VOTE JAIRA'S SALON AS BEST NJ SALON OF 2010

HELP US MAKE JAIRA'S SALON BEST WOMEN'S SALON IN NJ OF 2010!

We are asking all of our clients and friends for support! Please go to http://njmonthly.com/articles/best-of-Jersey/2010-best-of-poll.html fill out your name and number, then scroll down to Health and Beauty, and find the spot for Hair Salon/ Women, and enter Jaira's Salon, South River, NJ! You can also vote for other favorite vendors as well. If we get enough votes, we'll be considered the number 1 Hair Salon for Women in NJ for the year 2010!!

WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE:

1. 
   
   Our services are top of the line.
   


2. 
   
   We represented all women and men of NJ in being the fighters to bring back Brazilian Waxing in NJ
   


3. 
   
   We work hard to make sure our salon is a clean environment and safe environment.
   


4. 
   
   Customer Satisfaction is our #1 priority because our goal is to make you feel like a better and beautiful you.

Open House

Exciting News! First and fore most, we are thrilled about being in this month's Day Spa Magazine article " Waxing, the naked truth". They did an outstanding job in discussing the ins and outs of the business as well as important information for clients. Although Brazilian Waxing is currently allowed in NJ, a lot of negative news came about due to two cases of women reporting problems so this article clears up a lot of confusion. Safe, Brazilian Waxing is performed all over the country and we at Jaira's make it our number 1 priority to provide a safe, clean and relaxed environment. Always do your homework when looking for a Waxing Salon.

Our other exciting news is about our very first Open House which will be on August 16 and August 17, at our new salon located at 980 Route 9 South, South Amboy, NJ from 10:00- 6:00 p.m. There will be door prizes, raffles,coupons, cocktails and half price services. Bring your girlfriends, sisters and have a mini spa party. Please call ahead for large groups!

Pre/Post Waxing Tips!!

Pre-Waxing

1. Do Your Research! Look for all the salons in your area that do Brazilian Waxing, and find out how long each has been waxing, what kind of license they have, and who will be doing the brazilian wax.
2. Visit Different Salons! Physically go to the places and see how sanitary they look, if a place looks sketchy, walk away. No matter how cheap they are offering the service, the price to pay afterward could be much worse!
3. Wait At Least One Week After Shaving To Make an Appointment!
4. Take Two Extra Strength Tylenol Two Hours Before Your Appointment!
5. Make Sure To Shower Before Coming in To Your Appointment.
6. Consult Your Dermatologist in case you have sensitive skin, because waxing may not be the right solution for people with certain skin conditions. And avoid waxing facial hair if you use Retinol.

Post- Waxing

1. Avoid Body Lotions Right After Getting Waxed.
2. Avoid Tanning For At Least Three Days.
3. You May Shower After Your Appointment.
4. If You Have Any Questions, Don't Be Afraid To ask The Esthetician, That's What They're There For!

New Logo- New Website

Hi All- Our new logo rocks! Designed by Charlene Vaz ( check her work out http://www.charlenevaz.com/) and now we are redesigning our website and finalizing our branding. New Salon is officially opened. Check out our website for pictures. We will be starting our weekly beauty summer tips from waxing to hair care. Stay tuned for all the excitement and give aways.Check out our logo!

Mom and Daughter fight for Women's Right to WAX!

This whole ban craziness has been a wild ride and I am glad that we have had victory and I am even more glad to go back to being a photographer and a mom but I must honor my mother who was so strong through all of this. I did this for her, I owed to her since I was the one who back in 2007 wrote the board asking about how we can certify aestheticians in our salon since my mother was so good a training. Their reply was waxing in genital area was illegal! Oh boy did I never expect an email of mine cause such an international wave and getting such media as SNL, Rush Limbaugh and Social Media. When we were hit with the news this past February that we could not over the Brazilian Wax and that we had to take down our sign because Brazilian Waxing was illegal in NJ, I FREAKED! and I looked to my mom and she calmly said, God knows best and all things work in favor of those who follow him. Her attitude and grace is so inspiring and it is what gives her victory in her day to day life, now owner of two Salons, short staff, mother of 3 very demanding teenagers, and one pre teen who is months away from being a teen as well, grandmother of 2 boys, wife, mother and my friend. I do not know how she does it but she does, with thick Brazilian accent and all. I love you mom and I am so proud of all you have accomplished and of your graceful attitude, thanks for raising me on your own and always wanting what is best for us. Happy Mother's Day!

Wax on NJ- We did it!

