Dancing Flathone in Oklahoma

Thought you would enjoy the video of the dancing flathone. We encountered this phenomena in Oklahoma when we stopped to train a new Scimech sharpener. Previous he had purchased a flathone off Ebay. The low torque and light weight created this great entertaining machine. I could actually stop the wheel with my arthritic fingers with the machine running at 70%.

Here is a fun photo of Diane Ducas of Seattle at the Sharp N Shop in Las Vegas and Bobby of Hawaii receiving training. The west coast sharpeners know how to have fun.

Road Home

Days Off? Nope! When we get home we hit the ground running. There are 3 trainings scheduled for the first week I am back. However, we will try to get some sightseeing in on the road home. We have already visited Meteor Crater, Fremont Experince and RedRock Canyon. Today we plan to drive throught the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert on the drive home.

Las Vegas International Hair Show Update

The 2009 IBS Las Vegas Show was up around 5% over last year. Sharpening sharply increased (no pun intended) and shear sales were up. Sales of combs, razors and misc was down, but primarily because we sold out of our most popular items at the Premiere Orlando Show.

Nikita Smith's haircutting class was full. I uploaded the photos as promised to the slide show on the left of this page. You can also access the photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/LasVegasInternationalBeautyShowJune2009?feat=directlink

We trained 3 sharpeners while here, two by me and one by Tim Lau. New trainees were from New Mexico, Washington and Hawaii.

Report on Premiere

Premiere Orlando was our all time best hair show in our two decade history. What recession?? Not in this industry. This is the second show in a row up over 40% over previous years.

Check out the photos from the Premiere show on the left of this page.

These are the photos from our road trip. http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/RoadtripJune2009?feat=directlink

Show is over! Vegas here we go! Will upload Premier Orlando pics soon.

In Orlando. Set-up for the show is tomorrow. Carissa is holding down the fort.

We got a new awesome patented shear in this morning before we left. Right in the nick of time. We are calling it the Croc-o-Dial. The pivot screw is a dial to adjust the amount of hair removed. 15%, 25% or 35% Yes it's hard to imagine. I don't have photos yet, but we will have it at booth 5444 at the show.

ROAD TRIP

Begins tomorrow. Orlando to Vegas back to Atlanta.

A New Method of Sharpening

I wanted to share with all you Scimech Shear Sharpeners who sharpen on the side a new grip on the Scimech clamp.... it's the Johnny Cash Grip.

We came up with this name not because the hold is as bright and simple as music in the country, but because a new sharpener named Johnny Cash cam up with this hand positioning.

When Johnny came for sharpening training, yes I admit, I was perturbed that he had not watched my fabulous collection of DVD's. He tested out as I expected as a hands-on learner so I let him jump right into sharpening rather than demonstrating. He grabbed the Scimech, repositioned it and came up with this hand positioning. (See the new position followed by the old position)

The Johnny Cash grip takes care of the one drawback of side sharpening over upright sharpening. Side sharpening can be slower because it is harder to see the burr come up on the edge. When positioned like the picture and the light is brought down close to the wheel, it is easy to see the nicks disappear and the burr come up speeding up sharpening. I tried this grip at the Bronner Show. With my arthritic hands, I found this position not only easy on my hands but a faster method. I normally don't sharpen at shows because the arthritis in my thumbs slows me down. I was able to easily keep up with the steady sharpening. I had to modify Johnny's grip. My left hand also held the clamp rather than the arm as in the photo but having the plate at nearly right angles to my body was an advantage. One hint, don't sit directly down wind of the wheel unless you want to get dirty. I was dressed up for stage work and stayed relatively clean during my work. I also used a color stain remover from the beauty supply to quickly clean my hands without a trip to the sink. James Lanier uses a pink scented alcohol he buys at Sally to clean his shears and his hands. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to.

It was so nice to have so many Bonika Shears to sharpen at the show. At least 1/2 of the shears we sharpened at the show were Bonika. Bob and Jim sharpened about 4 each and I did the rest. Hardest to sharpen? The Bonika Baby. The blade is so tiny and must be sharp enough for slithering on dry hair, but they must be strong for cutting on dry hair. We didn't sell too many of these because they are out of stock until next week and we didn't promote them. However, I think all the platform artists at the Bronner Show had these shears.

