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

Chelsyea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

Well, since at home care is essential to maintaining the look we create in the salon, something I do regularly in my suite is giving my clients free travel size products. I usually get these products using my salon rewards, which makes it feel free to me(girl math!!), so I love passing them along to my clients. This opens my clients up to trying new products without the commitment or the price tag. I always give them products that I know will benefit them at home and I think this shows them that I value them, their business, and their hair while giving me some insurance that my billboard (their hair) is being maintained from home. Sometimes they come back and buy the full size, sometimes they don’t. Either way, I know that they know I genuinely care for them and want the best for their hair which strengthens their trust in me, and naturally creates more loyalty & higher referrals!

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.

I’m Chelsyea, independent hairstylist & business owner. I started this industry 10 years ago as a commission stylist and took several breaks due to feeling burnt out on what I thought was the industry- turns out I was just getting burnt out on that typical salon culture. I’m not the stylist that’s going to show up dressed to the nines, I’m more of that Adam Sandler vibe if ya know what I mean. I am a comfort girly in a fashion world, but I feel that’s one of the things that my clients love about me. I continually invest in education to ensure I’m bringing the best quality of work to my clients; In an industry that is constantly growing and changing it is essential to stay up on the times whether it be products or technique. I feel Ike being in the beauty industry my clients put so much trust in me to work on something that is so essential to how we see ourselves and how others see us, the very least I could do would be to never stop learning and growing! I pride myself on “never frying hair for money” which is a phrase one of my amazing cosmo teachers instilled in me that I live by daily! I have seen and met a LOT of stylists that don’t care about the health of your hair, they just care about finishing your service and getting those dollars. My approach to hair is low and slow- getting your to your goal in a safe manner, preserving the integrity of your hair, and using the absolute best products and treatments that I can get my hands on, even if it does cost a little bit more. My approach has made it so that my regulars that come to me just come sit in my chair and let me work my magic (unless of course they’re wanting to make a big change which I am ALWAYS up for) because they trust that I will make the most educated choices & send them out looking gorgeous. What an honor. I think my approach to hair but also my ability to relate with every single person In my chair sets me apart because I don’t feel like I have “Clients”, I just have many many friends that trust me to play with their hair! Every head of hair is far more than a dollar sign to me, its a story- it’s someone’s life. In my chair there is no conversation off limits, we talk the good the bad and the ugly because that’s just life, and sometimes we just need to know we aren’t in the trenches alone. I feel honored that my client not only trust me with their hair, but with some of the most intimate details of their lives because they know they are safe with me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think my resilience is shown by me not giving up in the beauty industry even when sometimes I feel like a black sheep. Whether it was past commission salons, or my last place where I helped build it from the ground up just to eventually leave due to toxic patterns, I had a lot of times where I thought “maybe this just isn’t the right industry for me”. I don’t thrive on drama, I stick up for the underdog which tends to land me on the less favorable side of things, and I work with my entire heart no matter what it is that I am doing. I literally don’t know how to not be fully invested in something. I think many people would have been scared to leave a place that they had helped build from the ground up. I mean really, who puts hours and hours and hours into a place to just leave. That obviously wasn’t my intentions, but that’s how it played out. When I started feeling even the slightest bit of burnout I immediately pivoted my thought process to figure out my next steps. I had options- I could stay & try to make a difference in the environment but at the cost of my peace and sanity; I could leave the industry all together since I had felt burned so many times(even by people I thought I could genuinely trust), or I could take a risk and do something I (naively) told myself I couldn’t do or didn’t want (which ended up being the best choice in my career!!) I started renting my own private suite and as they say- With great risk comes great reward- I do not feel like I have worked a day since! I’ve gotten the power to create a truly safe space for people to come join me in- we laugh together, we cry together and sometimes we sit in a comfortable silence together because that’s just what’s needed for the moment but I now know that this is 1000% the industry for me, I have found the perfect way to be in the industry I love but be removed from the typical salon vibe that drags me down mentally. People who have seen me through all phases of my career comment how happy and light I feel now and to me that’s the ultimate power move. I am eternally grateful that I had the courage to continue searching for what works best for me because now I set the vibe in my space and no one gets the power to change that or take it from me-and I do much better hair because of it!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me has been word of mouth along side my referral program. I give incentive to clients that are referring me out as well as for the people they’re referring to me. It is a win for my current clients, win for my new clients, and a win for me because it brings new faces to my chair. Anyone can post a good looking picture of hair on their instagram, so while I feel like photos are absolutely necessary, they’re also a dime a dozen (and sometimes edited so much that its a false representation anyways!) so having people that have experienced a hair appointment with me, wearing the hair I did, and sharing their love for me by recommending me to their loved ones has been the most effective.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Chelsyeadoesmyhair
• Facebook: Chelsyea Does My Hair