Sometimes You Just Need Someone to Believe in You

If you had told 17-year-old me where one beauty school grant would eventually take me, I would have never believed you.

I grew up around the beauty industry and spent a lot of time in salons, but becoming a hairstylist wasn't necessarily some lifelong dream of mine. When my high school offered a beauty school program, I decided to give it a try, mostly because it meant I could avoid going to gym class. School had always been hard for me, but something different happened when I got to beauty school. Everything just clicked. For the first time, I was getting A's without spending hours studying. I understood what I was learning, and I finally felt like I had found something that came naturally to me.

At the time, I didn't realize the impact that grant would have on my path, but it ended up giving me the opportunity to start. That start turned into more than I ever could have imagined. I've spent more than 25 years working behind the chair, built my own business, became an educator and mentor, and now serve as the Leasing and Operations Manager for six Sola Salon Studios in Michigan and Ohio.

My career has changed a lot over the years, but the beauty industry has always been at the core. Maybe that's why Beauty Changes Lives has always felt so personal to me. I know firsthand what one opportunity can do. Sometimes we just need someone else to believe in us.

I first got involved with Beauty Changes Lives through my work with Sunlights Pro, where I'm an educator and part of the Artistic Team. I was introduced to the One Day. One Ticket. campaign, and I loved the idea behind it right away. The concept was simple. Beauty professionals were encouraged to donate the value of one service from one day working at the chair. That's it. The money raised helps create scholarships, mentorships, and educational opportunities for people who are just beginning to figure out what their own path in beauty could become.

Beauty Changes Lives is so powerful because it is our industry taking care of our industry. I already cared deeply about the mission, so when Sola partnered with Beauty Changes Lives, I was thrilled. I had built my own independent business at Sola, and suddenly another huge part of my professional world was getting behind an organization I already believed in.

My involvement with Beauty Changes Lives continued to grow from there. What started with donating the value of one service led to becoming a mentor and, eventually, to serving on the volunteer planning committee. Mentoring has become one of the most meaningful parts of my work with Beauty Changes Lives. It's also a constant reminder that education shouldn't end when you graduate from beauty school. One of the things I've found through mentoring and educating others is that I often end up learning the most.

Some of the biggest growth in my career has come from my willingness to be a student again. That's something I hope to pass along as a mentor. You don't have to have everything figured out. Find people you admire. Invest in yourself when you can. Keep learning. There is always someone who can teach you something, and eventually, there will be something you can teach someone else.

This year, that idea is becoming real for me in a very specific way.

As a mentor with Beauty Changes Lives, I'll be working directly with this year's Sola Icon Grant winner, DaJuan Wilson of J Cutz Studio. DaJuan's journey is exactly the kind of story that makes this work matter to me. He started as a solo professional at Sola, building a business around premium hair services from a single chair. Over time, he expanded into custom hair restoration and unit services as client demand grew, and then took it a step further by launching an apprenticeship program to train future barbers, giving them hands-on experience in a real working studio rather than in a classroom.

Talking with DaJuan, it's clear he understands something a lot of talented professionals take years to figure out: leadership, delegation, and systems matter just as much as technical skill when you're trying to grow. His challenge right now isn't finding clients; it's keeping up with demand while protecting the quality he's built his name on. With the Sola Icon Grant, DaJuan plans to invest in better tools, structured training materials, and efficiency improvements that will enable him to scale sustainably without sacrificing the quality or independence that got him here.

Getting to mentor DaJuan through this next stage feels like a full-circle moment. I get to be one of the people who believes in him, the way someone once believed in me. I can't wait to see where his path takes him next.

In many ways, all of this brings me right back to where I started. At 17, I didn't need to know exactly what my career would look like. I didn't need a 25-year plan. I just needed the opportunity to start. Someone helped give me that opportunity. Today, I get to give back in a way that's helping create those opportunities for someone else.

Maybe their start will be at the chair. Maybe they'll own a business, become an educator, mentor others, move into leadership, or build a career none of us can even imagine yet. That's the beautiful thing about giving someone an opportunity. You don't have to know where it's going to take them. You just have to give them the opportunity to believe and take a chance on themselves.