As we are almost out of October and into November, there is a lot of excitement generating throughout the studio. As I just celebrated my 26th birthday we also celebrated CUT’s one year anniversary! October 16th marked an important day for us seeing as a lot has gone on here in the last year. We really only have YOU to thank for that. Without you, I would just be a girl with a razor. You’re amazing and have helped motivate me and inspire me to do what I do. Any who, We have met our goals and are looking forward to the year to come.

With these goals comes some great change. I spent a lot of the last year in NYC with Nick Arrojo and his team crafting my technique and learning some things new. I truly value my education and think it was worth every last penny I paid to be at those classes. With that, I will be increasing my pricing at the hair studio. We believe the price increase will better meet the value of a haircut from an “Elite Designer”. You can locate the new pricing in our “menu” section of our website soon. You will receive notice before the new pricing kicks into full effect.

We are also proud to announce the entry of the newest member to the CUT team, Jess! She has been a part of our team for several months now, apprenticing under me and plunging headfirst into our culture. After months of attending classes in and out of NYC and having her pass her evaluation with Brian & Tracy Grieves-Smith [who partner with us on our creative team board], we are excited to welcome her to the floor as a CUT Designer! Jess will take on my previous pricing and I am confident she will be more then capable of providing any services you’d need! She is a brilliant designer and you can find more information about her and her training in her bio [which will be posted soon] ! She is looking forward to seeing and serving you!

I was just about to have the privilege to serve at the women’s prison in Clinton NJ this past monday. It was a fabulous time, chatting with the women who are in the cosmetology program and who wish to jump start their careers once they start their new lives and leave the prison. It was truly a blessing with such beautiful women. I am so thankful for that!

We have all sorts of opportunities around this time of year to get YOU involved. We will be hosting a very fun charitable event in our studio in late November. Details on that will be released soon, but it is something dear to both mine and Peach’s heart. Not only that, but we will be doing our food drive collection here at the studio! You are able to bring in [as many as you want] jars, cans, boxes of non perishable foods which will be donated to the Flemington Food Pantry right before thanksgiving! This will be in full effect all of November and we would love for you to bring as much as you can! There is an endless need of food right in our own neighborhood. So please consider partnering with us in this!

CUT is excited about the things to come as we continue growing and welcoming new faces through our doors and in our business. We will have some other new things we will be working into our structure shortly!Keep checking back and seeing whats new for the next year!

With Love,

Danielle

Fall seems to be a busy time of year for everyone. Its back to school, back to work, new schedules, new projects, busy time for retail, wrapping up the year.. the list goes on! I can say that CUT artisan. hair. design. joined that beautiful chaos this fall as well!

A week ago we worked hard and put together our annual fall photo shoot. What a fun event that is for our CUT team! We made inspiration/mood boards, picked out models and hair styles that have inspired us. We mapped out a 6 hour work day, models coming and going, wardrobe changes, photographers in and out, bobby pins hitting the floor and hair spray in the air. It’s a fast paced day in the studio fueled by inspiration and motivation. Seeing each of those models walk out the door with the photographers as they hit the street I could honestly say I was throughly impressed by each style I saw from me and my fellow apprentices. We had a fun day and we’re looking forward to sharing the photos with you as soon as we get them! These photos will be displayed around the studio as we switch them out for the new year and will be put on our website in the “portfolio” section as well!

The photo shoot was planned around a bigger event we were pulling together in that same week! We had Nick Arrojo come to Flemington on behalf of CUT artisan. hair. design.! We hosted the event at the Grape Finale with Blue Fish Grill as our caterers. I cannot even express my gratitude to everyone who came out to that night and enjoyed the wine, food and presentation that Nick put on for us! My thankfulness also must extend to all our fabulous volunteers.. models, set up & clean up crew, ticket girls and of course our photographers. [ www.cmostr.com ]. Nick showed different styling tips and tricks to everyone in that audience with our three live models [and one he pulled from the audience]! Everyone learned new ways to make their morning routine easier and had a chance to buy the product line we love – ARROJO! We all had a blast and are really looking forward to doing something fun like this again. Really though, thank you for coming out if you did!

