We recently connected with Sydney Wieland and have shared our conversation below.
Sydney, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I couldn’t speak on just one specific project, but a category of projects. I am a hairstylist who specializes in haircolor, specifically color transformations. I love meeting someone who has never colored their hair before, or has always had a natural toned color who wants to change their look to a pallet of vivid colors. Rainbow hair, but in any variation of colors. I love giving someone the confidence to wear their favorite color or colors as their everyday style. Sometimes pink haircolor can compliment someone’s skin tone just as equally as blonde or brunette. Why not let your personality show if you love pink! I love doing this service and they are most meaningful to me because of the feeling I am able to give the client from start to finish. I make the day fun. I offer drinks/snacks and a movie for the client while they are in the chair sometimes 8 hours! I make the client a part of the process of picking the color and we have fun choosing the pallet together. I love including the client because it’s their hair, and they came to me to help express their style. Why not allow them to help?! Color is fun. Hair is art. A fulfilling day of transforming someone’s hair, meeting amazing creative people, and giving them a whole new level of confidence walking out of my salon is the most meaningful type of service or art project I do.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve loved the world of hair and haircolor since I was a little kid. I’m a 31 year old hairstylist who’s been in the industry for 11 years. I’ve always felt I have an eye for color and having hair as my medium inspires me creatively more than anything else. I’m lucky enough to truly do what I love as my profession. I’m inspired by nature, fashion, and unique lighting or texture. Staying current with trend and education in my industry is important to me and I enjoy mentoring stylist and sharing what I’ve learned with others. I care that my clients feel comfortable and like they can ask me anything without fear of judgement. I love what I do and that translates to both my clients and their hair.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
It’s true when they say there’s a different hairstylist out there for everybody. I’ve learned over the years through different consultations and meeting people, that I am not the hairstylist for everyone. I am very creative, optimistic and detailed when it comes to hair. For some people I’ve learned this can be be overwhelming. I like including the client with making decisions about details of their hair, but for some people, or maybe more specific to the question non-creatives, I’ve learned they prefer to just sit in the chair and leave all decisions to me as the expert. For many people hair is just hair and it’s more of an afterthought or something they have to maintain. For others it’s a confidence boost, or a change in the way they feel when they look in the mirror every day. Hair is different for everyone and finding a stylist that matches your vibe can make or break the experience for you.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I would say the ultimate goal fueling my creative journey is to change my industry to working smarter not harder. To make it less competitive and more of a community of working together for the love of hair and art. I have a career doing something I love, but I’ll be the first to admit that some days it is very exhausting. I love my clients and all the people I get to see, but the physical labor of doing the color transformations I do, or simply just the labor of doing hair in general can be very strenuous. Some clients are in my chair 6-8 hours and I’m often doing an application for multiple hours at a time. Hairstylist would greatly benefit from having four to six arms.
Ultimately, I would like to share what I’ve learned with others and mentor people to work side-by-side with me as co-artist during my day of clients. I want to reduce the labor on myself, but still be able to do just as many clients hair in a day if not more, and inspire others how to work together to do the same. The goal is brining more creatives together to do what we love and help each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: colorquesthair.com
- Instagram: @colorquesthair
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colorquestbysyd