Amanda Shepard

We've all heard it before, everyone has the same amount of time in a day. The difference is how we choose to use that time. How much we value that time.     My most precious time is time spent with my son. That time has no monetary value, but it is priceless. It's priceless because time spent away from him it is time I cannot get back. We just celebrated his 3rd birthday. Three years went by in a literal blink. I am already having a hard time recalling how his chubby baby face looked until my Facebook memories pops up and leaves me in tears. How did it go so fast? Time is fleeting. Ask anyone with grown children and they will tell you to cherish these hard toddler years because before you know it they will be all grown up. Why do we nod our heads but not truly take those words to heart? Stupidly I have wasted a lot of time. I have realized that I have missed out on a lot of memories with my son because I was working. I missed his first steps. I missed taking him t...

This is how Salon 705 looked when I first signed my lease in July vs. how it looks today.   This is how Salon 705 looked when I first opened. I think it is so easy to see someone's success but many fail to see the struggles and the journey it took to get there. My salon started as a stuido salon in the apartment above my garage. I had a used, uncomfortable salon chair and plastic waiting chairs from Ross but it was mine and I worked harder for that salon than I had ever worked for anything. When I made enough money to upgrade my equipment I swapped out my salon chair for a nicer one and slowly the salon looked better and better. It has taken six years to get to this space . Six years of relentless hard work. Never forget the journey that lead to the place you are at now. I am so guilty of this. It is easy to say but hard to do. I put my head down and work but never look back at how far I have come. I'm in the constant grind but never in...

With Valentines Day still on our heels I wanted to open up and share a little more deeply into my life and tell you about a time when I did not love or value myself. As a child I was shy, painfully shy. I remember sitting in class thinking "please don't call on me, please don't call on me" as I sank lower into my seat. If my name was called my entire face felt like it was on fire and I would stammer out the few lines of text I was supposed to read as quickly as I could. I was actually a skilled reader, reading much higher grade levels than most of my class but I was incredibly self conscious. I even remember crying once at the grocery store when my mother chatted with the check out clerk asking him if he had graduated and I happily chirped that I had just graduated too...kindergarten. My mom and the check out clerk laughed and I was MORTIFIED. When we left the store I was in tears. As a middle school-er I was still painfully shy but had a good group of clo...

Transformation Tuesday.  Happy Tuesday! Here are some recent Natural Beaded Rows transformations from right here at Salon 705. We are loving our brunettes in this post but of course NBR looks great in any color. The salon is in full Valentines Day Celebrations! Andrea is giving away $70 worth of styling tools HERE . We are also asking for nominations for a deserving lady to win a free haircut and blow out, please email amanda@salon705susanville.com and tell us who and why they need a little pampering on us this month.  We also are serving up FREE mimosas (21+) for our guests and giving away valentines to our valued clients because WE LOVE YOU! Seriously, I am blown away with the amount of support for my little salon. Salon 705 won The Knot Best Of Weddings 2019 which is already making for a great new year here at the salon. Both myself and Andrea are filling quickly this month so don't forget to book your Valentines appointments befo...

We just got in last night from a grueling 12 hour drive home from San Clemente, Ca. The drive down on Wednesday was equally terrible with us hitting heavy snow in Chester and rain all the way down "The 5." We had ten hours in the car and then we landed in terrible LA traffic for another two hours, in heavy rain which in LA is like the apocalypse. Our fancy dinner plans turned into late night pizza delivery (thank you Uber Eats!). I had decided to treat myself to a DryBar blow out at 7am the next morning so we left our hotel in San Clemente bright and early at 6:30. I have NBR extensions in my hair which makes a blow out take a little more time and adds a twenty dollar charge to your blow out but is so convenient when you don't feel like washing your hair before an event. (Unless it rains and ruins it 😒). Feeling great about my hair I quickly dashed to the car my hubby was waiting to pick me up outside knowing the rain would ruin my hair. We ran to get a green j...

Natural Beaded Rows Hair Extensions What are they? NBR is a weft style extension system that is attached with beads and string.    It has minimal points of contact on your natural hair smaller than your pinky nail, about 12-15 points per row. This makes it incredibly gentle on the natural hair. NBR was created by Danielle K White owner of DKW styling in Laguna Beach, CA. Danielle created this method specifically for fragile, fine hair so it is a perfect method for fine haired girls but is great for any hair type. NBR uses the highest quality remy , single donor , hand tied human hair .  Lets break all that down: REMY- cuticle correct- meaning all the hair is tied to the weft in the direction it grew from the head. This prevents tangling issues. SINGLE DONOR- each bag of hair is form one donor making it less prone to color inconsistencies and tangling. HAND TIED- each individual strand is hand tied onto two strings creating a weft of hair. NO machin...

Clients, This has been an incredible year for myself, my family and my business. So many events have really pushed me to rise this year. I have learned more lessons about owning a home and a business in the last six months than I ever thought possible. I have also learned just how important rest and recovery is for my inner artist. The part of me that comes out while I am doing hair. My creative, fun loving side that loves the art behind doing hair. The artist in me can quickly burn out. When my artist burns out, I also lose my energy and patience as a parent. When my artist burns out, I am not the wife I want to be. Expanding my business has not expanded how many hours I have in a day. I first thought I needed to do more work in a day to make up for working less days a week. But I have found that more work does not equal more time. It equals more stress. More stress snuffs my inner artist's fire. More stress makes me an anxious mess. Sometimes it takes a voice of reason to...