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

Alexa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success has a very individualistic and personal description for everyone. For me, success if feeling fulfilled in the work that I do and living a life that is authentic to me. In my line of work helping people feel and look their best on big days or feel more confident in their skin, success is a day by day measure. When my clients feel good, I feel good. When I’m proud of looks I create or solving my client’s problems, I feel successful. It took a long time to feel confident in my artistry. Hair and Makeup did not come super easily for me and I had to practice a lot. And in the beginning I wasn’t great but I kept trying to improve. I think that also plays into success, being able to look back and see how far I’ve come and how much better I’ve gotten. But I’m still learning and I will always be learning. This industry is one that never stop developing. Always being willing to learn, take criticism and turn into growth is how one continues in their journey of becoming “successful”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I sort of stumbled into the beauty industry, I was in college and working multiple jobs at the same time. I needed a creative outlet, so at midnight (I’ve always been a night owl) I would do colorful eye makeup looks to post on instagram. My looks went from pretty basic to detailed and thought out makeup looks. After I graduated College at ASU I decided to dive into makeup more, I went to an Arizona hair and makeup academy originally just for learning makeup but eventually learning how to style hair too. After those programs ended I jumped in full time as a professional hair and makeup artist, starting my business Alexa Paige Beauty officially in January of 2021. Later going back to school to get my esthetics license so that I could dive deeper into the beauty world and start providing facials as well.

As of now I offer hair styling and makeup for special events, mainly bridal and photoshoots but I have worked for many different types of projects. I also offer facials and soon more spa treatments. I love working with my clients to really breakdown what they are wanting out of their service and to truly customize it to fit their needs. The services I do all tie into each other which my clients love. They get hair and makeup to look beautiful for their special events, they can get a facial from me beforehand to makeup sure their skin is taken care of so the makeup lays perfectly.

I am always ready to learn. I constantly have a list of trainings and classes I want to take to be able to offer my clients the best I can give. I am most proud of being able to figure out what my clients want and help bring their perfect look to reality. I am also proud of myself for coming out of my comfort zone to be able to do all these things. I used to be really introverted and didn’t talk to people. This career has pushed me into being a much more open person.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My artistry and business took off when I started participating in industry collective events, specifically the wedding industry. At the beginning of my career I heard a lot of “you have to do a lot of free work at first” which I wasn’t the biggest fan of as someone who decided to quit their job and jump in full time right out of school. But I found some amazing connections doing “content days” which is when a group of creatives get together and share their skills so we all benefit. I did hair and makeup for these photoshoot for free, a bunch of photographers come to shoot the models and venues and decorative vendors would come in. We all shared our crafts to create beautiful scenes that the photographers would capture and shared with us. It really changed my business when I started doing these because, I got to create and practice and try new things while also getting beautiful pictures back of my work to share on my portfolio. It also helped me create amazing connection with other vendors in the industry and we recommend each other out and help build our businesses up together. Clients that are referred my way trust me because their other vendors do and clients can see the work I do with professional photos and can get an idea of how they can look by booking with me. These ‘content days” helped me build my business in so many ways and now I have more connections and stronger portfolio than I ever could’ve without these days.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love creating a hair or makeup look and at the end of it being able to think to myself, “wow, I killed that”. I attract clients who like my work and let me create the best way I know how. So when I finish someone’s look and I know I did great job and I get excited to show them that’s what’s so rewarding for me. What also adds to that is when they look in the mirror and they love it just as much as I do. Or when I check in with a client after a facial and they tell me their skin is looking and feeling amazing. I love helping people feel their best, it fuels my passion for what I do. They say “do what you love and you never work a day in your life” and I am living that everyday.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexapaigebeauty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexapaigebeauty/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexapaigebeauty.hairandmakeup/
• Other: https://www.vagaro.com/alexapaigebeauty

Image Credits
Erica Wolford Photography, Megan Rae Decker Photography, Kayla Rose Photography