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.

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.

Website is Down for Unknown Reasons

Our www.bonika.com website is down for unknown reasons. The engineers who are working on getting us back on line tell us it could take up to Friday. We've been having email issues with Gmail for the past 3 months and a different set of Internet engineers were working on this problem, pronounced it fixed and it wasn't. So you can see why this new issue really worries me. By Friday we will have lost thousands of dollars and lost credibility as well.

It happened yesterday around noon when I went to the website to look up the dates on the show that we added to our schedule in Richmond, VA. Leah Watson was checking her calendar to see if it would fit into her film and media schedule. It was off. In the past you could still get to the website through www.store.yahoo.com or www.bonikashears.com or even some of our other domains like www.flathonesharpening.com www.findasharpener.com and www.sharpenersjam.com. None of these work. My biggest fear now is that I will have to completely rebuild the website. That will be very time consuming, although I will admit I had been thinking of doing this anyway with one of the newer software programs. It seemed such an insurmountable job, but I may be forced to do it. Any suggestions on changes for the new website please tell me. I've heard some want to be able to order wholesale on the site and have a coded password. I think I will try to incorporate that this time.

Once again as horrifying as this has been, there is a joy in knowing God has all things under her control, even the Internet. All things will work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28. It will also make for an easy week with no orders. Mystie Hunter, my office manager and eldest offspring, has already set about housecleaning and assigned jobs to everyone. I have some bookshelves to clean off. The Bonika Towers guest room has been redone with a new bed and mattress, removable of the spare crib and addition of a new junior bed. So the multifunctional guest/daycare room looks inviting. We need to keep a log of all the sharpeners who have slept here. After a sharpeners first visit to our office for training, their subsequent visits we allow them to use the Bonika Towers guest room if it is available and if they want to.

Back to the website problem. I will be checking it periodically and so can you. Call me if you see it up. It is possible, I'm old it may spontaneously come about. Oh, and about the emails. If you've been using the email bonika@gmail.com please begin using bonnie@bonika.com or megowan@bonika.com. We will continue to get the bonika@gmail.com emails, but they will bounce around before they appear. We had to switch to a Yahoo email system instead of the Gmail to correct our email problem.

Premiere Orlando 2008

I will try to upload some pictures later of the Orlando trip to the Premiere Show. Our sales were up over last year and there was a lot of interest in our new Twister Sister. Jay Hunter sharpened nearly 200 shears which was great considering we were charging $5.00 more per shear this year than last year. Special thanks to all our workers: Ron Ellis, Carla Ellis, Harry Megowan, Tammy Megowan, Mystie Hunter, Jay Hunter, Chuck Bigalow, Bradley Bigalow, Judith, Danny LaPrade, Gene Megowan, Bonnie Megowan, Sheila Tate, Leah Watson, and Carissa Roper. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. It was a successful show and when it was over we all went to Disney World. Just a word of advice, if you go to the Magic Kingdom go to the Pooh's buffet at the Crystal Palace. It was well worth the money.

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.

Louisville Hairshow

We just came back from a private hair show for a beauty salon chain in Las Vegas and are suffering jetlag. Our presentation at the show was very successful and was the first time Gene and I presented "Shear Magic" on how your shears could magically make you more productive, energized, etc. We plan to present this on the Bronner Brothers show cruise in October and maybe at other venues.
We turn around and Saturday will travel to Louisville to stay at the Gaut Hotel for another small private hair show/seminar http://www.bonika.com/louisville.html. Bobby Benet of the popular Raleigh Hair Symposium that was a September staple for us and Al Carter who hosted shows in Memphis, Baltimore, New Orleans have teamed up. Instead of the large hair shows they sponsored in the past, they now put together smaller, ethnic regional shows. We like to go to these and work with a local sharpener or if we can't make it, turn it over to one of our local distributor/sharpeners. Tim and Casey Young ran the booth at the Memphis show and it was very successful. We are taking on Louisville and I, Bonnie will be sharpening with assistance by Fred Mueller of Louisville. http://www.bonika.com/athompson.html Angela Thompson will teach a class, but I noticed from their advertisements that most of the educators are already using our shears. We have a lot of educators, especially in the ethnic arena who are hooked on our shears. Leah Watson http://www.bonika.com/leahwatson.html was supposed to teach this class but she was unable due to illness. She is also cancelling on the Premiere Birmingham class. We have not decided on a substitute yet.