When I was a little girl, the first thing I told my parents I wanted to be when I grew up was a "hair cut chopper".
I wasn't aware at the time that "chopper" had slightly more of a negative connotation than "Stylist", but I ran with it. My dad would sit in front of me multiple nights per week after work and ask me to play with his hair. I have to believe it was somewhat relaxing for him, as well as a jumping-off point for me. I stuck ribbons, perm rods, gels, bobby pins and anything else I could get my hands on into his hair. We gave him looks from "Jo-Slick" to mow-hawks. He has fantastic hair by the way, even 20+ years later.
I found a photograph in my parents old picture books of a smiling me standing behind him with an unplugged curling iron in hand. He's wearing a towel draped over the front of himself, and staring into the camera. I cherish this photo.
I always knew I wanted to attend college, but I always joked about going to beauty school. Since I started playing with my dad's hair as a child, I never lost that spark for hair. I continued practicing on my three dear sisters. Up-dos, french braids, ponytails, curls even some coloring were my trials and errors. They must have been brave souls. I always joked about going to beauty school someday. Even throughout undergrad at Eckerd College, I continued playing on my friends hair with mostly colors and perms. I graduated with my BA in Management and thrived in my studies. I always imagined I would love to be an entrepreneur but I knew I needed some industrial experience under my hat. I also credit Eckerd with helping me become a critical thinker, and to remain open minded and adaptable to changing situations.
After graduation in 2006 I worked a in a few different industries that I knew were not for me in the long run, but chalked the experience off to just that. In the Winter of 2008, the economy completely crashed. I was working as a Marketing Manager for a small business that was quickly sinking. I began looking for other positions, but had no luck as very few business were hiring at all. Sure enough I was laid off, and while I was wallowing in my own self pity, I joked one final time about going to beauty school. I was with my mom and lunch, and she looked at me and said, "You know, you could actually go to beauty school." What wisdom. I had let my joking get in my own way all those years. The timing was right and after discussing it with my husband, I took the leap and found Zuri Institute of Hair Design in Denver.
Days before I was laid off, I had been on a family camping trip. To escape the driving rain storm that was not conducive to hanging out at a soggy campsite, we went shopping in Idaho Springs. At a local gift shop, I found a card that read "Sometimes right back where you started from is right where you belong." I bought the card. It was not until about a week later that I truly felt the what those words meant.
As I planned to start beauty school in November of 2009, those words would truly help me discover that I had found my calling that had been in my dreams since my childhood.
I have become a hair cut chopper, more respectfully known as a Stylist.
I'm grateful to my family for encouraging me to stop talking and start doing, and for their belief in me that I could truly be what I wanted to grow up to be.
"Sometimes right back where you started from is right where you belong."
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