Post #1 I AM Smart Enough To Be A Stylist!

Hi! I’m Camie. It’s nice to meet you! This is the beginning of a conversation that I hope we have for a while. I will start with my story—well, part of my story. There is some stuff that isn’t ready to see the light of day yet. But the stuff I have learned along the way might help you, and I 100% want to hear what you have learned.

Story time! I was an impressionable high school kid. I am one of those people who is horrible at tests, always has been and always will be. I love to read, but dang it, put a test in front of me, and I can’t even remember my name. So, anyway, one day I’m sitting in English class and the teacher stops the lecture, points at me and says “Camie, you aren’t smart enough to go to college.” She obviously wasn’t the nicest teacher to begin with, but getting called out in public like that was a little painful. Ok, new core memory unlocked. I’m not smart enough to go to college. That’s fine, I was planning to get my cosmetology license anyway, so there! I did go to cosmetology school, and I did get my license! I worked for years behind the chair, and I thought I was pretty good. I wasn’t amazing, but I had clients who loved me, and I thought I was making my little corner of the world a better place.

Then, my life took a hard right turn. I needed a new career, and I thought that chemistry would be a lot like cosmetology. It was… and it wasn’t. There was a RIDICULOUS amount of math—looking at you, P Chem. Math where they get past normal letters and start moving to the Greek alphabet, and then it’s uppercase and lowercase Greek, come on!! How is that fair?! But there was some stuff that was like cosmetology. I had to be good at paying attention to detail, and I had to be willing to communicate with difficult people (I know we’ve all had that one client! You know who I’m talking about). I had to learn and learn and then finally say, F#$% IT!! I’m just going to jump in and try this thing! So, I did! The first time I cut elemental sodium by myself was like my first clipper over comb haircut. These were two things that really stood out to me during my journey. (If you want to know why cutting elemental sodium is scary, look up what happens when you mix sodium and water! Hint, think the Hindenburg).

But the reason I am telling you this story, and in fact the reason I am pushing so hard to get this message out there, is because I accepted that I just “cut hair”. That was all I did. Do you remember the hot/crazy scale and that had hairdressers high on the crazy axis? Why do we get singled out?! There are some people in our industry who are crazy, I will be the first to admit it. But I know it’s not limited to our industry. I met people in college who made me step back and ask if they were ok—like, do I need to call someone? Level of crazy. To be honest, we deal with the general public, and they dump EVERYTHING on us. I learned things about my clients that I am confident their moms don’t even know! So yeah, sometimes we need to release the pressure! When you look at the things we have to do every day, it is a lot! We have to cope with a lot of crazy. We deal with truly dangerous chemicals all while running our own businesses as stylists.

I want to change your thought process. You aren’t JUST a stylist. You are SMART ENOUGH to be a stylist! This is to help you! I am going to be teaching and answering and supporting my people! While I have a Master’s degree in chemistry, I introduce myself as a stylist first! I want to help you to teach your clients. I want you to be the smartest one in the room when it comes to hair!

Your part in this is to read and listen, to ask questions, and to teach what you learn. I will answer questions! I will provide a platform to helps those who want to teach facts! Try it today; tell yourself you are smart enough to be a stylist and look at all the things you can do! Print this off and put it somewhere that you see frequently.

I am going to cut off the first post here. I wish I could tell you all of this in person, and that I could look in your face and laugh when you do, but I am in my office in Idaho. I am hoping that you can see I’m a normal person who learned some incredible things, and that I want to share them with you. I REALLY hope when I get to meet you in person that you will tell me some of your story! That you tell me what is amazing about you! In my next post, I am going to dive into what makes hair so cool, chemically. See you then!