Change Maker - Derek J

Change Maker

Take a look at Derek J's work in Modern Salon. We are really proud of Derek. If you check out page 82 of the January 2011 issue of Modern Salon you will see that the texturizing shears he is using is by Bonika. He is also using the Belson tools including the crimping iron and triple barrel waver that we sell on our website. Click on the Modern Salon link to see all his work and read about Derek J. Check out our photos of him on main stage at the New York IBS show last week.

New York International Beauty Show

Just finishing up another great year at the New York International Beauty Show. There were fewer vendors there this year but the IBS folks brought in some top notch big named educators so I didn't hear any complaints by the stylists who attended. Our sales were up 40% over last year telling me the beauty industry really is recession proof. Gene and I had some great help with the father-daughter team of Ed Wozniak and Robin Scott who worked the booth with us. Also, special thanks to those platform artists who were using our shears on stage. I don't know who all of you are but we had so many stylists and students coming by saying they saw our shears in work on stage. It makes me feel really thankful since we are not one of those companies who give away our shears to people who are cutting on stage. Those using our shears in the various education classes chose to purchase our shears and become part of our Bonika Family. It is great to see our family grow.

I'm writing this from Charlotte at this year's Class of the Century or whatever they are calling it. I'll post photos and give a report on this when I finally get home next week.

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.

True Damascus Steel

At the recent IBS Show a sharpener picked up our Shoto Shear and accused us that ours was not true Damascus steel. He gave two reasons, one our price was too low (I can't explain that away .. we simple don't over price our shears) and the other that the grain lines did not show up on the inside blade. Since I am not a metallurgist, I could not answer him but I put the question to the factory and got a reply today. This is the explanation:

We imported the Damascus Steel exclusively from the same Japanese factory as Matsusaki in Japan. Matsusaki was the first company to use V 10 Damascus Steel on hair scissors. Today, there are some companies that use "laser engraving" and "chemical erodent" techniques to imitate the effect of the texture of Damascus Steel. These techniques actually will make the texture come out even more in the inner blade. They also call it "Damascus Steel," but it is absolutely not true Damascus Steel at all.
Our V 10 Damascus Steel has 15 layers, which combine hard and soft steel. So the first layer is hard, second is soft, and so on. In addition, you can see the texture on the side of the blade, which runs through the entire blade--all the way to the tip. This is the distinguishing character and feature of using Damascus Steel on hair scissors.
We believe that someone familiar with the metal would recognize our Damascus Steel as genuine. Thus, we believe that the person at the hair show was not a professional in the metal.

I thought that was a good answer. The 15 layers of steel are folded on themselves thus created the thousands of layers found in the V10 Damascus Steel. If you get one of these to sharpen, you may want to send it back to us because of the high cost and risk. However, if you do sharpen it, use a 50 to 55 degree angle and a 15 micron. Take it slow and don;t remove more steel than necessary. Generally these shears just need a light honing to bring back the sharpness. We have not yet seen one seriously nicked. The screw is tough. Although our UFO tool will work on it, because of the precise fit of the screw it is best to use a modified spanner bit on a strong screw driver to put the screw in.

IBS New York

The New York show is behind us. It is one of the shows we must be at and have a presence but everything is twice as expensive as other shows except the New York City Hot Dogs which are expensive. Many thanks to Ed Wozniak who ran our other booth and his duaghter Robin. Also to Ted Powell who sharpened for us. He broke the record for the number of shears sharpened at at New York show and that was with a 20% price increase! No one complained about the price. Also kudos to Sheila Tate who helped at our booth. It is great to have such a knowledgeable Barber -stylist to work with us. Also to Chuck Chivaras who worked tirelessly demonstrating his new EDT Scissors for carpal tunnel syndrome. Also, Leah Watson's class on Crop Circles. As usually she had rave revues. She taught an energetic class even though she had just had a stroke and was supposed to be on complete bedrest. Now that we are back we had two days to catch up then I am training today a sharpener from Mobile, Al and on Monday a sharpener frm Louisville will be staying a week with us. My goals this week is to get the list of helpers finalized for the Premiere Show. Ed Wozniak is currently at the International Hair Show in Secaucus, NJ. We expect great sales since Nikita Smith will be demonstraing the shears in her classroom and also this is the home of Yancy Edwards. We sold several shears in New York just from the recommendation of Yancy. All his DVD's promote our shears just because he likes our shear and us. sort of gives us the warm fuzzies since we are not big and wealthy enough to pay a corral of platform artists like our competitors.

We got a wonderful letter form a recent trainee that was addressed to Charles Stanley how we changed his life. If he gives me permission I will post it in my next blog.

Saw a couple of new scissor screws at the last show. I hope to get those ready for the next blog.

Video Clips and new shears

I've been busy adding video clips to the website and making website changes and improvements. See the clip on sharpening on the Scimech on our site. Also a hair cutting clip which shows the Bonika Baby and the T14 Wisper shear. Both are some of our most popular. I also added a package deal based on the shears we will sell at the IBS New York class with Leah Watson. Take a look at the package deal called Hair Cropper Set. Coming soon a thinning shear to match our Shoto Damascus Steel Samurai Shear our most expensive shear. Don't forget the Win a Shoto Contest. No baby yet. I'll be in training with a new sharpener from Virginia next week. We picked up a new sharpener in Isreal this week when one of our current sharpeners moved to the Holy Land. This gives us two sharpeners in Isreal with the Scimech. It would be great to go visit them if we get the time.