30 Years of worldSALON

I feel like an imposter how can thirty years have passed?

I remember so clearly events that occurred around our opening; last minute painting after clients had left and munching on the only food I could find in the area – chocolate covered espresso beans from Gina.  On an empty stomach, I don’t advise this unless you are looking for an intense amphetamine rush.  My partner at the time, John, got a desperate phone call and eventually convinced me I wasn’t having a heart attack.

The original gypcrete floor (half as hard as concrete, but not meant to be a finished floor)  which received layer upon layer of varathane over the years, would dry hard and glassy and then peel up as people walked on it.  The first week of work, the floor wasn’t dry, so we swept up gypcrete and hair clippings until clouds of white dust would cover our shoes, pants and clients.  Our first receptionist quit after day 2.  The dust was a big problem, but our furniture hadn’t arrived and working on a milk crate was also not her jam.

Every three days, we took all of our 40 smocks to the laundromat after work – washing, drying and folding them while eating takeout until 10pm.

John and I didn’t have a clue what we were doing, we cut clients hair, they paid and left and we hoped for the best.  They were amazing times and horrific times and what we suffered through made us stronger.  Even though he has moved on, we are still friends and he can’t know how grateful I am that we shared that time together – don’t tell him, it will go to his head.

Kids, however, are always the markers of time.  Franca and Tony brought Adrianna in for a cut before worldSALON, when I worked at Civello.  She was barely two years old and I remember her standing on the huge clunky wooden chairs in the cutting room at Jarvis and Richmond with Ray, Bill Angst and Jan Ohm (all superheros of hair) buzzing around.  Now Adrianna has three of her own, Liam, Alec and Michela that are worldSALON clients – that doesn’t make me feel old.  This family is my family.

Then clients and friends, Loretta, Leo, Peter and Jeanette, Susan and Ed, Mary and Shirley, Stuart, Wendy, David, June, Kimberly and Lisa, there are too many too name, but each and everyone of you I cherish and am forever grateful for your support and love over the years.  I have so enjoyed spending time with you, learning you and you have filled me up.

And my co-workers, present, Jo, Gary, Andrew, Dylan, Joy, Karen, Sarah and Kaelen and past, John, Maria, Emily, Pamela and many more, you have taught me the value and joy of providing and have provided me at the same time with more than I could have wished for.

And my partner of twenty years Ed – who some of you have met and most of you feel like you know with all the stories told, you have been my tether.  And my sister Donna, who came aboard in 2008 to steer me and yell at me and sweat behind the scenes to keep things balanced and real, you have been my rock.

My friend Lisa Borden, owner of Borden Communications in Toronto recently interviewed me for an article asking what attributes lead to success and I maintain that focusing on health, treating our bodies like the incredible gifts that they are, always striving for balance and respecting the earth that houses us have always been front and centre for me.  worldSALON has become the personification of when art meets beauty and the joy of business spreads health and happiness in the jungle – or more simply – the salon in a park.