We were lucky to catch up with Samantha Woolridge and Kaitlyn Nolte recently and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha Woolridge and Kaitlyn Nolte, appreciate you 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?

Our mission “We strive to create and maintain an environment where you can thrive both personally and professionally through open communication, creativity, and teamwork”!

Kaitlyn Nolte and Samantha Woolridge have been in the beauty industry a combined 26 years. Over the years, they saw how challenging this career can be, not only physically but emotionally. We’ve had so many wonderful managers over the years who have guided us to be great, but with that has come the individuals who didn’t want to see success or held us back.
“We had a boss who liked to hover and was to be frank, mentally abusive. That is when we decided owning a salon that we could give our employees a place to be “uniquely them” needed to be in our future. We truly strive to have our team thrive. We want them to find the services they love because when we are passionate about what we do, we do a better job and, most importantly, love coming to work. We try to make sure our team works well together, we know we have days we can’t be on our game, but when we work well together and communicate, we can do great things together.

Samantha Woolridge and Kaitlyn Nolte, 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?

For Samantha, it was her Mom and Dad who encourage her to go to cosmetology school. Samantha wasn’t a great student, she had a hard time concentrating during school. She didn’t know what she wanted to do when she graduated high school but knew she needed something the was hands on and she could interact and build relationships with. “ I don’t think I ever knew what cosmetology was growing up, I knew I loved hair and makeup from a small age but didn’t know I could make a career of it. I’m so thankful for my parents for budging me into this career. In the beginning I went into this career because I like hair and makeup, I stay in this career and proud to tell people what I do because of the relationships I build, the smile and confidence that radiates after new haircut, seriously never gets old!

Kaitlyn spent long nights at the salon with my mom and saw how happy her clients were when they left. I wanted to be happy. School actually took me on a different path to childhood education, but I decided hair was actually my main path because it always came back.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

When Samantha met Kaitlyn, Samantha was managing the salon. Samantha knew how the owner could be off putting and constantly asked Kaitlyn if she was happy or needed anything to keep her happy “I’m pretty sure Kaitlyn got sick of me haha”! Samantha quickly built a friendship with Kaitlyn. They had the same morals in life and how they felt a business should be ran. Kaitlyn has been my rock in so many ways, she’s brilliant and what she does and we build the best friendship on mutual respect for how we work and and treat people.

I met Samantha when I first came to Regeneration Salon & Spa. Honestly, I was intimidated by her. She was (and still is) an amazing hairstylist and fantastic colorist. Once I got to know her, she was so helpful and kind, and she wasn’t intimidating anymore. She became my best friend very quickly and wouldn’t want it any other way.

Any advice for managing a team?

Kaitlyn’s advice: Be their friend. It is possible to be there for someone and also be their boss.

Samantha’s advice: be real with them, allow them to be people. AND SHOW THEM RESPECT. I wouldn’t and would want to do this without the team we have working with us!

Contact Info:

• Website: Regenerationsalonspa.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/regenerationsalonspa/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100063815941484&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user

Image Credits
New Eden Studios