A Little About Me & My Story

In this post, I’m going to share all about my background and what has led me to where I’m currently at in my life. This is the first post I’m writing where I’ll be sharing a little about my personal life for those that are interested in following my story. I love to write, so this is a place where I want to be authentically myself.

Growing up in Cleveland

I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, called Strongsville Ohio. While Ohio gets a bad reputation, I have to say that it was such a lovely place to grow up. We were able to experience all four seasons, a great lake, Cedar Point, as well as some beautiful nature. While it took me moving all over the country to realize it, there is a reason that Clevelanders are so proud of their city.

Bethany Lutheran

When I was young I attended a private Lutheran school called Bethany Lutheran. As time went on, they began implementing some changes that were shaping the dynamics of the school. My brother left the school in 7th grade because he was struggling with ADD, and they had no tolerance or patience with him. They were more concerned about giving him detentions for forgetting to wear a belt.

I didn’t have any issues at the school until I hit 5th grade. I was naturally strawberry blonde as a kid, but as time went on my hair color began to darken. One weekend my mom decided to put some “sun-in” in my hair (if you were around in the 90s). Since I was already blonde, this actually wasn’t terrible and brought out my natural highlights nicely.

But the school had other thoughts. I was pulled out into the hallway during class and my hair was inspected intensely. Mrs Morrison checked the hair against my eyebrows and knew that we had done something to it. My mom was called and was told that I couldn’t come back to school until my hair was all the same color again.

For how much tuition my mom was paying, she thought it would be best to pull me from the school just like she had with my brother. We didn’t realize it at the time, but I truly believe that this is the first in a series of events that caused me to become a hairstylist.

Strongsville High School

Since leaving the Lutheran school to go to public, I was then allowed to do whatever I wanted to my hair. You could say that I rebelled, but I like to think of it as embracing my creativity. I started playing with all types of hair colors like pinks, purples, and even green.

Once I made it to Strongsville High School, I was introduced to their vocational programs. One option was for me to take cosmetology my junior and senior year, and graduate high school with my Cosmetology License. This was an obvious no brainer! I truly believe that all schools should have vocational programs, even if kids just use it as a stepping stone to gain a skill they can use to pay for college. My brother did this and attended the Automotive program.

In my freshman and sophomore years I became a bit of a partier, so my grades did slump. But as soon as I went to Cosmetology through the affiliated Vocational School (Polaris Career Center), I received straight A’s. Because of this, I was actually able to graduate a semester early. I won outstanding Student in the Cosmetology Program 2 years in a row.

Upon graduating, I had an inner desire to travel. I felt that there was so much world to see other than Cleveland Ohio. I remember looking into moving to Europe on my 19th birthday, but then soon discovered how hard it is to move countries.

Phoenix Arizona

Shortly after my 20th birthday, some friends and I went on a cross-country road trip. We drove from Cleveland to Denver, to San Francisco and LA, through Phoenix Arizona and back up to Cleveland. During my visit to Phoenix I fell madly in love with the city. I couldn’t comprehend standing outside in the March in flip flops and a t-shirt, with no jacket on! This felt like a dream come true to me.

By May I left the high-end salon I was working at, packed up a u-haul, and moved my entire life to Phoenix (I’m so sorry mom). I knew a few friends there, but they weren’t very reliable so I was essentially on my own. And I have to say that this was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I wouldn’t be who I am today had I not done this.

I had no concept of the real world or even of living on my own, and this forced me to grow up real quick. I began working at a small family salon, hardly making enough to make ends meet.

After 3 years of living and working in Phoenix, the salon I was at was taken over by new owners. Upon their arrival, it was clear that they were going to run it into the ground. I already had dreams of owning my own salon one day, and was already in the process of planning it.

A coworker and I then made the decision to go out on our own and share a studio salon instead.

My first studio salon

I really didn’t know what I was doing, and these years were incredibly hard financially. I was severely undercharging for my work, and had no idea how to run a business. My books were not full, and I didn’t know what to do about it to grow my clientele. I didn’t know many people, so this was an incredibly slow process. This was in 2014, so social media marketing wasn’t really a thing yet.

