Jessica Harden-Lopez

I didn't choose the hair life, the hair life chose, me.

 I possess a strong desire to express my passion and aptitude in beauty, but it wasn’t always this way. I graduated high school in 2021 and felt a feeling we all know too well, feeling lost, lost in a giant world of opportunity thinking to myself “what now?”. I chose the path most people want you to choose, college, but something in my gut was telling me don’t go. I didn’t listen to my gut, but fate made me listen. I lost my car in an accident just a week before I had to move into college and looking back it was a blessing in disguise. This caused me to take a gap year to work on getting myself steady again which gave me more time to think about what I really wanted to do in life. During that time I started a clothing business and worked a 9-5 making $20 an hour but something still wasn’t sitting right, I craved more in life. That's when I started thinking, I’ve always naturally been drawn to the beauty industry and being creative and crafty has always been a skill of mine, I have 4 years of experience braiding hair and I’ve always been able to pick up new things quickly so I knew I had to go to a Cosmetology school. One that offers a lot of opportunities to their students. That’s when I decided to go to Aveda Institute in Chapel Hill regardless of the 150 mile commute there and back. The drive isn’t a problem for me because once I started getting clients I realized this is my purpose, this is my passion and the feedback I get from my clients reassure me and motivate me everyday that I’m in the right place. I have big dreams and I know deep down that I’m going far in this industry and that means I need to put myself out there and work amongst the best and learn from the best. I need to network within this industry and I’m actively chasing this dream.