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