What I'm "Worth"

I've had the chance to work with the Detroit Glam Squad as a hairstylist now for a few months.  I love it!!  The girls I work with are amazing artists in their own right, and it's a lot of fun to share a creative vision with someone and then execute it.

This past week I've had the opportunity to work with two brides.  And WOW--I don't think they could be any more different!!

The first bride was a joy!  She was a little indecisive at times, but whenever dealing with a bride, you expect that.  They want their big day to be perfect.  We had the opportunity to do hair and makeup for her, her mother, and her entire bridal party.  They were a blast!  Everyone was upbeat, positive, trying to make sure that everything went perfect for the bride, and extremely appreciative of our skills so that they too, could look awesome on the bride's big day.  I'd do these ladies again in a heartbeat!

Bride number two has been a different story.  She's been all but non-responsive until the last minute for absolutely everything.  I'd sent an email three days prior to confirm the trial date and didn't get a response until FOUR HOURS before the trial was supposed to happen.  Then, after the trial, there was a dispute about prices.  Mind you, I sent the bride a copy of our contract about three weeks in advance.  Over a month before that, I gave it to one of her bridesmaids, who was the original contact.

Apparently nobody read it.

We charge $65 for bridesmaids, $75 for the bride.  I did research before setting these prices because I wanted to be competitive and fair.  These costs match what people in this area pay to get their hair done in a salon--except if you hire us, we travel to you.

Turns out the bride was given slightly lower prices originally.  She'd been told $50 for bridesmaids, $65 for the bride.  No big deal, I can work with it.  Because she'd had my contract for about three weeks and didn't bring the discrepancies to my attention until the day of the trial, I did feel she was trying to bully me into lower prices, but I wasn't going to abandon her because of it.

It gets better...  Alongside both sets of the prices, we offered a 15% discount due to her party size.  Somehow, the math was done wrong and she'd told her bridesmaids we were charging $33 post-discount.

Let me see.... $50 x .85 = $42.50.

Maybe it was $50 x .15?  Nope.  That's $7.50

Did she do $50 - $15?  Hmm... still comes to $35....

Uhhhh........  I have no idea how it got to $33.

So now I've got a non-appreciative, cheap bride who wants me to work for LITERALLY half price because of her mathematical error.  I explained that I'd have to have her sign the contract at full price, because that's what we charge, but I would talk to the girl who originally gave her those prices and if there was a reason behind it, we might honor them.  She signed, wrote a check for the deposit, and I headed home.

When I called back later that day to explain the pricing options that I could let her pick from (NOT $33), she told me that she's not sure everyone is still going to want their hair done and that the number of people in the party may shrink due to the price.

Excuse me?  You JUST signed a contract.  Did you not read ANY of it?  There's a number of things that you should have paid attention to, but the biggest would be this one:

1. You are liable for the full amount on the contract, once signed.  (The only time this would be swayed is if we feel we've messed something up and want to make amends by lowering prices.  I was clear in saying that we MIGHT lower them.  Not that we would.)

Did I mention that this is a party of 11, and that both myself and the assistant I've hired are taking a Saturday off at Nordstrom (which is frowned on because it's retail) to do this wedding?  Did I mention that I'm paying the assistant?  Did I mention it's 45 minutes away?  Did I mention the bride's disorganization/non-responsiveness has been a pain in the butt?  Did I mention she wants me to stay for an additional two hours so that I can give her a second undo before the reception? (Which I had agreed to do for free before the price conversation came about)

I'm frustrated and I feel bad that she's gotten herself in this predicament, but I'm pretty sure it's not my fault.

Anna

This past weekend I was working at Nordstrom, like usual.  I had made a bunch of really cute foundation samples and was handing them out in the aisles when my manager pulled me to the floor and asked me to help a customer who was searching for a good foundation.

Of course, I happily took on the task, since matching people in foundations is one of my favorite things to do--right up there beside giving people complete makeovers.  There is an artistic aspect to doing this that requires a keen eye for color, and my eye seems to have developed quite well in that area.

My customer's name was Anna.  I've helped her find a mascara before, but hadn't ever had a chance to sit down and talk with her for more than a couple of minutes.

