We recently connected with JESSICA ELDREDGE and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, JESSICA thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I am definitely happy being a creative but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I had a regular 9-5 job sometimes. With everything I think there are pros and cons and the pros to being a creative is that I fully have freedom with hair or florals to create something that i want to express. I think I do wonder what a regular job would look like when i think about paid vacations, weekends off, or even certain holidays off. In my fields, I don’t have any of those usually so it’d be nice to have a more set schedule.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My first love is hair. I actually was looking into a school for makeup but only because it seemed like the closest thing to what I could envision myself to happily do looking out 10 years from then. I knew nothing about makeup but figured I’d just pass my time there and get a job and just do life like the average person but my mom pushed me one day to look into hair school. I was so against it because I couldn’t imagine touching other people’s hair and coming from an asian background, it wasn’t exactly a complimented job by my elders or peers. Despite all that, I gave in and decided to just stick through hair school and was totally unmotivated. The first two weeks we had stateboard classes and it was absolute hell but on the 3rd week we had our first women’s haircutting class and I remember just being so impressed and at how much thought went into cutting hair. MY teacher at the time gave us our first haircut demo and I was blown away. 9 years later, I’m still refining my craft as a hairdresser and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

During the pandemic, I couldn’t work at all and was going through a bit of a slump because of it. One day when the stay at home mandate was lifted, a friend of mine who does photography for fun asked to do a shoot with me, I came across the Los Angeles Flower Market. I never was a real flower girl but that day I had so much learning new flowers that I didn’t even know existed. We created a simple bouquet of flowers for the shoot and when the photos came out so many people asked me where I got them from. I told them I made it and inquiries started coming and the rest is history. I now work as a wedding florist, mostly freelancing for an amazing woman and mentor and get to live the best of both worlds creating hairstyles for people and flowers for someone’s dream day.

I think the past almost 10 years of my journey working as a creative has been super difficult mentally and emotionally but also so rewarding because both my hair and florals intertwine and blend so perfectly.

I envision my brand as a creative to solidify within the next few years by fully going into the wedding scene as a umbrella of bridal hair and wedding florals in the latter LA area. My hair ‘brand’ doesn’t have a set name but most people know me as JKE Studio Hair and my floral company is called Hyangki Florals. Hyangki means scent in Korean and I wanted a name that symbolized a happy feeling you get when you smell flowers from loved ones etc.

Under this umbrella of creative work, I’d also like to get into teaching hair to educate other hairstylists and clients about their hair and what hairstyles can fit not just their aesthetic vision but lifestyle.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I wouldn’t say it’s a particular goal but I do want to create hairstyles for people so that they can learn to enjoy the natural texture of their hair in their daily lifestyle routine. I also want to help clients be able to work their hair more easily without struggles.

As for florals, I just want to create core memories for people. I want people to look at my floral work and feel inspired to also create.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I never feel like I’ve built an audience but I do feel like through many trials and errors I’ve curated a small audience of people who have similar style to me. To those who are just starting out I would say plan a whole week’s worth of content by rotating the type of content (monday reel, tuesday inspirational story, etc) and then just stick to it every day.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jke.studio.hair/.
• Other: floral instagram link – https://instagram.com/hyangki.florals?igshid=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Image Credits
Haven Kim, Rachel Artime, Madison Truscan, Sunmin Park