We were lucky to catch up with Diane Reyes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Diane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think the biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life is when I left the salon I had been at for over a year! I was doing booth rent working for myself and making my own money when I just started getting tired of doing the same haircuts (stacked bobs lol) and same color (Chunky highlights with black and blonde or red and black or red black and platinum) in the small town I was living in Stephenville Tx. I get bored very easily I’m always wanting a challenge or to challenge myself to push myself and do things I didn’t even know I could do. I never wanted to be the stylist that does one haircut on somebody and all her clients look the same! So one day I woke up and said that is it I’m done! I went to the owner I was booth renting from to let her know I was packing up my stuff and moving to Austin Texas. She didn’t believe me. She asked me a million questions. Who do I know up there? Where will I be staying? Where will I be working? Will I still be doing hair? And also telling me I was making the biggest mistake of my life and that I wouldn’t succeed I’m making good money in stephenville and I should just stay there. I was shocked to say the least I thought people would be alot more encouraging but nobody wanted me to leave but once I make up my mind that’s it I will do whatever I have to do to achieve that goal and nobody is going to stop me. I knew one person in. Austin and it was a friend I had met when I was 19. She told me I could stay at her place and help her out with rent she had an extra room and she would love to have me there. So I had about $800 in my bank account after paying for a uhaul and was living in Austin a week later. I really had no real plan all I knew is that I wanted to work in fashion shows and be in magazines and work on music videos and do photoshoots. So when I got there I instantly went to work on Facebook. I found a bunch of modeling pages and got into those and started posting my work. Before I knew it tons of people were messaging me and through one model I began working with she introduced me to a very nice salon and I began my work there. Through them I met HYBRID NATION and began working for them. Doing fashion shows, music videos, magazines, and more. I had the time of my life to say the least. It was not without its hardships though. The friend who I had known since I was a teenager was really bad into drugs and I had no idea. I didn’t find out until a few weeks after I moved in. One day after coming home from work she had locked me out for no reason and wouldn’t let me in to get any of my stuff. I still to this day don’t know what happened or why but the Austin PD had said since that was her house she had every right to keep my stuff so everything I had worked so hard for was gone and I was homeless. Talk about devastation. I didn’t know anybody there I was all alone but luckily my manager and Co worker helped me out she couldn’t afford her rent and she was about to get evicted and she needed a roommate she had two extra rooms and she needed help and so did I. So I got very lucky and within 2 days I had somewhere to go but it was a very scary time. I’m from the country lol I had never lived in a big city before and especially not alone but I survived and it definitely made me stronger for that. I knew what my dreams were since the age of 5. I’ve always known what I wanted to be and who I’ve wanted to be and if I want something I’m going to figure out how to accomplish that no matter what. I never see obstacles as an obstacle I see it As a time to get creative and figure out how to make the jump as seamless as possible. I adapt very easily and can make anything work. I feel like thats my real superpower is the resilience I have because of the risks Ive chosen to take and somehow it always works out becuase I have faith and I know that I can do anything I set my mind to. I went from this tiny 5 yr old little girl with big dreams from DeLeon Texas, a town of about 3,000 people to a grown woman that got to do everything she promised herself she would do. Work with photographers and magazines and music videos and fashion shows be featured in magazines and owning her own business and being successful all by myself. I’ve never had a family all I ever had was myself and I used that as fuel to push myself and show myself I can do this on my own and I actually succeeded! Best decision of my life was to take that risk in 2016!

