About Me.

So I've had some people ask if I could write a blog about myself and what inspired/ inspires me to do hair.

Well, I never really knew I had a knack for it honestly, until the day I came to school.

First off, I hail from the great Logan, Ohio, in the southeastern portion of the state. Also known as "The Hocking Hills" to a lot of people from around the state/ country. My family used to also have a home in Saint Augustine, Florida, and this is the place I consider my true home. I think the culture and able to truly indulge in that sort of lifestyle stole my soul away and I've never quite gotten it back- I plan to go back and live there one day. But thats another story.

I attended the Logan High school and I participated in various activities throughout my years there. I was in two choirs, the Hilltop Singers (the school show choir), and the LHS Chamber choir. I ran track and participated on the relay races multiple times, where I had strong bonds with the underclassmen (who by the way have huge potential to be great sprinters), was in Key Club (basically the high school branch of the Kiwanis), I was on Student Council two of four years, in the Thespian Troupe, in National Art Honors Society, helped out with musicals and plays as both a member of the cast and also a member of the crew, and had a few extra curriculars of my own. My sophomore year I participated in the ACDA National Honor Choir where I reunited with some fellow musicians I had met a couple years previous in Chicago, and then my junior year I was in the Ohio University Honor Choir with a lot of other talented kids. My life was busy, and I was stressed.

I love music and art. I always had thought that art was seconded to music, music which was singing and composing some here and there for me. A hobby became an obsession and soon enough I wanted to be a music major (specifically musical theater or opera) and wouldn't stop pursuing that dream. I guess perseverance is great, but man. Looking back I'm glad I didn't go the way I had chose at that point in time.

I auditioned for Bowling Green State University's conservatory in February 2010. Nervous enough, I began to get a cold. I auditioned and great comments were sent my way during the audition but being the nervous person I can be, it wasn't enough to ease my tension.

I got the call at a track meet about a month later I got into the conservatory and they had a spot saved for me in their choirs. I got my FAFSA about a month after, and I wasn't comforted. At all.

9,000 dollars a year?

I thought.. To me, this was like a death sentence. My family barely made enough to get by, let alone pay back a loan of 9,000 dollars. I love music, don't get me wrong, but I don't love it enough to put my family under my pressure. I needed something where I wouldn't have to get my family involved with that pressure, something where I could pay off my debts by myself, while still being creative and transferring my passion into something else.

A new art medium..? But WHAT? I had seen it ALL....

It was time to kind of 'let go' of that dream. Kind of.

One day I was driving on high street (my long lost love) with my grandmother in Columbus looking for a place I read about online to cut my hair. She asked me if I was ready to go to college and start my great music career and I shook my head and reluctantly said "...no..". She looked over at me and said "Whats wrong?", and an onslaught of tears followed with a panicked voice from me saying I didn't want to leave Columbus, I wanted to go to school there, and that I couldn't go back to living basically in the boonies and paying 9,000 dollars a year for a career that was not guaranteed to me.

She asked me what I wanted to do and I thought back to my younger years of roaming around campus during the summer and looking in at all of the students at the Aveda Institute... They seemed like they loved it there. How great would it be to use HAIR as a medium..? I mean, my god, its like a performance, and its something that can make someone FEEL good.. It was another type of art, that I felt would be even more rewarding than all the other skills I had developed before.

About three days later I was taking a day off school and walking into the Institute for the first time, and I was in love. I saw instructors faces who I felt like I had known forever, and there were quirky people like me here and there and people who I could feel could all relate to each other one way or another.

And the hair. It was perfect.

I graduated high school about a week later, and a few days after that I parted with my family. I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it eventually when I can give them and myself whatever we want, whenever we want. Don't get me wrong, this is a hard profession but I have fallen so deeply in love with it, my guests, the way you can advertise, the education.. Its much more rewarding for me than any amount of money could pay.

I found a way to channel all of my art and music into a new medium. It was very scary the first couple months because I was the happiest I had ever been despite the fact I hadn't seen anyone from my hometown for the longest time. I was pretty much alone, but everyday I drove my car to school and walked those few blocks to neil with a positive attitude that I would learn something new, and I did. It is a constantly changing art form, where avant garde and different, can be good. All my hard work in school with music and art it seemed was just training for the things I would be putting my passion and hard work into at Aveda.

SO. I guess thats me in a nutshell, or some kind of explanation about how I basically stumbled upon being at Aveda, pretty much my home now. We have a great relationship and I wouldn't trade the people I meet everyday and the things I learn from them for the world.