The Beginning
It seems like a lifetime ago but also just yesterday. I was 5 years old. I got off the bus and ran into my house where my mom, who worked 3rd shift, was sleeping and found my cat and took him to the bathroom with me. In the bathroom I would take out my scissors and give him a “haircut.” I would introduce myself like I was on stage in front of thousands of hairstylists teaching them the latest and greatest. I would cut a chunk of hair off (poor cat!) and the crowd would ERUPT!
In those moments I would escape my reality. I would become this strong, successful woman who had the world at her fingertips. She was stylish, she was beautiful, she was powerful, and she knew how to use it. That woman I saw, I wanted to be her so badly it would hurt.
I never lost my dream of becoming a hairstylist. In fact, at 16 years old I began attending hair school at my local trade school. I was going to do everything I dreamed of and more.
Months later I found out I was pregnant. I had my first child at just 17 years old. Crazy to think, he’s now 17 himself!
When I graduated high school I had a baby, a high school diploma, and a license to do hair. I was on top of the world, or so I thought. 🥴
The first salon I was a stylist in was the salon I worked at through beauty school as a receptionist. It was a nice salon but there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic or new clients coming in. Shortly after becoming a hairstylist, the recession plummeted and the hair industry was deeply impacted. Many days were spent with us just kind of looking at each other wondering when clients would be coming in. This was back when myspace was popular and before anyone had any idea that it was ok to utilize social media to market themselves.
I did pretty well at this salon but I quickly felt that I had outgrown it. I moved on to work 30 minutes from home at our local Ulta store. I was excited to get into a new market but also nervous. I had this idea that everyone who lived in this area was far above me. I had this idea that I would never fit in and I was so scared that I couldn’t be who I wanted to be. I actually flourished at this salon but it wasn’t the best fit for me. By luck, I got a call from someone weeks after I started this job who wanted to interview me for a salon manager position. I was 20 years old. I had no managerial experience but I was intrigued.
I went to the interview, found out it would be for the salon inside a failing Walmart, and decided to accept the job!
If you don’t know, the salon inside Walmart is similar to a Great Clips. Back when I worked there, we charged $15 for haircuts. We also offered perms, color and facial waxing services so it was easy to build up a ticket, but I had no idea what to do, where to begin. The salon I took on was barely staying afloat. I have no idea how it survived as long as it did. And, like clockwork, I found I was pregnant weeks after starting this job. 🙃
I got through the first year barely really knowing how to build a clientele-it was a walk in salon! There were lots of changes in that first year, including me becoming a mom of 2! But I made it and months into my second year at this salon, became a SINGLE mom of 2 babies. At the time, I was making more money than I had ever made as a hairstylist, but it wasn’t really enough to take care of me and those little boys I had. I was barely making $20,000/year, I had a car and 2 trash bags full of everything my boys and I owned. It was in that moment that I realized that doing hair HAD to be a CAREER for me. It wasn’t a cute secondary income-it was MY ONLY source of income. I had told myself long ago I wouldn’t be a statistic and neither would my kids. I kept that thought in my mind while pushing my dream of being on stage helping other stylists to the back of my mind.
This is the time that I realized that EVERY SINGLE client mattered. I was working in a walk in salon. I was never guaranteed any more clients than the one who came and was sitting in my chair. I would FOCUS on that one client. I would use all the knowledge I had about haircuts, color, and even products to educate them on what they needed to have the hair they were asking for and to make it better than it had ever been. By doing that, I quickly gained a reputation for being THE hairstylist in the area I worked in to come to. My income DOUBLED seemingly overnight. I would walk into work to a line of people waiting to get into the salon just to request me. People would see me in places outside of Walmart and recognize me as the girl they see doing the really good hair at walmart-ha! Again, this was BEFORE social media was a thing. This was during a time that I couldn’t take appointments and shortly after a terrible recession came and wreaked havoc on so much.
As the time in this salon went on, I realized that I had gained a passion to show people that no matter where you work, you can absolutely be the hairstylist you have always wanted to be-it’s just up to you!
I climbed the corporate ladder to become a senior district leader in the company with the idea that I could impact the other salons and help the 11 stores I was over to become what I had become at my little nearly broken salon. We went from the bottom salon in the region to one of the top salons. We went from having 4 stylists to having 10. We went from being lucky to see 50 clients a week to seeing that and more in a given day. But I started to see that my passion wasn’t shared by many others. There was a lot of other ideas and thoughts that I was not aware were out there until I started to climb and get higher into the company. Slowly but surely I started to become burnt out. I was working one day behind the chair still and was STILL my leading stylist. I was having $1000 days in a salon that charged $15 for haircuts. I was tired. I was run down and I had no idea what to do.
But then I realized that if I wanted to grow as a hairstylist and become what I really wanted to become, I had to move on. I needed to do something different.
So, I became an independent stylist. I left my guaranteed salary, benefits, paid time off, car allowance (they paid my car payment), cell phone allowance, bonus opportunities and decided I wanted to pay someone to have the opportunity to do hair.
This unlocked SO much and lead me to be the hairstylist I am today. I can’t wait to share more with you! Stay tuned for the rest of my journey so far!