Marney Curly isn’t her real name. Her real name is Marney Schoenfeld. But her gorgeous auburn mane so perfectly defines her that she’s actually listed in her husband’s contacts as “Marney Curly.”
“When we first met,” explains Marney, “he had not asked what my last name was, but entered my phone number into his cell phone based on my hair’s uniqueness.”
One might think that having such stunning tresses would have made a young woman pretty full of herself. But Marney confesses that she spent the better part of her youth chained to a hairdryer and tugging at her natural curls so she could fit in and look like everyone else. “My entire childhood was ruled and ruined due to my hair being different,” Marney says. “Having grown up in Michigan with a great deal of humidity, I had very few good hair days. All of my friends either had hair that dried perfectly straight, or went the perm route to achieve what I was so called ‘blessed’ with.”
Marney’s obsession with hair led her to spend many weekends of her teen years as the stylist for her friends on the b’nai mitzvah circuit. “I would have sleepovers at friends’ houses and ask their mothers if I could blow dry their hair in the morning.”
After studying communications and international studies, Marney graduated from Ohio State University in 1998. She moved to Phoenix and began working for the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. Her three prior trips to Israel, and a semester of study in Tel Aviv, all led Marney to embrace her Jewish identity. At the federation, one of her co-workers convinced her to start wearing her hair curly after having spent the last 20 years of her life straightening it. This was a pivotal shift for Marney.
After three years at her job, Marney says, “I realized I could no longer sit in a cubicle all day. I wanted to do something fun and creative that involved helping others look and feel better about themselves.” Marney finally pursued her dream of becoming a professional hair stylist and started cosmetology school at Scott Cole Academy in Scottsdale. “I knew immediately,” says Marney, “That I had made the best decision of my life.”
She trained as an assistant at Rolf’s Salon and after several years joined Zolton’s Salon and Day Spa. “Zolton’s was exactly what I was looking for in a salon,” says Marney, “It’s trendy, diverse, energetic and a wonderful group of people with many different product lines.”
Marney continued to study and attend hair shows and was thrilled to be singled out by Lorraine Massey, author of Curly Girl and the creator of Diva Curl products, to be her model during a hair demonstration in front of a room full of professional colleagues. This experience encouraged Marney to overcome her stage fright and shortly afterward she began appearing on Channel 3’s “Morning Makeover” segment, where she helps transform women by giving them dramatic cuts and color corrections.
Marney grew up in a Jewish home where holidays were celebrated and she now belongs to Temple Kol Ami where her 2 1/2 year old daughter, Sydney, attends preschool. Regarding her daughter, Marney proudly announces, “She has the cutest curly hair you’ve ever seen. We get stopped everywhere we go and people say ‘Oh, I see where you got your hair from!’”
Marney is committed to learning as much as she can about how to best style and manage her clients’ curly ringlets. She even made it her mission to travel to Manhattan to have her hair cut at the Ouidad Salon, known for cutting and styling curly hair with specific techniques. She learned as much as she could and came back to Zolton’s, where she has been building a curly-haired clientele base ever since. “My hope and vision are to continue educating my clients with all the knowledge I have learned over the years.” Marney proclaims. “It feels empowering to have someone in your chair completely unaware of how fabulous their hair can look until you introduce them to the right product, or show them how to overcome challenges. It also feels so great to be doing what you are truly passionate about.”