On top of all this event planning, I have made my way in and out of the city a few times this past month for education. I went to a fabulous editorial styling class with Tim D. of Arrojo [He is one of the stylists on the hit show Project Runway] and Amanda J. who does the hair for a lot of popular rock bands including Kings of Leon. You could only imagine the creative juices those two have flowing through them! I learned a lot from this class, everything from your basic polished pony tail to a high fashioned curly hair style. It was so fun! I also attended a hairstylist event [Arrojo Expo] which was a great way to see what is trending outside of Flemington! And I will be attending a hair painting class this coming weekend. Going into the city is inspiring in itself and I get to spend some time rubbing shoulders with some of the finest in the industry.

As we approach the month of October, I know our one year anniversary of being open is coming soon. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible. We will be doing some new stuff this upcoming year, new photos on the wall – both hair photos and art work! With that, make sure you check out our artist gallery right now! A friend and client of mine, Alexis Milo, has her beautiful work on the wall and it is all for sale! Anyway, stay tuned to see what fun things we will have in the studio for the month of October to celebrate our one year anniversary of CUT artisan. hair. design. 🙂

Take care & love your hair! xoxo
-Danielle

An exciting day has come for CUT and our amazing clients! We’ve been working hard and patiently to put together what we know will be an exceptional night! Nick Arrojo is coming to Flemington, NJ in September to personally demonstrate the products you love from the Arrojo and meet each of you!”

The 19th of September is going to be an eventful day to say the least! CUT will be hosting an event at Grape Finale in Flemington, NJ. Nick will be joining us for a two hour event that will be split up into two parts. The first half of the night will be a product demonstration by Nick himself featuring live models and the Arrojo product line. He will be talking about each product, its importance, and the history of how the beautiful creation came to be. Nick will be demonstrating how to use each product properly to create a few different looks on different textures of hair to fit every need. This part of the night will only be $30.

The second part of the night will be open to everyone for FREE. It will consist of purchasing products, getting to meet Nick, and have him sign your products! Along with the signing, you may also get photos with him as well!

We are anticipating this event to be successful and popular, and we want CUT clients to have first opportunity. So, registration will only be open to CUT clients and there guest for the first two weeks (until August 17th). As mentioned, it will be hosted at the Grape Finale, right around the corner from CUT! We will have wine, hors d’oeuvres, and donation oriented raffles!

After working with Nick and his team over at Arrojo, we are thrilled to invite them out to our hair movement here in Flemington! CUT is excited to have a big night out in our small little town. So get excited, reserve your seat, by registering at CUTNJ.com, and join in on the fun! You will leave the event feeling inspired to try something new on your hair, with some new product to incorporate, and some great memories within our community! See you there!

With Love,

Danielle Hardy

This next month alone we will be providing services for proms, weddings, sweet 16 parties, funerals, job interviews and day-to-day life. It is so amazingly humbling that when our guests are planning all these events I can be a small part of their special day and that they want me to be.

This past month alone, I don’t know what it is, but I have had several people come in do make a big change in their hairstyles. I have had about 4 people cut off 8 inches or more of their hair to donate to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths. Not only are my guests trusting me to make one big change for them, but to do it well.

One of my most powerful experiences this past month was one of my beautiful guests came in to donate her hair. I knew she was ready for the change and excited to donate whatever hair she could to help make a wig for a cancer patient in need. When I asked her why she was in need of a change from her long beautiful dark hair, she smiled and told me she was starting her chemotherapy tomorrow morning and was expecting to lose all of her hair. I could have cried when she told me that, but she seemed so confident that she would be healed and this was just the first step to get there. She then proceeded to tell me her story of how this is her second time fighting this deadly disease, but the first time was in high school. She had to undergo the same procedures and treatments she is doing now, but 20 years ago as a teenager. Ugh I cannot imagine having to lose my hair now as a 25 year old, but she was in high school, when kids are brutal and image is everything!

