We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashlee Norman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ashlee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I discovered my Passion for Hairdressing early on in my teens. At first I wanted to be an Actress but while I was in High School Theator, I fell more in love with doing period and character hairstyles backstage. I enrolled in Beauty School when I was 17 years old while I was in my senior year of High School.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The first Decade of my Career I was mostly behind the chair at a high end salon in Los Angeles, California. I was an Education junky. Dispite working full time with clients, I also prusued advanced academy classes in the Beauty Industry at the same time as completing my Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising and Business marketing at California State University Northridge.
I to attend Vidal Sassoon, Toni & Guy, Bumble and bumble, diPietroTodd, Wella Studios in all the top fashion cities including LA, New York, San Fransico, London, and Paris. My role within the salon was Salon Educator and Manager. With every class I attended, I did a teach back to my colleagues as well as ran the assistant program. I’ve always been Passionate about my Craft and sharing every bit of knowledge with my team along the way.
When Instagram started to be popular I was posting a lot of Balayage (French Hairpainting technique), a trent that was growing rapidly. I was asked by one of my 600 followers at the time if I would consider teaching a class for Stylists outside my salon team. My first ever Independ education class was with 6 students in December of 2014 at the salon I worked at. By Feburary of 2015 I was teaching my second class with 40 students at a Celebrity Stylist owned salon in Pasadena, California and I was 6 weeks pregnant with my first child.
Next thing I knew I was getting requests to come teach classes all around the country. I didn’t know how I was going to become a Mom and a traveling educator at the same time. Additionally my husband was challenging to increase my income if I wanted to be profitable after paying the high costs of childcare. So now I had a 9 month deadline to build an education brand that could support my growing family.
When my first Son was born I had been selling out classes in mulitple states and could afford to help my mother-in-law to become my traveling nanny. For 18 months we took baby boy everywhere with us everyother weekend. During this time, I also started a small tool line to sell along with my signature techniques.
About the time my first child was turning 2 years old, I got pregnant with my second. While I was baking my baby girl, I moved my clientel into a private studio and started filming my first Online Education classes. During my maternity leave I started releasing my new digital products and surpassed my husbands income as a very successful Structural Engineering Manager. That’s when he started dreaming about one day come to work with me.
In 2018-2019 was back on the road with 2 kids and got my first product sponsorship. I got my first taste of the “big time” doing a collaborative class for my product deal with an audience of 100 people.
Then covid hit and I had to refund $100K in pre-sold 2020 tour tickets. Lucky however, I began to release new online education and custom tools to keep me afloat. In my toughest year ever, I still out earned my husband. At the time his job was increasingly stressful and he realized my career must be stable since I could still pull through even during a global pandemic.
He quit his 15 year career at the California Utility and we moved to Las Vegas, Neveda. 2021 we rebounded and replaced his employeed income by joining the tradeshow circuit on top of my regular tour schedule. I had my own booths & 300-400 seated classrooms at shows like IBS Vegas, ABS Chicago, & Orlando Premiere. I also picked up my second sponsorship with Schwarzkopf Professional.
After winning a OneShot Hair Award at the Behind the Chair show, we decided to try for a 3 child. 2022 I was traveling and teaching pregnant again!
Despite another baby boy at 35 years old, I rebounded by adding my 3rd sponsoship with K18, doingthe entire campaign relaunch for my favorite Schwarzkoph colorline, and traveling to Germany multiple times to design one of the 2023 Fall/Winter Essential Looks for Schwarkoph Global.
Our next steps are to build an Advanced Academy in Las Vegas where people can travel to for quality education. With now 2 decades in the industry, my Goal is to be the Bridge between the traditional academy education with structure and foundation combinded with the modern social media exposure and trends.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a traveling educator is bringing quality education to underserved communities – especially to working Mom’s who may not otherwise had access to the knowledge I’ve acquired through my career. In the past our industry was donminated by Men because they were able to compete for limited platform artists jobs. The key to success in the pre-social media era was to live in an fashion city and work over-time to climb the ladder of the academy or product manufacturer. Instagram openned the door for the part-time working Mom to create their own brand on their own time while raising children in the safety of the suburbs. Now I get messages for woman and men around the world, thanking me for helping them provide for themselves and their families with the knowledge I spread.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The lesson I had to learn is not to value myself according to a mentors opinion or a number at the top of a social media app. Before my Independent Education career took off, I tried to partner with my Salon Owner who had been my hairstylist since my early teens. I looked up to her as a Mentor and “Hair Mom”. When she turned me down it was a crushing rejection at the time. I quit my position as Educator/Manager as I now realized it wasn’t building to my next step. I was quickly replaced by her new “business partner” who happened to be social media famous. In a staff meeting this partner got up and said, ” You are nobody without a following on social media”. This was the beginning of the end for me. After I left a former colleague told me my Mentor had said, ” Ashlee works hard but (insert her new partners name) she just get’s it “. Basically saying no matter how hard I worked I was never going to get it or be somebody big enough on social media for her to validate me. I struggled with this for years because I allowed those words/numbers to defind my value.
It took my Faith in God and another mentor He put in my life to realize the Truth. I did a Private Class with Gianni Scumaci in London and one thing he taught me was that we create Art with our Hands but our Hands work at the beat of our heart. As Creatives our Work can be inhibited by Heart Issues. He told me “It’s time to Start Believe in Yourself” giving me permission to validate my own art and “a Mentor is someone who builds you up, not breaks you down”.
Along with this and a song from Francesca Battistelli “He Knows my Name” with the lyrics:
“Spent today in a Conversation,
In the Mirror Face to face with
somebody less than perfect,
I wouldn’t choose me first if
I were looking for a Champion
In fact I’d understand if
You picked everyone before me
But that’s just not my story”
Through this I found healing and realized I had a God given Gift that was not meant to serve my own ego but to be Given – the Beauty Industry is the Serve Industry and I’m serving in my gifts with a Divide Purpose. This is my Value, not a number and not an opinion.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashleenormanhair.com
- Instagram: @ashleenormahair
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Le8ncLMw4-4K1rp-pGmXQ
- Tiktok: @ashleenormahair
Image Credits
Makeup by @muyvette