Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Lewis
Hi Nikki, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
When I look back, I would have to say that my career in the fashion and beauty started when I was around ten years old. My love for both industries began from watching my mother and aunts get ready to go out dancing when I was just a little kid. It was the 80’s and they were obsessed with the Bangles. They would backcomb their hair line their eyes dark and lips painted bold. They personified ” Walking like Egyptians ! ”
From my aunts Bangles days to the cover of Vogue magazine I was hooked. The fashion models of the 90’s , George Michael and Versace always inspired me and transported me to a different world, after all we did grow up in Superior WI. I found it fascinating that the “Supermodels” could transform each time they would strut down the runway, or grace the cover of a fashion magazine. It would take me a while to realize that Linda Evangalista was the same model in the Freedom music video as she was walking down the runway at a Versace Couture show. Of course I could never mistake the queen of the runway Naomi Campbell as i would say she was my spirit animal and long to hit the catwalk one day like she did, never did she fail.
The transformation from runway to magazine cover to beauty advertisement was of made mostly impart from those who not standing center of the fashion but those behind the scenes who made it possible for these glamours, artistic, chic , bold and beautiful looks to come to life time and time again. That is of course the artistic team, the glam squad. Makeup artists, hair stylists their assistants. Always a lover of the arts, spending hours sketching people on any blank paper I could get my hands on. The drawings always women, and they would usually be on the runway.
I took my first job at an Aveda Concept salon when I was 19 years old and going to community college for marketing. As the Guest Service Lead I was the first person a client made contact with and the last, and of course I was able to see all the good stuff in-between. By the good stuff I’m referring to the action on the styling floor. It was at The Language Of Hair, I was introduced to my first mentor and the women who made owning a salon, traveling the world on the weekends as a Platform Educator, rocking a one-step platinum blonde hair and red at the age of 29 look Fabulous. Faye was a Superstar in my eyes, the eyes of her employees and of course her clients. Double booked solid five days a week eight to ten hours a day in heels no sweat. It was this blonde bombshell that would tell me to watch, as she would cut, color and style her clients hair one after the other. Then ask me if I thought I could do that. ” I don’t know, it could be that hard, maybe if I practiced” I would respond. She would bring me a mannequin head, ask me to recreate it and of course it always looked easier when she did it then when I did. Being a perfectionist it would drive me wild when I would begin to do a cut on the doll head and have no idea how to get from point A to B. I would stay late after work trying and watching and trying again. So finally I enrolled in Cosmetology School. The rest is history.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The hardest part about getting what I had wanted and desired in life, was knowing what I wanted in life. When I finally decided that “dreams” could come true and dream was a vision into the future it was like a lightbulb went off.
Again the only struggles I truly faced in my career were the self doubt, insecurities and that annoying little voice in the back of my head that often time when I really want something badly in life I might feel I don’t deserve it or I wouldn’t be good enough at it. Being an extreme perfectionist often left me defeating myself or shall I say adding hundreds of potholes to a smooth road. Having a fear that I might not be good at something, might not excel be it a sport, designing clothes, dancing on Broadway or singing the national anthem at a hockey game would stop me dead in my tracks. At one point in time if I didn’t think perfection could be achieved I would not even attempt the thing I had feared I might not perfect. It could be debilitating and that would always cause me to struggle in life.
“Now, if I had to apologize, it would be to myself. For holding on to pain when I afraid to be happy. For clinging to what hurt me instead of letting it go. For accepting less than I deserved. For silencing my own voice and prioritizing what others might say. For fearing failure, mistakes, and fear itself. But today, I forgive myself, because there is still time left to live, and this time, I choose to live freely.”
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Image Consultant / Beauty & Fashion Expert / Editorial Creative Director / Domestic & Sexual Abuse Advocate / TLGBQ+ Advocate / Sex & Human Trafficking Advocate / Transformation Specialist.
The list could literally go on and on, as you probably know from reading these answers I am very long winded, thank god for editors.
My career in beauty and fashion has spanned most of my professional life a decade to be honest. Which is astounding considering I’m only 27 😉 I’ve done almost everything in those 20 years that I had dreamt of, never even thought of, and was surprised I would want to. Besides founding my own cosmetic line or fashion label that is. ( There is still time 😉
Within the past five years my passion has shifted into roles of advocacy be it in or out of the fashion and beauty industry.
Always dealing and healing with my own traumas in life, I had finally come to a point where I no longer could look at myself as a Victim and decided to step into the Survivor Role. In order to heal my own life long traumas I was compelled to give back and help others who had been victimized as well. I was a victim of a child molester who lived at the end of my block growing up. At the age of five I had already lost my virginity and lived in terror of the 17 year old loner that lived down the alley from us. My the parents on the block, including my own not knowing the monster the quiet loner at the end of the block really was would send us to jump on his trampoline, shoot hops on his basketball court receive the candy he was always happy to give out to the kids. The abuse went on for what seemed like an eternity with ” Threats he would kill me or my family if I ever told anyone” As well as threatening the other kids on the block he would lock in his bedroom closet and make them watch him as he sexually assaulted me. “Now we were all guilty of doing something wrong” and no one would dare tell a soul. One day after I could take no more I escaped from the bushes besides his house and ran two house to my parents and stopped him from ever hurting me again. Sadly still terrified when I was broke to the local police station and questions in a scary room asked to point to the spots on the Cabbage Patch doll and tell the officers what he did. I froze scared he would kill us all and said nothing. No charges were ever pressed and the next day his whole family had moved.
I was proud of myself for stopping him from hurting me and the trauma has taken a lifetime to heal to the point it has, but I always knew if I had told the police it could have stopped him from hurting another child. The fear that he had instilled in me, left me at his mercy even when sitting across the table from the police and telling my parents to help me. Advocacy has always been a part of my life, being a Samaritan has just come naturally to me. If I can help I will help, if I can listen or teach or be educated by another I have always accepted the gift of enrichment in anothers life.
I specialize beauty and fashion on all terms and levels of the meaning including all humans, all walks of life, with open arms no judgement and a keen eye to help each individual find the inner beauty within themselves and cultavate a positive “best you ” image. Not just an exterior superficial beauty but an awakening inner beauty that will allow each client to live a little more close to the freedom that have envisioned for themselves.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk taking like anything in life can have positive or negative effects on our lives. I moved to Europe on eleven credit cards when I was twenty years old. I had never been to Germany, knew nothing about it and had no desires to visit. Nor did I speak the language. My boyfriend at the time who was in the military was living there. We had been together for almost two years, seeing one another only when he was in the states which would be every few months. Wanting to explore life, and knowing m y family and friends would be less supportive and more sad to see me leave, I packed my bags and told them I was just going to visit him for two weeks. It wasn’t until I was there that I even told my family that I wasn’t coming back! That was a risk for sure, and still to this day I think Germany is one of the most unique countries I have ever lived or traveled. I experienced things I would have never thought of, grew leaps and bonds and helped me experience a whole other level of freedom I had longed for many years. The freedom of travel, my soul needs that freedom.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/okoye.beautiful
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikkluvlewis
- Other: https://inreach.org
