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

Kayleigh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, folks often look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight – but that often obscures all the nitty, gritty details of everything that went into the growth phase of your business. We’d love to hear about your scaling story and how you scaled up?

This is a vastly loaded question I feel like, haha. Truly, everyday in this industry I’m still “scaling up”. Honestly, I still wouldn’t even say that today I’m actually where I would want to be. With that being said, I am far from where I had started. I’m not even going to lie, in the beginning I had no strategies nor tactics. I knew this is what I wanted to do but I was making everything up along the way. Yes, I absolutely was guided on how to do something’s, but until I personally found my “groove” I felt very, spacey if you will. I would say one of my strategies now is just being me and not who i thought I needed to be for people to like me. Of course everyone gets treated with respect but I like to think of services providers almost like finding friends or dating, sometimes you click really well with certain individuals and sometimes you don’t and that’s absolutely okay.

I think a big meaningful moment for me was in the beginning and I was doubting myself constantly and other individuals around me could sense that and it was one of those almost slap in the face moments where I was like, I really need to get my stuff together because being a downer everyday is not what I’m meant to be here for.

Oh gosh, twists, turns, obstacles and mistakes I’ve made along the way.. where do I even begin?! In my opinion one of the hardest things in my industry I’m going to say is social media. In everyday life social media is a comparison battle, let alone in a wildly large beauty industry. And that’s not to say that others are trying to make you feel bad, that’s our own personal competitiveness that we put on ourselves while scrolling social media seeing follower numbers on certain pages, how many likes a posts get, how much interaction is your platform getting. Social media was not a big thing when I started my career. So to start using it more as a tool vs strictly socials was kind of a big turn for me personally. I think one of the biggest obstacles I face is learning when to turn “work mode” off, or finding a balance. I’ve been doing a lot better with this, but starting out, you are the “yes” person in this field. That can also cause yourself in the long run to maybe run yourself thin and not finding a time to truly take care of yourself. If you aren’t 100%, you’re not going to give your clients 100% either. Im going to have to say setting boundaries is when this gets dicey. That doesn’t mean being rude or anything, but its okay if you schedule yourself a lunch to sit down and eat an actual meal or its okay that you don’t respond to texts after 9pm and do so in the morning instead. I’ll wrap this section up with what I think one of my mistakes is, and that’s not taking myself seriously from the beginning. Which I know sounds weird, but it truly took me years to believe that I am worth my time and money in my career.

Kayleigh, 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?

My name is Kayleigh Dwyer, I’m from Huber Heights, Ohio. I currently live in Columbus, Ohio and I’ve been in the industry for almost a decade now. I wouldn’t say this was my first career choice but it definitely was always in the back of my mind. I used to do competitive dance when I was younger so when it came to be my senior year of high school everyone obviously was deciding what they were going to do with their lives. I hadn’t quite figured mine out yet but I actually didn’t have college on my radar. With that being said, I was told that I should try out for a college dance team. I applied to Wright State, got accepted and tried out for the dance team (even though deep down I actually didn’t want to make the team). I didn’t have a major reason as to why I didn’t want to be on the team, I just felt like senior year is where my dance career ended. I ended up trying out, I had to miss the last day of tryouts and in the end I didn’t make the dance team. All was said and done, probably the best thing for me. I went to study psychology, while I still love learning about psychology – I wanted to be a developmental psychologist focusing on children and adolescents. I VERY quickly learned that I might not be strong enough for that career choice. I took a gap year, worked almost daily – multiple jobs trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be. I loved everything about the beauty industry, especially being in the performing field growing up with the makeup, the hair, the costumes. I looked into a cosmetology school in Columbus, Ohio and decided to move there and go to school and start a career in the beauty industry.

I work at a Davines based salon, which was founded in Parma, Italy. They are known for being more sustainable and organic, environmentally safe etc. I provide color, cutting, hand tied extensions and smoothing treatment services. I would say I specialize in foiling and long hair. I have always said this that my clients come to me with their “problems” and I always do my best to try and find ways to help them solve it. Whether that may be with a different hair product, different way of coloring their hair, cutting their hair differently, adding length and density with extensions, helping tame with Keratin treatments. If they need a listening ear I’m good for that also!

I feel as if what sets me apart is that at the end of the day, I want my clients to feel safe with me. I want them to feel as comfortable as I do at the salon. I want them to know that I’m willing to help where I’m able to help. What I’m most proud of would be me. I have had so many things that could have gotten in my way to make me a not so nice person and I feel as if that I’m realistic and kindhearted. Sarcastic is also definitely a big one, I would say that I am very sarcastic and I love a good pun :). Also, dad jokes are some of my favorite things as well. Along with some dry and dark humor, haha. Ending with my work, I’m going to say that whatever I do to any of my clients hair, I want to make sure at the end of the day that the integrity and health of whatever service I am providing is coming before anything. I will gladly say no to a service that I don’t think a person may not be able to handle.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I had mentioned this earlier and I feel a little contradicting but when it comes to the creative field, of any sort, I don’t feel like there’s a time when work isn’t in the back of your mind. Now, I am not a full time content creator, but I do make content for my industry specifically and that is almost never ending. Even something as silly as styling my hair a new way and I’m thinking to myself like, “oh, I should’ve really recorded that to show people how easy they can do this at home.” Something, in my opinion if I wasn’t in this industry I wouldn’t think twice about something as small as that. Or, maybe some clients look to you for fashion advice and you have found something for a really good deal and thinking that should be an instagram story so you don’t gate-keep. Your phone may become your best friend and your worst enemy! Ha

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I know this is going to sound cliche, but just making people feel good about themselves. That could honestly be just from having a conversation with them or how they feel about their hair afterwards. Another rewarding aspect, I truly have loved meeting people from all different walks of life and learning about them and their lives. Which might sound weird, but I love learning about different cultures and I’m grateful for the fact that people feel comfortable enough to talk to me about it in my chair. I have traveled from NYC to Chicago all the to Italy because of my career and that is beyond rewarding to also see other creatives in this world shine and share their creativity.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Kayleighdwyer_hair
• Facebook: Kayleigh Dwyer