5.10 :: A story about getting busy....

Well, hello lambs!

So, it's almost March. Can you believe it?!?

I can't believe it...

I can't believe how this year has gone by!

I can't belive how busy my life has become.

Last week, I was hit with a monstrous man-cold the size of Florida! HA HA.

It was not fun, but then again, when are men ANY fun when they're sick?

I haven't written in a couple weeks. As I looked at my last post (5.09) I was sickened with my offense to being told how "unwelcoming" I am. I think I propelled myself into a mancold. LOL.

There were so many avenues being opened to me as I wrote my last blog. I had two salons (I heard through the grapevine) that were excercising their options to sell. I called one location to investigate the truth and the listed price. I am yet to receive a phone call.

Making that phone call made me put my life back into perspective! I have the goal in my heart to open a salon and to be this massive success, but sitting about in a sullen way is NOT how to go about achieving your dreams!

I also learned that I need to save more money! I have all faith in opening a salon, but I have got to CLUE in that money just DOES not appear!

I have this remarkable little life and remarkable people in it, but cannot justify half of my purchases like clothes and going out to dinner with friends.

I need to wise up a bit financially and undestand that money DOES not grow on trees and that I need to save more, instead of spending more. So, as heartbreaking and earth-shattering as it is to type, it's true: I'm not a good saver.

I need to clue-in fast and do what Suze Orman would do.

lol.

Recently, my mum was rushed to the hospital due to her leg not being in such amazing condition. She was told to stay off her leg and rest which means that her time working with my father may be soon gone. The dream has always been to have my mum be IN the salon with me running my empire. With this injury, she may soon have to stop working and where is the salon I've so promised and talked about??

Hmmm....

I need to spend LESS time partying and MORE time planning my success: that's what two weeks away from my blog has taught me: it's time to flip BACK into serious mode and make sure those investments in myself are back to normal.

No more investing my brain's channels into "am I mean?" "Does so-and-so like me?" No sir!

I need to get a good clear view of where I'm headed: salon owner.

Being sick taught me more than just to take care of myself: it showed me that I have nothing better to do than get busy!

Hearts, lambs,

Josh

Volume 5 EP (exxtended post) ::: Q's from YOU, my haute-arse readers and followers..

So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to answer some many asked questions that have hit my inbox and the rumour mill.... This is an EXXTENDED POST ....

1. What are the chances of you working a hairshow? Anytime soon?

JRY: The chances of me working a hairshow are slim right now, as of now, I still have my L'Oreal endorsement as an active INOA artist, but have not completed requirements for educating or touring. It is with respect, that I can confirm researching avenues with: Framesi, Sexy Hair and Joico. As far as working anytime soon, no. The soonest educational event I have planned is an American Crew class (THE FIRST company I worked for in 2008) for later this month. I am considering pursuing advanced placement with the Denver-based company and educating stylists on the art of WOWING a male clientele.

2. How's your dream salon coming along? Are you looking to open this year? 2012, like you said or when??

JRY: Good question! Right now, the act of opening a salon is not relevant. 2011 is not my ideal year, especially before taxes! I have had three opportunities arise in the last two weeks regarding possible spots for my salon. I can tell you now, firmly, NONE of those locations are ideal for me at this moment in time. Right now, I'm writing the concept and policy guide for my salon with my mum, Yvonne Cooley. I want her by my side on opening day. My good friend and Trendsetters salon owner Janelle knows I'm actively looking to open a business, so it's not a hush-hush conversation, it's something I like talking to her and OTHER salon owners about at least three times a week. No open this year though.

3. You should have an online portfolio of your work! Can we view one?

JRY: A portfolio project is IDEAL for me PRIOR to opening a salon. "Flawless" was supposed to be the project I was going to use as my portfolio piece, unfortunately, I do not feel Pueblo offers the appropriate artistic collaborator... who knows?! I may bust out a lense and start shooting pics myself!

