POSTED: Monday, Feb. 08, 2010

Out & About: Crocuses and slugs signal an early spring

Bellingham salon owner takes mathematical approach to working with hair

My crocuses have been up for weeks and there are signs of spring everywhere you look. I'm not complaining, but, isn't it too early?

I talked to Toni Clark, co-owner of Bakerview Nursery and Garden Center, for some advice and the news is good. She told me that unless there's a major cold snap, nature knows what's it doing and the plants will be OK.

It's OK to prune deciduous trees now, even if it seems too early, she said. Conifer, evergreen and broad leaf trees are more tender and might wilt a bit if the weather turns nasty. She recommended a wilt-stop product, if that happens.

She said she's seeing lots of people with spring fever at the nursery, which is located at 945 E. Bakerview Road. It's OK to plant now what you might normally start in March. It's even OK to start seeds, as long as you have a good light source, which might still be a grow light.

But along with the good part of an early spring comes the down side - the slugs are already out in force. "Pick 'em, salt 'em or use a wildlife friendly Sluggo," Clark said.

Let the hunt begin.

CUTTING HAIR BY THE NUMBERS

The sign on the door at Studio Ezell at 316 W. Champion St., Bellingham, says they're looking for hair models. But there's a much more interesting story going on at the 14-year-old salon.

Ezell Thompson told me he has been working on a method for a "logical, mathematical way to interpret hair" for 15 years. He says he finally "cracked the code" just last December and has taken on an intern for a 12-week training program he hopes to expand in the future.

Ezell, as he is known, had a salon in town 20 years ago that became, through a series of owners, Robertjude. He went on to work in the Midwest, Boston and Dallas, studying techniques with Vidal Sassoon and Toni & Guy. He was mentored by Roger Thompson, Sassoon's first creative director, along the way in his 29 years in the business.

He says his goal is to give every person a unique haircut, based on their individual hair movement. He evaluates hair growth patterns and texture, and head shape, to create the correct alignment for a cut that won't require tools or products to maintain.

"Everything is math; hair is linear," he said, explaining his work to find the secret to a great cut.

He says he and his wife, Charleencq Thompson, who is a stylist and colorist at the salon, are working with Bellingham Beauty School and Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy to offer advanced training to beauty school graduates. Ezell is taking on a second student in March, and hopes to someday have a full academy.

They're currently using about four hair models a week. The models need to have a couple of hours clear to spend at the salon, but they get a $75 haircut for the price of a tip for the student. For information, call the studio at 650-9049.

VIKINGS HELPING HAITIANS

Eighteen Western Washington University students studying abroad for a semester in the Dominican Republic worked last week to pack more than 5,000 emergency care packets headed to neighboring Haiti. Each packet is designed to feed a family for a week.

Western's Larry Estrada, a professor at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies who is in charge of the program in the Dominican Republic, said in a university press release that the students worked with the emergency-relief arm of the German government, GTZ, to help assemble the packets. He also said they will continue to work in the coming weeks to aid Haitian immigrants and displaced individuals as a result of the Haitian earthquake by organizing blood drives and volunteering at local hospitals.

Nora Hughes of Bellingham is blogging about her and her classmates' activities. Here's what she wrote Feb. 2:

"It was difficult for our group to be so close to Haiti, to be seeing every day images of the earthquake, but to be unable to do anything. I felt like there were probably signs of the earthquake everywhere I looked, but that I wasn't attuned enough to this place to see them. Our collective restlessness and helplessness was discussed at length in one of our first class meetings. We came to the conclusion that even if we could have gone to Haiti, we didn't have any skills to justify the resources that we would use by being there. What we could do was to find an organization that was operating out of Santo Domingo and offer our time."

You can read more of Hughes' blog at intercambiohispaniola.wordpress.com.

HEARTFELT REQUEST

Next Sunday is Valentine's Day and I'd love to share some of your favorite stories of romance. Please e-mail your story to me at Julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com.

IPHONE OLYMPICS

One last thing for this week: For iPhone addicts - yep, like me - we've added an Olympics section to our mobile site at bellinghamherald.com. But you might need to go to settings, Safari, and clear your history, cookies and cache to see the new section.