Marco Pelusi here! Let's talk Friends With Benefits!

Nothing is more feverishly shaping and growing our industry than the rapid development of social media combined with online marketing – business owners and hairdressers, salons and spas, alike. Are you with me on this? I know you are. And, if not, you should be! This powerful marketing combination has the muscle to open doors, build clientele, create your persona, brand your identity, extend your brand, and increase your bottom line… with many initiatives being next to little, or even no cost… except your time, energy and effort.

“I just don’t think I’ll get actual clients from Facebook,” or, “I don’t think I will really build my business from Twitter.” If you’ve said or thought these words, trust me, you’ll live to regret them and/or you’ll be astonished when you have to eat your words because the exact opposite is just so very true! From Facebook to Twitter, to blogging to website marketing, to Linkedin and industry-specific social sites, your online friends and followers have big benefits that can help to catapult your success and theirs too! F.W.B. –Friends With Benefits!

So, colleagues and entrepreneurs… don’t underestimate the power of social media backed by strong online marketing. You may think it is all fun and games, but think again. Social media is literally a virtual networking and referral system online! It is its own world of opportunity, only online. And, it has certainly made a difference in my success, both from a public relations and a business standpoint.

First of all, start with a good website. Social media, blogs, etc., should all lead back to your place of business online. And, it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Even a brochure-style 1-2 page website created in WordPress or something similar will do. And, when leading people back to your website, be sure to offer them a place to submit their email address, should they long to be on your e-mailing list. The key to these media forums is to link them all to each other, creating endless opportunity for future marketing and long-term relationships and clients. And, from your website, you can then build a substantial email marketing list.

Meg hair! I know, the end of the world is coming and all that but if I'm going out I'm going out with a bang. I hope to come screeching up to the pearly gates, cocktail in hand wearing a fabulous pair of heels. I'm pretty sure God's not going to expect anything less from me. Let's hope it's God and not "Hello? Sheesh, is it hot in here or is it me?"

You all know I am a constant in my colorist's chair but I have found a new item that is helping me stretch those visits out. Seriously, if you don't believe me you can google it and read all of the buzz all over the web. My colored blonde hair has been glossy and shiny and vibrant. Would you believe at $9.00 a bottle, from the drugstore AND NATURAL for you greenies out there! Tadah!! Introducing Giovanni's Colorflage in Beautifully Blonde!

My color has not been fading like it usually does. Also, I have no idea if it has something to do with the actual shampoo and conditioner being a bright, vibrant yellow but it tames away any brass. The conditioner is super moisturizing and I like that it looks like two shiny gold bars in my shower. the fact that I got two of them for under $20 wasn't hard to take either.

I know you all love freebies and so I am sharing the Giovanni Hair and Body Care page on Facebook for you to like! We have some reviews coming up on their new D Tox line so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Stacy B here! Is there anyone in the country not experiencing crazy weather right now? I've been hearing of devastating tornadoes, droughts, rivers overflowing and tons of rain. I'm in the middle of the fourth day of a possible 10 day stretch of rain and solid-as-a-rock humidity. yuck.
 
Show of hands: Whose hair looks flawless in 90% humidity? Anybody? Nobody? I thought so. Humidity is hair's nemesis.  Some of us can work the humidity to our advantage with some heavy duty products, but not many of us. I happen to be able to get away with a little back-hand upside humidity's head, but it usually whacks me back after a few days. Humidity and I are frenemies at this point. I need a little humidity for some curl, but if I want straight hair, the air needs to be dry as a bone. Too much humidity, and instead of fun, bouncy curls, I have stringy waves. Pretty.
 
My hair is naturally wavy. And thick. And I have A LOT of it. So much that if I decide to color my hair, they usually need to double the amount of dye and even then sometimes the bottom pieces miss out on the color.
 
The good thing about that is that I can straighten my hair with a blow dryer and flat iron, or I can use some curl spray and a diffuser and it's pretty curly. So some people tell me I'm lucky that I have both options. But the other side of the story is that no matter what style I choose, I have to style it. I can't just shower and go. My hair doesn't 'air-dry'. I'm not kidding when I tell you if I let it air dry, the front half would be wavy, the middle would be lumpy and the bottom would be wet. ALL DAY. Once, I showered on a Saturday morning, went to the beach with my hair in a clip, took it out for some sunbathing, put it back in the clip at night and woke up the next morning and the underneath hair was still damp. 24 hours later. No joke.

Hi guys! Kosborne here!  I'm not a huge hairspray girl. It might have something to do with growing up back East. You either love it or you hate it. I've been in the latter camp. Yet I have always realized spray was a necessary evil...for other people. For me, I was content to allow my flyaways to happen and for bangs to fall into my face. Until the day my mom checked out a pic of me on Facebook and finally told me, "You have got to do something about your hair. You look homeless." It was those darned flyaways. And she was right, I looked a little like Ke$ha in the worst possible way. Long story short a friend turned me onto the Lacca from Oscar Blandi , which is sold by those lovely girls over at Lock & Mane. They recently reformulated the scent of the spray and it paid off. Instead of smelling all chemically and harsh, this spray smells like a jasmine floral bouquet.

Greetings all of you fabulous ladies! Jeanasina here! Are you ready to have some fun? Let's get started! Sometimes, something from the past can become something captivating in the present! I checked on Meg's website and noted that the product(s) I'm going to talk about today was reviewed here in April of 2006! Read it here! I thought we should talk about it all over again, 5 years later! Who's in? Who wasn't here in 2006?

Ok, how many of you on-line vixens just LOVE it when your hair is exceptionally silky and smooth! It's a great feeling right? You just want to continually run your fingers down strands of your hair because you love how nice it feels! Well...this week I have been constantly taking my hair in my fingers and twisting it! My husband actually said to me...” What's with the new habit of twisting and twirling your hair like a little kid all day long?” It's true...I can't stop doing that! I like the way my hair feels so much, that I can't stop touching it!

You're probably tsking and thinking "This woman is an obsessive compulsive!"... no, I'm not that, but my hair just feels SO fantastic!! Here's how that happened. Recently my dyed blonde hair has been feeling kinda BRITTLE! Brittle is not a word women associate with radiant, healthy hair! Am I right? So, I splurged and I decided to buy a product I used a loooong time ago. I remembered, that years ago, during one of the times that my hair got in really bad shape, I went to Ulta and discovered the Alterna CAVIAR Anti-Aging, Seasilk MOISTURE SHAMPOO and CONDITIONER!

Now let me tell you this, I also remembered that these two CAVIAR infused products were not CHEAP! At Ulta, they run about $34.00 EACH! Definitely out of my budget for shampoo and conditioner! But we are talking about MY hair! If my hair looks really GOOD, it makes me smile! Plus, I have observed that your hair speaks to the people who are looking at you! Sometimes just looking at your hair tells people without words if YOU are having a REALLY GOOD or a REALLY BAD DAY! Sometimes you just need to go all out for the care and nurturing of your hair! I look at it like this...my hair has been good to me for all these years so, it deserves some extra pampering now and then!

Alright people! How many of you out there have used OVER-THE-COUNTER-HAIR-COLOR before! I'm betting a HUGE amount of the Meg empire who read reviews here HAVE used or... 'gasp' ARE currently using OTCHC! How many times have you read on this website that it's a BAD idea to color your own hair! That's right! It's not ever recommended but...WE STILL DO IT! Sing with Jeanasina...”Ain't no mountain high enough...to keep me from coloring my own hair!”

I have been coloring my hair since I was out of high-school and ladies...I graduated from high-school in 1966! Read it and SHUDDER!~ I'm having the dry heaves just writing that fact!~ My point, however, is that I have put MY hair through the mill over the years! It's almost shocking! If I were to make a documentary of every insanity driven hair color story I ever experienced...well it make for one incredibly long and appalling you-tube video! I have been fortunate because apparently I have good hair genes! I have survived many hair apocalypses!

