Today we’d like to introduce you to Miriah Meyer
Hi Miriah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I think deep down, I always knew I wanted to work in the world of beauty and fashion. I never imagined it would look like this but, I’m happier than I ever imagined I could be!
I started out bonding with friends getting ready for school dances and I was always helping with curling irons and pins in their hair or blending the right eyeshadow colors. For my high school gymnastics team, I often led Team Time before a competition where we braided each others hair, as a way to have some fun and get ready for competition together and feel confident and beautiful through our routines.
I’ve always been into Halloween and the Renaissance Festival because I love a reason to dress up. Year after year, costumes and makeup would evolve; even now, I attend the MN Renaissance Festival multiple times a season and my attire shifts according to the weather but, I’ve become rather recognizable as a mother of dragons! I have little dragon pets attached to me and wear wings and a chain maille tail and horns and a crown.
“Life’s too short to not wear the dress” became a motto a long time ago so, any excuse to dress up and stand out has always been fun for me.
So when it was time to buckle down and choose a career path and begin school, it was a no brainer for me what I wanted to do. I entered cosmetology school in Florida in January of 2015. It took me a while to finish with the way the local programs were setup, and I did have to change schools and sacrifice some of my earned hours in order to work and support myself but, I graduated in December of 2016. Between two different programs, 200 more hours than my fellow graduating peers, and the blessed opportunity to work as an assistant while I was in school, I earned a very well rounded foundational education! When I took the board exams, I was so ready! I was in and out of the exam room (which they give you 3 hours to complete 275 questions) in 35 minutes and passed! The examiner said it was the fastest she saw anyone take the test! I was so excited to start my career.
Over the years, I worked in every setting imaginable. Everything from Salon Front Desk Management and essentially running a salon from the reception station, to being behind the chair in revolving door environments all the way to high end boutique settings. I took the opportunity to learn the different salon business models and know every position in a salon from answering phones and being the shop house keeper to being an assistant and second set of hands to a Master Stylist, to finally being behind a chair and growing my own clientele!
About four years ago, after finding myself back home in Minnesota, I realized I fit best in a predominantly male style setting. It was never my intention to be doing exclusively men’s styles but I found peaceful atmospheres, consistent clients, stimulating conversation, and challenges to rise to (a lot of men’s style and clipper cutting and barber techniques aren’t taught to cosmetology students). It was only a matter of time before the next big challenge was going to be striking out on my own and creating my own salon environment for myself and my clients–my friends– to thrive in.
November of 2023 I made the leap into a Sola Salon Studio and it was the scariest but best decision of my life! Being able to employ all the knowledge I’d gained over the years working for other people was such an exciting prospect! I desired to create a sense of community and a safe environment for persons of all walks of life and all genders to come and feel their most confident selves. And my clients were so supportive!
Then in January of 2024, I found out I was pregnant with my first child.
Less than three months after opening a business.
A business I had no way of knowing would be successful.
Talk about SCARY!!
But, as luck and excellent karma would have it, it has been the most exciting part of my first year in business! I built my clientele on honesty, community, transparency, support, and a Come As You Are kind of energy that really gave back to me tenfold when I opened my studio. By March, when I looked at my data to see how many clients followed me from my old salon and was my business performing consistently month to month, I realized I retained nearly all of my clients and had stuck to their regular service schedule! Their foundational business and excitement over my pregnancy allowed me to spend the year focused more on growing my tiny human and seeing my long time clients thrive in a new environment!
Through the intimacy of my studio, I’ve gotten to share more laughs, more milestones, more life events with my clients. No more rushing them out the door. No more upselling them to get every dime I can. For the first time in my life, my work-life balance is actually balanced! Having the support and love of my clients, even the new ones that have found me this year, has been so overwhelmingly heartwarming! To be able to share the journey of entrepreneurship AND motherhood with them has been so exciting and liberating. Knowing they’re flexible with my maternity leave and the possibility for me going into labor, they are proud of me and love the environment I curated for them, their excitement to meet Baby when she gets here and their willingness to accommodate a change to my hours and her presence in the studio–I cannot express enough the joy and gratitude I have for the clients that made my venture into business ownership possible and the friendships that have developed from our time together.
My career has been the most important thing in my life for so long and being able to thrive professionally without sacrificing anything in my personal life is a gift I didn’t know I could have!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Self doubt and fear! For so long, in major salon environments, I’d watched people leave to pursue independence and they never made it very far or we never heard from them again. So there was always this spooky cloud surrounding the topic of “you need like $10k saved to just open”, “you’ll only take about 60% of your clients initially but, for convenience, half of those will abandon you and go back to your old salon in the first three months, killing your business”, “if you don’t have a social media presence, and your old clients don’t stick with you, you’ll never grow”.
When I tried creating space for myself to continue growing in my old salon and was continuously met with walls, I realized I needed to make a major change. I was in a dead end job and feeling burnt out. The salon I was in had the best team I’ve ever worked with and they gave us a lot of autonomy with our schedule and had some of the most competitive pay structure. But, still I wasn’t happy. I was stuck in a grind and something had to give.
So I started touring salon suites in my area to research what was out there, and within days I was signing a contract and going all in.
I’m so glad I did!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a cosmetologist that specializes in short cuts and styles! I have background in color and special occasion hair as well and service clients from all walks of life!
I’m grateful to be known for my compassionate and creative approach in the consultation process when meeting new clients and I am very proud of that!
I’ve had many clients land in my chair after being traumatized by stylists that have ignored them or not listened to them in the past; that have difficult growth patterns and cowlicks that always had been treated the same; that have damaged or unmanageable hair that they’ve never been spoken to about appropriate at home care and educated on their texture.
It changes their entire demeanor and builds a foundation for confidence and self worth to flourish when I can just listen to them and really curate their style in their image and they feel I brought the picture out of there head. After that initial meeting, they’re a client for life!
I love what I do so much, its what I nerd out over! And clients want to know that! It builds trust and rapport when I share what my process is with them and we break it down Magic School Bus style and we’re on the journey to their desired look together!
After getting to know clients and their hair, I also provide them a safe place to come as they are, and be free to talk about whatever is on their heart without judgement. I go out of my way to check in with the folks that come into my space. My studio is set apart professionally as a gender neutral space. I’ve removed the gender binary from all of my service descriptions and my website and I decorated my space in a way that doesn’t feel overly masculine or feminine. Any human from any background, can book a service, walk in, and feel comfortable. To me, that is a genuine safe space and I think the approach I took in creating that sets me apart. My friends and clients also have chimed in with the flexibility I provide them and how I care for them! From building time buffers into appointment scheduling to account for lateness (life happens, and traffic can be a nightmare) to waving cancellation fees, being flexible with my working hours to accommodate dedicated clients, always educating and checking in to see how their homecare routine is serving them, and hand holding for two whole months before this baby arrives so nobody is left in a lurch while I’m on maternity leave!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For stylists, don’t engage in salon politics. Build your clientele on transparency and education. They’re more willing to grow with you than you might think, just be up front and take them on the journey with you!
For young idealists and entrepreneurs, follow your joy and the money will follow. Put yourself out there and always be meeting people. Take opportunities as they present themselves, you never know until you’ve gone through a process what can bring you new skills or new friends and networking possibilities!
Pricing:
- Haircut $45
- Blonde Experience starts at $100
- Color Expression starts at $100
- Express Cut (sides and back clipper cut) $25
- Express Color (just a natural tone root touch up/gray blending) $45
Contact Info:
- Website: https://miriahashlin.glossgenius.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/miriahashlinhair
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551358277737&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: https://linktr.ee/miriahashlinhair