On 4/13, we found out late at night that the NJ Board meeting would be early in the morning the following day. We woke up and took my sons to the sitter and drove down to Newark. No coffee yet because we were pressed for time. We arrived by busy Broad Street filled with one way streets and we did not know where we could turn, we finally found Halsey Street but had passed the building and needed to go back again and go around, I could not believe we found parking on the street, I parked and we rushed in. Only to find a security check and that we were 10 minutes late. We ran to the elevator and arrived on the 6th floor where a big conference table held members of the NJ Board of Cosmetology and a small group sat on the side and they were already speaking on the issue of genital waxing.

They allowed for public comment and ASSP Director Rosemary Wiener, presented the board with documents with great illustrations on the different types of bikini cuts and once again the definition of Brazilian Waxing and she explained that the procedure and safety for genital waxing is the same of any other body waxing. They just thanked her and asked if anyone else would like to speak. A member from a beauty school asked when the new rules would be published and Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Sharon Joyce explained end of May and I was still unsure if the Brazilian Waxing would be approved with the new regs. The Board continued speaking on other matters, voting very formally. My Joyce left the room and I immediately followed. I asked her what was happening with the new law in regards to waxing. She dearly explained to me that the section which was stating that genital waxing would be prohibited will say reserved which means that section of the law is on hold. Now the NJ Board had to come up with a committee who would review all the protocols, safe guards, schooling in regards to genital waxing, they are no longer using the word Brazilian Wax since this varies from salon to salon.

So the doubt remained, can we offer or not offer the Brazilian Waxing. Ms. Wiener said we could not since insurance companies would not cover it. I went to greet Mr.Jay Malanga who had been the director of the NJ Board of Cosmetology and works as administrative staff. He is a very sweet man and he greeted me and asked me if I received his letter. I had no idea what he was speaking of and asked if he had sent it to Rosemary and he said no you are the only one who got this letter. He said we could offer the service and use the letter from Division of Consumer Affairs for insurance purposes. I was still not totally convinced. The Board was going into closed session and we drove home feeling good about the meeting but still unsure if we could offer the service and how long this committee would take. We did find out that we could ask to participate in the committee.

We get home and I immediately called Sherry Butler, our publicist ( http://www.slbcom.com/ ) and she thought we should call Jeff Lamm from the Division of Consumer affairs so we gave the media the right info since it was still a little grey. Mr. Lamm explained to us that we could offer and even advertise the service and use their letter for Insurance purposes and also told us we could write to the NJ Board to ask to be notified and be considered for the new committee that will be reviewing information on genital waxing. We got off the phone so thankful and a few minutes later. There it was, a letter on my kitchen counter top, from the Attorney Generals office. I opened the letter and there it said Dear Ms.Reis, on behalf of Governor Corzine. Wait a minute, a letter on behalf of the Governor of NJ on Genital Waxing??????? I was in awe but kept reading on, the one line that totally cleared things up was the following:

"During the Board's further review and reconsideration,genital waxing can continue to be performed"

It is Black and White now, we have the green light to offer Brazilian Waxing once again. We are happy to announce our second location it is now opened, route 9 South, South Amboy, NJ by the Dairy Queen. More info on our next blog post. We could not do this without of God first of all who helped us not panic and to do what was needed. Second of all our wonderful Publicist, third of all Social Media, Twitter and Facebook that helped us in our grassroots campaign. Also Jason Nark from the Philly Daily News who was the only reporter writing facts and not cookie cutter stories. And all of you clients who petitioned, wrote in, supported us, did not turn your backs on us. God Bless you all and now it is back to waxing. 10% off for all our blog readers, just call in and say Wax On and give me my discount :-).

Brazilian Wax Craziness Part II

So on 3/18, we hit our climax where newspapers began to call us for the scoop on how we were fighting back the NJ Brazilian Wax ban. We did not know but the Saturday before SNL mentioned the issue on their weekend update saying that New Jersey would now be called the Overgrown Garden State. TV's got interested in the story as well as radio. a Big thank you to Channel 12 news for coming out on 3/19 and doing a story with us. And a big shout to NJ 101.5 who also came to interview and did a long discussion of the issue with Dennis and Michelle as well as their morning news. We were so excited to have the press involved and the whole world began to discuss the silly NJ wax ban. We were surprised that Philadelphia TV stations and news papers were the first to really be interested in the story. A reporter from the Daily news Jason Nark, was the first to write on the issue and his articles were copied in over 100 blogs., The Division of consumer Affairs had told him it was due to two complaints from women who had placed lawsuits and that the NJ Board would be meeting on 4/14 to vote on the ban. When we saw Jason's first article we immediately contacted him and he called to interview us. He then wrote his second article which was updated info and explained that the Board had already voted on 3/10 and that it was out of their hands now and we needed to appeal to the Division of Law in order for them to investigate if the Board's decision was constitutional or not. Here is the link for Jason Nark's article: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/41249322.html.