Baltimore Bronner Brothers Show - Updated

The Bronner Brother's Baltimore Hair Show was everything we expected it to be! There were some great platform artists and some like Belinda Baker who was working with FHI. Shows are great for making new friends and seeing old friends. Belinda was one of the directors of the Olympic Hair Salon in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Another Olympic Hair Salon stylist was working at our booth, Dondi Martin. Dondi is extraordinarily gifted with hair extensions. He was demonstrating at our booth along with his assistant Rekeemah. Rekeemah will be assisting us in Orlando as well.

Nikita Smith's class, the Aristo-Cut was packed. She showed the new cut called Floetry. The package of shears including two texturizers, a curve, the Fishbone and the Phat Shear created a remarkable haircut. The partings are in the slideshow at the left of the show. If you click on the slideshow you can go to the site and printout the pics. Nikita's cut was so beautiful, edgy but classic. She cut it it two different lengths on Sunday and Monday so everyone could see. She shared her story of her recent brush with cancer and God's hand in her life.

I heard Leah Watson's class on Sunday was full, too. I love Leah's new dramatic fashions she has been wearing to the shows. I can see the joy on her face and the way she dresses. She loves teaching and giving back. What a privilege it must be to be a young stylist mentored by Leah.

Bob and Elaine Gorman of Rhode Island were there. Bob was just recently trained and was not going to sharpen at the show, however, 2 barbers spotted him and decided he look more competent than me or Jim Lanier (sharpener from south Florida) and insisted only he should sharpen their shears. So we let him. And he did a great job! Bob, Elaine and Jim were such great and enthusiastic workers.

Top selling shears were the Fishbones and Jazzys. The package deals and show sales are available 30 days after the show and we even sent out 5 shears and one of Nikita's DVD's to a stylist in Maryland who took advantage of that.

Northeast Sharp N Shop Report

The Sharp N Shop in North Bergen became a combo meet n greet for sharpeners and a training.l Here is Ed Wozniak of Ultimate Edge, Chapel Hill, NC with a private training for three new sharpeners while we (Gene and Bonnie) conducted the Sharp N Shop in the meeting room downstairs. Like usual, everyone came and went throughout the day. Each had a specific thing they wanted to see, learn or buy and conducted their business, chatted with whoever was there and went their way. It's like a fluid open house and makes it easy for everyone to get complete undivided attention. I was really fascinated by Mr. Lee of Long Island who is an accomplished nipper sharpener and was wanting to modernize and update his equipment. I took some photos of his current sharpening equipment which he had made himself and installed in his mini van.

Big Joe Caladorci (I think I misspelled his last name) came by and Gene insisted I take his photo next to Joe so he would look small.

See all the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/NortheastSharpNShop2009?feat=directlink

New York International Beauty Show 2009

It's the first day of the IBS New York Show and as always there's an energy that is uniquely New York. Our Sunday sales were about what 2007 was, but not as good as 2008. This may be due to the economy or the booth location. The sharpening was about the same number, but so many people used our 2 for 1 coupon that the overall sharpening income was down. Ed Wozniak did a superior job of sharpening and Robin was great with her stylist expertise. Our poor little mannequin was so chopped up today, I don't know if anything will be left for Tuesday.

Days 2 and 3 were dollar-wise about the same as Sunday. All in all with the economy and threats of swine flu, it was a successful show... so much so we are signed up for next year. We will be in about the center of the show (the floor plan will change). In the past we have always chosen the right side of the show, but have been moving more toward the center in the past year. We felt in the past the right side by the ladies rest room made us easy to find. Now, we have such a following and directions to our booth listed on our website that we seem to be better located in the middle. It is always hard to guess because of last minute changes on the floor.

Did we see anything new? I was impressed with Dave Ray's fantasy hairstyles. They add fun and glamour to any show. I think fantasy hair allows for ultimate creativity and challenge that allows stylists to push themselves. The brain slap from this creativity boost can influence their ordinary everyday haircuts making them less than ordinary.

