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.