4. You NEVER sleep! How do you keep doing what it is you do? Seriously, take a break, Josh! You deserve it.

JRY: I do sleep (at odd times) and do not deserve a break til all of the above list is completed! Besides, my followers, lambs, and clients would miss me if I slept in too long!

xoxoxo--- thanks for the q's guys!

Follow me on Twitter and get REALLY candid with me at http://www.twitter.com/prettyboyedu.

5.09 :: A story about softening up...

Good evening little lambs,

How are you?

It's about midnight on Thursday morning and I'm sitting here fresh from a bubble bath and fresh from a sushi supper with my fashionista friend, Michelle.

I totally needed the support of friends today. I even stepped away from the salon mid-afternoon to have lunch today with an amazingly supportive group of my favourite "girls". I can't tell you how I feel regarding my clientele. I don't even know if I consider them "clientele" anymore. They are by-far, family, and THE closest friends I have right now.

Starting this blog, a year or so ago, I see the progession in each volume and this one (Volume 5) seems to be all business and no adventure. Well, let's take you on a little ride, shall we?

It was brought to my attention last night that a salon peer of mine will be leaving my current salon not due to business, not due to location, not due to hours, but due to: me.

Yes.

You read it right! Me.

I am overly pushy, overly ambitious, over confident and from sources, I "intimidate" her and make her "uncomfortable" and even though she loves the salon, she'd much rather leave due to me being there.

I debated whether or not to write about this, but I had to! It's not to defame anyone or put names on the situation, but it's to make Light of it! As you know, I have NO secrets and those people that choose NOT to agree with my posting may kindly exit.

I mean it- leave. please.

I heard that I'm "pushy", "arrogant" and "talk down to people".

You know who else did that?

Madonna.

Vidal Sasoon.

Tabatha Coffey.

Winston Churchill.

Pablo Picasso.

Anna Wintour.

And yes, even Oprah.

All of whom, I aspire to become and embody in my own melange of J Ry.

For whatever reason this person decides to leave or state that I made he so UNCOMFORTABLE, I wish her well. Perhaps I am the unsung mentor that needs to be mentioned in her memoir. I hope she grows from this decision, just as I grew when I left Headlines.

Truly.

No shit.

I do.

With that aside, I've been rather down today and needed my friends to paint the smile back on my MAC-covered face.

.....so, if you notice my posts are a bit "darker" than Light, please understand, that I am eating a well-needed critique (I guess)

I need to "soften up" some on salon peers and I may even need to debate mixing ANY business and pleasure.

5.08 :: A story about my five loves and why Valentine's Day is my favourite.

Well good evening dollfaces!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yep, you heard me. Valentine's Day. It is by far, my favourite holiday. I love the amourous amount of love that people give each other (no matter what) on this day and even the emo-inspired love-haters make me happy too with their rainclouds of hate for anything pink and frilly today.

Remember one thing, I love you even if you hate today.

Anyway, it's abou 10:30 or so and I'm sipping a German Riesling at Studio J Ry after a whole afternoon/evening of hanging with Anthanasia, Jaxton, new baby Serenity and the whole Gallegos-Gitzen brood of kids and Daddy Gabe.

I never thought that after this many years, Nasia would remember this is my favourite day. Most years, we exchange loving e-mails about what we mean to each other and I'm the first to initiate. This year, however, she wrote me one first yesterday while I was out with my mum celebrating.

Tonight was impromptu, I surprised her with a new designer clutch, bottle of wine and a Shampoo Boy by J Ry shirt to RAVE reviews!

Yesterday, I spent all day with my mum and we bought each other cookbooks and coffee and wine and spent the evening at my house watching The Grammys and cooking shows.

For me, that meant alot.

Now, for many, they don't figure his as the archetype of a Valentine's celebration, but for me, it is. I was telling people over Twitter and a few friends and my two Valentines that I can count my loves on 1 hand.

Yes.

1 hand.

I am classicly single, but love it.

And I always make comments like, "I have less that 5 friends or desires"... it may be exactly five.

