We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Saul a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I grew up in Augusta Georgia. My mother used to have her hair done weekly at a salon in a woman’s apartment down the street from our house . The woman’s name was Lila. We would walk down the street to Lila’s . The moment I walked into the room I felt excited. The room was crowded with women sitting around having their hair done. They had an old fashioned red Coca-Cola cooler in the corner of the room and they gave me a bottled coke to drink from it. I sat in the corner , happily sipping from the bottle watching and listening to everyone in the room. A few times after that I rode my tricycle to Lila’s alone and they generously offered me a place in the corner of the room to sip and observe the creativity going on in the room. It was an era of beehives and backcombed bobs.i was inspired by this and told my brothers I wanted to be a beautician when I grew up.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Even though I wanted to be a hairstylist, my parents pushed me to go to college and get a degree. In high school , My mother would let me drive her 240z car if I dropped her at work and picked her up at the end of her shift in the local hospital. She was the infection control nurse of the hospital and her office was next door to the hospital laboratory. So I’d sit and wait for her in the lab. It seemed interesting to me to watch the med techs using pipettes, measuring blood and body fluid samples and then testing them in machines . I decided I would study this in college as it looked like an interesting career.
After receiving my degree, I worked in various aspects of medical technology:
1. Open heart surgery testing blood gases
2. Toxicology testing drug levels in the body
3. Special chemistry performing specialized testing such as determining from amniotic fluid if a baby could be born early
4 cell blood counts to determine overall health and disease
This was an interesting job but I still really had an inner pull to be a hairdresser. I worked in the hospital during the day and went to hair school at night .
Finally graduating hair school , I quit my job in the hospital and began building my clientele as a hairstylist.
Fast forward 1990, working in a salon and teaching haircolor across the USA , I started to develop rashes in my hands from haircolor exposure.
I became pregnant and wondered if I’m getting rashes from haircolor, how is it affecting my unborn child?
When my son was nine months old I opened my salon with intention of being nontoxic .
EcoColors salon offers expert haircolor applications , creative hair cutting in a relaxed nontoxic atmosphere .i also create pottery and jewelry and sell them in the salon.
If you’re a creative person you know that we have a need to get In creative flow ..

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think everyone has the potential to find their creative flow. For me, it’s a feeling that comes easily because I started taking art lessons as a child.( painting and pottery). But creative flow can come in many ways. Cooking a meal, listening to music that moves you, dance, writing, doodling. What I find is that in order for me to be creative, I have to clear my mind of thought and let the flow happen.
And their are no mistakes because if I have a preconceived notion of how things should be, and a “mistake “ happens, it’s an unexpected journey to something that often turns out better than I ever imagined.
For example in pottery if a form deviates and buldges or twists on one side on the wheel it invites me to think of the form differently instead of a perfectly symmetrical form. It’s amazing how I can be making a cup, and it turns into an amazing creative piece with twists and indentations that fit the hand perfectly .
Art is a microcosm of life and it teaches you to go with the flow.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I’ve had the opportunity to take many classes from some amazing teachers. Find an art school in your neighborhood and try a few classes. It doesn’t mean you have to be a professional artist .art can be therapy and It’s a chance to be around other people who are also churning up creative energy. You can learn from watching them , from your teacher and from your inner flow. Art teaches you to let go of your inner critic , and opens doors to other aspects of yourself. In the Roswell Georgia area check out Roswell center West for pottery classes and in Atlanta
check out Callanwolde , a school of many forms of art. I’ve taken painting and pottery classes there..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ecocolorssalon.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/itsaulcreative
• Other: Ecocolors.net Haircolorfromplants.com Instagram.com/ecocolorssalon