Hearing this story made me remember some things. Hair is not the end-all-be-all. Although, hair is what I do and I am so extremely passionate about it, it is not eternal. Hair could be a powerful tool that can make us feel so beautiful or completely awful. I am blessed to have the gift of providing services for my guests and making them feel beautiful even when they are battling so much internally and in their daily lives. Everyone has a story, and I love being able to hear it. Popular stereotype on hair salons is there is a ton of gossip and negativity that goes on in there. At CUT artisan. hair. design. we strive to make a stand to go against the natural expectation and create a new culture in the industry. We adore that our studio is a place where people can come, relax, feel loved and accept love.

At the end of the day I can truly sit back and say “Its not about the hair”. I look forward to loving the unloved in this world and making them feel like they’re a part of something, that they be accepted. We can all do this, it doesn’t have to be by doing hair, but just by loving one another and doing to others as you would like to have done onto you. One small gesture can change someone’s entire life. We have the power to offer love, why not share it to all?

-Danielle

This week will be the 6 month mark of our new studio being open. I am still in awe of how amazing things have been, and although a growing process how smoothly things have been coming along. We are super blessed to have so much support from our friends, family, the local businesses in town and all of our guests that step through this door! I think it is very special that I still look forward to coming to work and seeing all the beautiful faces that I see each day.

We are currently looking to grow our team here at CUT artisan. hair. design. Peach is in the middle of reviewing handfuls of resumes and applications, meeting potential teammates and doing interviews. To me it is a feeling I can’t describe to have people whom I have not yet met, some I have known a while come from all over and choosing to walk in our door and asking for employment. Even when I dreamed up this studio, I didn’t dream as far as this… talk about a humbling experience! I am looking forward to bringing on an apprentice pretty soon, whom I am sure you’ll hear about in the next blog where I will be introducing him or her and welcoming them to our team.

We wouldn’t be in a place where we could grow like this if it wasn’t for all our amazing guests who come in week after week and show us the support. I had a family in here last Saturday that sad something that resonated with my heart. I have heard it many times before, but this was so genuine that I could almost cry thinking about it. The mother of the three beautiful girls I was doing said to me, “Danielle, we are so glad we found you.” And that just struck a cord in me to give me the drive to keep going. Even after 3 years of doing the hair for the family, they still find it necessary to let me know how I am doing. Encouragement like that is life altering. So really, thank you, everyone. It truly means a lot to hear your feedback on everything. You all have blessed me so much.

-Danielle

Happy New Year everyone! There are a lot of exciting happenings taking place this year at CUT. We are very excited about moving forward into 2013 and seeing what the year will bring us as well as what we might be able to bring to the world!

To kick off 2013, CUT will be sponsoring an amazing organization called “Feed The Need” through our church, South Ridge, in Clinton. This will be the fourth year that Peach and I participate, but our first year as sponsors. We can’t wait! We have a goal of raising/contributing $2,500 to help this great cause. Seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is so doable with the incredible support system we have backing us up! Here is a link to see how you can help be a part of Feed The Need along with us:

On that website you’ll be able to read more about the organization, our goals and how you can help! We are really looking forward to partnering with them and strongly believe and support what their mission is!

So on top of that, we plan on doing some more out reaches in the first half of the year and will continue to keep everyone posted on that as we finalize details!

If you haven’t had a chance to stop in yet to check out the new artist wall, please feel free to stroll in! Our artist whom will be displayed for the next 4 months is John Greene. He is a brilliant local photographer with a great eye for beauty! All of his work that is displayed is also for sale! So come in and take a look, who knows maybe you’ll find that perfect piece for your living room wall 😉 !

Thank you, sincerely. You all are the best!

Danielle