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On the Road: Debbie Doerrlamm in Toronto
by Debbie Doerrlamm
September 1, 20012 min to read
On a recent trip to Toronto for the ABA Beauty Show, I had the lovely experience of visiting Sudi’s, The Spa in a trendy section of the city for a much-needed pedicure. The area is filed with art galleries and stores proclaiming “haute couture” in the windows. What a cultural experience for me!
Sudi’s, The Spa was a recommendation from my online friend and Toronto-roommate Tanis Darling, who is very familiar with the city. I personally called to make the appointment and had an engaging conversation with the male receptionist. He told me to dress warmly because the temperature was ONE degree outside and the forecast expected to be only a bit warmer the weekend I was going to be three—may be as high as four degrees (Of course, naïve me forgot that Canada used Celsius as its temperature measurement and I dressed for extreme Cold!) After settling into my hotel room, I hopped a cab (paying with some very pretty Canadian cash) to Sudi’s.
Sudi’s is located in a lovely old three-story house on a combined residential and business street. The lower level is an esthetics school and the upper two levels house the salon—reception, a large retail area, and hair services are located on the second floor, while nails and esthetics are on the top floor. The décor was very old world, but at the same time trendy and unique. The mirrors for the hairstylists were free-standing, six-foot tall, resembling away fun-house mirrors, but with old world frames—unique looking!
I was pleasantly greeted by my technician Gita and then by Sudi herself, and was ushered upstairs to the pedicure throne. Sudi explained the history of the salon and her immigration to Canada from Eastern Europe more than 10 years ago. She also told me about their sanitation procedures, which I was happy to hear about since they are located in an area where there are no regulations governing sanitation. The main business of the salon is esthetics and Gita just finished her training. She was very nervous working on me (like I was some sort of celebrity or something!). We discussed the differences in procedures done here in the States (cutting cuticles, for example). I also shared with her some ideas about different products and top coats, for which she and Sudi were grateful. I was a little disappointed that there was no massage before my polish, but besides that, it was a lovely and peaceful experience with soft mood music piped all over the building. I left Sudi and Gita my quick dry top coat and got a huge hug from them both.
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