Bonika Shears announces their first “Bonika Shears Family Reunion”

Bonika Shears announces their first “Bonika Shears Family Reunion” for education and networking among stylists who cut with Bonika Shears. The announced dates are January 8th & 9th in Duluth, GA , just northeast of Atlanta, GA.

Says Bonnie Megowan, founder of Bonika Shears, “The folks who use our shears have joked for years that they are part of our family. They call us mom and pop or auntie and uncle. It just seemed natural that we get everyone together for a group hug with a family reunion.”

The plans started out small with a selection of a date and a small hotel for the meeting. A handful of educators who were together at the Premiere Birmingham Show put together the idea for the format. Then the Family Reunion concept began to take on a life of its own. As of today’s date educators include
• Frances London Dubose, of South Carolina, called the make-over queen and the most published stylist in the US today. She will teach hands on classes in cutting.
• Dave Ray, of New York City, who has won almost every nationally, recognized beauty competition in the US and an official judge for manor competitions throughout the US. He will teach classes on color and business.
• Rhonda Brown of Ohio, lead educator for Conedco of Ohio. She will teach a foiling class.
• Nikita Smith of Illinois sought after educator presenting at major shows nationally and internationally. She will teach a hands-on cutting class.
• Sheila Tate of Georgia is the creator of “Cutting Cross Cultures.” She is both a cosmetologist and barber. She will teach a hands-on class called “Barbering for the Cosmetologist.”
• Fingaz of Ohio, television celebrity from Hair Battle Spectacular Season One
• Leah Watson of Maryland is perhaps one of the most educated cutters in the US. Her passion for cutting is evident in the styles that appear in print ads, cinema, television and commercials.
• Hosea Hicks of DC, educator, columnist and blogger
• Tomeka James of New Jersey, international educator and celebrity stylists specializing in wig making, weaving and cutting.
• Mags Kavanaugh of Florida, a trichologist with a degree from UCLA in Trichology and Cosmetic chemistry. She is one of the top nationally recognized experts in the industry of hair care with her website askmags.com.
• Naitcole Michele of Georgia is a top educator nationally appearing at hair shows throughout the US.
• Kathryn Pilczuk of Georgia is the “Ka” in Bonika. She is considered one of the first stylists who began cutting with Bonika Shears and is known for her ability to network and bring people together.

Additional educators continue to sign up for the educational network experience. There will be “look and learn” classes, hands-on classes, networking opportunities, vendor tables and more. Many of the events are free to stylists who own Bonika Shears. Details on the “Bonika Family Reunion” can be found at www.BonikaReunion.com.

Nikita Smith’s Aristocuts Cutting Class at the International Salon and Spa Expo, in Long Beach, CA

Here it is! Those who attended the Sunday morning Bonika Shears sponsored class taught by Nikita Smith of Chicago requested the schematics of her cut.

After showing the finished cut on a mannequin, Nikki walked us through the construction and techniques of the style showing the exact sectioning and lengths. So many asked for the photos of the class displays I have uploaded them to my blog with a link to the website.

Nikita talked about the three cutting personalities developed by Bonnie Megowan. She explained the Gorilla, Eagle and Lion. Nikita is a Lion. And there were several Lions and Eagles in the class with a couple of Gorillas.

Her shear of choice was the new 2010 Bonika Shear of the year, the new Tribal Shear designed by Jay Hunter. She further texturized with the 5 tooth Bonika Chunker, the Bonika Silver Sword razor, the Bonika Fishbone shear and some of the curved shears. The finished cut looked identical to the original, although they were different mannequins.

Thanks to Nikita, our Bonika Shears booth sold all the Tribal shears that we brought and had record sales for the Long Beach ISSE show. (See all the photos from the ISSE show on Facebook)

Judging by the Premiere Birmingham Show, the recession is over

We saw the crowds back like in years before at this week-ends show in Birmingham. Special thanks to our great team who helped this to be the best Birmingham show ever. The Sister Twister was one of our best selling shears due to Cory Barnham's cutting classes.

This year we decided to have two separate booths rather than our usual 4 booth island. Gene's team at booth 2507 did not do as well as Mystie's booth at 724 on Sunday. However, on Monday, Gene's booth skunked the other booth. Special thanks to (I hope I don't leave out any names) Mystie and Jay Hunter, Ron Ellis, Harry and Tammy Megowan, Cory and Julie Barnham and their 3 children, Jim Lanier, Nikita Smith, Chuck Bigelow, Ted Powell and of course the whole management of the Premiere Shows. Click on the title to see all the photos I took at the show.

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.

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.

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

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

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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.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We are very optomistic about this new year in spite of the present economy. We just took advantage of the low car prices and traded in one of our company cars. We will actually spend less and have more. This is the time a assess what you have and see where you can expand and save at the same time.

I am home with a case of laryngitis. I caught Gene's strep throat last week and since I was on antibiotics continued my planned sharpening training. For those of you who have come to training, you know I usually test my students to assess their learning style. You would know, the student this week was primarily verbal. So I talked and more fully explained things than I normally would and by afternoon my voice dwindled off and has been completely gone for about 3 days.

Since we are planning an extensive trip out west with at least 10 classes in schools and one class at the International Salon and Spa Expo in Long Beach, CA, I am taking special care of my voice. So if you call and ask for me, I really can’t talk to you!

Our class at the ISSE show will be at the last day of the show and at the end of the day. There was a miscommunication with the show management, but we are planning a great class, even if only 2 or 3 show up. Nikita Smith is incredible and should be seen. Her squeeze cut technique will appeal to the stylist who like a mathematical precise cut with a messy, textured and predictable result. I know it sounds like a conflict of terms, but you will just have to see it. Her haircuts can be performed in just 10 minutes or less.

Las Vegas International Beauty Show

Here are some pictures from the show. Karen Showen sharpened for us and had people bring back additional shears after they tried out their shears. Nikita Smith cut my hair in class. She kept a room of 200+ enthralled for the full 90 minutes of class. Our best selling shears were the short curve, the Fishbone, our new T25 and T14. We are pretty tired and look forward to the flight home tomorrow. We miss our grandbabies. I will post the diagrams to Nikita's haircut on the website as soon as I get home. They are part of the slideshow here.

I sold a Twister Sister at the show to a gentleman from South Africa. Imagine his surprise when I told him we had a Bonika warranty center right there in his country and someone there who could sharpen them correctly. Unfortunately we couldn't say that to the lady from Guatemala. Maybe next year we will have a sharpener there. We plan to add a Spanish speaking country as a warranty center in October.

This was one of the loudest shows we have been in. The volume level was overwhelming. I think it affected our sales by 30%. We still did well enough we will be back next year.