It's finally happening!
I remember my first job like it was yesterday. It WASN'T yesterday. I actually had my first paying job almost twenty years ago. I was young. I was a little naive. I was totally clueless about what this part of my life would mean. I was a hostess at a pizzeria in town and was present for the grande opening. The city had been waiting for us. The excitement for a new place in town left people chomping at the bit. To a 16 year old girl who's job it was to smile at hungry people who could care less about anything but being fed, it felt like I was just the ring master in a traveling circus. Trying to keep the ravenous, fang bearing beasts from choosing MY head as their lunch. It was rocky at first. The offense someone can display because you walked them to a table instead of a booth, or the emotional response to the fact that our restaurant was busy and actually a success was an interesting study of human character. The management loved me. In part because I had a good smile. Hungry people love a good smile. They eat it up. A smile made the quote of a 45 minute wait seem ingest-able. The management taught me things. I learned about keeping guests happy. Did you know that offering a bite of a boneless wing to a ravenous beast to prevent said beast from snarling actually works? A sip of a strawberry smoothie makes a ten minute wait fly by. I found that people in general want to be soothed. Welcome them as a friend and treat them like a guest and they will feel it. I didn't know then that I was learning something that would stay with me for life.
In Highschool I had always played with hair. Lots of failures. We're talking hair frying, skunk striping failures. It was fun! I didn't know at the time that my creativity was hemorrhaging out of me. Art is one of those things we are encouraged NOT to pursue and as a result it is underutilized widely in the people who possess it. We bearers of the gift are concerns for our parents. We are messier than most. Everything is unorganized. Our rooms. Our cars. Even our thoughts. We are the deep feelers. The lost causes. The truly magical ones. In high school I remember the days of school dances. As a teenager I would play "business owner" just like I would play dress up as a little girl. Except it really was a business. I would plan a day full of friends, and friends of friends and make everyone's hair beautiful. It was a profitable day, but always just in good fun. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to make it a career. I guess it just seemed like anything that was so much fun couldn't possibly be a job.
After high school I participated in an intense discipleship program called Master's Commission. After two years of serving I walked away with a desire to heal people. Through serving others and simply providing a listening ear I learned something about the human experience. I could see how taxing it is just to live at times. An inability to refuel was present in almost everyone I met. And also this sense that we are not o.k. There is an internal voice we choose to listen to that sounds a lot like pain. Self hate in it's purest form. "I hate my body". "I hate the way I look". "I wish I could do that like they do" etc. The struggle for self acceptance is real. Seeing ourselves through the eyes of love seems an almost impossible act at times. And at the end of two years I walked away hoping I could change things. Hoping I could change myself.
So, I was 24, exiting Master's Commission, and clueless as to what the future held. What could I possibly find to do that would fulfill me and allow me to use this crazy skill set that I had barely even begun to know? Through a series of synchronous events I stumbled upon a scholarship contest to an Aveda institute. A cosmetology school located in Cincinnati, OH. I participated and was validated with a monetary gift to put towards my education. I won't bore you with the details of the amazing experience I had at Aveda Fredric's institute, but it was priceless.
Now, after almost 14 years in the industry I can see how it has all worked together. Working behind the chair I have developed an intimacy with my creativity. I was spiteful of it for a very long time. It was misunderstood by others, and by myself. As a 35 year old it has become one of my greatest assets. I can see how my time at the pizzeria trained me to welcome my clients into my space with warmth, but most importantly I think my time in Master's Commission was the key. To be able to welcome a client into my chair and be given the ability to change someone's internal voice about themselves using my creativity. To be able to deliver healing with my hands. To help to lighten the load in a sense. Masks can be removed. It is a very truthful space. And I am so fulfilled in serving in this way.
Now after 14 years in the industry I am embarking down a new path! Working behind the chair with Aveda had been an amazing and profitable partnership with a line that I love, but now is the time for change! I am forging ahead with a new line of products I ethically stand behind and believe in! With Oway, My hair has never felt so good and the spa experience it allows me to offer to you is a match made in heaven. I look forward to being able to serve all of clients. Serve them a steaming hot plate of love.
Opening the first week of July!! I look forward to seeing you there!