We were lucky to catch up with Leah Norris recently and have shared our conversation below.
Leah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
My career has been full of risks since the beginning. Which is funny thinking about it now since I initially enrolled in beauty school because my dad offered to pay for me to go. My original life plan was to go to beauty school right after graduating high school and learn the trade. Then work in some chain salon for a stable income while resuming my studies for a BA or higher in music education. Obviously things did not go as planned. I ended up really loving hair and how it sparked my creativity more than music ever did. It also allowed me the opportunity to connect with people, which is something I’ve struggled with my entire life until I started my cosmetology career. Another thing that didn’t go as planned was I unfortunately didn’t have my tuition paid for after all. I paid my own way with savings and working retail on my non-school days.
I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but my first risk was working at my parents salon in the small town I grew up in, 30 miles away from where I went to beauty school. This meant I had no clients. I also unfortunately was not educated at school on how to run a business and my parents don’t have experience running successful beauty businesses either so I basically had to figure everything out on my own. Sadly since the salon wasn’t successful, I not only had to start from scratch straight out of school with no mentor, but I also inherited the terrible reputation the salon had for hair, thanks to previous stylists that worked at our salon years before I even graduated beauty school.
For 3 years I worked at my parents salon. Undoing the horrible reputation by doing my best with every client in my chair. I learned a lot about beauty business the hard way, such as how much inventory is too much inventory, how not setting up policies from the start invites terrible clients to your chair, and how starting your prices super low kills your business before it even starts. Even though I had a rough start, I was making a decent living in 2020 and 2021 despite the pandemic. At that point, I felt like I was finally ready to take on more responsibility and rent out the other spaces in the salon. Sadly, my father went back on another one of his promises. This along with other issues I had with our relationship at the time, was the final straw and I left Los Lunas behind and moved to Albuquerque. It was time for me to work for my own dream, not anyone else’s.
I found a suite in Albuquerque to work out of. This was unfortunately the most expensive risk. I realized how low my prices were compared to my overhead costs. I ended up stuck at a crossroad. My options were to
1: continue to work as I have been in hopes my Los Lunas clientele will stick around
2: increase my prices to be more attractive to potential new clientele
or 3: start over completely as a commission stylist.
I chose 3. So I found a decent, legal (w2) stylist position at an upscale salon, sold and gave away my inventory and equipment, completely starting over. For the first few months I was reasonably happy there. My rate was set at $80/hr and I was making more money behind the chair than ever. But I quickly realized that wasn’t enough to be happy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t connect with any of my coworkers. Sure we were cordial, but I felt so excluded because they were all friends with each other. I thought at first is was because I was new, but when newer stylists were welcomed into the fold, it solidified my suspicion that I wasn’t well liked. I got to the point where I accepted the isolation and just kept on. While I was still allowed to, I did creative color models to expand my portfolio in hopes of attracting more of my own clientele instead of the general type of clients the salon attracted. When I was no longer allowed to take models, I ventured into coloring wigs as a creative outlet. As a result I began to draw brand attention to my work. I placed 4th in an international wig competition, and my work was shared multiple times by hair color companies and publications, None of these were paid of course, but at the time I was just happy I was wasn’t as invisible in the hair world as I felt at my salon.
In summer of 2022, I was nominated for the prestigious OneShot Hair Awards. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was not only the one nominee from New Mexico that year, but the very first from New Mexico in the competition’s history. When I found this out, I was ecstatic. Sadly, my salon, particularly my boss, was less than impressed. I eventually placed as a finalist and this was when I was starting to get an idea of how toxic an unsupportive environment is. As a finalist, I had to get votes in order to win. Thankfully I had a few friends outside of hair, my clients and my husband who were supportive and excited for me and shared the voting link. My salon of course did not. Despite this, I was still proud of my achievement and wanted to properly celebrate. So I travelled alone to Orlando, FL for the award show.
At the show, I for the first time felt like I truly belonged. Strangers that have known me for 5 minutes were nicer to me than my coworkers ever were. I’m friends with said strangers to this day. My time there was bittersweet. I fully realized what all I have been missing out on. And how I once again was wasting my time with people that didn’t appreciate me. So I snapped. I went on a rant on my Instagram story about how unsupported I felt in the hair industry back home and how my experiences at the show so far made me realize that I deserve so much more. Not only for my nomination, but for all the extra and unpaid work I did for the salon and my small wins leading up to this point. Though my teary eyed rant only had 20 views, it was ultimately the risk that changed the course of my career.
At the end of the award show, I ended up placing Top 5 in Creative Color and Top 100 in Unconventional Color. I went home feeling like a winner but also feeling uneasy about my career at the salon. When I returned to the salon, you could cut the tension with a knife. That week I went back and forth with the manager and my boss about how what I said on my instagram story shifted the energy and culture at the salon. Though I didn’t call anyone out specifically, most everyone was hurt by what I said. In the end, I apologized for risking the salon reputation and my boss apologized for curating an unsupportive work environment. We both agreed the salon needed a culture reset and surprisingly still wanted me to stay. Which I did, trustingly waiting for her to set up the salon meeting in hopes to clean up the mess I made. Weeks went on and I realized that meeting we talked about wasn’t going to happen. I tried to find another salon to work at but there were only few legally run commission salons at the time, and the one that seemed to align with my clientele thought I worked too slow and didn’t want to hire me. Freelance was my only option.