But people kept saying the same wrong info over and over and were fighting against the current because it was hard to get that out of peopl's heads. So we were so excited that Channel 12 did a great story explaing it better and it grew and grew. We then saw that the controversial Rush Limbaugh mentioned that no government should be involved in women's crotches and we could not agree more. Never though I would say that but I did.

3/20, when we were still getting lots of PR feedback, my phone died and I did not have my cell for an hour. When I finally was able to charge it, I could never have forseen the messages I was getting. " The Ban is off. All is back to normal". I was so confused and so our publicist Sherry Butler and I called Rosemary Wiener to fully understand what had happened. The director of the Division of Consumer Affairs wrote a letter to the Associated Press saying that the NJ Board should reconsider the Brazilian Wax since it was done safely in other places. The media went nuts and began reporting the Ban was off. NJ looked even more ridiculous, Ban one day, no Ban the next. Mr. Schuzman's letter was not a mandate, as Ms. Wiener explained but a recommendation that the NJ Board reconsidered this. The service is still illegal because it has not been written into the rules and regulations and although right now they are not enforcing fines, it is still illegal. Never had such a think occurred, the buck was passed back down to the NJ Board of Cosmetology and they meet tomorrow to discuss how they shall proceed with this issue. In the meanwhile, Brazilian Waxing remains ILLEGAL in the state of NJ. We held a petition meeting at our salon where Ms. Wiener explained all of this to us and we gathered petitions and signatures. The ASSP did another petition now to the NJ Board of Cosmetology for them to really place the Brazilian Wax into the rules and regulations. We shall see what will happen tomorrow.

Brazilian Waxing is still illegal in NJ

South River, NJ (March 25, 2009)…Feuza Reis, Business Development Director of Jaira’s Salon and Umbelina Santos, President of BAUA- Brazilian American United Association, and a hairdresser herself, to host a meeting of Brazilian salon owners and public regarding the brazilian waxing legalization issue. The meeting is Monday March 30th at 6pm, East Side Community Center, 296 Ferry Street, Newark, NJ (in the ironbound section of Newark which has a population of over 70,000 Brazilians). For more information contact Feuza Reis at 908-812-9650 or go to http://www.jairasbrazilianwax.com/.

Many feel no action is needed and is unnecessary based on new factors. On March 20, reacting to growing dissent from salon owners and customers, New Jersey Consumer Affairs Director David Szuchman rejected the board's proposal and asked it "to begin an immediate review of the training necessary to safely provide this service, and to establish appropriate protocols and safeguards."

However, the truth is that the ban is not lifted until the Board of Cosmetology decides and they could still say NO! It is still illegal until the law is changed by the Board of Cosmetology. Rosemary Weiner, chairwoman of the Association of Salon and Spa Professionals in New Jersey (ASSPNJ) recommends the grassroots campaign of signing and faxing the form letters requesting the legalization continue.
The ASSPNJ statement on this issue:

“This cannot be legally deemed as a lifting of the ban on removal of hair from the genital area until such time as the language in the rules & regulations is modified to permit this service to be performed. So long as the current language is in place, one must consider the Brazilian technique, and removal of hair from the back, chest and buttocks to be prohibited services as stated in the current rules & regulations and affirmed by the Board of Cosmetology.”

“The next meeting of the Board of Cosmetology is scheduled to be held on 04/14/09. All pressure must come to bear on the Board of Cosmetology to put this important issue on their agenda and to create language that would include removal of hair from the genital area, chest, back and buttocks, by waxing, as permissible services for a licensee to perform. That has not yet happened.”

