Ta ta for now

I want to tell you guys a little story about my pride and joy, my home away from home, one of the most important things i’ve done with my life- Maxwell Salon.

Some of you have surely heard this story or parts of it before but there’s a twist at the end so stay with me…

Maxwell Salon was born out of desperation, spite and a growing frustration with the lack of options available to me as a passionate, professional hairdresser in Kitsap County. I started my career behind the chair in 2005 and opened Maxwell Salon in 2012 as a 25 year old hustler after moving through a few different types of salons. There was literally no place in Kitsap that I wanted to work as a stylist, so I decided to forge my own way. I had no mentor, no small business grants, no trust fund, just some savings, a bit of charm, a ridiculous work ethic and a hustle that wouldn’t quit. I was full of fire, both the good and bad kind. I was passionate but I was hotheaded, I was talented but I was naive, I had high moral and professional standards but I had hardly been faced with enough hardship for those standards to be challenged. Damn, has it been a whirlwind these last 8 years. I had so much to learn and I learned it the way that I always do: the hard way.

Throughout my time as a salon owner working behind the chair, i’ve found myself tested to the very very edge. I’ve wanted to quit and go back to working solo behind the chair at least 200 times because this shit is really hard! but something keeps me from quitting. I’ve wondered at least a hundred of those times that I didn’t quit, if i’m an idiot for hanging on. I’ve wanted to wrong people who had wronged me, fight fire with fire and take advantage of systems that had been taking advantage of me for years but i’m proud to report that I didn’t do it, I never took the bad karma bait. Sure, i’ve spouted off plenty of toxic negativity (who hasn’t if we’re really being honest with ourselves?) but i’ve never taken action that keeps me up at night worrying about my karma.

What does keep me up at night is worrying about my salon, my clients, my health, my family’s heath, my employee’s and my own income, my friends, the political climate and the… literal world. You guys… I don’t know if you know this about me but all this passion I have can make me a little high strung!

Maxwell Salon started off strong! I was young and tireless, fresh and dedicated, honest and good intentioned. Unfortunately, none of those things could prepare me for the fires my resiliency as a salon owner would be forged in.

Over the past 5 years, things have been incredibly tough. The list of things that challenged me both personally and professionally is so long I honestly don’t know if I could bear to put it all together on a piece of paper. I always used to hate it when people would say this next cliche- but all of those challenges made me stronger. They were all lessons in disguise I just couldn’t see it at the time. Those traumas and heartaches were preparing me for the next phase of my life. I started to “get curious” and I am forever grateful that I did. There were a lot of beautiful things also happening in my life during those 5 years and I knew that if I didn’t sort myself out and learn to feel the gratitude instead of the pain, I would risk losing it all because I was stuck in a pattern of fear and I was afraid to look at the hard things about myself.

In July 2019, I started therapy with the amazing Ms. Connie Doe- i’m going to tell you all about her in a separate blog post because HOLY CRAP! The tools that I learned from Connie helped me take my life back and helped my beat-down, burned-out tired ass navigate through some pretty murky waters and some pretty big waves of sadness and self-doubt. I was able to use those tools to heal the parts of myself that were toxic and be a guiding light for my business instead of a tired, disconnected tyrant. See, the truth is that there came a time after nearly 4 years of struggling, when I decided to take an honest look at what my role had been in the business and how I was leading the team. The truth was that I wasn’t. I was showing them the way and then just leaving them to figure it out on their own, I was working endless hours behind the chair, dropping balls everywhere, spread much too thin all because I was too scared to bring new people into our team. I was going down with the ship but I hadn’t even tried patching the hole. I decided to do the work, patch the whole in my heart and lovingly guide us to our new course. By the end of 2019, I had and amazing, dedicated team who had my back and I had my shit pretty far together. For the first time in Maxwell Salon history, I had plans in place for the business six months out and I was excited to be leading my team out of our dark little storm cloud. I knew I had something worth fighting for.

2020 has been nothing like any of us could have imagined. This year, started off pretty great but with the arrival of a GLOBAL FUCKING PANDEMIC in March, I was forced to use the tools I’ve learned over the last year to take a really hard look at the way i’ve been running my business as well as the way i’ve been living my life. There’s no two ways about it, something has needed to give for a long time. “Burning the candle at both ends” as my mom always says, eventually you’re bound to burn out. Though I was (and in truth, still am) incredibly stressed about finances, I couldn’t help but feel a little grateful for the time given to me during the nearly 4 months we were closed due to Covid. I used that time to tear out all of the old ways of doing things that had been patched together for the last 8 years and put together better, more streamlined processes with companies that better understand my needs. I was not prepared for what a huge undertaking that turned out to be. For years people had advised me to “delegate” and I thought I was, but turns out I was doing it all wrong. I had finally learned how to ask for help but then I took it too far! I had delegated so many things and shoved them completely off my plate that I wasn’t in control of how things were being done anymore and when I made the gut-wrenching, budget-tightening decision to lay off our beloved salon manager and take over managing on my own, I didn’t know how to do anything or where to find answers. Eventually, I gave up on even trying and things got a little “hairy”. The ship had a great crew keeping us afloat but the captain was mostly hiding below deck. It used to make me feel ashamed but I know now that while I was hiding I was also healing.

