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

Hind, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

The thing I heard coming up in my industry was that I was in “the beauty industry”. In school I would get points taken off my grade for not wearing makeup. My instructors in Cosmetology School told us that by 35 we should certainly have money saved up for eyelid surgery because we would need it because it’s part of the job to look good. The industry peddles the idea that we are not enough so they can sell us the fix. I don’t buy that I’m in the beauty industry. I feel like I’m in “the confidence building industry”.

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

Of course! I own The Cutting Room, an inclusive, sustainable low toxin hair salon in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. We offer craft haircuts, custom color services, hair extensions, hair replacement services as well as makeup services for all genders. We use nontoxic or low-toxin products wherever possible and recycle 95% of our waste. We have a talented and diverse team, and have several languages spoken in the salon. We have transparent, gratuity free pricing, as we believe our stylists should make a living wage without relying on tips to survive, similar to how other professionals work. This helps them build wealth when they apply for loans to buy a home or open a business of their own. We do in salon education at monthly so we can grow in our craft. Our services are gender neutral, as we do not believe hair has a gender. We also don’t buy into conventional “beauty standards”. For example, will never tell you can’t have bangs, and we will happily color and cut your hair to make you look like an anime character or a jellyfish if that is what makes you feel most confident in your skin. And we will gladly give you Sabrina Carpenter bangs and add 20 inches of extensions if that is what makes you feel great too. We have all the tricks up our sleeves.

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

A few months after I opened, my mother passed away. She got Leukemia and within a couple of weeks, she was gone. I am a single mother, I don’t have a partner, in life or in business. My mother was my person. We talked every single day. For the first year of running of my business I was in deep grief. I am still grieving if I’m honest. Whenever something good or bad happens I want to call her but I can’t. My team really came through for me at that time and held things together when I needed a bit of time off.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I came of age in a different era in hairdressing. When I was a young stylist there was a mentality that you had to pay your dues, come in early, stay late, sit around and wait for walk-ins, take any service that walked in the door, never say no, the client is alway right. There was also a bit of abuse you were expected to take from senior stylists as an assistant. Learning how to set boundaries was something that I learned late in the game, but thankfully I learned. Raising my prices, not emotionally discounting, saying no to services I don’t enjoy doing, setting business hours and actually sticking to them. I still very rarely break my own boundaries but I’ve gotten so much better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecuttingroomco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecuttingroomco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hind-haidar-966b39176/
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/0q4w-KSRWyhiYyvlg3J3-g