Pointing at my hand, I count them down.

1. my mum.

2. Nasia

3. my career

4. something undescribed and undefined that keeps me going.

5. me.

#5 means alot to me because IF YOU DON'T love yourself, how the hell can you love someone else?

#1 is my mum. My mum was single when she had me. It was me and her for a year or so til she got back together with my dad. But my mum sacrificed a whole lot for me. In my early adult years, she put an investment in me through beauty school, has ALWAYS been there and even when I didn't want to hear what she told me, it was THE best advice ever.

#2 is Nasia. Nasia taught me and groomed me for success. I always tell people, "when I see Nasia cut hair, I can see colours."

I visually can see her aura as she cuts. It's yellow when she's full of energy and pink when she's playful and very very crimsonesque eggplant is she's deep into symetry. No shit . It is!

Her grooming me as I was a young stylist translated into love on many levels and for sometime, I had a crush on my best friend and always announced that if I could marry a WOMAN, it would have been Nasia. I still beleive that. Through babies, salon changes, husbands and bad talking each other, we have survived it all as if we are an old married couple.

She's my true love.

#3 is my career. That includes clients, education, dreams and the EVERY DAY passion of wanting to excell at my craft. My mum and Nasia fostered that in me and made it tangible for me to express myself and become who you know today.

#4 is obscure to explain. I literally wake up and give thanks. Is it to God? i don't know. My life? I don't know. It could be a mixture of both. There's a desire there. There's a desire at night that drives me to want more. Is the need for a lover or companion? yes. Is it the need to do more and fullfil an inner need? Yes. Is it to show people ALL I can do that keeps me going? Yeah, it's that too!

I always say that when I find someone or get married (God forbid) this #4 will have a name. until then, it's something undescribed that drives me.

Most importantly, my Valentine's Day is a culmination of love that I try to portry daily through my five reasons for living.

AND THAT, lambs, is why Valentine's Day is my fav.

xoxoxo.

Josh

5.07 :: A story about Mister Cooley and all the irrevalance...

What's up lambs!

It's the one and only Mister Cooley tweeting, blogging and facebooking away from my office in Studio J Ry.

I find so many cool cool thing when I'm surfing my page like the number of views and how many people have shared my blog and webpage and info. Today, I was greeted on Facebook by an e-mail from someone that was very upset about me "unfriending" them.

I actually "unfriended" this person about a week ago after a month or so of debating. She sent me picture of an animation character to my inbox at the beginning of January with this e-mail asking, "how do I get my hair to look like THIS?"

Seriously?

On an anime character?

I was hesitant to reply because it's an animation. It's not even real, so it was awkward that I recieved that. So, I never replied. My reasoning for not replying is because it wasn't even a picture of a celeb or actual hairstyle. It was an animation and seemed so left-field that to me, it was irrevalant to even waste my time performing a consultation. So, I let it be. At the end of the month when I filtred through people on Facebook and connections that were no longer serving a purpose, I deleted her. We're not growing in our relationship and I was hoping to NEVER recieve an e-mail like that ever again.

Well, behold this morning: I was greeted with the subject line, "hummmm...." So I opened it.

In the message, she tells me, "I noticed your unfriended me. I find this strange as in the fact that I referred my sister and mother-in-law to you." I've never seen these people nor have they mentioned her!

So, I never replied to this e-mail.

She continued with "sorry I offended you by not following you properly."

Omg... really, people?

I'm not going to dismiss you for following or not following me, I will dismiss you for sending me unnecessary drama to my inbox though!

This last weekend, I came home Saturday night for the first time aching. Yes, aching.

My body hurt soooo bad.

I was convinced I was dieing. lol. Not really.

I've ever hurt from roller brushing or standing, but this week I did. I literally was on my feet more than I needed to be. I think alot of this has been contributed with the falling through of "Flawless".

