Meet Michael from Effie & Co. Salon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael from Effie & Co. Salon.

Michael, please share your story with us.  How did you get to where you are today? Tell us about the salon.

Effie & Co. was established in 1974 and was one of the first small businesses in Belmont Shores, California. We have seen a lot of changes here on 2nd Street, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our precision hair cutting and coloring, techniques required for employment in our salon. All of our stylists continue to have advanced education and in-salon seminars from The Vidal Sassoon Academies in Santa Monica, Chicago and San Francisco. We have return clients from all over the country and the world, as a result of our attention to detail and excellent customer service. Book your appointment today and come experience a haircut, color and style you will be sure to love! Michael Schwartz, Owner & Stylist Michael started his journey as a stylists after graduating from The Vidal Sassoon Academy in 1994. His work as a stylist grew and took him from West LA to Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, finally ending up in Long Beach. Michael started working as a stylist at Effie & Co. in 2000 and bought the business in 2011. Over the years, Michael has taken advanced courses at The Vidal Sassoon Academies in Santa Monica and Chicago. His love for the art of hair and classic education, accompanied with the newest cutting, coloring and styling techniques, helps Michael to provide his clients with and excellent salon experience.

Has it been a smooth road?

It was a fairly smooth tradition as I had worked in the salon 10 years prior to owning it. The previous owner and I talked at length for two years prior to that in preparation for the purchase as well. I mean let’s get real though, owning a hair salon is not for the faint of heart! It takes a lot of work, hours, planning, patience and tolerance. I pride myself on and friendly, professional and relaxing salon environment and if you treat your staff with respect as equals and give them a fun, pleasant place to work everything runs smoothly. I try to incorporate everyone’s input and opinion into decisions I make and I learn as much form them as they do from me.

What are your plans for the future?

As far as immediate plans for the future we have cutting and coloring classes coming up for all the stylists, monthly, as well as introducing some new products into the salon c/o Redken, Moroccan Oil and the Pure Envy line of Keratin infused Argon Oil and Hydrating Shampoo/Conditioner. Great stuff that won’t break your bank.

I have another 7 years to pay off the purchase of the shop so no real expansion just yet. I have one friend/stylist in Cosmo School as of now and she will be starting next year. We have room for maybe one or two more people after that. I prefer to hire one person at a time and take a full year for them to develop and learn and build rather than multiple people at one time just to make a few extra bucks. I’ve worked in salons that do multiple hires at the same time and I would rather take my time with one good person rather than have the integrity of the salon and work suffer. We all really enjoy what we do and the location we work in, I mean this is where people come for vacation and we get to live and work here!

So for now continued growth and providing the best possible service for our clients , who really are friends at this point, enjoying our art, craft and gifts we have been given and sharing them with others.

Let’s dig a little deeper into your story.  What was the hardest time you’ve had?

As far as the most difficult time in my life I would say 15-27 ha-ha! I was a victim of bullying that got pretty severe around the age of 15. I was too ashamed to talk about it with my family and it took a serious toll on my self-worth and self-esteem. I fell into a heavy party crowd in Hollywood at the age of 16 and proceeded to seek out escapism in the preceding years, getting worse and worse as time went forward. I was slowly killing myself one bad choice at a time. I made the decision to leave everything there behind at the age of 27 and moved onto my good friends couch in long beach. I stayed on her couch for 9 mo. and by sheer fate landed the job at Effieandco. I had to start completely over from scratch but I was willing to do whatever it took to live life again!

As fate would have it and with tons of support and a new network of healthy friends I was offered to purchase the shop from the previous owner, Effie herself, 10 years later. She saw something in me at 27 yrs old that I was unable to see in myself and I’m so thankful to her for it. In fact I just had lunch with her yesterday in Laguna Woods where she has retired with her daughter! I love her so much. In the past 5 yrs now I’ve been able to make the shop my own, remodel, renew and all the while keeping with the high standards Effie held me to when I was her employee.

Life’s opportunities and gifts are around us all the time and it’s up to us to recognize them and walk through the fear and uncertainty to discover where it is you are meant to be!

Pricing:

• Hair cut Women $50 Men $45
• Root Color $70
• Blow dry $35 and up
• Full Color $85 and up
• Up-style $65 and up
• Highlights $95 and up
• Olaplex conditioning treatment 70$ (as and add on service 35$)
• Corrective color $95 and up
• Coppola Advanced Glycolic Smoothing $300 and up
• Balayage/ Ombré $95 and up 

Contact Info:

• 5245 E 2nd st. Belmont Shore Ca. 90703 (long beach)
• Phone: 562-212-1948
• Website: effieandco.com
• Instagram: effieandcosalon
• Facebook: Effie and co. Hair salon

Check out his work below: