We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anwar Kasha. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anwar below.
Anwar, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
One of the greatest achievements in my career so far has been being able to make women feel more and more confident everyday. When I first started my career i made it a goal to perfect my skills in making my clients transformations as special as possible. I had a client who had gone through many health changes and surgeries which in turn make her lose the majority of her hair. She would constantly express how she wasn’t comfortable going out in public without a hat on or wearing a wig. After undergoing everything that she did, she said she didn’t even feel like herself anymore. My heart was broken that she felt this way, but i also felt honored that she placed her trust in my hands to help her. After many discussions and ideas we decided on a good plan to make her feel confident again. We decided on doing a combination of things from extensions to treatments. The end process was something i didn’t see coming. I had her chair facing away from the mirror until the end, but when i finally turned her so she can see herself, it was absolutely beautiful. It was as if I saw right infront of me, her confidence coming back to life. With tears in my eyes, she starts sobbing and continuously showing her gratitude toward me as if i saved her life after what felt like hours of her being speechless. I may not be a Doctor who performs intense surgeries to save lives, but on this day i truly do feel like I changed that beautiful lady’s life. I brought back what she had been missing for years, and some still say “you’re just a hairstylist”. Yes i am and I love it.
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?
This is AK Artistry. My name is Anwar Kasha, I am a 21 year old stylist in Utica, Michigan as well as Farmington hills Michigan. About a year ago I opened my own studio, AK Artistry, after working in a salon for a few years. Since then I’ve been building my brand into what it is today. I’m known on instagram for my hair tips & tricks, and my extension transformations. I am a brunette specialist, and also an extension specialist. I’ve been working with extensions since i had gotten my cosmetology license and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve always struggled with fine hair personally and i found extensions be a boost in my confidence level so i wanted to reciprocate that onto my clients. I’ve practiced & perfected my skills to the best of my abilities to make my clients happy with their services. I have also recently been teaching classes on basic prep and style for everyday looks. I put everything & anything i can into my business, and I don’t believe i will ever stop!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A big lesson i had to unlearn was I could be a stylist for everyone. As much as i’d like to satisfy everyone, that is just not reality. Early in my career, i realized my strongest ability was knowing my weaknesses. I tried so hard getting anyone in my chair but quickly realized I wasn’t confident in doing what they asked for. Its okay to say no, and to not be the stylist for everyone. Some people just won’t like your work and its not personal, its preference. I was willing to satisfy anyone, no matter what it cost me. Instead of it helping me i fell so many steps backwards. Understanding and accepting that made me so much more passionate in the things I did love to do instead of focusing on the others.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Everyone is on social media now, and the best part is that its free advertisement. My thought process going into building my platform on social media was, be so annoying that they won’t forget you. As weird as it sounds, you need to have a presence that never disappears on social media. Keeping up with the trends will make the algorithm blow your posts up. You need to constantly be posting and be active to the point where when someone is speaking about your job field you’re the first person to come to mind. For example people refer to me as “that one girl that doesn’t stop posting about hair”. They may not know my exact name but i still come up in conversation. Social media is a whole other job in itself and its so important that you treat it as such.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vagaro.com/akartisrty
- Instagram: @Anwarkasha