This was the easiest in and out ever for the New York show. The traffic once outside the show was gridlock but not much worse than I-85 in Atlanta at rush hour even though 8 and 12 lanes of traffic have to merge in to two for the tunnel. The last day of the show ended at 5PM and we were back in our hotel at 6:30. That was break down, pack up and drive through the tunnel. Sweet!

All kinds of drama with sick and injured grandchildren while we were gone, so it was good to be away. Gene and I love these road trips but are glad to be home. Ed Wozniak is really a delight to have around. Thank you for all your help Ed!

The Day Before the IBS New York Hair Show

Our booth #1644 is set up. We are near a number of shear companies and between the entrance and the main stage. Unlike last year, we have 1 instead of 2 booths this year. Ed wanted to work with us instead of running his own booth. He and his daughter Robin will be working with us tomorrow. We took Ed to our all time favorite restaurant, Segovia in Moonachie, NJ for a late lunch, early dinner. You need time to digest before bed time. Notice the quantity of food on the table. Ed had a garlic and red pepper cover pork chops, Gene a huge bacon wrapped filet mignon and me, my favorite that I order everytime I go a seafood pialla. Lobster, clams, shrimp, calamari and more in a light seasoned safron rice base. Did I mention the bread is crisp on the outside and soft, yeasty and finely textured on the inside.

Tune-Up Clinic

I forgot to take photos at the Tune-up clinic, but everyone said it was worth their trip and they got out of it what they needed. There was a lot of interest in nipper sharpening which they got to practice and Jay demonstrated the two methods of lefty sharpening and curve shear sharpening. I let Jay do the curved shears because he is so much better at sharpening the curve shears than me since he has had more practice and much better hand and eye coordination than me. Everyone had better hand and eye coordination.

I'm looking at a hectic next few weeks. Hair shows, Sharp N Shop, and several trainings. I've designed two new posters for the upcoming shows that are being printed now to ship to our hotel in New York. Yikes... just thought about grommets.... I better come up with a way to hang them!

Yes, it's 4 in the morning if anyone notices. I woke up and remembered I hadn't blogged in a while. Gene was at a small hair show in downtown Atlanta Sunday night and made a whopping $20.00! It was a low risk venture and we both thought it was not time wasted because he made some contacts and saw some people that could translate into something and we also supported one of our customers who was hosting the show. He was really tired yesterday as was I so we both went home early after the Tune-up Clinic and I took a short nap and we walked around the lake here with the dog. So that may explain why my body things it's morning.

Kuda - San Francisco

Gene and his brother Harry are at the Kuda Certification in San Francisco this week-end. Harry is supposed to be taking photos for me to post. I will also let you know who certified on Bonika Shears and became eligible to be on the Find-a-Sharpener look-up.

I have had a lot of training lately and will have a training tomorrow. The rest of the week will be crazy since we having new carpet installed. It is time we got some commercial grade carpet for the extra foot traffic we get since our residence became a business location. We had a new roof put on a few weeks ago. I think we will wait until Tim Lau comes to Georgia again and let him do any new landscaping since he enjoys the heat so much.

Jay, my son-in-law and local sharpener will travel to Chicago this week along with Carissa (our office assistant) and Chuck and Teresa Bigalow. They have a booth at the America's Beauty Show. We wish them luck. They will miss out on the carpet installation. I don't know why Mystie timed our new carpet for the week the crew was gone.

More about the Class of the Century

Julie Barham and her husband Cory did a great job of putting this class together. This photo is some of the attendees and educators. Photographing stylists is like photographing cats. I will let you know when I hear of the next event this group sponsors. I just uploaded all the photos from this class in Charlotte to Picasa. Educators included Mags Kavanaugh from www.askmags.com fame and Russell Mays from www.hairmaven.com notoriety. Those who follow those sites were like old high school friends meeting at a reunion even though most had never met. We felt like voyeurs into these website families of dedicated hairstylists, but they generously let us in. I can't wait to start following these websites. I have never met such a dedicated group of stylists who are so intense on improving their craft. No one would like down on hair dressers if they sat in on a class like this. They are artists, chemists, merchandisers and business people wrapped up into one package. Jasper helped me with sharpening at the show. He's from Jacksonville, FL and was trained two days before the show. I kept him busy sharpening my "mystery shears" that go on my website and fixing up any nicked sample shears. He sharpened a few shears for free for a student. We came across the infamous Mitzutani Spring Hopper Shear owned by educator Natasha Cohen which I wrote about in a previous blog. I was also able to show him the "semi-convex" edge on an Eickert Shear. I have photos below.

e.

Class of the Century

I am currently at the "Class of the Century" so entitled by the grassroots network of stylists who wanted a non-product specific educational forum. I think it was aptly named, because I have not seen such valuable information shared with stylist like I have at this symposium. I'll add more details later to this blog when I get home, but I wanted to share the photos now.

How to Cure a Shear Bellyache

Have you had this problem? I had an email from a sharpener in Australia with this dilemma. He wrote, “I sharpened a pair of shears for a stylist yesterday & she called today and said that about 1/2 way down the shears do not cut the hair properly. The shear is a Sensei GSC 55 (long life)
I shaped the shear at a 40 degree angle with 30 micron paper, sharpened & shined it with 15 and then 9 micron paper. (no polish) I honed the ride line and it came back and looks good Do you have any Idea how I can solve this problem or what I did wrong?”

The section of the shear blade the stylist is talking about is referred to as the “belly of the blade.” It is hard to answer a question like this without seeing the shear. Also, I am not sure what sharpening equipment this sharpener is using although I can assume by his question he has a Flathone with a clamp. Here are my suggestions in order of easiest to correct to the hardest. They are into that sharpener in condensed form.
1. The first suspicion on ANY complaint is a loose screw. Often shears will loosen after a sharpening. Ask the stylist if the hair is folding in the center before causing her to use more side pressure to make them cut. If she answers yes, you may be able to correct this by instructing her over the phone how to tighten her screw. The Sensei shear you mentioned has a leaf shape spring mechanism. If the screw is not holding, you may need to slightly bend the leaf clicker plate to put more tension on the screw. Also check that you did not leave the washer protruding through the back.
1. Next possibility is that something happened to the shears after you left. Did she drop them or cut dirty hair? We give a 30 guarantee on our sharpening regardless of what happens. A guarantee like this allows the stylist to be honest with you if something happened to her shears after you left rather than blaming you for bad sharpening.
2. The third possibility that is an easy fix is you pushed the bur to the outside and didn't remove it. This bur worked its way back over and created a dull or nicked spot in the center. Sometimes a gentle strop with a nail buffer, a razor strop or a worn 9 micron pad will remove this bur and fix the problem. Polish would have also taken care of this as long as you don't roll over the edge and polish just up to the edge. Enough to remove that residual bur, but not so much as to knock off your edge. I suspect this is the case since you said you did not polish the shear. If stropping doesn’t work you can resharpen by removing just a small amount. You may want to start with a 15 or 9 micron and touch it up.
3. The angle you used in sharpening could be a problem. You said you used a 40 degree angle. Is this the Australian angle or American angle? 40 degrees on Australian equipment is the equivalent to 50 degrees in the US and would be such a sharp angle that the shear could immediately go dull. If this is 40 degree the way we measure it in the US, you may want to try a 45 degree angle which is a sharper angle and may solve her problem. Ask the customer if she slide cuts. If she does she may be feeling dullness in the center that would be corrected with a sharper edge.
4. You may not have pulled a bur up at the center or perhaps your rideline is missing at the center or “belly” of the blade. Check the shears closely. You could have sharpened the correctly and she tossed them in a drawer and nicked them right after you left. If you have either of the problems the only choice is to do a complete resharpening, although you may be able to start with a 15 micron instead of a 30 micron. Always test a shear on a single ply wet tissue with a minimum of pressure SLOWLY closing the blade. The shear should cut this cleanly and with little effort.
5. If you did not test them before you left by cutting with them and they felt sharp and “looked good” as you said, the blades may be out of alignment. This is often due to dropping. Correction of this problem is beyond the scope of this email, runs a risk of breaking the shears and is the worse case scenario. We will have a seminar at the Sharpener’s Jam in July to show how to fix it and a DVD of this seminar available by late August or September. Sometimes a shear that is out of alignment can be sharpened at a duller angle and this may make them cut where they otherwise wouldn’t. Do this one blade at a time. If you think they are out of alignment and you don’t want to risk trying to fix them, refund her money and tell her what is wrong with her shear and suggest that she buy a new one.

