whole world will be able to read it--someday. But I’ll always remember the time I began publishing my book because I did it during the big storms and the Super Bowl of 2011. Thank you, Chicago, I love your winters and the Bears, and the Cubs and Sox and Blackhawks and all of your sports teams. You make me stop and enjoy my friends and neighbors. I love you all. Hmmm, maybe my Indiana client cancelled today? I have a phone call to make.

PS: Buy my book. Yeah: take time to read a good book and click here.

We are Green at Joseph Michael's Salon and Spa

I work at Joseph Michael’s Salon & Spa and we are green. At least, as green as we can be. There isn’t a certificate or green seal of approval we could apply for, but I think we would qualify if there was one for our industry. We are learning how not to pollute and to be more sustainable every day.
One of the basic and simplest of ways that we try to be sustainable is to recycle. We do a lot of hair coloring services in our salon which means that we throw away a lot of plastic hair color tubes/bottles and plastic developer containers. It would be criminal for any salon to not recycle these things. In Chicago, we have “single stream” recycling, which means that we don’t have to separate basics like plastic, glass, and aluminum. This makes it easy. In Cook County, every business is supposed to recycle, by ordinance, and any business not in compliance with a recycling program could be fined. Seeeee: Criminal!
Did anyone see Chris Rock’s film Good Hair? It’s a recommend and I bring this movie up because it’s about the human hair industry and how hair is “harvested” from the grower and then sewn into “weaves” and used as wigs, pieces and full heads of hair on other people. Talk about recycling! At Joseph Michael’s Salon & Spa, we sweep all the hair we cut off our clients’ heads and we collect it and ship it to Matter of Trust, which uses this hair to dredge and clean up oil spills. Our clients’ hair is getting a second life!
We use washable cloth towels and washable rag mobs for all clean ups, which lets us avoid using paper towels and that can add up to saves trees. At home, I always use cloth napkins and I take home old and holey towels from work and I used them for my own floors and mess clean ups. (I have three dogs!) If you need some rags, just ask us. We would rather them be reused than throw them away.
If you like Bumble and Bumble Products, shampoos, conditioners, styling product: you are welcome to refill your product bottles at our salon and receive 10% off your refill. (We suggest that you call first to make sure your favorite product is one that we have the product to refill.)
Since we do a lot hair coloring in our salon, we ask that our stylist avoid wasting product. We all use grams when measuring color. This actually helps. 160 grams seems like a lot of color, but if we were using 5.7 ounces, which is the same amount… well, it’s a mental thing and it helps us not to use too much and then waste and throw unused color away. Which is another thing: we NEVER throw excess color or any food products down the drains. We know that the Chicago water system is overburdened as it is and to add chemicals or food down the drains only creates more stress on the system to have to remove these things. All waste and chemicals get scraped out of bowls and gets thrown into the trash before things are washed again.
And let me introduce our latest and best green effort, INOA hair coloring by L’Oreal. First of all: it rinses clear when we shampoo it off a clients head after processing. This means less chemicals slide down the drain! AND this permanent grey defying product has no ammonia in it. INOA = Innovation No Ammonia! No ammonia means no smell and no irritation. (More and more clients are becoming sensitive to hair color and I wrote about all that last year.)
I’m jon-david and I’m proud to work at
Joseph Michael’s Salon & Spa
1313 N. Ritchie Court
In the heart of the Gold Coast in Downtown Chicago
Check out my co-stylist’s profiles & find the stylist for you.
Follow me @mafiahairdreser and Joseph Michael’s @mychicagosalon
and buy my book, Mafia Hairdresser at www.mafiahairdresser.com/
and Joseph Michaels Salon & Spa