We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sharmaine Kirkland . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sharmaine below.

Alright, Sharmaine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Am I happy as a business owner, Absolutely! One of the best thing I ever did was believe in myself and go forth with my business plan. However it wasn’t easy, and there were plenty of times where I wanted to throw in the towel. Like those weeks where you’re doing great making $1,000 plus and the very next week barely making $200. It was times like that, that had me thinking of a 9-5. Or in my situation it made me way to keep the 9-5 I had. To me at that time a 9-5 was security, knowing that I would get a paycheck faithfully every two weeks. There was vacation days, sick days, holiday pay, I mean you name it. Sounded real good when hair wasn’t doing what I needed. But the down side of a 9-5 for me was I had to come in when they scheduled me (which took time away from me doing hair and building clientele) Had to request days off not knowing if they would get approved. Blackout days closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas meaning those days were off limits when requesting off. My birthday is in December so it was always a fight to get time off to spend with family. Although getting a guaranteed paycheck, a 9-5 wasn’t making me happy. It was actually taking away from my dream of being a hairstylist and salon owner. What I did do is use the time I did have a regular job to promote my hair business which help build my clientele up to where it needed to be to just do hair and hair alone.

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?

I am the Owner of Maine Attraction Hair Studio. I’ve been a licensed hairstylist for twelve years, but a salon owner for two. I specializing in locs and healthy hair care. I offer services for natural hair as well as relaxed hair, for ages two and up. I’m the mother of a beautiful 12 year old daughter, who is the motivation behind my business. Becoming a salon owner wasn’t always the dream. In fact being a hairstylist was the last thing I thought I would be doing. After high school I went to college to become a pediatrician, but in life curveballs may come and alter the plans you have. What I thought was a curveball was actually God placing me in my assignment. See I’ve always been a peoples person, so working in the retail world was no problem for me. I truly enjoyed connecting with the customers and helping them select the items they needed. With me engaging in conversations I was able to build relationships with different customers to where some of them became clients, that I still do to this day. So once I went to hair school and got in the groove of things I fell in love with it. I believe it was that one on one connection that you have with the client. Me getting to know them as well as them getting to know me. All while setting a relaxed environment making my client feel beautiful. When my clients book it’s not just for a hair appointment to get shampooed, blow dried and styled. I create a whole experience for my clients to sit back relax and enjoy their time at Maine Attraction Hair Studio. One of the services that I offer is loc detox. That’s where you take the locs and soak it in a mixture to get rid of any excessive buildup in the locs out. Instead of having my client just sitting back in the shampoo bowl for thirty minutes, I create a spa like experience by having essential oil’s going, a massage table laid out and my client laying on it and let their locs soak. With the lights dimmed and soft music playing just to create a more relaxed environment. After each service I strive for each client to leave with a memorable experience. And not just the adults but for my little ones as well.
Every session that I have with a client is different. At times I have days where a client and I are laughing hysterically and there are days where my client is hurting and it’s more of a serious conversation. See earlier when I said that my plan was for me to be a pediatrician but God‘s plan said otherwise. I truly believe God has me in this position as a hairstylist to minister to his people, to help them out in their time of need when they need a listening ear. And when I say that I don’t mean to be overly aggressive or anything like that. But I am a very patient person and a very good listener. And when the opportunity is presented I have no issue talking about the goodness of the Lord. Because I know without him none of this would be possible for me.

How did you build your audience on social media?

To be honest I would have to say my clients helped build my audience on social media. At first I wasn’t that good with it. Now I think I’m pretty good with it. My clients though they are the real MVPs. They have no problem posting any of my styles, post, or pictures on different groups on Facebook, and I must say I get a good response from social media. Some have even given me mini lessons to help. I will say creating a business page is very beneficial that way everything is on one page. Keeping your personal and business social media separate is key for me. If I have a person that is interested in becoming a client I rather them see what services I offer in picture form.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Prior to doing hair I was in retail, and I liked retail. But I did know that wasn’t my career path. I stayed in retail while doing hair for years. That was my way of building my clientele up to where I didn’t have to rely on another job I can just do hair in hair alone. It was at the point where I notice I was going from full-time hours to stepping down to part time hours at my retail job because my clientele was growing. Which I made the decision to leave retail and make hair my full time career.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Maine Attraction Hair Studio
• Facebook: Styles by Sharmaine