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

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I was born rebellious by nature. I have always questioned authority figures from the moment I could talk. I remember being in preschool and never understood nap time. How am I supposed to fall asleep in a room full of kids and strangers on a cot on the floor? I would ask my teachers and questioned why I needed a nap. Instead of being able to give me an answer, they just put me in time out against a wall on the corner, where I would sing to myself in another act of rebellion. This rebelliousness continued all throughout my life and to this day, I am always questioning why we need to do certain things or why there’s certain ingredients in products and I have found a pattern with it. Either people can actually give me factual information that’s beneficial to growth or disturbingly, more often they have no idea and are just copy and pasting without questioning any of it. I refuse to stop questioning everything in life and it’s been a huge driving force in opening my business and being my own boss. Tired of people either hurting me for my questions or not being able to actually teach and answer my questions, I set out to learn everything I can on my own. Anytime I try to go outside of myself for answers, the universe always points me back to myself and going inward. One of the biggest questions I get from my clients in my chair is when I started doing hair and why it took me so long when it was obvious at 15 that I would do my friends hair instead of learning about the presidents in history class. I went through a lot to get to where I’m at now so sure it’s easy to say I would love to go back and be able to do hair right out of high school, or join one of those trade high schools and be able to do hair right away…but that’s not realistic and it isn’t what got me to where I am now. You can’t skip your life and you can’t go back and wish you had changed it or started earlier, that’s wasted energy and living in the past, not the present. Time is an illusion I’m no more ahead or behind of anyone else including myself. Everything has happened in the perfect timing and every choice I made in the past got me to where I am now today, in the present.

I am much happier as a business owner because I am limitless with what and how I learn and can get real education for my business being able to create the environment and experience I want for myself and my clients. I would be doing a huge disservice to myself working a regular job when I can provide more change to the world owning my own business and helping serve people in a way they need.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

After high school I went to college where I changed my major a ton and graduated in something I wasn’t passionate about just to have something. It seemed like that’s what everyone was supposed to do and at the time I had no mentors showing me the way. I coached cheer and dance which is still a passion and hobby of mine but wasn’t the right fit for what I wanted as a career. Looking back all the little jobs I did and bounced around to, were all areas of owning a business and is what helped me in starting my own as I had learned bits and pieces of each part of the whole. Making the decision to go to cosmetology school changed my entire path and gave me the direction and purpose I was searching for putting all of the pieces together. Beauty 2 Dye for was born out of chaos, confusion and destruction. I carry my rebelliousness into my business with lots of trial and error as I found that many are being led astray even in their own careers. Being taught to lighten hair with 20 volume on everyone when truth be told 95% of clients that come to me cannot handle that level of volume. Breaking the mold I focus on the health and integrity of the hair, the journey and process in getting my clients the hair of their dreams and doing it over a period of time because instant gratification isn’t healthy or sustainable. Products in the hair industry aren’t regulated and a lot are filled with hormone and endocrine disrupters, and that doesn’t fly with me. I sell healthy, natural products with clean ingredients that are designed to heal from the outside in. I use energy work in my business to heal my clients crown chakras allowing them to relax and let go. I make homemade candles and sell spiritual healing tools like sage and crystals and am always adding things for healing not only behind the chair with scalp detoxes but with products and accessories too. Beauty 2 Dye for isn’t just a brand, it’s a movement for my clients to invest in themselves, learn how to heal not only their hair but their mind, body, and soul with a stylist that doesn’t just dig deep in my work but conversations as well, and to rebel against the toxic salon environments that are saturating the industry and only support what heals.

I got to where I’m at today but following my heart and rebelling against things and people that went against my natural instincts which are to heal and provide healthy services that are good for people. Not just their hair but their soul too.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Before I created my business and took the leap to be on my own, I went through the loops at barbershops and salons because it seemed everyone in the industry started that way. All I kept being met with was toxic unprofessional environments and coworkers along with products that had terrible ingredients. How was I supposed to learn and perfect and build my career being met with bosses that took 75% of the pay and didn’t do any marketing or provide any education? How was I supposed to focus on my clients and my work when my coworkers and boss would show up to work hungover or still drunk doing nothing but gossiping about other coworkers? How would I be taken seriously as a stylist when all the clients I was being given (in the barbershops) only wanted to see my cleavage and being encouraged by management to wear the smallest clothes I could find and watching managers sleep with clients? I couldn’t and wouldn’t allow myself or my clients to be in that environment. So I rented a station and started out client by client purchasing what I needed one at a time and never looked back.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Relentless is my life word. Throughout it all, no matter what’s been thrown my way, no matter how many times I didn’t know how I was going to pay my rent or how many times I broke down and cried over fear, stress and anxiety, I knew that my industry needs a business like mine, breaking the unhealthy toxic patterns and showing not only my clients but other stylists and businesses around me how to create a better mold in which people have a safe and sacred place to heal and get advice and education that actually works and heals. It’s not easy, but no one ever promised it would be. I still don’t know how I’m doing it and question if I can make it, but I keep going and trusting in myself and my purpose. The more I invest in myself and my business, the more I heal and share my light the more the universe blesses me with being able to give that much more to my clients behind the chair. My clients heal me as much as I heal them and between them, my partner, my family and friends, I have everything I need to keep going and not give up.

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

Contact Info:

• Website: Amyjohnsen.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/Beauty2dyefor
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Beauty2dyefor