I have been fitting hair extensions for 7 years going into my eight year and I am a non hairdresser. I have always run my hair extension business part time as I had a main job in housing support. For the last three years my client base has increased and I worked every night and weekend fitting hair extensions in a little studio in my house. In july this year I moved to a smaller house and could no longer work from home so decided to rent a room in a building which used to be a beauty salon. I decorated it and put new flooring down bought new furniture but after a month I knew it was a wrong place for me as new clients couldnt find the address. I decided to take a small shop near my home and I moved into this shop in July just offering hair extensions and its been the best move for me. I have had the shop fitted out and everybody who comes in loves it. I have taken redundancy from my main job and am now working in the salon full time.
A few years ago I decided that I would take a course in hairdressing and enrolled on an evening course, after a few months it wasnt for me, the college was totally disorganised and the tutors where useless, too many students in the class and it was total chaos. I left.
Last year in 2010 I decided to try another college so I started yet again another hairdressing course, in February this year I was completely worn out as I had just taken too much on, working full time, hair extensions every night and weekend and also pretipping hair for my own clients, other hair extension technicians and hairdressers and a couple of hair suppliers across the country had taken its toll on me. So I decided to finish college and carry on as normal. I was frustrated with myself and felt a bit sad that I had not completed the courses. The financial impact aswell on this was massive as the courses are not cheap.
So now I have my own hair extension salon and am in here full time I have decided that I am going to sign up for hairdressing but with a company who comes into my salon and they assess me this way. But can only start this later in the year as I am due to have some major surgery in February.
My passion lies with hair extensions and this is all I want to do but I suppose having the hairdressing qualification will be better my knowledge. I was actually surprised at how much knowledge I had gained i the short months I had attended the hairdressing courses.
I have spent my whole time researching everything about hair extensions and will carry on doing this so that I can offer the best service to my clients.
I have never thought that being a Hair Extension Technician would make me a rich person like some people do who start in this business. To be honest its a passion for me and I love everything about it. My salon has become quite well known around my area now and I am getting lots of new business who have come away from other salons which i think does say a lot. I also get a lot of work by word of mouth and clients have travelled from long distances to see me which I am thrilled about.
I hope to continue on in this field for quite a while but you never know what the future holds for you. I intend to do more training and be as succesful as I have a fire in my belly and I will be half a century old yep 50 in about ten weeks time so heres counting.
