Lilly Shim

How I became a Hairdresser. I remember the very first day I fell in love with the beauty industry.

 It wasn't as a wee thing playing beauty shop with all my little friends or as a teenager eagerly consuming the 90's fashion magazines of the time. Or doing all my friends hair and make-up for their special occasions through high school. No Beauty School was for losers. Or so was the concensus anyway.

I was in my secound year of private college and sooo desprately wanted to get into Veterinary Medicine. Unfortunately, I knew it would be a long expensive road. So at the dreaded thought of dropping out of my private college to move home and go to a community college, that's what I did and I knew it was not going to be fun. 

But my Dad had another idea. A student loan to the local Beauty College, so I could work my way through Veterinary School as debt free as possible. His reasoning being "if you have a trade, no one can take it away from you." lol I doubt I even unerstood what he meant by that at the time but I definitely didnt want to be a cosmetologist because in college that's what they said drop-outs would become lol and florists. Well, hey maybe it's true, cause guess what? That's right, I

never went to Vet School.

You see that very first day of Hair School, with my little black suitecase, not knowing a soul. I knew, I knew I never wanted to do anything else. And that's when I fell in love with the beauty industry. It's like this whole new world opened up and I saw it as the most wonderful supported space with limitless possibilities. 

THIS INDUSTRY the BEAUTY INDUSTRY has saved my life so many times and given me the freedom of independence just like my Dad said it would. To this day, almost 30 years later, I love being a hairdresser. And still have clients that often tell me they can see how much I love what I do in my work and the way I make them feel. What a gift and privilege to have found and to be a part of the beautiful world of BEAUTISTAS!