Julie Hughes, Miracle Worker

Me and my wild hair, and the lovely lil tuner that my
friend Roger BonDurant gave me for my uke.  It digitally
tells me if the string is flat or sharp...and now I can tune
my ukulele in under a minute...yee to the haw!

A few years ago, I went through a transition of sorts. I got out of an abusive relationship. 


I got a new job,  moved downtown, tried to reinvent myself...a term that folks use these days to either trivialize someone's courage in making positive changes in their life, or to lift them up -- it can go either way.  
At any rate, the re-boot of my life eventually led me here, to kimmyVille.  I started blogging because I was writing for a weekly, but had a lot more to say than ever made into its pages...so I began my adventure here as chief cook and bottle washer of my own lil berg.  I edit my own stuff, I write what I want about whomever I want, and there's nobody to tell me I have a story to write and the deadline is in two hours because their other lead writer crapped out on them.


When I made all these changes, I one day wandered into the Goodwill on Clay's Mill, looking for some 'new me' duds, and on my way to the car, I found a beautiful diamond that smoothed out  the rough places, and follicles of my life.  I found Julie.  Walked into a 'walk-ins welcome' salon  looking to have my hair flatironed -- and there she was, Julie Hughes, expert flat-ironer, hairdidder, confidante, supporter, encourager, everything you'd ever want or need in a hairdresser, hoping for a walk-in so she could get a good supper for her kids that night.  Business was slow at the salon, and she was needing someone like; and good Lord, did I ever need her!  So here I am three years later, still shocked to look in the mirror when she finishes her miracle work.  She makes my hair look gorgeous, somehow, and when she takes my hair from wild and curly to silky smooth and straight...well, I feel like a million bucks.  I look in the mirror and immediately hug her and thank her because folks, there's nothing quite like a good hair-did...


Now she comes to my place to thermalize my mane, once a week, and I absolutely am still astonished at how different she causes my hair to look.  


Again tonight, Julie visited...we had a few glasses of wine and told each other our boy stories for the week...and then she took my hair from what you see above, to what you see below.  I've always had a lot of natural wavy hair, I've slept on coffee cans to straighten it when I was in high school, used electric rollers to tame it in the meantime, with a lil success...but truthfully, when Julie makes it straight as a stick, it's just as if someone has crowned me, and I feel much like the famous "surrey with the fringe on top." She completely transforms me when she does my hair...and I am eternally grateful to have found her.


I realize, too, that not did I want to 'wash that man right out of my hair,' I wanted to frost him out, bleach him out, and finally, iron him out.  He was the wrinkle that kept me from living a well groomed emotional life.  He was the split end that needed to be parted from my head and spilt upon the floor to be swept out the door to fly away with the winds of change.

Julie Hughes (489.5765) - hair stylist extraordinaire - and moi :)

It happened.  I transformed myself without changing the real me...and I owe much of the comfort that comes with this change to Jules.  She shows up. She loves that I love her work. She helps me drink my wine and listens to me play John Lennon arrangements on the piano and Heartbreak Hotel on the ukulele.  We are completely honest with each other, and I am so, so very thankful for her honesty and gifts.  


So tonight, I'm posting "before" and "after" pix to show just how wonderful her work is.  Love love love her, and hope her life changes for the better too.  Anything I could do to help her, I would, so here goes. Call Julie Hughes at 489.5765 and see when she can cut/flatiron/curl/fru-fru up your do, dye it, tease it, un-dye it, re-highlight, un-highlight, color -- all the wants your hair may have.  She can do wedding hairdos, make your hair achy-breaky like the 1980s, or mod like the 70s -- any era -- she can braid, style, cut - men and women's hair, and apart from all that, she's just about the best soul I've met in a long, long while.   


Julie has two teenage children and works two jobs. She doesn't complain, but she has some physical problems (that have been with her since childhood) that make it painful to stand on her feet, but she must work in order to feed her kids.  I would love for her to be able to earn enough just from doing hair to provide for them, so she could drop her second job in retail.  So call her, or pass her number along to anyone who needs a new hairdresser - 489.5765 - you'll be glad you did.  


Thanks for reading all this, I know it's a lot to read, so thanks thanks thanks.  
I love all of you, and wish you a good hair day today, and always.
peace,
Kimmy