We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chelsea Frye. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chelsea below.

Chelsea, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started getting into hair and makeup like most young people – self expression. I’d sneak into my older sister’s makeup bag in the bathroom and go to town. I’d borrow my mother’s steam rollers and old hair tools from the past 3 decades and lock myself in the bathroom for hours. That lead to my friends letting me do their hair for events, and I was definitely a scene kid- so there was lots of chopping with craft scissors and black box color.

When I was 17 I spent a summer in Chicago with my sister. There was a salon downtown that had an education program where graduated beauty school students where working through a rigorous internship. I was able to get my hair cut and colored there and fell in love with the professional process. It was the real deal – the creativity process had a channel, an objective. And I realized there was a way I could learn it.

I moved to Chicago for Beauty School right after highschool and got an incredible foundation for the basics in cosmetology.

After graduating I wish I would’ve started an internship. Some people start them while their still in school. But I was stumped after school. I was confident but had little direction as to how I could promote myself. And truly had no idea how much more there was for me to learn. Instead I had a friend help me with photographing some models and went door to door within walking distance from my apartment with a portfolio and resume. Luckily, a little solon run by two L’Oreal educators took me under their wings and they poured a lot into me one-on-one.

My most essential skill is definitely learning language- Learning the art of communicating with the client. It’s taken 15 years in the industry to get to where I am. And my consultation is still my greatest start to the creative process.

Obstacles… I think for myself, I’m a rare breed in the industry. I had privilege that allowed me to get out of my small town and move to a big city where they had a great school and lots of resources for creative input. My biggest obstacle was the competitive nature that was fed to us as students in beauty school. Carrying that into the real world after school made me doubt how I could find a salon, find myself as a designer and ultimately fueled my self doubts. I think this next generation of people coming up in the industry as educators, craft hairdressers and even students have such a better setup in terms of the cultural shift that’s happening in the industry. I’m really proud of what some of us have learned and taken back to redefine as we mentor the next fleet of hairdressers.

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?

Well- I am an intuitive hairdresser. My skills have evolved into this over the years. But basically what it means is I listen to what the hair wants. I provide low maintenance haircut and color that doesn’t force your hair into doing something that it doesn’t want. Allowing you ease and confidence in your body.

The problems I like to solve for people that come to work with me are actually pretty intimate. I would never push anyone into sharing more than they’re willing. But looking at yourself in a mirror and exposing what you think might be flaws to someone else can hold some weight to it. What I like to think is a quality that I bring is simply my time spent with lots of different hair types. Trying to open myself up to learning a multitude of heads of hair and how to work with it and how to design outside of one cookie cutter haircut and one vision that Pinterest has shown me I believe has got me to this point. I thrive in the uniqueness of how rare every person is. Their hair, their functions for their lifestyles, their vibe- I’m curious about people.

I’d say I’m most proud of myself. I say that with Snoop Dogg’s tik Tok audio playing in my head- “I’d like to thank me…” But truly I’m proud of putting myself in spaces that haven’t stretched me in unhealthy ways. I’m proud of the people around me who encourage creative expression and self understanding. Because- with understanding we can care. ” And only if we care, will we help.” -Jane Goodall

How did you build your audience on social media?

OMG I loathe social media. I have an incredibly terrible relationship with it. But my best advice is take time away, follow local people and don’t let the algorithm train your brain into seeing one the same thing. Keep diversity in your real life.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Umm… Lol

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fryeandthehair