It's my privilege to introduce you to the main characters, in order of age. There are three of us.

In The Beginning . . .

The story begins in the 1960s when I decided to become a blonde. I ended up with very, very short blonde hair. (It was severely damaged!) I had to buy a wig. In those days, wigs were just beginning to become a very popular item. So, on one of my trips back to the Chicago area (my home town is Park Ridge, Illinois) I decided to really learn all about wigs. I studied everything in the libraries, went to several wig makers and learned as much as I could. I then went to Cosmetology School. By the way, I was raised around the beauty business.

In the 1920s my mother managed a famous, upscale beauty salon in Chicago and I had several aunts who were licensed stylists. (My Aunt Zoa was the first female sales person for Maxfactor.) My next move was to visit a major wig factory in Barcelona, Spain. That was the beginning of my "wig" training and manufacturing experience. Like many things in life, I backed through the door of opportunity. While I was in Cosmetology School, opened my own beauty salon. Several years later, I left North Carolina and went back to Chicago and went into the career I trained for in college — broadcasting.

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As fate would have it, the beauty business "found me" again. I was asked to help with marketing and sales for a wig importer in the Chicago area. This is about 1967-68. Among the things I did was to write my first "How To" book. I know I belong in this business because it kept pursuing me. As it turned, instead of working for the importer, I became involved as a designer, manufacturer and importer.

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This is when I teamed up with Roy Westlake. Roy was a business associate and friend. His educational background includes Law, Engineering and a Masters Degree in Business. Lots of fun stories from those early years. <<Here's a picture of us at one of the factories. (I'm the blonde in the background on the left.) The wig business "died" in the early 1970s and we went into the manufacturing of Manikins for Schools. (Did this part of the business until mid-1999.)

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Garland Drake International Started in 1987

Roy and I at our first trade show for our new company in November 1987. By the way, wondering where our company name came from? It's Roy's middle name and my real last name.

Since the 1960s I've always believed that the business of adding hair should have been one to go through the professionals in the beauty business. In the '60s it was almost exclusively a retail business that involved people in the importing and marketing. There are a lot of reasons for this, but you'll have to read my current book to learn that history lesson. In 1987 Roy and I felt that the time was right to re-introduce hair additions. Only this time, we wanted to be sure that it was part of the beauty business — not simply a commodity, a retail item. This meant that we needed to make products that could be treated just like real hair.

Roy does the "business-business" work. Raymond and I do all the fun stuff.

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Raymond joined us in 1993. He's is an outstanding instructor and is available to all our stylist customers to answer and assist with technical questions. Besides quality control in China, Raymond checks each and every batch of hair that comes in. Hair from every batch is washed and checked. Then Raymond gives it the "real test" by using it on some clients.

We Are So Very Lucky! I think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world! All sorts of good things happen to me. A business finds me. A partner comes along with all the smarts and skills that help me do the things I'm enjoying. What happens next ... we couldn't have planned it better! Raymond (my son) decided to move to California. He excelled in Cosmetology School, has won many contests and always going above and beyond, taking all types of advanced training courses every year. He's been a officer in Toastmasters and has won many awards as a public speaker. He has been a State Director in the California Cosmetology Association and does work for the National Cosmetology Association. Along with all his company duties, he does hair additions on "real people", he has assisted on a number of photo shoots for major magazines and TV shows and commercials, on celebrates and still finds time to do a fair amount of volunteer work in our community.

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Education Has Always Been Part of What We Do

From the beginning, we presented educational material for students and stylists. This is the first book and kit we produced which was used by many Cosmetology Schools (1987-1991). Would you believe, we still get calls from people who kept this book!

Next (1989) we produced a 6 Video Training program. Roux and Zotos joined us in the project and contributed to the educational information about coloring and perming our hair.

Published by Milady in 1991.

Then, in 1991 Milady Publishing asked me to write a book for them. Hair Additions, The Fourth Dimension. We are continually updating our educational material. You can read about our latest information in the Education section of our site. Along with the books, we've always held hands-on workshops.

We continue to provide educational materials.

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We are proud of what we do and how we do it. We "live" our company motto which is: Have some fun, make some money and always be ethical. I hope we can be of service to you!

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