This is a longer article of the shortened version published April 2009 in On the Edge.

The new grand baby: Joanna was born March 4, 9:54 AM. 8 lbs, 20 inches. Mother and baby are fine.

See a slideshow of Joanna and family

Report on Bronner Brothers Winter Hair Show 2009

What an exhilarating, grueling week-end. Gene and I are bushed! The Atlanta Bronner Brothers Show is at the World Congress Center and runs from 10 AM to 7PM for 3 days. It's here at home which is good, so we can sleep in our own beds. It is here at home which is bad, because we stay up late each night restocking what we sold down on the day before.

There is no show in the world like this show. Sheila Tate's class, "Cutting Cross Cultures" was packed. She was really able to demonstrate the use of the T14 Wisper Shear and the T25 Fringer Shear. We sold a lot of these shears. Then every once in a while we would get a run on one particular shear or the other like the Bonika Short Curve Shear, or the Fishbone and we would conclude someone was probably demonstrating them in a class or on stage somewhere. There were a lot of platform artists we saw at the show who use our shears. To drop a few names in alphabetical order (and I hope I don't leave a name out) Hosea Hicks, Derek J Tomeka James, Felecia Pollard, Dave Ray, Sharon Reams, Nikita Smith, Sheila Tate, Tene Taylor, Torain, and Angela Thompson who performed at our booth.

Our sales were up over last year and I think most of the vendors did at least as well as last year. Our dollar amount increase was about the dollar amount decrease at the last show (ISSE) International Salon and Spa in Long Beach. The Bronner team did a wonderful, wonderful job of bringing everyone to the show from all over the USA. Jerry Dingle did a great job spearheading that. And Mamie Bell laid out the floor plan so that there was not a bad location on the floor. I wish every show could do that. In fact the busiest aisle was the back aisle. You will see a photo where I held up the camera when caught in the traffic jam of the back aisle. Also once again Janet Wallace had a great educational lineup with some refreshing new comers as well as old favorites.

Fashion trends that I noticed as an untrained fashion observer was more colors in the hair ... the pinks and purples. Short haircuts with a clipper fade or blend in the back and a textured longer top artfully blended together were popular once again. I only saw a few faux hawks which seem to have run it's course. I saw more natural hair and some afros, too. There was more fantasy hair which I loved to see come back, because that adds fun and excitement to the show. I haven't seen so much fantasy hair since the 90's.

Bronner Photo Album

New Item - The Part-Ner

Use the Part-Ner for quick hair parts. All stainless steel. We will have this at the Bronner Show next week-end. Coming to Bronner Brothers Hair Show? Come by out booth and to our free cutting class with Sheila Tate.

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/bonika_2042_143943

Day 19-21 Southwest tour ends

We drove past the painted desert and more spectacular scenery to the Olympian school in Alberquerque, NM.

This was the largest class we taught with both phase 1 and phase 2 groups attending. We have had such fun teaching at the schools, we only regret we couldn't get to them all. After the class we drove 2 1/2 days more with a short stop at Ted Powell (Southeast Edge) shop in Guin, AL to pick up my jacket he borrowed at the New York hair show last April. We will see Ted again in two weeks at the Bronner Brothers show.

Here is our final GPS showing the miles and the hours. There were a few miles driven without the GPS so we very likely went over the 5,000 mile mark. Gas was as low as $1.65 up to $2.89 in Needles, CA.

Tomorrow is back to the usual routine. I have already scrapbooked our trip on the computer while Gene drove and will have a photo book to show at the Sharp N Shops and Jam.

