We recently connected with Chelsie Meyers and have shared our conversation below.
Chelsie, appreciate you joining us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?
I have been in business now for over 5 years here in Dallas TX, and I feel that as my business continues to grow I should to. I can honestly say that when I look back at my work even over the last couple years I continue to improve each year. Along with growing in skill set and knowledge behind the chair I also believe that each time I provide a service I treat my client new or long term as if they were sitting in my chair for the first time. That keeps me and the client from getting complacent and bored with their hair. Also to maintain trust & quality of service each client gets glosses and post conditioning treatments every single time so that the service is always finished completely and this provides longevity of their services.
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 background and context?
My name is Chelsie, and I am from a small town in western KS. I grew up with one sister and two hard working parents. From little on up I remember having big dreams. I always always knew I wanted to do hair, it was a passion of mine from the time I could remember. I attended hays academy of hair design in my small town and immediately moved to Kansas City. I started out in Kansas City getting my feet wet in the industry and quickly realized I wanted even bigger and ever more than what Kansas City had to offer. So I moved to Dallas, TX for the most part the move was pretty random but I did however have some extended family out here in Texas. I then jumped around to a couple different spots until I landed my dream job at Charlie & co. Working for Charlie was prob one of my biggest accomplishments to date. I had already been doing hair for a bit before I went to work for Charlie but I learned so much while being there such as narrowing in on what exactly was my craft. I think for so long in the hair industry people did everything and anything that walked through the doors and when I worked for Charlie I remember very vividly him saying “do what you like to do, and be really good at THAT”. and that’s when it kinda all clicked for me. That I didn’t have to be good at anything that walked through the door I could be good at what I liked to see and what I liked doing all day and build clients who aligned with that! I worked with Charlie for a little over 3 years when the pandemic hit. As we all know the pandemic pushed us to do things we wouldn’t of normally done otherwise. And so I had decided to move back to my small town close to family, I thought that my work here in Dallas was done. I quickly realized how important Dallas, my career, and most of all my clients had become to me. I worked for almost 2 years living in Kansas and driving back to dallas for 7 days a month still servicing my clients. If someone would of told me that these people would continue to CHOOSE to see me for their hair at such a small window of time I would have said you are crazy, but it ended up working out and they all stuck with me through all that time. Since January I moved back to Dallas after realizing I do really have something special here, and went out on my own for the next leap of faith in my career! Circling back to what my craft actually is!
I feel like a lot of my clients are cliche blondes! I mean come on its Dallas! But I love a lived in color. I love sending my clients out with hair that lives on them well, and for a while! I also feel like I have a lot of clients with a lot of hair. I would say that growing up I lived in a family of people with good heads of hair. So I am really talented when it comes to finding out how to make a lot of hair sit well on the head, weather that be a mens cut with a lot of hair who doesn’t want to just go short all over, or a female who has so much hair on her head she thinks she needs to just stay long or her hair will look like a Christmas tree.
With all that being said really take a look at what people (not only in the hair industry) but any time you are looking for a service provider what kinda of work are they showcasing. If you look at my instagram you will see the work I produce and you can get a feel for what I like to see and do on hair. If that aligns with what you are looking for then we will probably be a great fit!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Circling back to what I have mentioned before I think when hairstylist get out of cosmetology school we are taught that we need to know how to do it all which makes sense since you need to be able to pass a state board. but when you get out of school and you start getting your hands in hair you quickly figure out there are things that you want to do and things you don’t like so much. So for me I took what I like to see on my clients and what I thoroughly enjoy doing on the hair and those are the type of clients I want to sit in my chair. That way all day long I am killing it instead of someone coming in and asking for let just say fashion colors and I dont ever provide fashion color services, can I do them yes but will it be the best fashion color you have ever had. prob not but someone who likes to do that and does that more often than not they are going to be able to send you out of that chair going wow that was the best service I have ever gotten! So find what you excel at and do that, its not a one size fits all anymore!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I know what helped and still helps me today in my career is confidence. It takes a while into your career maybe just from experience under your belt to know what you are actually talking about (haha!) sound crazy but school can tell you ok this is what happens when this happens, but until you actually see it and experience it for yourself you know but you dont know. I feel like when a client sits in my chair I am confident know to say ok this is what we can make happen this is what could hold us back from this goal this is approximately how many times it could take to get to this goal or whatever the case may be. I have heard it time and time again clients will say omg no one has ever told me that and I’ve been getting my hair done for this long or no one has explained why that is happening or alternatives to the problem. and I guess just over the years I have learned that clients don’t know what the process looks like sure they have been getting their hair done for years but they just go “get their hair done” they may not always understand what is actually taking place. So after you build the trust with clients you can get a feel for what they like and what they don’t like and then it gets to the point where most of my clients just say ok you know what I like lets do whatever you think. and honestly the best services turn out when that happens because there is trust and you can get a little creative but all while working in the realm of what that client likes and it also keeps you and the client from getting complacent! I know for me when getting my hair done I want to be able to sit in the chair and ask my stylist what do you think would look best on me what do you want to do with my hair and know that it will be new and fresh but still great overtime!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Chelsie.meyers.hair