At 18 years old, fresh out of college I got a job doing admin at a Pensions company (yawn) but, as most of us do, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do/be as an adult.
And of course, I got comfortable, started climbing the corporate ladder and found myself in a management position that I HATED. I had crippling anxiety, physically feeling the effects as well – always ill, chronic hives, there were 4 months where I couldn’t physically get the energy to leave the sofa.
I knew, this wasn’t the career for me, but I’d been there 12 years by this point, what else was I going to do?!
Now… I had always had a passion for hairstyling, I’d never wanted to be a hairdresser and cut or colour hair and so hadn’t really entertained it as an actual job.. but I was always that friend who did everyone’s hair for events and even a couple of weddings!
Then I started thinking, I wonder if I could do bridal hairstyling on the side, make some money from this thing I love to do and one day do it full time.. so I Googled bridal hair education in Hampshire. That’s where I found the course for me- it was a week long intensive course and BAMM I signed up straight away.
That hairstyling course changed my life.
I had the confidence, the starting of a portfolio and the product knowledge to begin. I made an instagram account and started posting.
Meanwhile I got the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy at my corporate job which I took WITH OPEN ARMS! I used that money and invested in more training, academies, 121s, anything and everything I could to learn and be ready to attract brides.
I got myself a lovely little part time reception Job and focussed my time and energy into building my business.
Then lockdown hit.
Every single day throughout lockdown I did an online tutorial, I then practised and posted the hairstyle and videos, my own tutorials and lives on instagram. I called it The Daily Ingrid (coz Ingrid was my dolly head ha). That continual posting gained my account 4000 followers by the time lockdown lifted, and I came out of it with a fully booked diary of weddings. Talk about timing!
I did my part time reception job for around a year, then worked part time for my Dad for a bit until I was making more money in 1 wedding than I did in a month working for him and I thought… this is ridiculous, I’m going to bit the bullet and do this full time.
So I did!
Fast forward to today, I am now a fully booked bridal hairstylist, with an agency of 30 hair & makeup artists and I am a bridal hairstyling educator myself & mentor… all from that 1 week training session that changed my life.
So, my advice to any new or aspiring artists is, book the training!
My 121s and mentoring packages can be found here
I can’t wait to hear your success stories too!
Sabrina xx