Anna is a beautiful Philippino woman.  Her natural hair color is a soft charcoal that fades in the popular ombre style toward a mid-level caramel brown on the ends.  It lands a little past her shoulders and I've noticed she likes to wear it curled in a wave.  Her eyes are a deep brown that glint gold when the light hits them, and you can tell by their shape that she smiles quite a bit.  Her skin has a strong gold tone with very few imperfections, which I found amazing once I learned about the last few years of her life.  Most people wear their stress on their face.

Before you start thinking I'm a creeper, know that these are the things I pay attention to when I'm searching for what color to use on people.  I can tell you these details about almost any person that I've put foundation on.  I'd probably also be able to recall the depth of color and thickness of their brows, if they had any distinguishing marks on their face, and if they had strong cheekbones or not.

Somehow we got on the topic of cancer.  I think she thought I'd noticed her scar on her neck.  Being someone who has a scar from cancer, I can tell you that sometimes I'm self-conscious of it and sometimes I think people notice it.  Oddly enough, though, I don't usually recognize them on others.  I mean, I'll notice them, but my mind doesn't stop and think, "This person has a scar.  I wonder what it's from?"  I guess I my assumption is that everyone is scarred, but only some of us have them on the outside whereas others carry them only on the inside.

Turns out she's had thyroid cancer.  She was diagnosed a few years ago and has been through several surgeries and multiple rounds of radiation.  Her journey has been long and difficult.  During one of her surgeries, one of her laryngeal nerves was clipped, and consequently, her right vocal cord is now permanently paralyzed.  Did I mention she's a professional singer?

At one point, she was completely unable to speak, or even whisper.  In her book, My Lipstick Journey Through Cancer, she talks about how she had to grieve the possibility of not being able to sing again.  Possibly ever.  However, she's been in therapy for quite some time now, working on restoring strength to her working vocal cord so she can continue singing.

Every time she's visited the cosmetic counters at Nordstrom, Anna is always smiling.  Always.  I was thinking about it while reading her book, and I hope that I have a positive effect on people like she does.  I hope that I am a little ray of sunshine for people who meet me on a daily basis, that I smile, and that people feel a little more cared for and respected because they met me.

***Update, 3/16/13: Anna isn't doing so well now.  It is believed that the cancer is coming back and has spread to different areas, but she has no insurance to pay for a PET scan that would reveal more.***

Who Says You Can't Blog At 1 AM?

Things have been looking up rather quickly!

I've been spending the past week reading articles and doing research about what it takes to run a successful business and how to advertise to your niche clientele.  One thing in particular that I kept seeing was that a company should have an internet presence.  In this day and age, it seems that everyone wants to meet the digital you before they spend time investing in getting to know the real, live you.

Okay.

So I started doing research on how to create website, see if domain names are free, buying domain names, etc...  Turns out that Intuit is doing something fabulous for the state of Michigan.  Any small business owner can get a domain name (provided it's available) and a website setup for FREE.  Of course, this offer only lasts for the first year, but even so, if it serves it's function, many small businesses won't mind paying for the subsequent years because the revenue it helps create should severely outweigh the cost of the site.  And if it's not making money... well... I'd probably drop the site and start over.  Or reconsider whether entrepreneurship was my thing.

Anyway, I long story short: I am now the excited owner of www.ashleyhinton.com!  (It's up and running if you want to check it out!)

I had conducted a survey toward the end of last year asking for the public's opinion on what a good website name would be, but I am reserving that one for when I have the ability to invest more into freelance wedding work again.

Additionally, I have an interview at Nordstrom for a Cosmetics/Fragrances position on Thrusday.  I'm very hopeful that this is where God wants me.  Because I want to be there.

We'll see what all of this brings, but so far the results have been lots of excitement and Isaac receiving less of my attention than normal because I've been learning the in's and out's of the software for the website design.

He is so sweet.  Right now he's sitting at the table, decked out in his latest Parilexx gear.  He gets so excited to wear it because the company is run by one of his former track members--and because the shirts are SUPER comfy!  I think he looks quite handsome in them.  They hug his biceps very nicely.

That's it for the night--rather, the early morning update!  We hope you have an awesome weekend!