After being officially let go, I took a two month hiatus from hair. During which I was able to take everything I learned over the years and turn it into a career I genuinely enjoy. I knew it was going to take time to rebuild my clientele while specializing, but the biggest lesson I learned in life and career is good things take time. During this time, I finally got to meet my friend Natalie in person after being instagram friends for years. Though I lost my job at that other salon, I created many connections with my one public moment of raw emotion and transparency. My friendship with Natalie grew and I have now been working with her at Libre Hair Studio for 2 years now. in this time I’ve acquired many more accolades, including winning my first hair award at The Rainbow Convention. I also have more beautiful friendships with other stylists in and outside Libre Hair Studio.
In conclusion, my risk to go into business with my parents led me to take the risk to pursue a better career. My better career taught me my worth and made me realize what I actually want, leading me to finally building my dream career as a vivid hair specialist and a leader in my local hair industry with a goal to influence systemic and cultural change.
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 mom is a nail tech so I basically grew up in the beauty industry. I got to see first hand all the ways in which the industry was lacking before even starting beauty school. The funny thing is it’s the lack of professionalism and structure that made me not want to be a hairstylist in the first place. But it’s now the thing that drives me because my experiences have shown me why those problems exist.
I find what sets me apart is being the change I want to see in my industry, especially now that the hair industry is under attack nearly every day on social media as a result of hairstylists neglecting their clients in ways that may have been acceptable 10+ years ago, but not now. Now hair trends demand a more luxury and professional experience. So being a double/triple booked stylist that lets their clients leave with wet hair is not up to acceptable anymore.
As someone that started their hair career before this shift in expectations, Despite the criticism I received from other hairstylists, I stepped up before it was the new standard. I never double booked as I want my clients to have a customized and unrushed experience. I was always at work on time, but on the rare occasion I wasn’t, I gave my client a discount for the inconvenience. I charge a fair rate for the quality of work I provide to my clients but also properly compensates me for my time and skill. I educate my clients on colors and techniques that fit their lifestyle and budget. My clients appreciate the amount of time I spend to make sure they leave the salon happy. My clients know that if I ever make a mistake that I will fix it instead of wait for them to find out later, or if I accidentally underquote an appointment that they wont be sticker-shocked with a price they weren’t prepared to pay. I created a website for my salon to be transparent, informative and to automate the booking process. All this plus doing beautiful, colorful hair. I also never stopped learning. Even as a seasoned hairstylist of 6 years, I still take models for new techniques so my skills stay sharp (pun intended).
This all may seem like things every hairstylist should be doing, but unfortunately it’s not the reality. Even when I was working in an “upscale” salon two years ago, I watched coworkers leave clients alone under the heat lamp for 20+ minutes (which is dangerous btw) while they go gossip in the breakroom, making potential clients wait days or even weeks before returning texts to book, scheduling clients back to back and rushing their experience etc.
As for my reputation with my local hair community, it started with being the first in my state to be nominated for the OneShot Hair Awards and continued as I support other stylists that have gotten nominated since then and being the first and sometimes only “competitor” to support other professionals in my community. Since my first nomination in 2022 I realized how grossly competitive my local hair industry is. Because of my experience with lack of local support from my peers, it has been my mission to never let anyone feel as alone as I did. In October 2024, I decided to launch an instagram account just for the New Mexico hair community: @505hairstylists. There stylists can collaborate posts and share their work with their local peers, pros and students have immediate access to lists of salons currently hiring or local classes available, and I have a safe platform I can spread awareness of the ugly side of our local beauty industry. I unfortunately found out recently that if you do that on the local stylist forum on facebook, the post gets removed for “negativity.”
For both my clients and fellow professionals, I’ve built a personal brand based on transparency, humility, support, and ingenuity. My goal is to improve the beauty industry for both clients and hairstylists alike.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Even though the common occupation of a licensed cosmetologist is hairdressing or nails, there are endless possibilities. In my 6 years as a licensed cosmetologist, I’ve explored many of those possibilities. I’ve worked at a professional beauty supply store, was an examiner for the state board practical, and currently I manage the spa at an optometry clinic alongside doing hair. Doing both simultaneously has allowed me to have a balanced career of both stability and creative freedom. Sure, I could do what most hairstylists do in my area and offer many different types of hair services, but I found that to be very mentally taxing. When hair was the only thing I did, I was too exhausted to be creative and it sucked the fun of hairdressing for me. Plus, the hair industry is still so systematically underdeveloped, there was no way I could have the means to afford private health insurance and save for retirement. Now that I’ve hybridized my career, I have the stability of a healthcare worker and therefor the freedom to specialize in my hair career.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
In both the times I started and restarted my business, I had a second income and savings to get the ball rolling. In these times of uncertainty post COVID, I still have another job on top of building my hair business. When starting a business in a nonessential industry such as hair, it’s important to be realistic with whats currently happening economically and how it will affect your income since nonessential service trades rely on the average consumer’s disposable income. I know many beauty professionals that have a (mostly) stable income, but they also had to work 5+ years in the same city to achieve that. If you have to relocate or take a long break (like for maternity leave), you will likely have to start over again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.librehairstudio.com/leah
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahmhair
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leahmhair
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/505hairstylists/
Image Credits
Desert Soul Photography, The Rainbow Convention