Day 18 - Southwest Tour Drive from LA to Alberquerque

Our tour is headed home. What amazing scenery we saw today on our drive from LA to Alberquerque! I only wished we had time to see some of the sights other than the interstate. Maybe next year. We got in after 10 PM tonight and in the morning we teach a class at Olympian Academy. Then we journey home.

Day 17 - California Sharp N Shop

Today we hosted the California Sharp N Shop at the Clarion in Carson, CA. This was a free open house format with sharpeners, shoppers and prospective sharpeners coming and going throughout the day, each staying an hour or two. We learned some new things today that may help some sharpeners. For cleaning shears one sharpener used Charlie's Soap. I shared how the stylist stain removal works great for cleaning my hands quickly after sharpening. It was a great discovery I made on this trip. We compared flat hone systems and had a mini-jam of sorts.

Days 14, 15 & 16 at the ISSE Show - southwest

.
Pictures from the ISSE show. Gene unloading at the ISSE show. See our booth wedged between the two cape companies. Here's a new scissor tatoo sported at the show. Nikita crawling into our booth. The only way in or out.

The show is over and sales were less than we anticipated. It could have been the economy, but the floor plan was redesigned so that our aisle was not a flow aisle like last year and we were wedged into a space between two cape and smock booths. I think some people thought we were all one large booth that just happened to sell shears. Our class was really full even though it was at the end of the day on Monday and Nikita's name was not in the program. Nikia always has a terrific class and I think this was one of the best.

I had a haircut by Paul at the Onesta booth. Both he and his wife Caron, educators for the new company Onesta were using our shears. We saw Derek Johnson at the show lots of old friends.

For you sharpeners out there, I sharpened a few dozen shears and took a photo of the Kasho Millenium. If you have not taken this shear apart, be warned. Use a UFO tool and watch out for the washer BETWEEN the blades. It took me 15 minutes to get these babies back together and I was beginning to panic.

Day 12 & 13 - SouthWest Tour = Class in Chandler, AZ and California here we are!

Chandler, AZ ITS had to be the most alive school we have taught yet. Which is good because Gene and I are beginning to drag a little on our long trip. We got a email from Susannah, our 3 year old grand daughter and photos from Mystie's family that make us homesick for our grandchildren. I found some cute souvenirs for them when we stopped at a gas station and discovered a "Rock Hound" convention was happening in town. The prices were great, but we had a long drive ahead to California and I could take too long to shop.

The drive was always interesting from the Phoenix area to the LA area. We experienced our first dust storm. It was similar to fog but the wind made our truck rock and it was hard to stay in the lane. The sunset was really nice and mountains, desert and cactus were all so new to us Georgians. We are in Carson, CA at the Clarion today and have washed clothes, did a little shopping and will set up for the show later this afternoon.

Day 11 - SouthWest tour - Class at ITS Tempe, AZ

Gene and I taught our Shear Knowledge class at the ITS Beauty Academy in Tempe, AZ. What a incredibly beautiful and large school. Two stories! Upstairs is the aesthetics department to learn skincare, makeup and massage. There is s beautiful board room for staff meetings. Downstairs there are classrooms and the clinic floor. This school is so spacious and beautiful you should look at all my photographs at the picasa web album (see the slideshow of our southwest tour). We are about half way through our southwest tour and Mystie keeps sending me photos of the grandbabies to make me more homesick. Baby Brooke, 9 months got her first haircut at Snip-its and I think it was not done with a Bonika Shear. Horrors! I could not tell from the photo, but I was reasured the shear was sharpened by my son-in-law Jay.

This is the large clinic floor.

This is the foyer with the director.

This is the front of the large school in Tempe.

Day 10 - SouthWest Tour - Class in Los Cruces and drive to Tempe

Tuesday was teaching and driving day. We taught our shear class at the Olympian Beauty Academy in Los Cruces, NM. Once again this was one of the prettiest, friendliest schools ever. I sharpened a lot of shears and we took off toward Tempe, AZ by noon (mountain time). The drive down I-10 was phenomenal. Gene had to turn around and go back so I could take a photo. the first turn around was the giant road runner at the rest stop just outside Los Cruces. It was so tall I could stand fully upright (I'm 5'5") beneath it's legs. The statue is made of wire filled with all manner of family castoffs including an old fan, a spatula, a stuffed teddy bear and other items.