Sometimes It's Okay To Be A Creeper

Yesterday was crazy.  And by crazy, I mean intense.

The morning started off with me being so excited to job hunt.  I was optimistic about the possibilities, full of energy, and planning on making appearances at the stores since it seems that filling online applications out does close to zero good.

I called stores ahead of time to verify that they were hiring, did a few follow-up calls for some positions I'd previously applied for, and then took a shower, put my face on, and headed out the door to for some face time with prospective employers.  I applied at Teavana and Jimmy John's in person, and then both Lucy's Activewear and Bare Escentuals asked me to fill out the online applications and assured me they actually check them.

Regardless of how excited I was when I started, it didn't take too long for me to start feeling down-in-the-dumps.  I'm a 24 year-old intelligent college graduate who has years of supervisory work experience (not to mention some pretty good life experience) and here I am, running around competing with kids still in high school for jobs that pay slightly above minimum wage.

Welcome to Michigan, folks.

I've moved from the land of milk and honey to the dang desert.  I feel like surely manna has to start falling from the sky sometime... right?

To top it off, something, somewhere along the line triggered my homesickness.  Maybe it was running around town for a few hours and not seeing a single familiar face.  Maybe it was the song on the radio that Ike incessantly listens to.  Or maybe it was calling Jessica for a pep talk and realizing that no matter how hard I wished, she was still a ten-hour drive away from giving me a reassuring hug.

Either way, I started to cry on my way home from the mall.  And I was still crying when I got home.

I think Isaac thought there was something terribly wrong because I'm not sure that I've ever returned to the apartment from anywhere (except Iowa) in tears.  He was trying to figure it out and I told him it was my job search but thankfully he's insightful enough to know there was more to it than that.

He let me calm myself down a little bit while we talked.  Or rather, I cried and he sympathetically stared at me.  I finally thought I'd maybe beaten my tears when my phone rang.

It was my mom.  She apparently has awful timing.

So... off to bed I went, tears starting fresh again while Isaac graciously answered the phone for me.  He came in later to check on me, hugged me and snuggled me for a bit, and then left me to sleep it off.

Later on that night I was hanging out on Facebook being a creeper, like everyone on Facebook is, and all of the sudden, a chat box popped up on the lower right-hand side of my screen.  It was the homemade baby wipes girl.  Name: Lindsey Taber.

We had the opportunity to chat until I could barely hold my eyes open anymore and lots of cool things were revealed along the way.  Let me just brief you on it.

For starters, she is a fellow Iowan.  That in itself is huge.  I love Iowans.  Secondly, her husband is in the medical field.  He is doing his residency at Henry Ford Macomb, which is where Isaac will be doing his round starting June/July-ish this year.  Again, lovely.  Next, she loves God.  That is bigger than the other two combined, so far as pluses go.  And yes, it CAN get even better.  We started talking about church and guess what?  They go to the same one we do!  At the same time!!  And then I was creeping on her profile even more after we quit talking, and realized she went to TSPA too!

The random conversation I creeped on that instigated said random message.  I was originally creeping because her baby looked exactly like the daughter of the family I interviewed for on Saturday.

Gravy sakes!!  Can it even get any better?  I'm not sure that it can!

The entire time we were chatting I was sitting, staring at my computer completely enthralled.  I was beaming from ear to ear and probably looked like a fool and occasionally Isaac would look over and giggle at me because I was giggling for absolutely no reason, other than the fact that I was SO happy God sent another Christian female my way.  Or rather, He momentarily provided me with the balls to randomly message someone I had Facebook creeped on simply because they lived close and were from Iowa.  Regardless of how you want to look at it... I was giddy!

Around midnight I went to bed, completely emotionally wasted.  I felt like a tractor had dragged a field cultivator through my brain and my body was just as tired from our intense week at the gym so I knocked out pretty quick.  And I'm pretty sure I slept like a rock.

I am incredibly thankful that I have a Father above who so graciously looks out for me when I can't hold myself together any longer.  I was bursting last night because He lovingly provided me with another friend when I felt like a single paint drop in the chaos of an original Jackson Pollock.

My heart is smiling.