Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Massmann. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Gypsy Hair Guru started with Jessica Massmann, a Hairstylist and makeup artist doing what I love. After over a decade in Florida of traveling to beach weddings, she relocated back home to Minnesota in search of a better life for her family. She knew her future was in Minneapolis and all the opportunities to grow were available in the Twin Cities.
In 2017, Jessica officially started Gypsy Hair Guru, traveling to on-site locations for hair and makeup services.
Bringing luxurious hair and makeup looks to Weddings, photoshoots, and Fashion Shows became her passion. Soon after starting the Twin Cities Bridal Show, Gypsy Hair Guru began to grow. It was obvious that Gypsy Hair Guru needed a team to take on the capacity and volume of patrons who were requesting services.
In 2020, Issamar Cartagena-Coronado joined the Gypsies. Issa had been in the Beauty industry for ten years and her skills were sharpened to a precise point after working with Ulta & Chanel. Team Moxy was born with Issa taking the lead on makeup, giving Jessica the ability to focus on hair. Gypsy Hair Guru was able to take larger parties.
2020 proved to be a difficult year for Brides, dates were canceled, venues closed, and the world had turned upside down. GHG did its best to reschedule weddings with understanding, while providing services for the weddings that were still happening, safely and efficiently. At this time, Jessica went into a Collaborative with Wild Hare Salon and Gallery, renting space for my in-Salon Cosmetology Services, such as her famous Vivid Colors and Lived-in Blondes.
Mackenzie Labine (Bellami Educator) and Rachel Girrard (Minneapolis Artist and Sculptor) welcomed Gypsy Hair Guru to the Salon with open arms and excitement to have a Wedding Specialist at Wild Hare. This also gave Gypsy Hair Guru a permanent location to conduct In-person consultations and trials for upcoming events. Wild Hare also introduced the magic of Bellami Extensions to Gypsy Hair Guru and its brides, leaving them with more hair and more extraordinary up-styles and down-dos.
By the beginning of 2021, the volume of clients had increased with all of the postponed weddings from 2020. GHG needed more gypsies to travel to events. Cassandra Eiynck and Cindy Matos-Omana started training under Jessica and Issa at Wild Hare Salon and Gallery. Cassie and Cindy, both licensed Cosmetologists who trained for two years, formed Team Wonderland. It is very important to GHG that our artists receive the best education and training.
This is while the State of Minnesota lowered the bar, and changed the law for Bridal Services. Requiring no formal education other than a Four Hour Sanitation Course, allowing anyone to be a Bridal Specialist if they wish to call themselves such. This big change came from the Board of Cosmetology during the 2020 shutdown while the Salons were still closed and deemed to be too dangerous for services to be conducted by licensed professionals, this left licensed professionals with more regulations than self-named Bridal Stylists.
Most of this information is not known to the public and many believe that they’ve hired a licensed Cosmetologist, or Esthetician. Gypsy Hair Guru requires two years of training in application and Sanitation before we officially launch our Teams. GHG believes in holding the standard higher not lower will give the safest and most elegant results. By maintaining their Cosmetology license we assure the highest standards of the Beauty Industry are brought to your on-site location.
With the beginning of 2023 underway, both Team Moxy and Team Wonderland are taking Events. The Gypsies are looking forward to a year of amazing Weddings and are expanding their events into Quinceañeras. They look forward to a successful year of traveling around Minnesota to your Special Event.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A smooth road in business is a Utopian Concept that doesn’t play out in reality. Without a few bumps in the road, it leaves no room for growth. Those bumps shake things up and help GHG improve and evolve into to best artist. 2020 provided a multitude of different challenges from rescheduling to deregulation. Each gave us a new viewpoint on how we could grow and improve. The deregulation of the Bridal Industry has been very painful to watch.
