Ten years ago when Harper met her now husband Hudson, he brought a vibrant young 12-year-old into her life, her step-kiddo and soul-child, Grey.  

Grey is someone with depth, alertness, creativity, sensitivity, and an adventurous spirit.  Grey has never walked the straight and narrow road, but has always found her way, meeting life's challenges with courage and confidence.

Grey is a senior in college, and we asked them to come on the show to talk about mental health, and their work in mental health support with at-risk youth, as well as her own mental health.  We wish we had as much language and as many tools as they have today when we were in our 20s!

We also chat about our favorite adventure guide, her dad —> Harper's husband Hudson, who takes us on extraordinary hikes that make us question our life choices, but always keeps us coming back for more.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this episode, and Grey's take on mental health. What do you wish you had known about mental health when you were in your 20s?

Let us know! Find us at:

[email protected]

IG, FB, TikTok: Salon Confessions Podcast

Harper: @Harperhasnicenails on IG & @harperhasnicenails.bsky.social on Bluesky

Jen: @Jentakesconfessions on IG, @Confessionista.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sonivia Studios | Rue Spence: @SoniviaStudios on IG

The great thing about Life Hacks is they can be ANYTHING.  It can be things about cleaning your house or your stuff, managing your time, salvaging and repurposing, changing your mindset, cooking and meal planning, or just about anything that is a part of your daily life that someone has figured out an easier way to do.  And really, all of us have life hacks.  Maybe some of them are things we picked up from childhood that our parents or grandparents did, and we didn’t even know they were lifehacks until adulthood.

One of the best things about social media videos is all the lifehack learning we get from them.  Cooking tips, ADHD tips, cleaning hacks, parenting help… there is no shortage of ideas for making life easier in hours of tiktoks and Reels.  Now, whether that’s time well spent…well, that’s a different story.  

We would love to hear your favorite life hacks!  Send us your go-to ways to make life easier!

[email protected]

IG, FB, TikTok: Salon Confessions Podcast

Harper: @Harperhasnicenails on IG & @harperhasnicenails.bsky.social on Bluesky

Jen: @Jentakesconfessions on IG, @Confessionista.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sonivia Studios | Rue Spence: @SoniviaStudios on IG

Welcome to Season 5 of Salon Confessions!

On our first episode of the season, we are talking about SLEEP!  Do you remember being young and able to sleep through the night all the way until 11am or even noon?  Harper was never great at falling asleep, but she didn’t suffer from sleepless nights very often.  Yet every decade, that precious commodity of sleep just seems to slip further and further away, despite all of the urgent warnings about how vital it is to our health.  These days, we celebrate when we get a full 7 hours. Falling asleep, staying asleep, feeling rested - all of these feel like a battle to fight and work at daily, and so do so many of our friends.  

We have both found some things that are working for us, and we’ll talk about what we’ve tried and what’s helped on this episode,  but we’d love to hear from you too - what’s worked for you??  Maybe you have something in your toolbox that will help inspire us or our other listeners!

[email protected]

IG, FB, TikTok: Salon Confessions Podcast

Harper: @Harperhasnicenails on IG & @harperhasnicenails.bsky.social on Bluesky

Jen: @Jentakesconfessions on IG, @Confessionista.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sonivia Studios | Rue Spence: @SoniviaStudios on IG

Each year for many years, Jen and Harper have chosen a word of the year to help guide and direct our mindset for the year ahead.  Choosing a word of the year is different than making a resolution.  We are not about the “new year, new me” attitude that is so quick to fail.  

A word of the year is intentionally open to interpretation, and helps guide our thoughts, actions, and beliefs.  In years past, Jen and Harper have chosen words like Abundance, Joy, Adventure, and Hope, and last year Jen chose Consistency and I chose Fast.  At the end of the year it’s interesting to reflect back and consider the ways that word has impacted or nudged us.  The years that we each chose Abundance were indeed richly abundant years.  The year Harper chose Joy she was desperately longing to feel it again, and in the end, a job change and training to run 10 miles really did help her find her joy again.