Diane, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I became a hairstylist becuase ever since I was about 5 yrs old that’s what I wanted to be. I would cry if my mom didn’t buy me the blonde hair barbies because I would color their hair pink and purple and green and blue and chop off their hair n give them different styles. I’ve always just loved creating and colors. I would go around telling everybody that would listen to me that I was gonna be a hairstylist when I grew up and I was never getting married and never having kids and I was going to have my own business. Now at 5 yrs old I have no idea how I knew this. I just knew I never wanted anything else. Doing hair and coloring hair made me happy. So I tried for yrs to go to school and for some reason or another it never worked out but I never gave up and after the 4th time of trying I got in! I had to pay for everything on my own and didn’t have help from anybody. So it took me a while before I was able to get started. When I finally got in I became super obsessed and would stay up until sometimes 2 or 3 am watching videos and working on my mannequins at home. Doing colors and cuts really trying to understand how everything worked and doing makeup! I threw myself into my work for yrs. I didn’t date I didn’t go out much I just stayed to myself in my room and practiced and practiced. I didn’t even want to talk to anybody I just wanted to be alone to perfect my craft. I wanted to be one of the best hairstylists and makeup artists around. I never wanted to half ass anything. I don’t even know what that word means. I go 1,000% at all times I tend to be very hard on myself but that’s how I’ve improved and grown. I am a color specialist mainly in color corrections, blonding, vivid colors, balayage, and highlights. I’m also a makeup specialist as well. I’ve been doing makeup for 12 years and hair for 11 years. I really try to listen to what my clients aren’t saying when we do their consultation. I ask a million questions to hear what she’s not telling me and then I ask those questions to really hone in on what my client is trying to explain. They don’t understand color like we do so sometimes what they are wanting might not be doable right away but we can eventually get them there. So I always try to let them know that. I use olaplex in everything I do to keep the hair soft and manageable and to stop breakage. I feel like thats one thing that sets me apart from other stylists I’ve worked with is that I truly care. I ask so many questions and I try to give them what they want/need. I don’t do what I want to do. I actually love people and I love my job and I just want to make everybody happy. Me n my clients have cried countless times together because they’ve been so in love with their haircut or makeup or hair color. Those are the best times and the best feelings. It makes me wanna cry right now lol. I want people to know I truly care. I don’t go to work everyday for the money. I go to work and do my job and do it well becuase it’s what I love to do. I take care of everybody’s hair like I take care of my own. Everybody should be able to feel hot and sexy in their new cut or color or makeup. It can really change your perspective and outlook on life. Even though it’s just the outside it helps u feel good on the inside too.

Doing hair and makeup saved my life. My ex fiancée committed suicide and tried to murder me several times before he killed himself. If it wasn’t for hair and makeup I don’t know where I would be at in life. I was headed down a very dark path before makeup saved me and then the following year i was able to get into school. It gave me a purpose in life. It SAVED my life. I think that is what truly sets me apart from other stylists. Is doing hair and makeup isn’t a job to me it’s my life line it’s my lifesaver. I got a second chance at life. I really shouldn’t be here today but I am. I’m extremely grateful and I try to put my heart and soul into every head of hair that I do because it saved my life and all I want to do is return the favor and help somebody else love themselves even if we just start on the outside first.

