featured notice
Over the bridge and through the neighborhood, to Ends of the Earth we go!
This past summer I received an email out of the blue from someone I had met just once at a hair event in 2024. In it, he explained that he planned to retire at the end of the month and wanted to pass his clientele along, he asked if I would also be willing to buy his business.
Now, I definitely did not have “buy a full salon” on my 2025 bingo card. In fact, I was most likely eating potato chips in bed watching a movie at the time. I had my suite on Capitol Hill and was renting at my friend’s barbershop, Hatch Hair & Company down in Columbia City. My schedule was pretty set. And while I had once dreamed of opening a brick-and-mortar salon, I had eventually let that idea go.
Growing up, you hear stories about people who get lucky, where the dominos fall perfectly and the universe just opens a door for them. I’ve never really seen myself as one of those people. But despite all my fear about stepping off this cliff, the whole situation felt like a clear “just say yes, here’s your chance” moment. From the name of the salon, to the interior design and even logo, everything happened so fast and organically I couldn’t bring myself to say no.
I remember talking through my anxiety with my good friend Karin, someone I used to cut hair with right out of beauty school in Bellingham, Washington. “Is it insane if I take this?” I asked. Her response was perfect. She reminded me that in our industry, passing the torch, passing on a business, is one of the most natural ways any stylist gets to have an opportunity like this. She was right. I once Googled “best way to start a salon,” and most of the articles said either “have a lot of money” or “ask someone with a lot of money for help.” I kid you not!
This industry is not for the faint of heart (which is one of the reasons I love it). From beauty school onward, I learned that you get out of it exactly what you put into it. Sure, you can skate by without much effort in advertising, education, or client building and still see some growth, or there’s even a chance you could get lucky. But the stylists I see truly thriving are the ones who grab their careers by the horns and really step into it. I never really thought I’d be one of those people.
My introduction to the hair industry was not the typical one. People often say they got into hair because they grew up doing friends’ hair or were raised around a salon. That wasn’t me. That’s a longer story for later date but I've questioned my place in hair more times than I can count. I didn’t fully feel comfortable until I moved to Seattle and finally stepped into my own. It took at least five years of my career to get there. And now? I have a hard time imagining myself doing anything else.
Anyways… Here we are, nearly four months into being at Ends of the Earth Hair Studio. I could go on about the entire process and the dozens of synchronistic moments that lined up to make this place possible. And maybe one day I will, if only to document it all for my future self. But the message that wants to come through right now isn’t the one I expected when I first jotted down notes for this entry.
What stands out to me most right now is how powerful a simple opportunity can be. An opportunity to step forward, to try, to be seen, to see what you can create when someone opens a door for you. My hope is that this space becomes a place where other artists can experience that same chance — to be noticed, to be heard, and to grow. The biggest gift an artist can receive is simply the opportunity to show what they can do, and I wouldn’t have the opportunity I have today if someone I had met only once, over a year ago, hadn’t seen something in me and believed I was worth taking a chance on.
