Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katie Novak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

“Creating a safe space to let the artistry flow, while being true to yourself behind the chair and in everyday life.” -Kolor Nook’s Mission

This mission statement is not just a sentence. This is a lifestyle, I have worked on creating for years into myself and my business.

We can all struggle with finding our own identity in a creative space like a salon. We are taught to do things a certain way and preform services to the customers satisfaction.
Being creative has no limits, but can be difficult to express when the freedom to explore and learn different methods feel unreachable at times.

I personally went on a big growth and learning journey with myself starting 2018. I left the old ways of hair dressing and a toxic lifestyle to take a chance on myself. This was not easy. I thought I would struggle with the ability to do this on my own professionally.
What I found out was that the journey starts with ME. My skills were there, my eager to learn was there and my creativity in my work was showing.
What needed the most work was my confidents and understanding that I was enough and I am great at what I do. This took about 2 years of self growth. As I built confidents in myself and my business opportunities started presenting themselves.
Then life took a turn and the pandemic hit our industry just like many others and everything that we knew had quickly changed. During this time I also was going through having multiple surgeries for preventative care because of a Cancer Gene Mutation BRCA2 that I carry. While the pandemic was hard, it was even harder to put my business aside and focus on my physicals and mental health. I took this as opportunity to continue my personal growth and build that confidence back up.
Going back to my mission statement.
“Creating a safe space to let the artistry flow, while being true to yourself behind the chair and in everyday life.”
Means that we are all going through our own journey’s. I want to provide a safe space for stylist to be creative and clients to be able to feel that comfortability and confidence.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi! My name is Katie Novak and I’ve been a license cosmetologist since 2009. I first started at the age of 16 working as a receptionist at a local salon. I would say I had a natural pull to the beauty industry even though I grew up as a very sporty girl. Right after graduating high school I thought I was going to go to college and take on an accounting degree. I loved numbers and business. I had no clue my future would actually in tale me owning and operating my own business. Instead of following through with an accounting degree I decided to go to cosmetology school and see if this was for me. I remember convincing my friends and family to come in so I could do there hair for free just to get the practice.
I can definitely say I’m a go getter and try to push myself where opportunities present themselves.
Between 2009-2017 I put in so much work creating the foundation of my craft.
One day in 2016 I had a client come in and ask for a new hair color technique that was very popular at the time called “Ombre”. Not only did she want this new technique but she wanted it from black into white/silver hair.
Most hairstylists would run! We didn’t have the education around this technique yet and it could all go very wrong.
I looked at this as a chance to be creative and test my skills. Once I was done everyone was so impressed including the client. It was at that moment I new it was time for me to work on other skills and really start fine tuning my talent with hair color.
I started following an artist called “Guy Tang” on You Tube who had amazing education for hair color. His education is what honestly makes me a great hair stylist to this day. Once 2018 hit I felt like it was time to go on my own and see if I had what it takes. I had built a solid clientele and started taking hair classes and learning as much as I could.
I went into a salon suite by myself based here in Orlando Florida and started working on my social media content and photography. This was long before “tiktok, influencer’s and content creating” was popular. After a few months of really putting in work on social media my page and brand was growing. Then in April 2018 I got an amazing opportunity to be apart of a hair company called “Olaplex” and my life would never be the same. This brand was new technology and patented technology that aloud hairstylist the ability to push there creative work even further while keeping the integrity of the hair. I started teaching classes through their platform for “Monday Masterclass” and had more opportunities to be on bigger platforms.
During the 5 years in my salon suite I experimented with creative hair coloring and hair extensions.
Rainbow mow hawks, beautiful natural balayages, long hair extensions and even gray coverage.
After 5 years in a salon suite by myself I decided it was the time to make the leap into salon ownership.
Opening “Kolor Nook” in February 2023. Now 7 months later I’m almost done working on the foundation of my image and can’t wait to share my space with talented hair artist and providing amazing education.

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

In August of 2019 I under went a preventative double mastectomy because of family history and carrying the BRCA 2 cancer gene mutation. Being a hairstylist can be a physical job that in tales using your whole body. I had to put my career aside and focus on my own health. I was a independent stylist in a salon suite who had a full book 4-5 days a week. I knew I was going to have to pivot my business to be able to shut my doors for 6-8 weeks and still stay current with clients and social media.
During this time I was so lucky to have the support of my loving husband Austin who stood by my side throughout it all.
He even washed my hair for me when I couldn’t.
The fear of things not healing right or something going wrong that would not allow me to return to my passion is a daunting feeling.
I was fortunate to have loyal clients who waited for me to return and had tons of support from fellow hairstylist who let me use their suites while I was getting back on my feet and doing hair slowly.
I did put my career first and got back to work to soon and ended up hurting myself and needing other surgery to repair what had happen.
Having a passion and loving your career can seem like your world but throughout all of this I realized that if I wasn’t healthy I wouldn’t be able to preform my job for the long term. Fast forward to February 2020 I had my final reconstruction surgery and thought everything was going to be okay. Then March 2020 happened and we all went into lock down.
Another time to pivot my business plan. I was just getting ready to get back to work in a brand new salon suite and catch up on all my clients. I thought what am I going to do. Just how most people felt. I started selling retail online to my clients and shipping it to them. Then I thought this was the perfect time to work on education and refreshing my skills. I went virtual like most people with a business did.
I got some mannequin heads and got right to work creating art and creating “TikToks”. This honesty was the moment I knew I needed to create a new image for myself and my business. I was healthy and doing great and it was time to focus of teaching and creating content and adapt to the new world around us.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media has become such a house hold word. We all use it everyday whether you are posting or just viewing. As a small business owner and a artist having a social media is a necessity. Building a following on social media can be so hard and having to adapt to the changes on each platform can be exhausting. At first we all want to have thousands of followers and have great engagement but that isn’t realistic. One thing I did that helped me create a following that I still do to this day is searching hashtags and seeing who has recently post and spam their content with love. For example searching “pink hair” and seeing recent post from hairstylist who may not have a huge following and supporting there work.
9/10 times we would end up following each other. You can’t tell me that isn’t a confidence boost to support a fellow business owner and artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kolornook.com
• Instagram: @KatieNovak_hair
• Facebook: Kolor Nook Hair Salon
• TikTok: @KatieNovak_hair