My Hair Soulmate

When I left the place that shall remain nameless, I felt like a baseball bat had been taken to my heart.  The image of my future and being part of a major company and traveling and doing hair were gone.  After all, weren't they considered “the best”?  The situation made me question everything about me.  It is amazing how vulnerable we can be when something is so much a part of who we are.  I knew I was meant to do hair and touch people’s lives with my passion for it.  So why was I now driving home and the beginning of a new year unemployed with three kids and no plan for my passion?

I spent four months searching.  I would tell you I was searching for a job but I think the reality was I was nursing my wounds and questioning everything about my career choice…hell, my LIFE choice!  I felt like the angels were singing remember?!  Why on Earth was all this happening if I wasn't meant to be a hairdresser?
I had an interview with another large company in the area.  A wonderful friend hooked me up with the opportunity and I wanted desperately to embrace it.  I was headed to my first day of training with absolute dread.  The pit in my stomach wasn't anxiety it was my inner self screaming “NOOOOO”!  But, like some of us tend to do, I tried to ignore it.  I went into the training and walked around like a zombie.  I could no longer deny this was not where I was meant to be.  Trying to pretend and play the part of a minion in a similar situation to the one I spoke of earlier would simply be repeating the same mistake yet again.  And isn’t that the definition of insanity?

I pulled up in front of my house a few hours later and my neighbor was casually sitting out on the porch, beer in hand.  “So, how did it go?” he asked.  I proceeded to burst into tears because it was terrible.  And NOW WHAT??  I asked him this very question and he in that moment, he was my game changer.  He said “Well, what do you do once you have worked for the best?”  I replied, “I have NO idea!  That’s why I’m in this situation!”  He simply said, “you go out on your own”.  Umm…duh.  I guess sometimes the key is right in front of us and we just can’t see it?

I went into the house and recalled the cute little salon in town.  I would always drive by it but had never been in it.  But, whenever I drove passed it, I would always think about the person/people who worked there and wonder how they got so lucky.  They got to work so close to home!

I picked up the phone and called the salon.  A couple hours later I was meeting with the owner.  I know it’s crazy but when I was talking to her, the angels were singing again!  I sit here telling you this with tears in my eyes.  It wasn't just that SHE was it, but the situation was right and I felt it.  Little did I know that this girl, whom we will call Penny, was my hair soul mate.  She had been through her own rough road.  We were both like wounded animals in a sense.  We loved what we did and we were good at it but we were both hurt in the past in the business and it showed.  I walked into her salon and I have never left.  It will be three years in March.  I am renting a chair and running my own business!  I am working side by side with one of the kindest most genuine people I have ever met.  I am thankful every day for her.  She has been a blessing in my life on a level that I am not even sure she knows.  We laugh every day.  We allow our clients the experience of what hairdressing should be.  We have together created an environment of happiness and education.  Our clients are happy when they come in and look and feel even better when they leave.  There are no words for the gratitude I feel for this woman.  She took a chance with me.  And now, I am blessed to be in a situation where the angels sing every day.  And I am working with my hair soul mate.