When Healthy Hairdresser profiled Casey London Keeter, the manager at Intrigue Salon in Atlanta, Keeter told us we should speak with one of her stylists as well. Kathy Cresci has been with Intrigue for 11 years and, like Keeter, makes deliberately healthy lifestyle choices. Cresci says her wakeup call came a few years ago.

“Being in the service business, we give a lot,” Cresci says. “We listen to our clients and give them a new look. By the end of the day, we have nothing left for ourselves. I began to realize that I needed to give back to myself, and one way was to take care of myself physically. I started by eating ‘clean,’ which to me means staying away from refined sugars and flours.”

Starting each morning with room-temperature lemon water, Cresci follows up at some point in the day with green smoothies that contain any green vegetable plus some berries. She adds ginger and turmeric, which she says are anti-inflamatory agents.

“That’s a very good detox, and I feel that we need it!” she notes. “The ginger and turmeric help me fight the carpal tunnel issues that stylists tend to have. We use them a lot in my native country of Morocco. I learned to cook by watching my grandma and mom, who would go into the market every day to get fresh produce. I don’t do that, but I do cook at home, which gives me control over what I eat. Sometimes I just make an omelet. Prepared foods are loaded with fat and sugar. To keep up my energy throughout the day, I drink kombucha tea, which is a natural energy drink with a probiotic.”

Cresci says she enjoys working out but gets bored and has to frequently switch up her routine. 

“I used to do spin classes, then I got into yoga and now I’m into boxing,” she reports. “I just believe I have to keep moving. It’s hard to pick up my daughter from school and then go straight to the gym—I feel bad making her spend an hour at the gym’s childcare facility—but I know I’m doing something good for myself.” 

Two years ago, when she turned 40, Cresci decided to challenge herself to train for a sprint triathlon of running, biking and swimming.

“I finished and everything!” she laughs.

Even as she’s doing hair at the salon, Cresci is conscious of working her body to prevent injury. She’s learned a trick.

“Standing hours behind the chair can hurt your body,” she says. “From my yoga classes, I learned to spread my toes, which engages my thighs, which turns out my pelvic bone and pulls back my shoulders. That all combines to put me in a comfortable stance, and I’m not sore after long days of standing. It’s also important to wear comfortable shoes. I spend a little more money to make sure they’re cute!”

As the resident dynamic duo, Cresci and Keeter have influenced the culture at Intrigue.

“Some of the stylists used to make silly comments about the way Casey and I eat,” Cresci says. “But now they look to us as role models. They’ll come to us and report what they ate!”