I moved into the cheapest apartment I could find in a not-so-safe area, and had attempted break-ins almost nightly. If it wasn’t for my dog Bentley, I’m not sure I would have made it past this chapter of my life. He was not only my protector, but also gave me emotional support during this hard time as well.

Over time I did see some progress, but it still wasn’t ANYTHING to write home about. Up to the last year that I lived in Phoenix, I was still only making about $25k a year. And that was gross not net! The reason I continued was because of the freedom self-employment gave me. I hated having a boss, and I never wanted to work for someone else again.

After a rough break-up, 8 years total of living in Phoenix, and 5 years of working for myself, at 28 I decided to leave Arizona. It was so hard living on my own as a struggling business owner. I wanted to be closer to family again and I actually desperately missed having seasons.

Raleigh North Carolina

I wasn’t too picky about where I was going to live, but I knew I wanted to be on the east coast. My mom had moved from Cleveland back closer to her hometown near Winchester Virginia, so I had more options of places to live within driving distance from family.

Raleigh was the first place that I found a job opening for a hairstylist that you didn’t need to have a full clientele. In the hair industry, you normally have to build your clientele yourself before you make any money. This makes it hard when moving to a new place where you don’t know a soul.

I accepted the job and started my life over again in North Carolina. This was an extremely hard transition. I was used to working for myself basically part time, and the place that I started working at had insane hours. While it was nice to gain some actual financial security for the first time in my life, I was still not enjoying my life.

LKC Studios

I knew that I had to start my own business again if I wanted to be happy. So after just a few months I quit my job and opened up a studio salon. Only this time I wasn’t sharing it, so the cost of rent was double what I was used to paying. I was equally motivated but absolutely terrified. I had no support, and only a handful of clients.

My options were to keep going or fail. The way I looked at it, the worst that could happen is that I’d go bankrupt, and that happens to people all the time. So I kept going.

I didn’t have a social life basically the entire time I lived in Raleigh. My hobbies were all related around my business. Every waking hour was spent learning and researching. I became obsessed with personal development and business. I would often lie to people telling them that I had friends that I’d go hangout with just so they didn’t think I was weird. In reality I had a few acquaintances, but I never saw any of them.

Then after a few months of this, the pandemic hit and I had to close my studio for a total of 9 weeks. I had no other option but to live off of my credit cards. I didn’t receive unemployment benefits until almost 2 years later.

But when you live like I was living for long enough, you’re bound to see results. As soon as I was allowed to open back up, I had clients lining up to sit in my chair. I never struggled with money again after this point forward.

My personal struggles

While I was finally seeing some success with my business, I still wasn’t feeling fulfilled or happy. My life was revolving around my salon, and this held me back from forming any personal relationships. I had no family nearby, no friends that fully understood me, and no battery left to even attempt to go on dates.

Raleigh wasn’t exactly somewhere I chose to live, it sort-of happened by accident. And the older I got, the more I realized I would love to be able to go to lunch with my mom, or travel and have friends or family avaliable to watch Bentley for me. Life was still hard, and I realized that I needed change.

So after about 5 years in Raleigh, I decided it was time to move on.

Where I’m at now

After breaking all of my clients hearts, I closed my salon and left Raleigh. My dream for this life is to live as freely as possible. I’ve learned through all of my experiences that being “stuck”, “tied down”, or a “slave” to something is one of the worst feelings, and I never wanted to feel like that again.

After 17 years in the industry, I have decided to not continue doing hair behind the chair, and you can read about the reasons that led me to this decision in this post here. Instead, I have chosen to put all of my creative time and effort into building my blog and Youtube channel. This way I can still be involved in the industry that I love, while not being tied to anything.

It has now been 1 month since I’ve left, and I can say that I have never felt so happy or free in my entire life. Every single day I am shown a new reason on why this was the best decision I could have made for myself at this point in my life.

I am so grateful for all of the experiences that led me to this point because of the person I have become. I know that I am capable of so many things, and I am now onto that next chapter. If you have continued reading up to this point, thank you so much for being interested in reading about my journey. ❤️

Be sure to subscribe below to stay up to date on my latest lifestyle content!