Brazilian Wax Ban Craziness Part II

As I said in last post, we were freaking out when on 2/14 the NJ Board of Cosmetology told us we would need to take down our sign that read Brazilian Wax withing 30 days and that Brazilian Waxing was ILLEGAL in NJ. When Rosemary Weiner called me back, she explained what had happened. The NJ Board of Cosmetology has the right to interpret the rules and regulations and when the issue came up in regards to genital area waxing, they looked at the rules and regulations which stated waxing of arms, legs, abdomen and face only. So Brazilian Waxing was excluded and thus illegal. Rosemary introduce me to the ASSP, the Association of Salon and Spa Professionals and invited me to be present at their meeting on March 2 and that they would vote on a position to send to the NJ Board of Cosmetology. At the time I was taking a class on explosive P.R marketing with Maria Simone- http://passion2prosperity.com ( business coach) and Sherry Butler, a publicist from Butler Communications (www.slbcom.com ). I was learning how to write Press Release and how to pitch to the media but we knew that this would need a bigger team since we would be waking up the lion and did not know what could happen to our business. After many calls, hours and talks with Sherry, Rosemary and myself, I talked with my mother owner of Jaira' Salon and said you have to options- you either hide or your fight head on. And oh what a hard decision it was, we were so frightened but one thing helped me was my mom's reaction to this adversity. Her first reaction was not one of panicking but she turned to me and said, All things work in favor of those who serve God and as a God fearing woman, her words had power. And Sherry and I felt a whole lot better after we spoke with Rosemary who then confirmed that the ASSP supported the Brazilian Waxing and they voted to send a position paper to the NJ Board for their next meeting which would be held on March 10th, 2009. For that meeting the ASSP put together a wonderful position paper with justifications to permit the service and socio-economic impact of the loss of revenue as well as definitions of the service actually consisted of. We both felt there was an adverse perception of the Brazilian Wax and the proposal paper explained it so well. In a closed session to our sup rise the NJ board of cosmetology voted NO to the inclusion of the Brazilian Wax and agreed to uphold their current language which excluded it. Oh oh again. We than began an bilingual international grass roots campaign on twitter, Face book as well as sent Press Releases to the local American papers, Brazilian press, as well as Latino Radio Station and T.V stations. I do not think Sherry knew what she was in for. With a three hour time differance, as well as Portuguese speaking press, we started a ride that would be talked about world wide. Stay tuned for Part III of how I helped ban and helping legalize Brazilian Waxing in NJ.

Brazilian Bikini Wax Ban Issue- in NJ- How this All started? Part I

It has been a crazy ride these last two weeks. As you might have hear NJ Board of Cosmetology was pressing for a Ban on Brazilian Bikini Waxing. It is important to know the facts and since I have been the culprit in bringing out this issue, I decided to face it head on! How did this crazy idea of banning it get started? Well actually back in June 2007 I sent an email to the NJ Board of Cosmetology asking about information on licensing of waxologists for the Brazilian Waxing. I mentioned that my mom was always training new staff and always received praises on her work and some complaints about old places they had gone too. The NJ Board met in June 2007 and stated that since it was not listed in their rules and regulations and based on three points, one being that it had to do with mucous membrane, two that it was hard to investigate and three that they were concerned about hot wax on such a sensitive area. For the minutes of the meeting please see their website-

I then received a letter just to me, not to my moms salon that we should desist from doing such a practice and that it was illegal since it was not included in the rules and regulations, all that was included was Face, Legs, Arms, Abdomen. It was like receiving an April fool's letter, I thought it was a joke, got scared, did not tell my mom right away and we went about our business waiting to see if any other salons had stopped doing it. We saw no change and almost two years later in a major economic recession, my mom finally leases a second place she is about to open. She purchased a huge sign up and was inspected by the NJ Board of Cosmetology as protocol. She was then called by the NJ Board on 2/14/09 and was told that Brazilian Waxing was illegal and that she could do Bikini Waxing. OH OH!

The has in the past done a google search with my name, and found an article in Day Spa Magazine where they discussed how my email inquiry let to a ban of a well know service. I then saw Rosemary Weiner's name and saw she was for it. I looked up the Spa she owned at the time and was told she no longer worked there but I could leave a message. I did and she called back the next day saying how other salons were upset but no one had stepped up to the plate.

Stay tune for how this ride has been.

www.jairasbrazilianwax.com

Bad Economy good for the Beauty Industry

It has been a long time but business is booming and although we are in tough economic times, Jaira's Waxing Salon will be opening it's second location on Route 9 in Old Bridge, NJ. More info on that too come. Let us face it, when we get sad or depressed we look for ways to feel good about our selves, this is why alcohol industry is not suffering and neither will the beauty industry. Yes people are cutting back and being more cautious with their spending but women love to groom and there are some things you can not cut back and for many women belive it or not though painful are not cutting back on their BBW's once a month. We are also starting to see some men walk in the door and going bare down under and about. Watch out for that info to come. We can not put a price on wellness or on feeling clean, refreshed and sexy so hoping sales will be up for mom's place and more info on new salon to come.
P.S mom just came back from Barcelona where she was doing a course on color and cut and she came back with a rock star haircut. Need to get the photo.