As I contacted the photographer of my choice to tell him "Flawless" is going to be a portfolio piece and not an exhibition, he seemed bothered. I'm on this negative kick with people, lately. When "Shampoo Boy" was re-imagined, even my closest famil member glared at the name "J Ry".

"Who is J Ry", I was asked. With a negative, "hmmm.." following.

With "Flawless" people were wanting credit and acted bothered.

So, as I've learned, if you're gonna do it. Do it yourself.

And don't do it because people like you, do it because it feel right.

So, all this lackluster reception, I think has made it's way to my arm and legs. And if there's one thing I rely on, it's my appendages. lol.

My goal is not "Flawless" or "Shampoo Boy", it's gonna be me. My main-winner is my work with my clients and writing my column for PULP and getting my book published. So, I'm gonna focus on Josh and not listen to people as much as I thought I could.

If I listen... everyone's gonna tell me, "sorry I didn't follow you properly."

I have no time for sarcasm or irrevalance. I have time to be with my guest and be the very best Mister Cooley I can be.

xoxoxo.

Josh

PS: Tune in to Tabatha tonight!

5.06 :: A story about my roots and making the venue smaller.

Good evening lambs,

Well, oh well, it's been a week since my last blog. Maybe longer. Who knows. Who's keeping count? According to my friend at lunch today: alot of you are.

I have one thing to say to you all: thank you.

This last week was kind of a brainf--k for me. I know that sounds harsh, but it was.

It was taxing to finally talk about my artistic endeavours with other "creative types", per se, and feel very neglected by the art community and by so-called "professionals".

I actually found it quite annoying that people from whom I'm seeking advice loved the idea of "Flawless", but either a) couldn't believe I was bringing it to Pueblo, b) wanted more control, c) exercised more ego and signed with a giant breath full of angst and doubt and anticipated scheduling conflicts.

For that reason, I feel as though I do not want to continue in the progress of making "Flawless" a giant art installation as I planned. Maybe more portfolio work between me and the photographer because some of the comments I heard were so stifling to my creative mantra, that I had no other feeling except desperation to go home and go back to bed, hoping I'd wake to more positive feedback.

As the weeks have gone by, I posted "Shampoo Boy by J Ry" and notes about "Flawless" and was told I take myself 'too seriously'. (See 5.05)

At this point, I have to reverb on my own advice and put a stop to even wanting to continue airing out my projects.

Was it too much too soon?

Was it not expected that I'd follow through?

I'm quite angry actually.

----I remember being a young young young young little boy in a small house, with my poor grandmother and my mum and dad who were building their business and telling me how hard they had to work.

I remember waking up in the morning and eating a fried egg and sipping orange juice or watered-out coffee my Guela made me and going to school and being a very Mediterrenean baby walking around alot of children that did not look like me or act like me or have my ambition.

I remember weekends at my Guela's and feeling a sense of warmth like I was THE most special child in the world. I grew up in a small house, in a poor neighbourhood on the weekends with her and sometimes during the week eating fried semolina pasta with tomatoe-based sauces and being sent off to learn a song or perfect a drawing or read a book. Not children's books though, books about angels and metaphysical things.

As I grew up and matured, I tried my hardest to be the best at what I did. Whether it was singing, dancing, acting, drawing, talking about writing short stories and magazine articles in W and Interview or talking about a film-crew following me as I took on world to create a pop record or salon empire. Those were my dreams and no one made me feel like I was 'too serious' or expected too much.

As we know, I grew up not be a pop star in Europe, but to become a force in my industry.

I found out along the way that people are envious and that when you work with envious people: the project dies. It fails to breathe in creative air.

One hint I had that this grew with me as an adult was always giving ideas at my last business ad when I would throw out a brilliant marketing idea, people would tell me, "that's too big! That's stupid. It's too serious!"

and we'd go through and do it and it was in-fact a million dollar idea.

However, the million or thousands or even a baby hundred, never made it to my pocket.

You know why?

I was working with envious people that wanted my creativity as theirs.

