We were lucky to catch up with Dina Karim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dina, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I actually wrote a class project on “My legacy” when I was in middle school. It had asked what I wanted people to remember about me. I thought long and hard and I wrote a full page paper on making people smile. I wrote about how I always loved to smile myself and would make anyone “hyper with me.’ I absolutely made it my mission to make everyone around me laugh and smile. Now, as an adult, I look back on that legacy and realize that I still want that to be my legacy in a way. I am a hairstylist who spends my work day waiting for the moment to spin clients around in my chair and see their smile beaming at their reflection. I take such pride in giving my clients that moment to let them look at themselves and smile. In my art, I LOVE to watch people smile when they look at my work. Sometime I feel silly making my “little cartoons” and “cute drawings. But every time I get one single smile, my doubt dies a little. I was able to showcase my art at Motorcity Comic Con. I would often hide behind my display (partial curiosity, partial embarrassment) and watch people’s genuine reaction to my art. The smiles and giggles made my day every time. I think that “being remembered” doesn’t always have to be this grand life achievement or grand gesture. I would be so happy that after I am gone and someone remembers me, they take a second to smile.

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.

My main focus in my careers is hair. I have been in the hair industry for over 20 years. I absolutely love the creative freedom I get in my work as well as daily interactions with so many different types of people. I have owned my own studio for the last 8 years and absolutely love being my own boss. I love to make my studio feel like we are hanging out in my living room, just chatting about life, hair, and more. My hope is that my clients feel a sense of comfort and fun being in my chair. The name, Rebel Hair Company, comes from the notion of not necessarily having to abide by societal norms to be “pretty.” Being pretty is a feeling. It is whatever feels good and makes you feel good. Being true to yourself is beautiful. I grew up in a middle eastern home and was told quite often what was defined as “pretty” or “ladylike.” I was a girl, so therefore I had to be a lady, dainty, seen and not heard. I am the daughter of immigrants and am first generation myself, so I was encouraged to never make a ripple in the water. It felt so wrong and against every grain of my existence. I wanted to run wild. I wanted to play rough and get dirty. I wanted to make waves and be different. I WANTED COLORED HAIR, or anything that screamed my individuality from the rooftops. I spent the first 18 years of my life fighting an outdated image of what a woman should be. I spent so much of my time as a teen and young adult fighting to just be me. So I eventually created a space where I hoped that my clients can just be themselves. Rebelling to me isn’t doing the opposite of what your are told. A rebel is someone is true to themselves and for themselves. Rebel Hair Company, my studio, is a safe place to come, share, and just be.

In my art world, I draw cartoons. Like my adolescent legacy dreams, my cartoons are there to make you smile, they are there simply to make you happy. I love that adults and kids have the same reactions. I definitely have a signature style, think south park meets Disney jr. I definitely put my art career on hold when I had kids. I felt like juggling kids, life, one career and art was overwhelming. Something had to give. Mathematically, art had to go on hold. I always felt like a piece of me was missing. But I had an interaction with a client one day and I was thrust back into my art. Scared and definitely feeling the imposter mode, I slowly dipped one toe into the pool. I slowly have been making my way back into my art and can’t wait to keep going. I self-published my first children’s book, The Coloring Cucumber, 2 years ago, working with my youngest daughter. My dream is to continue making children’s books!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish that we had all of the online resources available today to artists when I was very young. It may have given me more confidence to try more and put myself and my art out more. I was so afraid to fail or embarrass myself, so I barely tried. And I wish there was a name to the fear we call today of imposter syndrome. It is still a process to work through, but easier knowing that so many artists around me feel the same way.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The process is often times very messy. In my experience, my best work just happens. We can’t turn it on or off, and it is so hard to “schedule”. If there is a mental block, more time doesn’t always produce results. But my process is very messy, mentally. Scribbles, doodles, practice drawings, real work turning back into another practice sketch. Radio silence for months, and then a random gust of work. When I open my mind to work, a chaotic flow comes out. So much is going on around it in the process, thoughts are going wild. It is my job as the artist to sift through the chaos and find the art, or simply to make sense of the scribbles.

My process, in most everything I do, produces a lot of mess. I definitely become a little tornado when I am deep in my work, hair or art. So while my space looks unkept or untidy, my brain is just dumping out information for me to translate into something worthy with my hands. I definitely give type-A personalities a little panicked pause.

But non-creatives, respect the process. Not everyone is as chaotic as I can be. But trust the process. A creative’s mind works so differently, so respect the difference. And be patient with the creatives in your life. They see, hear and feel things not everyone does. And it takes time to translate it into something everyone else can enjoy or understand. So make sure to give the space to your creatives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rebelhaircompany.com
• Instagram: @dina_hairstylist and @dindincartoons
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Cucumber-Dina-Karim/dp/B0CCCS8SQB

Image Credits

Studio photos-Tara Droz Photography