Lauren Ford

From what I can remember, my journey began with the hair industry when I was around 8 years old. I went to a small town hair shop near my house and grew up with the same hairstylist for more than 6 years. I remember the happiness I would get as a little girl walking through the salon doors. As I became more comfortable I began asking to do tasks, such as sweeping up the cutten hair that was in the floor. From then on my love only grew. I taught myself how to braid around 9 or 10 years old. I would sit in front of mirrors for hours watching youtube videos on different braids and styles for the hair and try to recreate them. I grew up playing multiple sports and found so much happiness from being able to make my team look their best while playing the sports we all loved.

I quickly found that I had a knack for styling hair. My friends began asking me to style their hair more often for prom, homecoming, etc. I realized this was something I could potentially do as a career and not just as a hobby; not only becoming financialy stable, but genuinely doing something I loved.

I graduated from Cosby High School in 2021. I had a basketall scholarship to play at UT Southern. Becoming a collegiate athlete was always my biggest dream, so I pushed hair to the side. After my first year of college baskketball I had sustained too many injuries to continue playing. I knew as soon as I got home I wanted to enroll in cosmetology school. I enrolled at TSB in August 2022. Shortly after enrolling I realized I was having excruciating pain in my lower back and in both of my hips. After a few visits to an orthopedic doctor we found I had torn my labrums in my left and right hip. I needed to have surgery on my right hip as soon as they could get me in because the pain was almost unbearable, thus leading me to make the difficult decision to stop my hours at school and drop from the program until I coud return fully recovered.

By October 2023 I had fully recovered and was ready to enroll again. Flash forward to today and I am healthy and more confident in my work than ever before. I sustained many setbacks, only to have greater comebacks.

THIS is my why.