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

Kristel, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

While in beauty school, I learned that hair, skin, and nails can determine underlying illnesses that may have been undetected by the client. I had a client whom I’ve known for years and was nurturing her hair for a couple of years. One day she came in and had terrible shedding. We thought she may have used a bad relaxer or color in between salon visits. I noticed a pattern in how her hair was breaking off and informed her that she may want to visit a doctor for blood work and a health check-up. This was no chemical error or hair loss due to stress. This was thyroid cancer. Because I took my education seriously and learned beyond just making or creating beautiful hairstyles. We were able to catch it early. Today my friend-client is alive, healthy, and cancer-free. Hairstylists do more than just beautiful hairstyles and colors, the good ones take your life and hair seriously. It’s more than just beauty.

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 became a hairstylist in 2010 after years of working in customer service, dealing with low pay, racism, and unfair scheduling. My sister actually found the school and encouraged me to apply after doing hair and make-up for my God-sister’s wedding. This encouragement, this opportunity, and this confirmation from God took me through beauty school. I graduated top of my class experiencing different types of accolades and gifts. I talked about my journey on social media-, and gave hair facts and it built my clientele. I left beauty school with 64 clients. I started out working for myself and building my brand because that was always the goal. Freedom. Freedom to set my own hours, freedom to talk about God, freedom to love people and their hair back to life. Problems like hair shedding and breakage because of a divorce, death, or job, got solved with the right remedy and reassurance that my clients will be ok. What sets me apart from other stylists is customer service. I treat my clients as if they are a priority and they are walking into Neiman Marcus. I pamper them, I allow them to express themselves, and most importantly I reassure them that whatever they are dealing with, they will be ok. My clients are more than a dollar sign, they are humans who need comfort and healthy hair. I think what I am most proud of is witnessing, my clients succeed! Succeed with their hair goals, beat hair diseases, achieving life goals that God has allowed me to assist them with. Witnessing babies being born, preparing a client for her surprise engagement, getting a bride ready for her big day, and seeing someone accept Christ or being baptized. It’s all beautiful things that occur in life and it never gets old witnessing someone you serve win! So if you sit in my chair it’s great hair and a lot of heart!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I actually posted, every single day. Whether it was a good day or bad. I was transparent and showed all of my business. When business was slow that’s when I turned it up and met new clients. I wrote more blogs about hair and life. I interacted with potential clients and I talked about entertainment news! Reels and videos of what it’s like to be serviced are just a few more things that I would include in my social media audience. I also reach out to my clients via email to let them know what is new in the salon.

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

That learning stops. It is absolutely wrong. Education continues until you retire. This industry is innovative and always changing and you gotta keep up in order to stay ahead. I think the one thing I am trying to master is the melted lace fronts, they look so real and sometimes damaging. I just want to learn it and keep the integrity of my client’s hair. I am definitely a work in progress.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kristeldion.com
• Instagram: @hairservicesbykris
• Facebook: Kristel Dion
• Youtube: Kristel Dion

Image Credits
Kristel M. Tyana Danae