So this year, we are again starting our year with choosing and sharing our words of the year, and why we chose them.  

We hope you consider choosing a word to guide you this year, and if so, please share it with us!  Email us at [email protected], or find us on the Socials at Salon Confessions Podcast.

[email protected]

IG, FB, TikTok: Salon Confessions Podcast

Harper: @Harperhasnicenails on IG & @harperhasnicenails.bsky.social on Bluesky

Jen: @Jentakesconfessions on IG, @Confessionista.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sonivia Studios | Rue Spence: @SoniviaStudios on IG

In this episode, Jen and Harper are walking back through our 2024 seasons 3 and 4, reminding ourselves what we’ve done and how much fun we’ve had, and helping you get to know us a bit if you are new.  And if you are a long-time listener, we hope this episode is a fun walk down memory lane too.  We thank you so much for being here with us on this journey, for being loyal Confessionistas, and encouraging us with your comments, feedback, and ideas!  Please keep them coming!  Email us at [email protected], or find us on the Socials at Salon Confessions Podcast!

IG & Facebook: Salon_Confessions_Podcast

IG:

@JenTakesConfessions

@HarperHasNiceNails

@SoniviaStudios

BlueSky:

@Harperhasnicenails.bsky.social

@confessionista.bsky.social

With the war that is raging over healthcare and women’s rights to have agency over the private choices that they make with their healthcare providers, we realize that our listeners want to talk about these issues more.  Women of all ages are frustrated and outraged at the lack of care, the cost of care, and the poor quality of care. Even more than that, the research and education on women’s biology and physiology - how our bodies actually function - has been atrociously underfunded, leaving us without answers, living in mystery.

What WE know, is that when we talk about these things and bring them into the open with each other, we open up doors for women to talk to one other in their real-life circles, which helps open up doors for those women to reach out to talk to others in their lives.  Even just in the last few years of doing this show, we’ve had so many women in our lives tell us that they learned something that they shared with someone else who then talked with their healthcare provider.

Harper asked her followers on BlueSky this question:  When you reflect back - what were you uninformed or misinformed about in regards to your body at any stage of life? and got some astounding responses.  So in this episode, we’re going to talk about just a sampling of things that we never learned about our bodies, and share some of the responses from Harper's question on BlueSky, and a few other stories we’ve heard along the way.

I have no doubt that you can add your own story to this episode, and we want to hear it!

[email protected]

IG, FB, TikTok: Salon Confessions Podcast

Harper: @Harperhasnicenails on IG & @harperhasnicenails.bsky.social on Bluesky

Jen: @Jentakesconfessions on IG, @Confessionista.bsky.social on Bluesky

Sonivia Studios | Rue Spence: @SoniviaStudios on IG

A few weeks ago Jen and Harper kicked off a sub-series called “Jen and Harper Try it Out.” In our Try it Out Series, we give things a try that you might see ads for on social media that look really interesting but you aren’t sure whether they will be worth it or not. It might be a new kind of medspa treatment, or self-care, or unique therapy or experience.

Harper recently saw a BOGO ad for a Float Spa on Facebook and clicked "buy now!" so she and Jen could do another one of these Jen & Harper Try it Out episodes.

If you’ve never seen one of these, a Float Spa is a place that has private baths that are filled with thousands of pounds of Epsom salt, which is known for its detoxifying properties. It’s supposed to be warm, relaxing, soothing, detoxifying, and helps with sleep, muscle soreness, and a whole litany of other issues. All of the pictures and descriptors make it sound absolutely amazing, and we thought we were going to love it.

We would love to tell you it met and exceeded our expectations, but alas, this is a bit of a cautionary tale. I’m sure there are many of you out there that have done float spas and have loved it though, so we would love to hear your stories and what you loved about it - did we do something differently, or did you go someplace that offered a different environment than the one you will hear us describe?

Or did you try it and have a rough time too? Either way, we want to hear your story! Email us at [email protected]

Or find us on the socials!

