When I decided to a blog (okay, it was decided for me.. more on that later..) I had no idea what I really wanted to talk about. I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m going to start with the beginning of my hair journey. Don’t worry–I’ll share my favorite hair tips and tricks too–but to start, I feel like you should at least know a little bit of my background.
Unlike many of my stylist friends, I NEVER ever pictured myself doing hair, let alone making it a career. I honestly thought I would go to college, play soccer, major in business or sports management and go from there. Spoiler alert, it didn’t happen like that.
I honestly thought I would go to college, play soccer, major in business or sports management and go from there. Spoiler alert, it didn’t happen like that.
I’ve never considered myself a “creative” person. But looking back, I’ve always been super adventurous with my hair. Do you remember Sun In? The stuff you’d spray in your hair and then go outside for a few hours and then BAM! instant highlights! Yeah.. that’s where it all started. The kool-aid phase followed shortly after. If you’re unsure of what that is, you can turn your hair fun colors using packets of kool-aid. Caution, moms. . . that stuff is a pain in the ass to try and get out.
My hair was always short. Always in a bob. My rule-of-thumb was as short as possible while still being able to tie it back (fun fact sidebar: my hair was so short through high school that the only way I could pull it back was to put it back in little baby pigtails). I even let my friends cut my hair.
Samantha, if you’re reading this, still my favorite haircut to date. Picture this. . . our families get together for dinner, we grab kitchen scissors and head upstairs, we come down with the best bob I’ve ever had. Who would have thought?!
My sophomore year of high school, my mom told me she thought I should go to the local career center during my junior and senior year for cosmetology school. I wasn’t opposed to the idea but I also didn’t really care one way or the other. The cool thing was that I would have my cosmetology license when I graduated and I could work my way through college. My thought was even if I didn’t love doing hair, I would ALWAYS have something to fall back on.
I ended up loving it. Who would have known?! I was never someone who loved school, it was more of a social thing for me. That all changed. I couldn’t wait to get up and go to school. Half of my day was spent in the academic classes that I needed to graduate and the other half was spent in the cosmetology lab. The day flew by.
Halfway through my junior year, I found out I was pregnant.
Ava was born seven days before my eighteenth birthday and eight days before the start of my senior year. My school was amazing. They arranged for a tutor to come to my house and make sure I was able to keep up on not only my school work, but my cosmetology work. I was still able to graduate on time and I ended up passing my cosmetology boards before graduation.
Immediately after graduation, I started at a salon as an assistant. I assisted just under a year before I was able to start taking on a clientele for myself.
If there is one piece of advice I could give to a stylist just out of school, it would be to start as an assistant. It was one of the most valuable experiences of my life.
When you graduate school, you feel like you know absolutely everything. You’ll learn in about your first hour at a salon that you actually know nothing at all. To say that it was one of the most humbling experiences that I’ve ever had would be an understatement.
Over the next four and a half years I went from assistant to stylist. I built a really great clientele. Towards the end of those four years, I started burning out. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even do hair anymore. I was also realizing how much money I was bringing in for the salon versus the amount of money I was seeing on my paychecks. It honestly made me sick. I ended up putting in my two weeks notice in and took a complete break from doing hair for six months. I went into sales for a large corporate gym. I hated it. I cried every day on my way to work.
During my many cry sessions, I started thinking about what I was really doing. Did I see myself in gym sales forever? No. Why was I going to a job that I hated this much when I’ve had a job that didn’t even feel like work? It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was time to get back to hair. This time though, I was ready to do my own thing. I decided to start my own business.
I know this was a ton of ramblings, so if you’ve made it this far, I applaud you. We’ll get to the good stuff later.
Until next time!
xoxo
Hales
Haley Evans | NBR Extensions 