I think I have tried pretty much every brand of hair color out there that is in one way or another purchased over a counter! Keeping that in mind, you should be aware that I STILL am ALWAYS on the prowl for a new hair-color product because I constantly believe that there STILL has to be SOMETHING, yet to be discovered, that is going to be BETTER than any of the over-the-counter-hair-coloring-products I have used so far!

Which leads me to today's presentation! How many of you shop at Sally Beauty? I'm guessing that around the globe there are Sally Beauty stores in most of your areas! If you are familiar with Sally's you know that it's a FUN place to shop for hair products! Recently I felt the need to browse Sally's and see if there was something in the store that I could use to do my roots. My roots are constantly screaming “People can see us!” My regular favorite at Sally's is Clairol's Professional Coloring Cream which contains Soy Complex! I love that stuff but it fades too fast!

Meg hair! Sweetassgal wrote a humdinger of a glowing review on Neil George Salon's Indian Gooseberry Treatment Oil where she says "is a flat out killer product!  I have lots of experience with different types of hair oils, treatments and serums and I know what works for curly hair as well as straight.  I've oddly enough been on both sides of that coin so I can comfortably work with either hair type and can attest to the attributes and hurdles of both.  This is a product that has them both covered brilliantly!"

I need to chime in here and say that I have thin, stick straight hair that is oily at the roots and suffers from dryness due to color treating. I use Neil George Indian Gooseberry Treatment Oil everyday when I get out of the shower. I use a dime sized amount and just run it through my ends. I works like you're giving a protein shake to your hair. My ends blow-dry smooth and even though I like to smooth things out with a flat-iron, no one is the wiser to any heat damage. The good thing about only having half a damaged head (forget about the brain damage-not counting it for this post.) Is this bottle is in my daily grab, it has been for weeks and I haven't made much of a dent in it!

I have distributed this golden gooseberry to many Meg Heads and from the initial opening where they go crazy "Oh, my gosh, wow! Does this smell absolutely amazing!" From the calls I get a few days later "I love that gooseberry oil, my hair looks so good!" This product is fast becoming a "holy grail" hair item. I'm not alone in my findings. All over the web woman are buzzing about this!

Sure they're are woman buzzing but what woman are actually frequenting the Neil George Salon? Oh wait, I've heard of them. Just your run of the mill Reese Witherspoon, Renee Zellweger, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Kristen Durnst. Word on the street is that Courtney Cox runs in before all her red carpet events! Yawn. Those D-Listers!

Sweetassgal here sitting on pins and needles waiting for spring to arrive.  I love winter...I always have.  But for some reason I'm especially anxious to see winter gone and spring happily settled in to my home and my garden.  I began spring cleaning this weekend throwing open windows for fresh air and am ready to prep my garden for baby seedlings of basil, sweet tomato and cool cucumber.  I'm ready for a fresh start and a spring rebirth.  That takes care of my home and my little patch of earth...now what about taking care of me?
 
I've decided to dedicate March to the rebirth of my face.  I need it and I deserve it.  For the first time in my life I'm starting to see signs of my age reflecting in my face and not just in an occasional laugh line here or there.  Nothing hugely grotesque...I'm not exactly storing small change in there or anything.  But the little signs are adding up to bigger one's and I'm going on the defensive.  I have at my disposal something from Meg that I'm dutifully testing to battle my exposed capillaries on my cheeks which will take some time to review properly.  I'm also getting back to my own advice of making sure I NEVER go to bed without washing my face and going back to weekly facials.  I know now, more than ever, that as you get older you have to earn continued good skin...it isn't a given as it is when you are young.  So I'm prepared to go back in to the trenches and start fighting the good fight once again.  And I'm armed with an ingenious little weapon to help me in my quest for a youthful glow.  My Tassi.  

Have you ever sat before a mirror with a new beauty product and thought..."Why didn't I think of this?".  I know you have because I've done it so many times I shudder to think what riches might have been mine if I had only taken needle and thread to fabric and created something as divine as the coveted Tassi.  For those of you who know the Tassi needs no introduction.  For those who haven't met with its acquaintance...let me introduce you.
 
