We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily “Emmy” Slager a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Emily “Emmy”, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

In hindsight, yes, I absolutely wish I would have pursued this career sooner. I truly believe this is what I’ve always been meant to do, but it took awhile for me to stop doubting myself and to go after it.

I spent a lot of my twenties jumping around from job to job, trying to make one of them fit. I also spent a lot of those years struggling with OCD and anxiety. I only decided to go back to school after a broken engagement and a bit of a quarter life crisis. I just wasn’t the best version of myself during that period of my life, and it has taken a lot of time, work and life experience for me to begin trusting myself and truly going after what I have always known I wanted. Although I have regrets, I do think that those years and experiences were of some value and have made me more sure of the path that I am on now.

I will say this as well, the beauty industry can be tough at times and it is important to have a strong sense of self and very thick skin, so it may have been more difficult had I started at a younger age, and who knows, I may have not stayed the course. So ultimately, starting when I did did have its advantages.

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

I’ve known that I wanted to be a hairstylist since I was twelve years old, but I didn’t actually go to beauty school until I was in my late twenties. I’ve always been a creative at heart, but cultivating a career path based upon that wasn’t very well received by my parents or others around me. When I finally did go to beauty school, I knew that I wanted to be more than just a stylist, so I combined my lifelong love of writing with my passion for the industry and launched hairbyemmy.com. The goal was for it to be a creative space where I could share my work as well as create some content apart from more traditional social media platforms. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with a few different beauty brands, sharing products that I love and stand behind. I like to think of my website and social media platforms as a way to reach people who I don’t see in my chair, kind of like a virtual chair, if you will. That’s why I refer to myself as a stylist + beauty resource. I’m so fortunate to finally get to do what I love every day, and even though it took awhile, it’s so cool to see so many dreams recognized and so many parts of my life come full circle.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Creating soft and effortless looks for women while instilling confidence has always been the goal. I want women to exist in this world as the best version of themselves, and helping them achieve that is really exciting. My main focus and education has really been centered on blonding and extensions services from the beginning, but at the end of the day, I just want to be a safe space for women to come to to not only look their best, but to feel their best, and in that, bring that joy and positivity to others. I think there is this idea that women in this industry, or just in general, feel a sense of competition with each other and don’t champion one another enough. I hope that I can play a small role in changing that.

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

Yes, and it came to mind almost immediately. I moved to Nashville last year kind of on a whim, I had lived there for awhile after college and really love the country music and just the overall vibe and idea of the city in general. It seemed like a natural step as a creative to relocate to a place where creativity is really celebrated. Within a few months, the reality of living in the city just didn’t live up to what I thought it would be. I wasn’t feeling great about the salon space that I was in and I missed my family, friends and the salon space that I had left behind. I think a lot of times there is this push to stay the course and finish what you have started, but I also think that sometimes the bravest thing that a person can do is to accept that they made a mistake and to take action necessary to change their situation. I knew that I wasn’t stuck and while I did feel a sense of failure and embarrassment, I’m proud of myself for being willing to pivot and grow from the experience. I am much happier living in my quiet, little beach town, but I learned so much from the experience, it was truly invaluable.

Contact Info:

• Website: hairbyemmy.com
• Instagram: @hairby.emmy
• Facebook: facebook.com/emilyslagerstylist
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/emmyslagerstylist

Image Credits
Alexandria Klochack of Alexandria Sarah Photography (beach branding photos)