Tampa Salon wigging out over Style Network Stardom

Things got a bit crowded this week at MSalon1 on West Sligh Avenue. That's because a team of a half-dozen producers and cameramen descended upon the Tampa hair shop to film an upcoming episode of Split Ends.

Now in its fifth season, the Style Network reality show is like Wife Swap for hairdressers. Polar-opposite stylists switch places for a few days to find out what it's like working in a new city, with new colleagues.

A client — salon staff still aren't sure who — submitted MSalon1's name for the show. Of the five stylists and one barber, the casting department selected Kym "Tweet" Jones to swap places with Lensi White of Signature's Salon in Lake Charles, La.

"They look for people with great personalities, salons that are unique — have a lot of characters," said associate producer Lindsey Case.

It's clear to see why they chose Jones.

"I'm the goofy one, the one that's always playing jokes," said Jones, 28, who earner her cosmetology license two years ago from Tampa Bay Beauty Institute. Like the time she took her co-worker's ugly, scuffed white heels across the street and stuck a for-sale sign on them.

Jones had heard that Signature's was a Christian salon, but she said she won't act any differently for the cameras.

"I saw whatever I want to say," Jones said.

Jones' boss, owner Micheline Barber, has always wanted to get MSalon1 onto a reality show.

"I just want to show the professional side of Afro-American salons — how we do things, how it can be done. We do things on a professional level," said Barber, 39, of Tampa.

The beauty parlor has already spent time in the spotlight. Last year, it won a Steve Harvey Morning Show Hoodie Award for best salon in the country. Among the shop's regular clients are several NFL wives.