Day 9 - SouthWest Tour - Play Day Mesilla, NM

Monday was a play day, mostly. We had a class for the Olympian school later in the evening in Los Cruces, but in the meantime we had a very relaxing day in Old Mesilla. This is the town where the Gasden Purchase was signed and Mexican flag was lowered. Also Billy the Kid stood trial here and the Butterfield Overland Express operated out of what is now La Posta restaurant. We ate there. I had green enchiladas, Gene had steak and potatoes. The little church here on the plaza is now a Basilica as of a few months ago. We did some shopping and strolled the quaint little town. Prices were reasonable considering it was a tourist area, especially the little shop where we bought green chili powder for Carissa.

Day 8 SouthWest Tour - Vacation Day - Carlsbad Caverns

Our southwest tour to the International Salon and Spa Expo in Long Beach, CA continues with a vacation day. After the short drive from our hotel in Carlsbad we went to Carlsbad Caverns. Gene and I have explored many caverns on the east coast in Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida ... but none anything like this! There was once a large inland salt sea and the surroundings mountains are remnants of the ancient reefs. The effect of the gases from the oil beneath the caverns created a stronger acid that makes enormous rooms. The great room we explored was the size of 14 football fields combined. I missed seeing the bats, but was not disappointed. This is why the area we drove was a wide flat valley with oil underneath and stark, cave riddled mountains surrounding.

The drive across incredibly beautiful country through El Paso to Mesilla where we are today.

In all our enjoyable ramblings we were awakened by a phone call from Mystie, our oldest daughter and Bonika Shears office manager that we had forgotton something important. What could that be? We racked our brains. It was Jay's birthday - our son-in-law and chief sharpener in the Atlanta area. We tried to tell them we had called from the caverns but got no phone reception, but that didn't fly. Now we have to buy him some really cool Rangers stuff in LA for his birthday to make amends.

Drive from Carlsbad to El Paso. Don't look for gas or resaurants on this road. We didn't eat until 3 PM Mountain time. That's 5PM Eastern.

Day 7 SouthWest Tour - Day Off - Drive through Texas and New Mexico

We drove across Texas from the Dallas area to New Mexico staying tonight in Carlsbad. We checked out the caverns but found to my profound disappointment that the bats can only be seen in the warm months. I took photos of the photos of bats and some of the countryside. It was a pleasant day drive listening to books on CD and watching the new desert scenery that was so new to us. Tomorrow we will go into Carlsbad Caverns and drive through the Guadeloupe Mountains.

Day 6 Sharpening Training in Arlington, TX

Gene and I spent the day training Kim and Weldon in shear sharpening. They both wanted training and both caught on very well. It was an enjoyable day and enjoyed talking about our children and upcoming grandchildren. They will be sharpening in the area between Houston and San Antonio.

Day 4 & 5 ITS Schools in Mesquite and Arlington, TX

Mesquite, TX ITS Cosmetology School

Arlington, TX ITS Cosmetology School

We taught at the morning and night classes at the ITS Mesquite yesterday and this morning at the Arlington ITS school. I sharpened a lot of shears today at the Arlington school and got my haircut. It was nearly 3PM by the time we left the school. Keisha cut my hair which had not been cut since the ITS Forum in October and was pretty shaggy.

I don't think Gene and I have been to any schools with more professional caring staff, capable students and beautiful facilities. It is a pleasure to visit these schools.

Gene and I are beginning to feel weary, but no more classes other than sharpening training until next Monday night! No complaints, really, because we love to teach.

Day 3 Plano ITS Cosmetology School

We taught classes for both the night and day classes of the ITS Cosmetology School in Plano, TX. This is the first of the ITS school and is inside a mall. What a beautiful school! We have been in a lot of schools in our time but few as large and nice as this one.

We have made some modifications of our usual lecture at this seems well received.

We didn't have any of the excitement today like we did yesterday with the Roach museum, but we always enjoy teaching in the schools.