Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Giles. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lisa, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I’m a lover of risks, big and small, but the biggest risk I’ve ever taken was (reluctantly) selling my 6 figure salon I had owned since I was 19 to start over in California from scratch, broke.

here’s the story;

I opened a cute hair salon when I was 19. I expanded it to a 4 chair salon and an esthetician room 4 years into ownership and owned it for 2 more years after the fact. but after I expanded, I just felt like I needed more – the expansion wasn’t challenging enough I suppose. now, I always knew I would move to California because it just felt right, but I didn’t expect myself to move after dumping thousands of dollars into an expansion.

I wanted to move to California to become an assistant actually because I’d never been one and I felt like I had a lot to learn, despite owning a salon for 6 years at that point. so for roughly 6 months, I flew back and forth from Delaware to California every 2 weeks and slowly built my clientele as a hairstylist (I ended up never being an assistant haha). I busted my *SS during that season to make sure when I fulled committed I would be right as rain.

during that time, I was still working with my team back home and preparing them for my move and getting them comfortable with the idea that I wasn’t going to be there full time. once the 6 months was up, I finally make the trip across the country by myself with my dog and some of my belongings and fully committed.

now theres a few plot twists – also, during that time, I worked for a brand who is based out of California that I was SUPPOSE to work for. they were a major part in why I wanted to move to California. and the plot twist is, as I was driving across the country, I called and quit. I was tired of being mistreated and they didn’t care that I was moving across the country for them.
the other plot twist is during this move, my ex husband was stealing thousands and thousands of dollars from me and my salon, and I had no idea until I was also driving across the country, I checked my bank account, and noticed $11,000 missing from it. I then later learned there was much more than $11,000 taken. so I was also doing this dead broke.

not long after I arrived to California, my salon ended up falling apart internally and I had to sell it fast. so I lost everything during this transition..

but here I am now, fast forward 3 years of living here, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. my career has taken off tremendously and I don’t regret a thing. I hasn’t been easy, but nothing in life is easy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been a hairstylist for 13 years, and while the foundation of my career is providing services to the public, it’s so much deeper than that.

I shifted my business as a hairstylist when I moved to California and started focusing on strictly color corrections and guests with “problem hair”. I noticed a huge shift in the industry when the world shut down, and there were so many stylists who publicly shamed clients for using box color during this time, which I found so interesting and disrespectful if I’m being honest. now I personally love dealing with box color because of the challenge, but I also love helping those with alopecia, depression, anxiety, post partum hair loss, amongst other ailments that might cause harm to their hair. I believe in solution based experiences – providing a solution together so we can continue to remedy and heal.

but since doing so, I’ve also unlocked this other side of my career when I help stylists become the most unapologetic version of themselves and go against the grain. there is no “right” way to do anything truly. and in order to create long term success, you need to be true to yourself. so not only do I provide services behind the chair for my guests to allow them to be unapologetically themselves, but I also teach hairstylists how they can do it too.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think there can be alot of judgement put onto a creative person based on their “fleeting” energy. we are often viewed as “flighty” or even sometimes unreliable. I change my mind alot and my fixations are temporary – and thats truly the most beautiful part of being a creative. you never know what direction I’m going in, and neither do i.

but the number 1 thing I also tell people is I don’t need you to understand me, I just need you to respect me. I don’t think people understand how truly mentally taxing it is to fully live out your creative self. just like I said, my obsessions change and my direction shifts constantly, and truly its out of my control. creativity is like having a best friend who challenges you to be better person everyday and gives you new perspective. the more I ignore it, the more depressed I can become.

the best thing you can do for a creative is just let their freak fly, respect them, and support them in the way they ask. we can live harmoniously in this world if we just had mutual respect for one another.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I had one – then my dad died.

I am everything that my dad was. he was creative, ambitious, resilient, and also unapologetically himself.

for many many years, I had a hunch on my shoulder that I had to prove to him that I could make it as a creative, without realizing he too was a creative just in a different way. I spent so many years angry at him (theres a back story to this but we’ll save that for another day), until we rekindled near his last few months and I quickly learned, the things I was trying to prove to him he already knew, I just needed to accept that I was him, even though I didn’t want to.

you either loved him or hated him haha. and I truly I have that energy too.

my career looked a certain way, climbing the latter, appeasing the public, and now everything has changed. I have no idea what I’m doing right now, but I’m only doing the things that bring me the most happiness and fuel my creativity, because thats what he did. it wouldn’t be true to my brand if I did it any other way than living as my most unapologetic self.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lifeoflisag.com
• Instagram: @lifeoflisag
• Other: Tiktok – @lifeoflisag

Image Credits

Meghan Santana, Tiffany Nguyen