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Beth Minardi: Becoming a Career Hair Color specialist
The only one who can truly teach you is you.
by Staff
July 10, 20113 min to read
I've always thought the beauty industry was wonderful, but when I was starting college, my parents thought being in the beauty industry was like being a waitress. So I got my degree in early childhood education and started my career teaching kindergarten. But I still had an interest in the beauty industry, and while I was in grad school I had a small part in a movie where I met an owner of a small salon in Winter Park, Florida. He said, "It's great you have an interest, but if you don't get a license and go to beauty school, you're never going to do it."
starting out
So I quit grad school and went to beauty school at night in Orlando. Everybody there had all heard about Paul Mitchell and Vidal Sassoon and wanted to be hair cutters. A client would come in for color and the teachers wouldn't even know how to do it. Nobody in the school knew how to mix bleach. I had to read in a magazine that people were using foils to color hair. I came to the realization that the person who's really going to teach you is you. Even today, I tell my students, "I can put the food in your mouth, but I can't chew it up and swallow it, too."
working with manufacturers
After graduation, I got a job in renting luxury apartments to people. I rented an apartment to this little old lady who had just retired from Clairol. She told me Clairol was looking to hire people with college degrees and the next thing I knew they flew me to Atlanta for an interview.
I was hired and went to Clairol in New York City for one month. The training was amazing and I left early to do a show in Atlanta on my way back. I moved back to Miami and was the only non-wealthy kid living in a rich apartment complex. So I started doing the hair of my rich neighbors. They gave me $10 each. I taught myself to color hair in my apartment and got models for Clairol shows.
I eventually got promoted to New York with Clairol. My first job was to organize cluster classes in chain salons. I also worked in product development in the Clairol lab. I worked on the John Gunther shades, which ended up melding into LOGICS (used to be Clairol's cream color). I was also still teaching Congress of Colorists (a club founded by John and Lisa Gunther). Clairol bought this new business.
a born teacher
I left Clairol in 1986 when Carmine (Beth's husband and co-owner of Minardi Salon in New York) and I got married. I decided I still wanted to teach hair color, but I wanted to do salon color on a full-time basis. I stayed at Clairol and continued to consult and teach for Matrix. I worked in the salon all week and 20 weekends a year taught hair with Carmine.
Then Redken offered me the position of Special Hair Color Consultant to Redken. I worked for them for five years during the early 1990s and helped develop Color Fusion. Throughout my career, I've never stopped teaching; it's something I passionately love. Carmine and I do the Minardi Beauty Focus twice a year, we do classrooms at the Chicago Midwest Beauty Show and the Premiere Show and most recently, we've developed Color America with Beth Minardi. We also do days of beauty in salon and a one-on-one, behind the chair with Beth that lasts four days.
For information on my classes, visit www.minardieducation.com. Or e-mail minardieducation@aol.com. You can get a free monthly newsletter from me by signing up on the site!
Beth Minardi, co-owner, Minardi Salon in New York City
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