Threads & IG: @Salon_Confessions_Podcast

IG: @JenTakesConfessions

BlueSky & IG: @HarperHasNiceNails

Threads & IG: @SoniviaStudios

This year has been a year of trial and error and learning for Jen and Harper, figuring out what treatments, prescriptions, and supplements will work for us as we go through perimenopause, Hashimoto’s, ADHD, and other women’s issues and aging issues. 

Since we’ve spent so much time sharing our challenges, we’re dedicating this episode to sharing some updates with you on what treatments we’ve landed on that have been working for us, and how we’re feeling after the frustrations and trials of the past year or so.   And we vehemently believe that sharing these stories is vital for women, because there is simply not enough information, research, or advocacy out there for us.  So we need to talk to each other as women through the ages always have done, and keep advocating for ourselves and each other.  

Jen and Harper are fierce advocates for women’s health and women’s rights to their own choices about their health in private consultation with their healthcare providers.  We hope you are too.  

But we want to be really clear that we are NOT health professionals.  We are not qualified to give out any medical advice, nor should anything we share be interpreted as endorsements of the efficacy of prescription medications, treatments, or supplements.  The views and experiences we share in this episode are solely the views of two women’s personal health journeys, and you should absolutely do your own research in careful consultation with your health care providers. 

*No compensation was offered or received for any products or companies mentioned in this episode, including HERS brand.

Be thoughtful and talk with your own inner circle of women about their experiences too.  Don’t just go to Google or WebMD.  Talk to the women you know. Be the one to start the conversation.  We need to be the ones to pull back the curtain and initiate  the discussion.  You may be shocked how many women you know are desperate for someone to open the door.  

We would love to hear your health story and what has worked or not for you!  email us at ⁠[email protected]⁠

Find us on Facebook

Salon Confessions Podcast Page

IG:

@Salon_Confessions_Podcast

@JenTakesConfessions

@HarperHasNiceNails

@SoniviaStudios

BlueSky:

@HarperHasNiceHails

Because we share a lot of very personal and intimate confessions on this show, we’ve chosen to keep our names and faces confidential, so you probably don’t know that Jen is a curly red head, and Harper is a long-haired wavy blondy-brown-silvery head.  We both recently entered our 50s and talk a lot about the aging process on this show, but one thing we haven’t talked a lot about is the great debate - “to dye, or not to dye.”  As in, our hair color.

Harper stopped coloring her hair several years ago so her light brown hair is slowly transitioning naturally through blond and sliver and even a few strands of white hair, while Jen adds some lowlights to her naturally red hair.  We both have strong feelings about not wanting to feel like we look “old,” but also recognizing that there are certain elements of aging that require grace, acceptance, and that we can find beauty in.

And as women, we seem to be constantly battling the inner demons screaming judgments at ourselves about how we *should* look, so in this episode, we do what we always do here on this show - we shine a big bright light on those inner shadows and talk about it all.  How we feel about our hair, why we decided to color - or not - and how that feels, and remembering that how we feel in our bodies (or even how we are trying to feel!), is more important than what anyone in the world thinks about how we look!

Tell us your hair story!  Best hair, worst hair, and how you’ve navigating aging hair.  Email us at SalonConfessions[email protected], or find us on the Socials:

IG & Threads: @Salon_Confessions_Podcast

IG & BlueSky: @HarperHasNiceNails

IG: @JenTakesConfessions

Jen & Harper have a lot of fun with their husbands. Jen & "OfJen" and Harper & Hudson spend a lot of time laughing in their marriages, and in today's episode, we are sharing some of our best and funniest marriage stories. These are the gut-busters, the giggle-fests, and the truest of true confessions.

We bring you into our homes and tell you all the god's honest truths about what really goes on, and how we navigate marriage with as much humor as we can.

It turns out, Harper is a lot like Jen's husband, and Jen is a lot like Harper's husband, so really - is it any wonder why we're besties????

This one will keep you LOLing, so be prepared to get a good ab workout and a fresh dose of some much needed endorphins. WE ALL NEED THEM RIGHT NOW!!!!

Also - for the record, we believe women and their healthcare providers should have the exclusive right to make their own damn healthcare decisions!