About Me

I have been in the hair business for 24 years and have my own salon now for 2 years. I keep my place in LA in Beverly Hills where I still do hair as well. The main thing I do is hair extensions. As a colorist for L'Oreal and show stylist, this combined with hair extensions is a very good combination. I blend my color perfectly. My clients travel from Alaska, Bellevue, Redmond, Everette, Seattle, Tacoma, Puyallup, Oregon, New York, Gig Harbor, and all over to have me do their hair. I am also the fix-it girl, correcting hair cuts, over processed color, and malfunctioning hair extensions from other salons.

1984

I started beauty school when I was 16 years old. By the time I was 18 I was teaching as a "cadet" at the beauty school. I was a student instructor. I decided I needed salon experience before I could be an instructor at a beauty school.

It's been over 22 years that I've been in this business now. I worked for a few salons in Washington at first, but it wasn't enough.

1989

In order to follow my quest to be a great hairdresser, I moved to Las Vegas for 4 months, and then to California when I was 21 because I wanted to work in Beverly Hills. In 6 months I found an apprentice position with Salon Guiseppe Franco in Beverly Hills. Yes, I was an assistant after being a stylist. It was very humbling and a test for my attitude. At least 75% of new hires quit or were fired in the first three months. Giuseppe was a real hard ass back then. I love Giuseppe still. He is my neighbor and works down the street fromm me

When I worked for Giuseppe Franco (beware, this YouTube link contains adult language), 19 years ago, I realized that I really didn't know as much as I thought I did. They put me through the ringer and forced me to be a great hairdresser. I shampooed, applied color, did blow-drys, held the hair in parted sectioned while the stylists cut, sprayed the hair with water for them while they cut even. I held the foils on the head when they did a foil. I wasn't allowed to look away for a second or I'd get yelled out. I'll always love Giuseppe for kicking my ass. Classes every day, extensive hands on every week, color class after color class, different cutting techniques from Vidal Sassoon to Sebastion and everything every other stylist knew too. I met interesting people, had a lot of fun, and got in trouble too. It never ends.

Next, I could not pass up the opportunity to work at another great salon in Beverly Hills, Salon Cristophe. At that time, Cristophe has the highest price haircut in town, that I knew about. There, I worked for an Israeli hairdresser named Sami. He taught me the smoothest way to blow dry thick, frizzy hair into shiny silk.

1992

This year I went back to college at Santa Monica College part time and was working for Max in Westwood, LA. This is when I got my start in doing hair shows, hair for runway, concerts, exhibitions, beauty shows, model competitions, commercials, and more. Being involved in hair shows is my favorite. Here, I learned how to really whip up some nice hairstyles, updos and really fun things for the shows.

1994

The Northridge Earthquake knocks me out of bed January 17th, at 4:31am. By April I was back in the Seattle area where my family lives. I went through a drove of salons and went to college. I studied business, Multimedia, Fine Arts, Dance, Scriptwriting, Web Design, Animation, Sound Editing, and some other things and so on. I have a 3.8 GPA.

In May, 2003, I joined up with Lanza International as an educator. Lanza is a very nice line of shampoo and products that uses all natural ingredients and do not cook their formula. A bit later, L'Oreal swiped me away.

I was part of the L'Oreal Professionell Artistic Team. With L'Oreal, I was a color educator, teaching color and advanced techniques in salons. Also, I styled hair for the L'Oreal shows, had the opportunity to work with some of the best portfolio artists of all in the country, like Jo Blackwell owner of the Dop Dop salon in SoHo New York, Micheal McCune from Brassfields in Tacoma, Robert Dibartola from BC, and Carlo Novoa of West Hollywood, just to name a few.

Here are the L'Oreal National Sales Conference Pictures from January 2004 in Las Vegas.

2007

Now I own my own salon in the Seattle area, in Federal Way, WAshington. I also work one week every month in Beverly Hills, California and doing private clients in the Los Angeles area.

2008

My salon is just about finished with a complete makeover. It has 6 roomy private rooms, all new colors, floors, tile, and so on. The salon is private from onlookers or nosy hairdressers while you get your hair extensions done. It is going on it's second year in business. I'm looking forward to that.