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

Jessica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

With season changing there are always new trends. Right now what I’ve been seeing are my blondes wanting more dimension, brighter blonde but adding lowlights. Also copper, reds and deeper browns. Lived in with a lot of dimension. As for haircuts, my clients are loving longer hair with a lot of face framing. Shag/butterfly/ layering (whatever you wish to call it) is really big right now. Extensions are huge right now too! They can add volume, length and color!

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 client was my Barbie doll. Then it was any doll with hair and when their hair didn’t grow back I started on myself. I had a hairstylist tell me they’d have to shave my head if I kept cutting my own hair. She scared me for a bit but I eventually started cutting and then coloring my own hair. I’d talk my friends into letting me do their hair, telling them what would look good on them. Any time I would go get my hair done I was never happy. So I decided I’d go to Cosmetology school. My mom did not want me to go. She wanted me to be an accountant and make money. She talked me out of it for about 4 years. I finally signed up paid and then called her and told her I was starting. My very first day everyone in the class said their Moms all wanted them to do anything else other than hair because hairstylists didn’t make money. I knew I found my people just from that!
After graduation I worked behind the chair and then eventually started teaching at my old cosmetology school. After a couple of years I decided I wanted to go on a grander scale and started educating with a large color/product line. I was able to travel and learn next to some of the top educators in our industry as well as work on stage and backstage at hair shows. After a couple of different salons and taking a break from doing hair I am now in my own suite.
I’ve been able to work on video/photo shoots, tv shows, award shows, tons of weddings, travel all over the country, work with celebs, country music artists, influencers and built an amazing clientele.
I’ve been doing a lot of education and specializing in extensions and blondes lately. I really enjoy styling as well as all coloring. Not just blondes. But I do offer everything in my salon. My goals for my clients are to have healthy beautiful hair. I hope they leave feeling confident and know how to take care of their hair and have all their questions answered.
I think in the future other than growing my business and social medias I’d like to offer classes on how to curl, braid and style your hair.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth. My clients are seriously amazing! They talk about me to everyone. I get messages all of the time about how they heard of me from a friend. That is honestly the best compliment you could ever get. They liked your work so much they asked who did it and reached out to get you to do the same.

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

Like any artist hairstylists have to feel creative. You have to love what you do and feel a passion for it. At one point in my career I lost all of my passion and creativity. I had to step back from doing hair. I took about a year off. In that time I felt like something was missing. Like I was left out of something. I had a friend who knew how much I loved hair sat down and talked with me. She told me I needed to get back into it and told me about a salon that I should look into. I slowly looked into it. Spoke with the owner and finally emerged myself back into hair. I felt like I hadn’t missed a day let alone a year. I was able to take the time away I needed to regroup, rebrand and restructure and come back stronger than ever. I believe it was something I needed to do to help my business now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jsalon.glossgenius.com/services
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jess.knoll?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=