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

Alright, Sol thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Going to cosmetology school was like a dream. I learned the basics, but looking back, I don’t remember one thing I took away from there besides sanitizing. It wasn’t until I was behind the chair making mistakes that I learned valuable lessons. “Discoveries” that I learned early on have made me the colorist I am today. I wish I would’ve taken more academies early on, unfortunately at the time I didn’t have the means to attend. I am grateful for the time that has taught me so much.

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 background and context?

I started my career 12 years ago. I was a single mom of triplet girls with high hopes and stressful times. I always wanted to be a hairstylist, but life took a different detour for me. When I went to cosmetology school I was 31 years old, a little older than most girls attending.

After graduation, I landed running. I worked behind the chair for many years before really making a name for myself in my community. I was relentless. I was self-motivated, eager to learn and to become successful in the industry. After my fourth year I started seeing a shift in my business.

I was consistent. I worked really hard and I put myself out there. I continued my education and aspired to be known in the industry for my talents. After my eighth year, I entered a very prestigious competition. I had to come up with my own collection, photograph it along with a make up artist and models. Competing with four other countries. My most proud moment of my career was winning Eufora’s Stylist of the year award. Being a published hairstylist has been a dream of mine, so to finally fulfill that, was the proudest moment of my life, thus far.

Since then, my business has thrived. I feel so blessed that potential clients reach out to me because they’ve heard of me. They’ve seen pictures of my work. They’ve stopped people on the streets and asked who did their hair. This is a blessing I will never take for granted.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

The fact that I can connect with people in a very personable way gives me purpose every day. Seeing my clients’ faces light up with joy when they look at themselves in the mirror is everything to me. I get to do this on a daily basis, and get paid for it?! It’s amazing!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I started my career, social media was just getting started. I was clueless on what to do. My early pictures were terrible, you can see all my mess in the background, the lighting was not showcasing my work, again, clueless! But I never stopped,I’m still learning how to build my SM. Having people with a bigger audience tag me has helped tremendously. Taking a picture and tagging numerous artists, brands, people just to make that audience wider is important. Keeping your page clean and consistent is key.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @abSOLutelyHair
• Linkedin: Mirasol (Sol) Puchalski

Image Credits
Myself