We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christina Carney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

Opening my own salon suite at such a young age was extremely risky, but I think I chose the perfect timing. I firmly believe in following your intuition, and I did just that. Honestly, there were multiple opportunities presented sooner, but something always felt off. For example, I was working outside of the city and had already built a strong reputation and clientele. I was about 2 years out of school and felt very confident in my skills at the time. However, starting my business there would have confined me to an older community and much smaller demographic. A few years later I also ran into the same crossroads, but thankfully I tossed the idea as the pandemic hit not much after. At the moment of opening until now, I am so thankful for my patience and decision on timing. If I had chosen to open later I honestly don’t believe I’d still be in the beauty industry. This industry is cut throat, seasoned salon owners don’t understand the changes happening, and my education was being limited by the company. I jumped shipped at the right time to really be able to stay on top of the fast pace of hair education beginning.

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?

Hello, to those who may not know me my name is Christina Carney-Banville. I often am referred to as Carney. I’m 26, an independent stylist and salon owner, and I have the pleasure of giving clients confidence through their hair. I have been in the Beaty industry since I was 14. I am originally from Tennessee but I spent a large majority of my teens growing up in Alaska. When I was 12 my parents uprooted us and we headed north. I genuinely felt as if my world collapsed and my life was over. Fairbanks, the town we moved to, was so tiny. I mean TINY. I often found myself scrolling Pinterest or YouTube admiring hair and makeup. Rewinding, as a young child I always begged my mom to let me color my hair, or own styling tools. I remember my first blow dryer was from Limited Too. By middle school I was curling and straightening all of my friends’ hair and my own. Fast forward to 14, I was ready to make some money. I was a semi obedient child but knew the loopholes. If I buy it I own it. My ex boyfriend’s mom, who I greatly adore, helped me find my first job as a salon receptionist. She, my grandfather, and mom were my biggest supporters of pursuing hair. After landing that job, Tito and James, the two brothers who owned the salon began total me under their wings. I did lashes, makeup, hairstyling, and hair coloring by the time I quit. All from my bathroom of course lol. By this point I was graduating and leaving Alaska. I knew by that point hair was all I wanted to do. I also knew one day I was going to own a salon.

As years past, I got licensed, I built my instagram, I cried a lot, and I ultimately busted my ***. I knew if I was going to make it happen I had to hustle. I spent nights journaling about the hair I did, how id change it, what I liked and disliked about it, and what to do for the next appointment. I spent thousands on education. Education is honestly the most important “rule” for me. This I think is one of my points of difference. I am constantly engaging and enrolling into the newest classes. I also want to share my ideas and twists on skills. My dream one day is to be able to own a salon where I coach stylists to become their own brand and boss. The industry doesn’t teach you to be successful on your own. I dream of being invited on stage at Premiere, a huge hair show, and sharing my story and knowledge. My story is what I’m most proud of. Earlier I left out a major piece of my teenage years and that would be becoming disabled.

When I was 17, I was assaulted by a man on drugs. He attacked me from behind and brutally smashed my head open with a heavy piece of metal. This attack was at random. It left me with stroke like symptoms, paralysis on my right side, a 9 hour brain surgery and coma, and severe months of hospitalization and therapy. Today, I am fully functioning minus a few toes and minor balancing issues… thank God. At that time my life felt like it had ended. All of my dreams were crushed. I knew though, my body would heal and my dreams would come true. I just had to put my work into overdrive. I know we all have struggles, and at the end of the day I came out extremely lucky. However, to get to where am in this industry I had to put in triple the work. I physically, mentally, and educationally had to hustle. Talk about multitasking! By the age pf 24 thought, I felt as if I had lived multiple lives, and made the final decision to open my business. At 26, I am already a success to myself and inspired myself.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was old dog cant learn new tricks. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The phrase “practice makes perfect” is wrong. While learning how to walk again, my therapist said “practice makes permanent.” This stuck with me. If you continuously practice or operate in the same way you become stagnant. There is no growth following that. You have reflect and figure out where you can grow. It might really freaking suck too. I learned that there is always something new to learn, everyday in fact. Today I learned high heels were originally worn by men. I have found that I may not agree with everything that I am taught, but I can learn what doesn’t work for me or learn skills I didn’t know I was lacking. Inspiration for business, self growth, and technical skills can be found everywhere if you’re willing to look beyond, keep an open mind, and just do it. Do it until you get it right, then do it some more. Keep going and growing.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Building a clientele can be easy if you’re starting somewhere that gives them to you, but the tricky part is maintaining and continuing to build on your own. My most effective technique is genuine relationship building with my clients. This creates an environment that is loyal, trusting, and enjoyable. That then makes your clients spread your name, all word of mouth. I do not have large instagram audience, but my client list is about 300 and I no longer accept new clients. For me personally, paid marketing, affiliations, and online engagement never really hit a home run for me. I also put my efforts more towards my physical audience vs a media based audience. My friends (clients) know me authentically. Social media can make people seem unoriginal, inauthentic, and fake. Though I try to be as myself online as I am in person, it’s just not the same. I know that large scale advertising will be needed eventually, but word of mouth is free and can help network you like no other. I am also geographically blessed to be in a city of such volume that there seems to be a never-ending moment of socializing and networking. All I can say is asking your people to spread your nam will take you pretty far and it doesn’t cost a dime.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunandrosesalon.com
• Instagram: the_christinacarneybanville & sunandrosesalon
• Youtube: thechristinacarney