We recently connected with Caitlin Helle and have shared our conversation below.

Caitlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Teena (Smith) and I opened flora with a mission of creating a safe space for everyone and making toxic salon culture a thing of the past. We have both been in this industry for over a decade and basically just wanted to take everything we didn’t like about the industry and do the opposite. Getting your hair done is a very personal experience and we want that to be as comfortable for both the guest and the stylist.

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

Although Teena and I didn’t know each other until around 2017, we both grew up in Frederick, MD and started our careers there. We both found ourselves in Baltimore and eventually worked at the same salon in the Hampden neighborhood. After the initial Covid-19 lockdown, we both realized how burnt out we were with work and wanted to seek out a more balanced lifestyle. It’s so common and “normal” in this industry to double book, to not eat or take a break and to spend hours on your feet. To work long days and to not get any time off and over extend yourself to clients. And you just don’t produce quality work when you’re constantly burnt out. Teena left that salon in August 2020 to work independently at a small studio and I followed months later in May 2021. I happened to find the space that flora currently resides in December of 2021 and we opened in February of 2022. And only months after opening, we were named “Baltimore’s Best New Salon”. Since we became independent, we have been able to pursue other passions outside of being at the salon. As far as hair related stuff, Teena has been able to work on site weddings and I’ve been able to travel and do guest spots at different salons. Doing that eventually landed me a job at Local Honey in Nashville where I work part time along with owning the business here.
At flora we have extended appointment times and never double book so we can create a relationship with every guest and meet their individual needs. Our prices/services are hourly and genderless. We have a zero tolerance policy for anyone that says anything homophobic, racist, xenophobic, fatphobic, or anything else that makes us or anyone else uncomfortable.
At flora we also celebrate autonomy and strongly believe community over competition. I am a cutting specialist, while Teena specializes in extensions and big color transformations. Recently, we had three other stylists join us-Holly, Allison and Sara who have their own styles and specialties and it’s cool that we’ve grown into a collective. We’ve also had a couple of stylists come from different salons as guest artists

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

So back in March 2020, right before shut down, I was super depressed and knew I needed a change. I had been telling myself that it was my last year in Baltimore and that I wanted to move. I ended up taking a cutting class in New York and realized all the people teaching had something I wanted. They had autonomy, they got to travel, they did independent education and they weren’t flashy about it. I reached out to one of the educators who is the creative director at Local Honey in Nashville, TN and asked if I could come shadow him and (to my surprise) he said absolutely! Unfortunately a week later the world shut down. I eventually went back to work and in April 2021, when it was more comfortable to travel I actually ended up reaching out to a salon in Austin, TX to do a guest spot there. Instead of paying a rental fee, I worked there in exchange for a cutting class. That was all of the motivation and confidence boost I needed-I decided to quit as soon as I got back and was able to find a new home with the help of Teena. I did another guest spot-this time in Nashville at a salon called Golden Hour, but I reached back out to Local Honey and ended up meeting with the creative director while I was there. He helped me get the opportunity to do continuous guest spots there and I eventually made it more permanent in January 2022-right when we were opening flora. So my career has had a huge shift in this past year and a half-I made the first big change and the rest of what I wanted to do followed.

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

I don’t know if this is necessarily a lesson, but the biggest thing I’ve had to unlearn is over extending myself for clients. I am a people pleaser at heart and the hardest thing for me when I became self employed was setting boundaries. I realized quickly that doing this was one of the main causes of me getting burnt out. It is not the end of the world that I can’t squeeze someone in and I’m not going to produce quality work if I’m constantly exhausted. I’ve made it part of my “brand” that if you are in a rush, I’m not the stylist for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: Vagaro.com/florabaltimore
• Instagram: @caithelle_hair @florabaltimore