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

***TRIGGER WARNING, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SUICIDE***

When I was 20 years old, I met somebody who would forever change my life. I never really dated when I was younger. I only had one boyfriend in high school and that ended terribly. So when I met him I fell hard and really fast. I moved in with him after a month of knowing him and of course things went downhill fast. He started abusing me. First it was pushes and shoves. Until it escalated after I found a hot pink slip of paper sticking out of his wallet and in my mind I’m like ooohhhh pretty pink paper what’s that??? When I pulled it out I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It was a paper that he was required to carry around in his wallet because he was a registered sex offender. I couldn’t even think or speak I was in complete shock. Weeks later I finally asked his roommate about it after I had time to process everything and she told me he was 18 the girl was 16 and they worked with her she had lied about her age and when he broke it off with her she went to her parents said he tried to rape her and he got arrested. When I asked him the following day he told me the same story. So I believed him and stayed but it was never the same. He started getting very violent when before he was the sweetest person. He would’ve given the clothes off his back to somebody I’ve literally seen him do it. He would take me to go hangout with the homeless guy in our town and his dog and we would bring him food and water and hang out with him for hrs. I’ve never met another soul like him. So I was very confused when the violence started. Nothing made sense. Then he would force me to watch him try to hang himself (luckily the rope broke) another time he wrapped a rope around his neck and when he was gone for about 20 min I went to check on him cuz he wasn’t answering me and that’s when I saw the rope on his neck when I went to get it off, his neck had swelled so much that I couldn’t get my fingers through the rope so I ran to the kitchen and got a knife and cut it off of him. Luckily he survived that time. After that the beatings got severe. He fractured my skull and I laid on the kitchen floor choking on my own blood and paralyzed for hours while he stood over me and beat my face in. He fractured my nose and cut a hole into the side of my eye. The whole time I just kept repeating don’t go to sleep Diane whatever u do don’t close ur eyes stay awake stay wake. Until hours passed and my fingers started to move and then what seemed like forever I was able to pick myself up and have him take me to the hospital where he stood guard n told them I fell off the porch. Eventually it all culminated with me going to the police and showing them all the pictures and videos I had. He would threaten me and beat me with a shotgun he had. He would hold it to my head or mouth and ask me where I wanted him to shoot me. If I wanted it to be fast or slow. In the leg or in the head.? I would just beg and cry and tell him that I loved him until I was able to talk him out of it. Well as a felon he wasn’t allowed to have a gun so I told the cops that thinking they would go arrest him so he wouldn’t kill himself. That’s the only reason why I went to the cops because he wasn’t answering his phone, and his last words to me was he was going to commit suicide because I left him. I was scared I didn’t want to go find his body on my own. That was a fateful decision and one I still struggle with today. If that was the right thing to do. But I was scared and I just wanted him to get help. I didn’t know what happened to him. After they went there they didn’t have a warrant to go inside n look for the gun but he was alive so they left. After that, he flipped out and stole the money from his job and took off across the country. I talked to him every day, trying to get him to come back, but he wouldn’t he said he would never go to jail again. And then, one night, he called and said he was getting chased by the cops and getting shot at. I didn’t believe him, so I hung up. He called back and I sent him to voice-mail. He killed himself after that voice-mail. After he died, I didn’t cry. I was completely numb. I didn’t cry until about 3 months after his death when it finally hit me. I was in just complete shock. In my head, I knew he was alive somewhere hiding out and waiting for me. I started having really bad PTSD and severe panic attacks and severe depression. I couldn’t function at all. I ended up going into psychosis thinking him and his father were after me. You couldn’t tell me any different because I truly believed he was. I didn’t believe he was dead for 5 years. I thought he was still waiting to get me like my mind couldn’t wrap itself around anything else. Then his dad committed suicide 5 yrs later, and it all hit me again like a bad nightmare. Now I truly believed “Wow, he really is dead.” Like he’s really dead. Now his dad is dead. Then the grief hit all over again. I was finally mourning his death I could finally believe he was gone. Then I get a message from one of his family members and she told me something I never knew. He was a drug addict with a bad addiction to shooting up meth. I was completely dumbfounded. How did I not know? How did I not see the signs? Then everything hit at once. The rage and anger how he never really slept how he would switch to the devil so fast but before he had been so sweet and caring and just a good soul. How could nobody have ever told me this?? Come to find out everybody knew except me. All of my friends. Literally EVERYBODY knew and nobody told me. I blamed myself for 5 yrs over something that was NEVER my fault. I was mad at myself for not seeing the signs becuase when I met him I had just gotten out of rehab for shooting up meth. Of course I relapsed after his death but I got clean on May 13th 2013. I’ve been sober from shooting up meth for 10 years now. It took alot of work to get to this point but I never gave up. I had to rely on myself because I didn’t have family to turn to or have support from anybody. It made me stronger, and it made me who I am today. I know that I can put anything I set my mind to because I have done it over and over and over again. I love when people tell me I can’t do something because it gives me more fuel to show them that yes I can and I will succeed and I will be the best at it. I know nothing can stop me. I have been through the worst of the worst, and I still have not failed. Always believe in yourself and work on yourself. Looking at your faults and accepting your flaws and figuring out how to fix that, was crucial for my growth. Without having that knowledge of being able to look inside oneself honestly and openly and with clarity I don’t think I would be here today sharing my story of resilience. Learning everything I could about PTSD and Domestic violence really helped me too. Figuring out what was causing me to use drugs really getting down to the core of it was that I didn’t have anything to motivate me. I had nothing to live for. I was just existing and when I realized I was just existing and not LIVING that’s when I threw myself into my work even more and dedicated my life to giving myself a purpose. That purpose was helping other people to feel beautiful not just on the outside but the inside as well. I never judge anybody because you never know their story or where they came from.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing for me is seeing the look on their faces after i do their hair or makeup. They always look so happy and sometimes we even cry together (happy tears) and just hearing them tell me how happy they are and how much they love it and that i surpassed their expectations. Thats the best feeling but also hearing other people’s stories and giving them advice and letting them know they aren’t alone and that they can get through anything. I’m living proof of that. If you just never give up you will always succeed.   

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @decadentbeautybydiane