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MODERN SALON sat down with Samuels to discuss the book, beauty education, mentorship and the habits that help beauty professionals thrive.
Laura Kaszoni (@lalasupdos) from Roost Salon and Skin Studio - Sacramento, CA, made #MannequinMonday easy for us! Here she shows how practice makes perfect."I bought a mannequin doll last October and I started to practice on it at least one ...

Laura Kaszoni (@lalasupdos) from Roost Salon and Skin Studio - Sacramento, CA, made #MannequinMonday easy for us! Here she shows how practice makes perfect.
"I bought a mannequin doll last October and I started to practice on it at least one hour a day," she says. "I've been doing hair since 2004, and doing updos just now and then during wedding season. Last year I decided to pursue my passion for upstyling, so that's how everything started. I bought that mannequin head and started to put in practice all the ideas going though my head. I opened my Instagram account beginning of October of 2014, and started to post." Kaszoni still practices an average one hour a day on her mannequin, "but I always post the styles I come up with, done on a real person. I truly believe creativity it's a major part of being successful but at the same time I think practice makes perfect!"
Kaszoni says having a mannequin head handy, is the best thing for a professional. "That way if an idea strikes, you can practice that right the way, and you don't have to worry about finding a model. If I'm too tired, sometimes I just draw my ideas in a notebook and practice them later."
Kaszoni suggests working with a high quality mannequin and/or tweaking to personalize. "I bought two mannequin heads and booth of them were of poor quality, although they were advertised as 100% human hair. They were very expensive. I gave both of them some highlights and lowlights- color dimension is so needed to enhance the styles created. I tease a lot to cover the boldness. I pierced their ears so I can change earrings for every style, put some makeup and fake eyelashes on them and I made them look beautiful. Everyone is going crazy over my mannequin heads and everyone wants to know where I bought those beautiful heads!"
When Kaszoni has bridal trials, she always show my clients the styles created from my IG page. "The styles created on the mannequin are part of my portfolio too."
Kaszoni suggests every stylist/student, or any person passionate about art of upstyling, buy a mannequin. "It is so important to practice your ideas right the way, to play with the hair every day, to get a feel of texture, shape. I have discovered so many new things about hair just by playing with it. The mannequin head is my best friend on a daily basis. And a good one- never complains about me pulling her hair."

MODERN SALON sat down with Samuels to discuss the book, beauty education, mentorship and the habits that help beauty professionals thrive.

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Ulta Beauty is always innovating to meet professionals where they are. Amazing transformations happened at The Salon at Ulta Beauty in 2025, and Ulta Beauty artistry and education will be everywhere you want to go in the year ahead. Come see all The Salon at Ulta Beauty has planned for you in 2026!
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