WARNING! WARNING! LARGE POST AHEAD! *tosses up caution signs everywhere*

Today marks our fire anniversary, in other words, today is the anniversary of the day a really mean and scary fire threw a tantrum and destroyed our salon. But, today, we are proof that the mystical bird called the Phoenix does exist in some way or another. For us, it exists in spirit, as we too, rose from the ashes in more ways than one.


On October 28th/2008 at 5:00am, a suspicious fire was started in the recycle bin at the back of the building, and then continued to rage its way in to our salon, scorching and burning everything inside, and making the roof collapse in to the back of the salon.

Despite all of the smoke and really bad smells, there were some laughs though! We had mannequin heads stored up in in the back of the salon which, due to the ceiling being on fire, decided to fall down and land in the sinks, and some were hanging from the remnants of the ceiling here and there. The poor Fireman had to walk in to a very dim and smokey building after the flames were gone, and see these eerie heads strewn about. They were not warned of the heads of course, because having plastic heads around is quite normal for us *wink*

One of the Firemen kept one of the heads as a souvenir and drove around with it in his truck until he was asked to return it. Further proof that positive attitudes and helping hands can make the best of any situation.

Despite finding humor in things, this fire definitely did take it's toll on the business, especially the few months directly following the fire. It was a huge stress on everyone trying to find somewhere to continue being available for our clients. Nobody wanted to be put out, as it would put our clients out, and that's just not something we are ok with!

Thanks to the HUGE support shown to us from fellow Comox Valleyites such as Leanne Boyd from Level 10 Eurospa, Dianne McPherson from Cockeye'd Optical, Karen McKinnon (to name a few) we were offered space to cut hair, places to hold meetings and so forth. However our epic rise from the ashes had a lot to do with Aimee Harrison of Salon Pure in Comox, who so heroicly offered to share her space with us until we could get back on our feet!

Months of squishing together and surviving the crisis past for the stylists. Some of our stylists had to become athletes just to get to and from work every morning. Anthony, for example, had to ride his bike from his place all the way to comox and back every day. However, he looks fabulous doesn't he?! See, something good always, ALWAYS, comes from something bad.

It has been two years since it happened, and to walk in here you would never ever know. What Ida-marie and Michael have done to rebuild this place is awe inspiring. It's bloody brilliant actually, and from what I hear, we are busier than ever. I'm personally stoked about the reception desk having deep red stone like surfaces with shiny parts. It's sexy, and I get to stare at it all day!


But seriously, it's amazing, and I did not work here then, but I remember what it used to look like, and I remember how many staff we had back then, and I've heard so many comparison stories... let me tell you, we are, well, let me allow Daft Punk to say it best; 'Harder, better, faster, stronger'

To top it all off, we even had a few very brave people stay behind and remain in Comox to push through and make our Roots mark there. Thanks to them, our Comox location is starting to really take off, so we're so grateful they flexed their muscles and braved that storm for us!


So I suppose in sum it would seem that we should thank the fire, but that would be very misplaced thanks. All thanks, all claps and highfives, should go to every single person that helped this fabulous business survive, and to those that nurtured it to be a bigger and better place overall.

Here is to another billion years! (I'm serious, one billion. Don't argue with me!)

PS: Fire sale at Roots tomorrow! All Roots brand products are on sale for 50% off! Come in and get 'yers'!

Thank you for calling,
♥Sadie

Howdy ho you ravaging people!

How is the end of October treating you all? Crazy that it's almost over... and even more crazy that it's almost Halloween already! I keep forgetting, and then getting bombarded with minor heart attacks every time a fire cracker goes off and startles me. Maybe I'm just turning in to a big wuss in my new found old age... senility is kicking in early. You would think after being startled more times than I can count, that I would realize 'hey Sadie, Halloween, remember?!'

I worked in our Comox location today, which was a treat. I don't think it was a treat for the staff there though, I was a bit on the hyper side for the better part of the day. Me + hyper + being at a desk for 9.5 hours = shinannigans. It's super fun though, so -I- am not going to complain. They are all such good sports out there though, and don't get me wrong, they dish out their fair share of verbal abuse and word slinging! Only to staff though, never fear. We only harass each other, promise.

The lovely Desiree was super busy again today. She sure knows how to pamper a person! I keep wanting to get in to see her and take another film of me getting hair torn out of my body, but I would not want to steal time from her clients. I'll have to kidnap her for a few hours. DISCLAIMER: By kidnap, I mean bribe with delicious treats, money and a box full of open ended IOUs.

Hair brings one's self-image into focus; it is vanity's proving ground. Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices. ~Shana Alexander

It got me thinking about the world of esthetics, and where men are starting to fit in to that scene. Men are getting more and more comfortable with booking appointments for things such as eyebrow waxing, back waxes, eyebrow tints etc. which is super awesome! However, I think we need to progress with this trend a little further, you know, refine it. A lot of men are still on the fence with it, and most never admit to having anything done. It's totally manly! You can't get more manly! Come in, get MAN-i-'cured' and walk out fist pumping and flexing those muscles!

PRO TIP: If you are a man, and you are reading this, please don't let this happen...



That, fellas, is just not cool ok? Never do that! This is just one picture I found, but I didn't want to post a bunch more because frankly I know you guys... you are going to see this, ignore my warnings and say 'DUDE! That's AWESOME!' and go get it done.