Simply put, the Tassi is nothing more than a funny looking fluffy headband made of terry cloth and secured with elastic on two sides.  Sounds pretty standard right?  Well it's not.  What's ingenious about it is the extra room given between the elastic, especially in the area for the back of your head, to softly cradle and support your hair.  It's the answer to any woman's problem with long hair and a need to keep it from slipping down in to your sink when washing your face.  It's a familiar scene, right?  A headband is used to keep your bangs back and then a clip or ponytail is used to sweep back your hair.  If your hair is long enough even that won't keep it back.  Enter here the mysterious Hunchback of Notre Dame disappearing pony tail act.  The pony tail is bunched up and tucked under the back of your shirt causing that odd looking hunch back bump but that is what is necessary to keep your hair from sliding forward as you wash your face and splash it with water.  All of these woes and a full three step process is simplified and solved by the Tassi.

Meg here! I'm sure this will be hard for many of you to believe, but, I can be impulsive-shocker, right? I have the greatest hair colorist in the world Marco Pelusi and I know I should never dye my hair myself. Remember the video of the last time I tried that? Not pretty. Cost hundreds to fix. Did I learn my lesson? Of course not!

Under the harsh, fluorescent drugstore bulbs I caught a glimpse of my grey roots. They're really almost silver at this point and no, I don't want to leave them, so let's not even start that dead end conversation. I had a date later on in the evening, the worst thing I could do to this man was make it appear that I was actually age appropriate for him! This is L.A. there are few worst insults...

Like a raccoon drawn to a shiny object I was drawn to a hot pink box (you're welcome marketing exec's everywhere.) It also helped that all around the Clairol Color Blend Foam display were signs screaming "NEW!" ...

It was on. I threw caution to the wind and color "light blond" box in my basket. A foam? 100% grey coverage? A pink box? New? My God, I had to try it. So I did!

Here are my findings. At first I was a little confused how the pump contraction worked. I added the mix exactly like we do in standard hair dyes. The only difference is there is not a nozzle top. A pink dispenser is on top. This confused me. I added the mix. I shook it until it looked all foamy in the bottle and then I could not figure out how to dispense it. I never found a button on top. My technique was too squeeze the side of the bottle, not pump the dispenser itself.
This maybe the correct technique because it worked great!

Here is what I loved! I loved the fact that it was not a drippy liquid. I can't tell you how many counter-tops, bathroom doors, towels and bathmats I have left with black/purple dye spots. Like you've never done that?

Stacy B here! Oh Garnier...you're really making this tough for me. I WANT to like your products. Really! And I want to be able to write witty, fun, entertaining posts about how great your products are and how much I can't wait to use them every day. I want to encourage faithful Megheads to use them because they'll make you brighter, less frizzy, more awake, smoother, younger, more glamorous...
 
But I can't.
 
I'll be nice though. I'm a nice person and I don't want to go around bad mouthing a company that does have some pretty dedicated followers. It's bad internet karma. :) So I'll tell you why this next product didn't work for me and you can draw your own conclusions.
 
I have medium to light brown hair that gets lighter in the sun. It's always been like that, I was blond until I was about 6 or 7 years old and then it gradually got darker. June through August lightens it up and I usually highlight once in fall and once in early spring to even it out until the sun could work its magic again. Recently, I decided I needed a change. I went darker. My hair is now a really dark chocolate without the reddish undertones. And I love it! So, of course, I want to protect it from fading.
 
I've been trying Garnier's Color Shield Instant Color Sealer Lightweight Leave-in Conditioner.
 
It promises to seal in color for longer-lasting vibrancy while improving manageability and delivering lasting softness. Nope, nope and nope. To be fair, I have VERY thick, wavy hair so it takes a lot to make it 'manageable'. I usually use a frizz-fighting or smoothing shampoo, conditioner and smoothing cream, plus a round brush, a professional grade hair dryer and I occassionally use a flat iron. A simple leave-in conditioner isn't going to do much for me.