We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Holly Vatter . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Holly below.

Holly , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I should have always known I would have one day be cutting hair . Ironically I Grew up in a religious cult where all of the girls and women were not allowed to cut our hair. None of us owned televisions , but we did have movie nights where we would watch older classic films . I grew up running around in the N.W. woods , reading books and drawing faces with hairstyles and the outfits I saw in the vintage films we watched . I also began to cut my Barbie’s hair into bobs whenever my grandma bought me one . .

Later after the cult began to unravel and my patents left with me and my sister, we began to assimilate into the modern world , I became obsessed with fashion & hairstyles and my mom would help me alter clothes we bought at Goodwill into quirky ideas I had drawn .
We were considerably poor but my sweet parents treated me to my first professional haircut at one of those strip mall chain salons.
As fate would have it , the available stylist who could take me as a walk in was a cool French lady who had only recently moved to the U.S. She had curly hair like me but her hair was cut in a bob. I was smitten and told her I wanted a cut like hers .
An hour later I was transformed . I was a new person . The impact it made was indescribable, like I had been freed from my old self and anything was possible. This opened the door to so much including an inner knowing that I was going to do something artistic and creative with my life , and for me that manifested through sculpting hair and empowering my clients the way I had been. .

Holly , 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?

After I graduated from cosmology school, I landed a two year apprenticeship learning under a former Vidal Sassoon Master stylist and learned to cut by watching him all day and then cutting models with him . Several years later I began training at Bumble and Bumble in New York to learn the unique and often misunderstood craft of razor cutting . I enjoying blending the precision architectural techniques of Vidal Sassoon scissor cuts with the more organic free form method of razor sculpting .

My brand was born from my love of vintage , film , fashion and music icons as well as my other love of watching modern street fashion and music trends and how iconic hairstyles are influenced by all of this , evolving and re-emerging throughout the decades .

My goal is never to put a specific hairstyle on any individual, but to find the individuality of the person I’m working with creating a unique look just for them .

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I wish I could say building my social media page came easily and that I have a secret formula to share that is guaranteed to get instant followers . Honestly ,I’m not very versed in tech and I still don’t really understand what an algorithm is and I only have an abstract understanding of the purpose it serves . What I do know is this : Formulas do not work . Buying followers does not work . Doing everything according to the latest posting rules data do not work Copying other people does not work . These things may seem to work temporarily but they all fall short eventually , and won’t bring you what you really want , which is real people and engagement , and business .
The one thing I’ve learned that works , is authenticity . The more you are yourself and put out what you want to see , what you believe in and stay true to yourself and your unique style or niche the right people will find you .
Being myself and following my intuition as far as what and when to post is the one thing that has consistently steadily grown my followers and brought me my dream clients .
I may not have blown up overnight but I’’m busy creating with clients I enjoy working on and I have a steady stream of educational and other collaborative opportunities. I am excited about as well . I’ve attracted the people I want to work with for the most part by letting what makes me different and unique stand out . I don’t need all the people , just the ones that are right for me.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I moved to Los Angeles eight years ago from Seattle . I had no connections and although I had experience , unique skills and a portfolio , I could not get hired as a master stylist at any of the salons I really wanted to work at because I lacked social media presence . I was so discouraged but I had no choice other that to give up and go back to Seattle or to start from scratch and work my ass off .

I flew back and forth from Seattle taking care of my Seattle clients to pay the bills , couch surfing to save money on hotels and working a second job at a neighborhood salon.taking whoever I could get . In my free time , I made friends with people out and about at coffee shops, bars and the checkers at the store , several of whom became my “ house models “ and by that I mean I literally cut them at home on my off hours for free in exchange for allowing me to take photos to build my brand . I did this for several years . Until I was way too busy here in L.A. to fly back on a regular basis to take care of Seattle clients . It was an exhausting few years but so rewarding exciting to watch everything shift and come to fruition. It turned out I didn’t need to work for anyone but myself .

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/hollygirldoeshairla?fbclid=IwAR1f_1HTQwBu_i1aRhUA57OcG6RkccXxY1QLlTE_DpmC3PArJEkA8Txd8dE
• Instagram: @hollygirldoeshair