It’s not just hair!
Hair is the holy grail of self esteem. Not great, but true. Yet many of us don’t yet understand our hair and so have been robbed of the chance to fall in love with it. My goal is to change your relationship with your hair. I know hair inside and out, quite literally, and I hope that sharing my knowledge will empower a generation of women and girls to love their hair…and love themselves more in the process.
Welcome!
This Hair Whisperer thing has been brewing for over 100 years: Hair is in my blood. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were each hair junkies each in their day. And hair has been my passion and song for more than three decades. Over the course of my career, I’ve been blessed to work as a hairstylist, chemical engineer, and brand strategist. In moments along the way, my jobs and accomplishments seemed disparate and disconnected. However, in retrospect, I appreciate the curvy path I’ve taken. The Blessed journey developed a depth and breadth of expertise about hair that I could have never imagined.
I started cutting hair as a kid and by high school I had a little business that financed all of the fun things an ambitious young woman wants to do. In retrospect, I am amazed at how much time I spent doing hair. I likely logged more than 10,000 hours doing hair by the time I headed into undergrad. Looking back, I marvel at how many grown folks trusted me to sculpt their aesthetic even though I was just a teen; and most amazed that my parents basically let me run a salon out of their home!
I chose to study chemical engineering to learn how to make the products I was using. I am a nerd at heart! My parents thought that I was doing too much hair at Carnegie Mellon to fully apply myself to my studies (they were probably right 🙂 ). So I wound up with the “opportunity” to pay for school myself – and did so through a Blessed twist of fate: I joined the start-up team for the first ethnic, full-service, high-end salon in Pittsburgh – DC Styles!
When the D.C. Styles was sold and I finished undergrad, I fell in love, absolutely in LOVE with product development: formulating relaxers, 
haircolor and styling products for Dudley Products, Soft Sheen and a couple of start-ups here and there. All the while, I enjoyed evening and weekend time working behind the chair as a hairstylist. My product development and product engineering work was so pleasurable that sometimes I felt guilty about my paycheck – I would have done it for free!
This period of working in the lab and production floor by day and the salon by night, taught me the chemistry of hair and gave me an in-depth appreciation for its complex simplicity.
Fast forward through getting married, having beautiful babies, and figuring out how to be a real grown-up – In 2000, I opened The Image Studios, a Chicago-based personal branding firm. I worked with an outstanding team of experts who rounded out clients’ personal images, giving me time again to be behind the chair full-time. I enjoyed helping clients select and maintain feature-flattering hairstyles that fit their lifestyles and aligned with their personal brands. I was doing waaayyy too much hair at the time- inadvertently establishing a reputation as a talented Chicago Hairstylist.
A car accident left me unable to do hair for a while, forcing me to shift my focus to the business of my business. My injuries healed – but as The Image Studios grew, my time behind the chair diminished significantly as I focused on the broader realms of entrepreneurship, marketing and personal branding.
Recently I traveled back home, and pulled out that old desk where it all began. Today, I launch brands during the week. On weekends, my time behind the chair is recorded and shared on YouTube. This keeps me connected to my first love and hopefully informs and helps transform how viewers think about hair.
I’m here to share with you what I know. Hopefully you have questions to ask and thoughts and pictures to share. Feel free! My desire is to make hair care and styling more fun, and lots easier for as many women and girls as possible. Your questions and stories feed my soul! This community of sisterhood united by hair gives me courage to tackle my next “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.”
Welcome to the community. Expect greatness!
