Shear Genius - Profile of Nadwa Yono
By Patricia Montemurri - The Detroit News

Across her petite frame, NADWA YONO slings a stylized leather satchel that cossets weapons of tress reconstruction.

A hairdresser for 24 years, Nadwa knows what looks good on her and what will make her clients look good, too. She’s direct and knowledgeable, and her confidence calms the jitters of clients who know they need a change in their looks, but don’t know how to get it.

For 12 years, she’s owned and operated Salone Nadwa and Day Spa in Novi Town Center.

Born in Telkaif, Iraq, Nadwa immigrated to Michigan when she was 7. In high school, she secretly enrolled in a haircutting course when her parents objected to her career goal. The divorced mother of two teenage boys, she lives in West Bloomfield. She speaks English, Arabic and Chaldean.

Nadwa regularly takes on apprentices who, rather than attend beauty school, spend two years learning the profession from her in advance of talking state licensing exams.

Her salon offers a variety of services, including hair extension applications. She retains a physician who provides injections of Restylane to plump lips, Botox to reduce wrinkles and laser hair removal. She’s looking to move to a bigger location in the coming months. She wants to innovate with facial and massage tables that resemble water beds, and programmable shampoos bowls that can use high-pressure water to massage the scalp.

“The whole spa and hair industry used to be for the rich, and all about pampering,” says Nadwa, 45. “Now, it’s all about health and taking care of yourself.”

April 1-7, 2007