Capping off 5 years of hard times with a viral pandemic could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. It would have been really easy for me to throw in the towel this year (and no one would have even blamed me right?!) but instead I rearranged, adapted, and I hired two new stylists and and an apprentice (ya’ll get to meet him in January!). Something keeps driving me forward and I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s because Maxwell Salon is special- not just to me. This place has made me who I am. I grew up behind my chair. It makes me teary to think about all of the conversations that i’ve had over the years and all of the special moments i’ve been fortunate to have been a part of. I’ve watched people get married and have kids and then watched those kids go off to school; i’ve done first updo’s for Freshman dance and then first balayages for college. I’ve been showing people how to look and feel their best on a daily basis for 15 years. (I CAN NOT believe it’s been that long) During our appointments we laugh, we swap knowledge and stories, we commiserate and sometimes we cry. I’ve learned so much from my clients over the years and I treasure the time we’ve shared together so much (full on ugly crying now). It’s grown into something so much more than just a hair salon, Maxwell Salon is a culture. You get a certain feeling when you enter our space, we’ve worked hard to cultivate not just good but honest and accepting energy. I love that we’ve been able to create a space where you can come as you are as long as you’re not a rude bitch. In the midst of a world where customer service has somehow been twisted into meaning that “the customer is always right” even when the customer is being totally toxic and unreasonable, I’ve been able to take a clear stance as the HBIC and say “we will not be abused at work, go somewhere else”. I’ve met too many ex-stylists who’ve lost their passion and cut their own beauty careers short because of a salon owner or manager who didn’t back them up and didn’t take care of their needs, it breaks my heart. People generally don’t get into hairdressing to become rich and famous, we do it because we have a passion for the craft. To see that passion extinguished by a dishonest, jealous, burnt-out salon owner fills me with a special kind of rage. I’ve always believed that people flourish when you invest in them and show them that they’re supported and cared for. I support my team and my team supports me. There’s no back-biting or double talk, you get what you see. I had to learn all of those hard lessons to learn how to really appreciate the amazing people who have found their way to us now.

I’ve known in my heart (and I believe most of my clients can tell too) that years of full-time customer service while simultaneously being the owner/operator/director of marketing/merchandising/education/IT/supply fulfillment (you get it, its like, a lot of jobs to be the boss) has left me worn out, distracted and in desperate need of a change of pace. I feel such a great sense of gratitude for the love and loyalty my clients have shown me over the years that I just haven’t been able to make the jump without knowing that I can leave ya’ll in trusted hands. Now that I have a team of professionals and amazing humans at my side, It’s time for me to pass the torch and keep working to grow Maxwell Salon and StylistAlicia.com to their fullest potential. In addition to the regular difficulties of being an owner working behind the chair, recent world events have truly left me feeling so depleted of my energies. It’s for these reasons that i’ve had to make a difficult decision. I’ll be taking a leave of absence from behind the chair for an indefinite amount of time. With the most recent state mandated reduction in occupancy it feels like another sign from the universe that I need to take a step back. Giving my station to a fresher, less distracted stylist seems the right thing to do for everyone involved. By doing this, I create space for myself to become the educator that i’ve always wanted to be for my team and space for my teammates to grow and flourish while I support them. The time has now come for me to dedicate myself to growing my brand, growing my team and growing our salon business. I believe there’s magic in these walls and together we will be doing so many amazing things.

I love this place and this team so damn much, I owe it to all of us to see it go as far as it can go. 2020 has been a wake-up call, the same old ways of doing business won’t sustain us anymore. It’s time to get creative and do a big ol’ turn around of the ship. We’re headed into unknown waters and it’s going to require a fully attentive caption.

It is my hope that you will trust me to guide you to a stylist that will meet your needs and guide that stylist to take care of you just as well as (or maybe even better) than I have all these years. I’ve already been working on pairing up my clients with the stylist that I think will be the best match for their needs and passing along all relevant information. So far, I’ve had (almost) nothing but amazing support and encouragement from each person i’ve shared this news with and everyone has promised to let me know if anything isn’t quite right. I have so much to be grateful for and near to the top of the list is my amazing clients. It’s such a beautiful thing to be so supported by a community of kind and wonderful humans during such uncertain times.

I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be in and out of the salon all the time and it’s my intention to keep building StylistAlicia.com into your go to spot for beauty tips, life and real talk. I sincerely hope you’ll join me here for the ride.

I have so many amazing things planned for the rest of December and beyond into 2021, I can’t wait to share with you all. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.

Change is in the air (It smells like success and patchouli)

So much love to you all. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me here, this is where I’ll be spending most of my time now.

-✌🏻❤️✨

Alicia