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

Alright, Lizzy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started cutting hair when I was 16 years-old and have always been drawn to the connection you get with the person sitting in your chair.

I believe there will always been a reason for a salon to exist because there are only a handful of places you can go to have that kind of human to human experience.

Haircutting is my vehicle for connecting with people and after half my life cutting and connecting, today I crave those two things as much as I did when I was just starting out.

I have always loved cutting men’s hair or focusing of barbering services and years ago began to think about the types of options someone could go to for that type of service.

The first option that came to mind, was a traditional salon where many times the client would be fit in between color services and not feel like they really fit in. The other option was specific to barbering services but would be a 20 minute haircut that often didn’t even come with a shampoo.

My men’s haircuts would take an hour and wondered why there wasn’t more of an experience for people to enjoy and decided to create a Tailored Experience for the person that wanted to take an hour for themselves each month. Our experience is a consultation, haircut, scalp massage/shampoo, styling & product education.

It turns out a lot of folks craved that experience because we have now seen over 15,000 customers in the last decade of being in business!

Lizzy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Bio: Hailing from Richmond, IN, Lizzy has been cutting and styling hair since the age of 16 years old, attending cosmetology school throughout her high school years. During her time at Indiana University, Lizzy found a greater love for haircutting, as she enjoyed practicing on fellow hall mates and in the process wound up turning half of her dorm room into a salon.

While still attending college, Lizzy was recruited for a job opportunity in door to door sales that would let her make enough money to move on to her next adventure in Nashville, TN. Lizzy honed in on her craft while working alongside some of the most influential and talented hair stylists at Nashville’s top Paul Mitchell Focus salon, Salon FX.

In order to further pursue her career, Lizzy decided to pack up her VW Cabrio and head west! It was then that she would become an educator at one of the country’s top Paul Mitchell Schools located in beautiful San Diego, California. Realizing that her true passion was to cut men’s hair, Lizzy made it her mission to create a company that provided an experience unlike any other in the grooming industry.

Lizzy founded Tailored Hair in 2012 in an effort to start a movement of barbers and stylists who cared about the importance of customizing a hair cutting experience for their clients just as she did. At Tailored, Lizzy and the team strive to provide the highest quality service, so that all guests walk away looking and feeling their absolute best.

Bringing 17 years of experience and enthusiasm to the table, Lizzy continues to develop Tailored Hair and the Tailored Experience for all guests who take a seat in her chair.

When Lizzy’s not at the shop, you can find her chasing her 2 year-old Son around the park and occasionally sneaking off with her husband for an Old Fashion and some delicious food (Her favorite spot is Pomegranate Russian- Georgian Restaurant)

– I am most proud of the team we have created at Tailored. We are family. I am also proud of the clients we attract. They also become family and some of our biggest mentors.

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

When I was 7 month pregnant, a decent amount of our team decided to go off on their own to start a shop. It was painful because that year we had put a lot of love into team building. We went to New Orleans, New York Fashion Week, Dallas and Mexico.

All the way up until that time I thought I was doing everything I could to make our team happy and enjoy the career at Tailored…

What I wasn’t doing is asking enough hard questions of them or myself.

I was doing so much planning for future and trips that I didn’t slow down enough to see if we all were still aligned with what we wanted.

Looking back, it was the hardest experience I’ve gone through on so many levels but from that point forward we have been more mindful with communication with current team. We have a culture of transparency and respect and it’s so cool to see evolve.

We pivoted by hiring based on our values not just skill level.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

See above question.

Contact Info:

• Website: Tailoredhair.com
• Instagram: Tailoredsd
• Facebook: TailoredSD
• Linkedin: Lizzy Broughton
• Yelp: Tailored Hair

Image Credits
Sheva Kafai evening images Jaymarie Buckingham lizzy cutting