Those of you beauty industry Apple addicts out there will get great pleasure in reading this highlight of Salon Transcripts and STX in Apple’s Developer forum.

Although a little technical at times, this article should give a pretty solid overview of STX’s advantages to anyone looking to upgrade their salon business software….

As the temperatures drop in most parts of this country (in Austin, it’s a nippy 81 degrees), here’s a beauty product branding story that will keep you warm tonight…

The Body Deli, an all-natural skin care product manufacturer in Palm Desert California, produces “Fresh Food For The Skin”, and uses refrigerated deli cases (like those in a grocery or ice cream store)

That, in and of itself, is an unique approach to beauty product retail.

But, now, they’ve gone and kicked it up the proverbial notch…

Amid the flurry of stale downloadable music sites popping up this past year, comes a breath of fresh air.

OmStream.com, a newly-launched downloadable music site, offers solely Holistic & Yoga music with categories ranging from Shavasana to Creative Inspiration to Kirtan to Chill Rhythms.

As a fan and obsessive user of Apple’s iTunes, I found it hard to believe that OmStream.com would offer music that I could not find in the iTunes Store’s massive database.

Man was I wrong…

Alright, so I’ve made a serious error this past year. (Probably hundreds actually, but here’s the one I’m going to own up to at this juncture…)

I never once referred you guys to the BKB Hair Magazine. Shame on me.

Chock full of dynamic and risky hair collections, tight Step by Steps with leading hairstylists, a few entertainingly good ad campaigns, and peppered with your hair-salon-trade-mag-prerequisite ‘why didn’t they pony up a couple bucks to hire a proper marketing team?’-invoking print ads, BKB Hair Magazine is an excellent example of an e-magazine done right.

BKB Hair Magazine is a bit serious at times, but I’ll certainly forgive it for the free price tag. That said, there is one massively erroneous, hideous flaw in BKB that which I cannot overlook. And, as usual, it’s a marketing thang…

Attention BKB: As a digital magazine, you have a distinct advantage over other trade publications. You’ve already discovered it, but for some reason are not using it to its fullest extent.

In your Table of Contents…

Those of you hardworking salon & spa owners and managers in landlocked states know what it’s like to get beach-drought. Maybe it’s been a couple weeks or months (for me, it’s been a few years) since you’ve last seen the shore and fell asleep to the crashing of waves.

However long it takes, when beach-drought finally sets in, you start noticing yourself pouring a little too much salt on your toast, wearing those Tevas in a foot too deep of snow, and Havana daydreaming in the middle of a conference call.

Alright so neither of those first two have happened to me yet, but man did that last one hit me like a ton of Boogie Boards last week.

I am just aching to get my ankles sandy and my boat drinks drunk. But gosh would I feel guilty if I went all the way to the beach and didn’t get any work done.

Solution? The Business of Beauty on the Beach…

I grew up in Baton Rouge and logged a big chunk of my early adult years in and around New Orleans. I’m not going to even attempt to describe the sorrow I feel for those who have lost it all nor my frustration for their lack of aid or security.

This weekend (August 28 & 29, 2005), thousands of hair, skin & nail professionals, educators and exhibitors will pack Orlando Convention Center for Premier Orlando 2005.

Yet again, we’ll be sitting out, but we will be there in spirit.

Be sure to check out Bryan Durocher’s ‘How To Get Clients Running In Your Door’, Jon Gonzales’s…

August 2005 is Psoriasis Awareness Month.

I totally missed the reporting of their Local Lobby Week – Aug 15 – 19, 2005. That was a major oversight.

If you missed the lobby week too, but still want to help psoriasis sufferers, I’ve heard some testimonials from people about …

Sorry for the lack of news lately. This is not due to a lack of happening stuff, though. Herein my excuse:

Our office is moving from Wichita to Austin, TX. It’s been a month-long move with the final box skipping Wichitatown sometime Saturday A.M. (we hope). To say the least, this move has required too much of my time…

Not too long ago, I heard about a product that I think deserves a bit of TAF love. Then I got sidetracked. So, here it is, now. Enjoy!

In an industry ruled by the services of humans, it’s rare to come across a revenue-driving device that which increases efficiencies to boost profit margin without cannibalizing sales of the services you’re attempting to automate.

Here’s that rare find: Imaginail. Imaginail uses a special inkjet printer to print amazingly detailed images on your clients’ nails – at a cost to you of about $2 per full set of nails and a cost to your client of $25 (or whatever you deem appropriate).

This equates to about $23 profit for nearly-automated nail art. . . Figure in the fact that you can print just about any image on a client’s nails – including photos from her digital camera – and you’ve got an excellent service re-invigoration for that flatlining nail revenue stream or the perfect new service offering for that tweener / gen-y audience…