Guest Blogger!!!

Dallas is a Learning Leader at Paul Mitchell the School Tysons Corner and he is a Guest Blogger this week.



We were blessed with a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of a special event. A Future Professional and myself had the chance to share time and space with an angel to help make her prom night most memorable. When we were presented with this chance, Bobby and myself felt honored to be asked to help. I myself lost a parent to breast cancer, and Bobbi has expressed that he had a family member that suffered from cancer as well. We both felt like this cause was very close to our hearts, and knew how gratifying it would be to have the chance to brighten her night.

We began the night with speaking with the director of the event who showed us Ashley’s wigs that were to be cut and discussed with us her itinerary for the night. I brought along a friend with us, Lisa Renkin, to use as a model to try on the wigs as I cut them. Ashley had three wig choices for that night, and Bobbi and I performed most of the cuts in the upstairs bathroom of the dance hall. “

We were told that we can now go meet Ashley in her hospital room by the director of the event. When we walked in, we were introduced to this stunning young lady with a smile like an angel! She had flawless skin, and blue eyes that looked like the ocean waters. There was a calming, welcoming spirit about the room. Her mom, dad, and sister, along with others, were in the room as well. We discussed her dress choices, her wig selections, and what would look best for her. I then put each wig on her and we made decisions from there. She and her family were pleased with the decisions and were happy to have our professional help. We then had a little fun in her room with me giving a one on one cutting class with Ashley. I tried on each of her wigs, and refining them on myself as instructor/ model, and everyone enjoyed the show.

The dance hall was decorated so beautifully. I was so pleased to see all of the donations from many different organizations as well as from Paul Mitchell. She arrived like a princess in a white Lexus, and was greeted on the red carpet by the media, clowns, friends, and family. It was amazing!”

We are so glad to be a part of something so special and I am very PROUD to say I work for a company that supports such events. Thank you so much Paul Mitchell for making a difference!”

Vegas Baby!

So I just returned from the Paul Mitchell Caper trip! Needless to say, it was a blast! Great speakers, educators, people and times!


Day 1:
Jordan Hoft and Erica Liercke stayed at my house before our flight for vegas. We left Vienna, Va around 4am to get to BWI at 5am. Due to this time frame, we did not have the energy to scream "Vegas baby" out the car window but really wish we could have. Our plane took off at 7am and we arrived in Vegas around 9:30am (the 3 hour time difference was strange and because of this, it was a very long day). When we got to Caesar's Palace we were informed that check in was not until 1pm. My roomies (Jessika Rodrigues, Sami McArdle and Julie Perez) and myself decided that lunch was in definite order. We went to the most adorable restaurant called Serendipity 3 and ordered a giant hot dog with all of the fixings you could ever want.

We then explored Caesar's Palace for a couple hours (of course found the mall immediately) and waited for check in.
Once we waited in a 2 hour long line with 3000 enthusiastic and patient future professionals from around the nation, we were in our room and getting primped to see the Lion King at Mandalay Bay. The Roomies and I hopped in a cab towards mandalay bay and got our first look at the vegas strip. we enjoyed a delicious steak dinner at Red White and Blue and then saw the Lion King, which was amazing. After the lion King we headed back to Caesar's Palace to get a

Day 2
I awoke early to have breakfast with my friend's parents that also happened to be visiting vegas that week! they took me to a world renowned restaurant called Hash House a Go Go. it was most scrumptious. i then headed back to Caesar's for General sessions where I saw so many great people. JP of course, Angus Mitchell (yep!), Winn, Robert Cromeans, Stephanie Kocielski, Donny & Marie Osmond and more. We had 2 very inspirational speakers: Dean Banowetz and Kathy Buckley.

After General Session it was dinner time. The girls and I headed to Margaritaville. Where we met some Alaskan friends, watched a mini show, and had balloon hats made for us by a pirate in stilts.

When we were finished with dinner it was time to get ready for the white party. once we were all dressed up in our white, we headed to the party and danced with all the other future professionals. All that dancing really got Julie, Sami and I in the mood so we decided to have a little vegas fun. we checked out a club called Voodoo in the Rio hotel. it was on the 51st floor, over looking all of vegas, gorgeous!

We danced there for a bit but knew we needed to be up at 6am for check out and classes so headed back to the room.


Day 3
6am wake up - ouch. Quick coffee and breakfast before classes started. My first class was updos with George Morales, learned 2 cool up dos. My next Class was cutting with Takashi <3>

After cutting was color class with Stephanie Kocielski where we learned the star color placement to go with the cut. How lucky am I with all those great teachers? When Classes we finished we called gathered for one last general session. JP talked to us again, we watched some great videos, saw some fashion shows and got to see all the paul mitchell artists together.

We then had a few hours before our flight home. Sami, Julie and I got some din-din and did a little more sight seeing. We saw the eiffel tower, walked to the Venetian and watched the Bellagio water show

The PMTSVA students convened in Caesar's lobby and we all headed to the airport together to catch our flight home (with a quick stop in Milwaukee on the way) All in All it was an amazingly unforgettable experience and I have paul Mitchell to thank for it!