Hairstylist identity crisis
I’ve been having a bit of a hairstylist identity crisis lately and would love to hear from anyone who’s made a similar transition.
I’ve been licensed for about 6 years and have spent pretty much my entire career doing exclusively men’s hair. I originally wanted to get into vivid/creative color when I got out of school, but I needed a steady paycheck and ended up at Great Clips. Men’s hair became my thing, I got really good at it, and now I’m in my own suite specializing in men’s cuts.
The problem is…I still really fucking want to do vivid color. 😂
At this point I have very little real salon color experience. I’ve done basic gray coverage/blending and friends/family, but I’ve only had maybe one actual paying women’s color client in my entire career. I have no color portfolio, no color clientele, and I’d basically be learning/building that side of my career from scratch while continuing to run my men’s business.
Has anyone here gone from doing almost exclusively men’s hair/cutting to women’s color or vivids several years into their career?
How did you relearn/build your color skills? Did you start with classes, mannequins, models, assisting/shadowing someone? How did you find models and eventually figure out timing and pricing?
I’m not looking to abandon men’s hair or completely change my business overnight. I think I’m mostly trying to figure out whether there’s a realistic way to slowly build this second specialty without taking another massive leap.
Would especially love to hear from anyone who made the switch later in their career and what you’d do differently if you were starting over.