I was told "no" and then praised when the idea hit.

As I've interviewed people for "Flawless", only one has impressed me in his professionalism and the one I was counting on seemed so condescending like people of my early days telling me "no", making money and taking credit and bashing me and trying to contain me.

So tonight, I came home, sat up, meditated on my meditations from last night and have decided to make "Flawless" a MUCH smaller project.

I made some fried semolina pasta and a friend egg and watered-out coffee and thought about my hard-working parents, my poor grandmother and my upbringing and all those people that loved me AFTER I garnered them recognition.

My roots will always bind me and restrain me, but I feel like, it's needed this time.

I simply do not trust anyone with my "Flawless" exhibition at this time in terms of MASS photos and art installation.

I do however, want to continue with my portfolio intimately with one photographer.

It's not who I thought and the project is not where I want it to go, but I think scaling it down will be much better.

Not only do I NOT have to hear people tell me I'm "taking it too serious" or "too far"

I don't even have to share until it's time for show and tell.

So, with my last spoonful of pasta and half a cup of coffee later... I am officially announcing that "Flawless" will be smaller and more intimate.

All my love,

Josh

5.05 :: A story about one serious "lamb"

Well good evening lambs,

It's about 10:30 pm as I'm sitting here at my laptop sipping Zico coconut water and stroking my hilites... ha ha... Stroking.My.Hilites. Let's tweet that! ha ha.

Newly hilited and youtubed this week, I embarked on re-creating the 3rd phase of Shampoo Boy by transforming the brand into Shampoo Boy by J Ry in promotion of my official website http://www.josh-cooley.com/ and handing over the design reigns to my good friend and fellow creative Mo at Lastleaf Printing and Design. I can't tell you how happy I am over this collaboration!

As I filmed a YouTube video with my Blackberry and started tweeting web-addresses, etc., I was told that perhaps I was being "a bit much". I guess that means I need to tone it down a bit. This week, I also posted on my Facebook page that as my financial goal for 2011 is to save my 8-month-emergency fund (per Suze Orman), I would start to look for an assistant at the completion of that action...

People literally started texting me, e-mailing me and posting on my wall how much they want the job and how much it would pay and what the hours were like! OMG!! I said, "when the opportunity comes..." meaning it's not time, but it's close.

I was told recently that I take myself too seriously and that all the interviews with photographers and models for "Flawless" are "too serious". Well, I'm serious about getting this project underway! I'm interviewing three photographers and looking for people that want to expand their portfolios... That's all.

I had one guy actually interrupt my first interview twice and then came and sat at the table as I was interviewing and forced himself on me, for me, that's abrassive. His official interview is tomorrow and if his excitement shows me anything, it shows me that a) he's excited to work with me or b) he's pushy and needs work.

I'm not about pushy or needing work. I need the artistic element to ALWAYS be there. I need integrity in all I work with all the way from models chosen to photograhers: if that's too serious, then this IS NOT the project for them nor is my company as a hairdresser or business person.

For me, Joshua Ryan, Inc is both artistic and business: it is my life.

I have purposely cocooned all of it together.

As I tore open the archive of my book, "Pretty Boy Education". I see so much "young Josh" coming out and love it and hate it all at the same time. I see my obsessions with HLines and Nasia and Panda and hate that person at points in my book for being gullable and led astray. I WAS the lamb, not the shepard at many points.

When I started referring to people as "lambs" and took what I did serious as a business, people starting talking about how I do business and that there was 'too much' ego involved.

No, it's not ego. It's about the art behind what I do. It's about using marketing AS THE artform. It's about the world we live in now: the world of brands, cyber stalkers and 24/7 access.

Is that serious? Or have I collapsed into being 2011's "lamb"?

Have I lost my shepard's clothes and guidance? Or am I just one serious lamb?

You tell me.

xxxo.

j ry

PS: Feedback appreciated. You may publicly post on Facebook, Twitter or e-mail me at jcooley@fasmail.co.uk