The Board of Cosmetology deregulated the Bridal industry in 2020, while salons were shut down due to the pandemic and changed the law that you no longer needed a license to do on-site Bridal Work. Since then Gypsy Hair Guru has had to implement a non-compete to our contracts after firsthand witnessing the sanitation and unhygienic practices that this deregulation has brought to our industry. Jessica simply needs to know that who she’s working next to is a Professional, and that the Bridal Party she is working with is in safe, and clean hands.
The industry keeps changing and they believe it always will. Gypsies are ready to change with it. Just like hairstyles and makeup trends come and go, so do marketing campaigns and promotions. When Jessica started in the beauty industry, 20 years ago, she remembers doing weddings and never taking any photos, There was no social media, no email agenda. Times have changed and GHG can give more to our clients and will continue to do so.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Hairstyling and Makeup Artistry is truly an art with endless possibilities. It ebbs and flows with the changing trends leaving a glimpse at what Beauty is considered in our Space and Time. Gypsy Hair Guru is building a name for our natural to-glam makeup looks designed with both airbrush and brush. Our real goal is to accentuate your natural beauty and highlight your best features.
Makeup has vast amounts of opportunities to create a natural almost invisible appearance to a theatrical and artistic look to go with your Special Event. The Gypsies devote dozens of off-the-clock hours working to specialize in a whole spectrum of looks to meet all of your needs. Issa is head of the education for GHG and continues to learn, share and educate the Gypsies and her clients about the newest and most efficient applications.
Our hairstyles are as vast as our makeup artistry and growing continuously to add more variety and speed to our wedding hairstyles. Jessica leads GHGs hairstyling education with the top most requested styles being a top priority for our clients. The classics are very important, but so are your unique styles. Hair Roses are a passion of ours, whether it’s a huge giant rose or a bouquet of roses created from your hair. Intricate braids are another way we stand out working on simple Dutch braids to Eleven Strand Braids.
Learning these skills takes years of education and practice to perfect. We will always continue to grow and learn new skills to continue to evolve our craft. I’m so proud of my gypsies and their skills continue to grow and flourish. I truly believe to be successful that everyone on your team must be successful as well. Issa, Cassie, and Cindy have blossomed into a garden of (hair) roses and that brings me joy.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
There are so many lessons along the way it’s hard to pinpoint just one. I think that time management and organizational skills have proven that they are top priorities. GHG scheduling has continued adjustments being made to help us run time for your event. We have always strived to work on a fast-paced schedule working towards a goal of two girls for hair and makeup per hour.
With one patron per artist for 30 mins and then switching chairs to finish services with those two patrons before beginning a new person. This frees up the rest of our patrons to help with your event. We always schedule double time for our brides and a pre-trial with our brides to assure everything runs on time on the day of our event. We a-lot an extra hour into each event to prepare for running behind and touch-ups before photos. We also can bring a third person for extra help for large parties or time crunches.
These are all things we can control and we put forward all our efforts to arrive on time, set up quickly and efficiently and after that, it is truly up to our party. We are making some new additions to our contracts this year to assure we can provide services efficiently and safely to our parties. This year we will be adding no changes in venues to our list.
I have tried numerous times to accommodate this request of starting at one venue and moving to another location later in the day and it never turns out well. We are now requesting to stay at the venue we start at to assure we maintain our schedule and maintain top sanitation during services. We will also be requesting no animals or small children in the areas we are performing hair and makeup services unless they are being worked on at that time. We do love kids and animals, but it’s simply not safe to have small children and animals in the area we are performing services. It can be difficult to remember at on-site locations that we maintain a salon quality standard at your location.
The safety of everyone is our top priority. In addition to these changes, we will be emailing out an itinerary and recommendations for our entire party and not just the bride to assure they arrive on time, showered, and with dry hair. This list will have additional tips that can assist in the best hair and makeup experience for everyone. GHG will continue to learn and grow from these experiences because we truly want you to have the most amazing experience with us on your special day. We will continue to revise and makes changes to guarantee you have a regal experience with the gypsies.
Contact Info:
- Website: Gypsyhairguru.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/gypsyhairguruweddings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gypsyhairguru
Image Credits
Richard Jay Fisher Photography
