Hi, Hello, im liv.
hi, hello, im liv.
To start this story off, let me introduce myself. My name is Olivia and I am a hairstylist in Olympia, WA. And as cheesy and cliche as it may sound, I am absolutely IN LOVE with my craft.
When I was a child, my grandma would ask me often, “liv what do you want to be when you grow up?”
I would say- “a teacher” “a artist” and in Olivia fashion “Jesus Christ” (my grandma would tell me how much Jesus would help people and make things better, and damn it that’s what I wanted to do, so it only made sense that I would need to be Jesus.)
My entire life I have always, and I mean ALWAYS have been in search of something that would allow me to learn and continue to learn, let me be creative, and give me the place to make everyone feel special, safe, beautiful, and cared for.
I found that with hair.
While I would love it if my story went straight into my hair career, I am a human on this planet and things are definitely not THATTT easy.
I graduated high school in 2012 and was accepted to Western Washington University where the plan was to go to college and become a 6th grade and special needs teacher. I had spent my 4 years in high school planning every detail of what the rest of my life would look like. HA..HA..HA
As you can probably guess, I did go to Western… for a quarter but unfortunately this is where my mental illness really reared its head and I had to go home. I will spare the details on that for now, in hopes I will continue to write here and let you all get to know me and maybe ask you and clients what they would like to read about.
Fast forward to 2015-
After moving to Bellingham, back to Aberdeen, back to Bellingham, then to Las Vegas, and BACK to Aberdeen. I hit a wall of self hatred, disappointment, confusion, and a longing to figure out what my plan was.
That was when I found a beauty school in Olympia, and with many hours of talking and convincing my family that this is what I needed to do… I enrolled.
(Back story- I had always been the person who colored her hair. I did koolaid staining on my blonde hair and then started going to the salon my mom went to and slowly but surely started getting crazy haircuts and vivid color. I then would go to Walmart and buy bleach and box dye and occasionally drive to Olympia to buy Manic Panic from Hot Topic. And of course I would do friends hair because I mean come on, gotta share the love.)
Beauty school is hard. It is long hours, it is expensive, it is a lot of information really fast, and you never feel prepared to “go on to the floor” and do ACTUAL HUMANS HAIR.
With all of that, I LOVED IT. I was excited for school everyday. I wanted to be out on the floor everyday all day. I wanted to know everything, I wanted to do everyones hair, and I wanted to be the best.
I graduated early and was not only a licensed cosmetologist but I also was asked to work at my schools salon as a stylist AND help instruct the newer classes.
And from there it is history.
I have been absolutely in love and obsessed with my craft. I have continued to be a full time stylist for 9 years and have no plans of slowing down. Hair has brought me not only so much joy and creativity. It has brought me so many connections and reintroduced my love for people and their stories. And for the first time in my life it has brought this sense of reason and proudness to myself. My passion is a force and I never want to lose this feeling. In a world that can be cruel, scary, and unpredictable.. Hair has given me something to spread kindness, understanding, and power. I cannot say it enough, I am so incredibly grateful.
If you made it this far- THANK YOU. I hope to pop on here with not only stories but with hair care and product knowledge. Updates on my new salon…
OH YEAH- OH HAIR DESIGNS IS A SALON.
Should probably mention that for the 100th time, December 5, 2023 I am opening my very own salon. And with that I could sit here for another few hours talking about what that means to me, but I will save that for next week. hehe
THANK YOU. YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE SEEN. AND YOU MATTER.
xx, liv