Sigh.

But hey, it's fine, we at Roots do not discriminate against new trends. We're cutting edge baby. If you want funky back hair designs, we will do it up. I promise to hold judgements, as long as you don't go convincing my boyfriend to wax 'l33t Gamer' in to his chest hair.

Tata for now! Tomorrow marks our one year anniversary since we had a massive fire at Roots, so I'll be revisiting that day in another post :) Bring the marshmallows and weenies! It's story time!

Thank you for calling,
♥Sadie

Today was a great day of plotting future goodness at ye ol Roots Salon with Ida, Staysea and Annierose. I only worked for a couple of hours due to a massive migraine that's been plaguing me for a few days. I think Andrew spiked my coffee at work hoping that I would stay away and not be able to report his shinnanigans. Or, perhaps it was Anthony trying to keep me away for a while until he gets the perfect hair style to rawk and feels 100% film star ready.

Hey beauties!

It's been a busy busy couple of days over at the Receptionist camp!

I was lucky enough to get to work two days in a row at the Comox location! This is exciting news because I haven't gotten a chance to show those guys some love in a while, and I think they were starting to think I didn't love them anymore! BLASPHEMY! If you guys are reading this, 1/4 of my heart belongs to you. The other 3/4 is shared between the Courtenay crew, my family and my dog. He gets an entire quarter, sorry everyone!

So anyways, I managed to snap a few pictures of their gorgeous mugs, and get a bit of video to add to my collection. I suppose saying I am collecting video footage of my co-workers sounds a tad on the creepy side, but honestly, I'm keeping it to make a long video to share with the world. That, too, sounds a bit creepy, but far less creepy than hoarding it for myself... right?

Scattered throughout this entry you will see a few of the pictures I took. Looking at the pictures of Mel reminded me of something though; Yesterday I was schooled in a fact about Mel. She normally wears her bangs swept to the right. However, when she sweeps them to the left, she becomes 'Alyssa'. Apparently 'Alyssa' is the nice one, so I guess I'm working with 'Mel' all the time and that's the scary one? Oh dear... I better not make her mad!

Also, I tried to get a picture of Richard, but apparently he didn't want to let me. I'm sure you can pick out his picture from that bit of information ;)

It has been super foggy the past few days, especially yesterday. I can tell it's October! The weird thing is every time I go out to Comox, SOMETHING reminds me of a zombie outbreak. Yesterday was super quiet and eerie outside, and the fog was so thick you could not see past the first row of cars in the parking lot. It was reminiscent of the old zombie flicks that had lots of fog (they could not afford higher quality effects ok!) and a horde of zombies would always pop out of the fog. Well, not pop, more like shamble and twitch, but you catch my drift.

One good thing though, is that despite the impending doom of zombie outbreaks whilst I'm in Comox, inside the salon is always fun and full of energy. IF a zombie outbreak happens, I'm totally cool with riding it out with those guys. I'd have to find a way to get the Courtenay peeps over there though... we'll work on that in another entry.

It's been fun talking to the clients this month. Everyone is chittering away about Halloween and what they are going to be. One of our clients is dressing up like a zombie bride and she promised I could take pictures of her when she comes to get her hair done, or, if I don't work there that day, she will bring me some pictures. Super stoked, she's an awesome lady and a former client of mine when I used to be a hair stylist (ohhhh revealing part of my past, dun dun dunnn) and she'll look FABULOUS as a zombie bride. She had a little visit with the stunning miss Desiree today (back off, she's mine!) but she'll be in to see Jen on Saturday, so stay tuned for pics!

We have our Christmas staff party booked, and boy oh boy will I have goodies for you all after that one! Not the next day though, I'll be recovering from abusing myself in the name of a holiday. You know, the usual tradition! Santa is going to be there handing out presents and I'm not sure if we are still supposed to offer him milk and cookies being that it's a crazy staff party. I don't want to offer him shooters though because if I make Mrs. Clause mad, I wont get anything under my tree :(

A little Birdie told me that Andrew was our Santa last year. The same Birdie also has some footage of this. That SAME Birdie was willing to trade me the footage for some delicious seeds (of laughter) and so, yes, I will post said footage once I get it *snicker*

Just a couple of reminders before I go! Tomorrow is Friday, which means we are giving away something fabulous on our facebook fan page!

ALSO, there is still time left in this spooky month of October to book a full head of hi-lites and a haircut to pick up a free flat iron (worth $70 retail I might add!) We love putting smiles on faces as a free service, so if your face is lacking in smiles let us help you with that! It's e

ven pain free!

I'll update tomorrow for sure, just give me time to peek in and scope out the scene over in Courtenay. I'm sure they have found some shinannigans to get themselves involved in within the past couple of days that I've been gone. Maybe I can yank on the branches of the gossip tree and see what tasty morsel falls down!

I will be putting up some contests once I have enough followers, so be sure to tell your friends about the blog :) I have some fun ideas that I want to get started on, so let's get this blog-ball a'rollin shall we *fist pump* Also, I will be interviewing our stylists and putting up a fun little fact sheet/survey combined with a sexy photo of each of them starting next week. It will be a weekly treat for everyone.

Blog ya later folks! Stay classy!

Thank you for calling,

♥ Sadie

Ello Ello ma'lovelies!