Today we’d like to introduce you to Louis Davis.
Hi Louis, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I did not start out thinking I would do hair professionally. If you had asked me in highschool I was pretty sure I would be going into nursing. After graduating I planned to take a year off before starting college. There were a few factors playing into that, including a shitty partner and a love for drugs. It started when a friend got stitches and a prescription for hydrocodone,. A group of us took them and hung out and it gradually grew from there. I was 15. I had strict parents and got really good at being sneaky. When I was 16 my (at the time) two best friends found our love for “molly”. I would sneak out when my mom went to bed, or tell her I was sleeping at a friends house, when the three of us were driving around Wichita in my blue 1992 geo metro convertible (a two seater with room for one more in the back compartment if you really tried), doing molly and listening to music. I didnt have just one drugg of choice, it would change depending on availability. Keep in mid at this time i am 16/17 years old. Looking back as an adult now there are way too many early 20s people willing to supply highschoolers with whatever they want.
Between the time I was 16-19 my scheduled looked like going to school, sometimes I would go to theater rehearsals, go home, wait for my mom to go to bed, leave through my window and come home for 5 am before her alarm went off, and repeat. I filled the time out with my (again at the time) best friends would wander around outside, in walmarts back when the were 24/7, or in adult friends homes. I was hooked on drugs for the whole time, living a double life essentially because my parents did not know and wouldnt find out until i began publicly talking about it in March 2025. My drugs of choice were, mdma “molly, cocaine, adderall, xanax, acid. I found out later as an adult the capsules of what my friends and i thought were molly, were actually laced with meth.
In october 2018 I was dumped by my on again off again abusive partner. I had already struggled with extreme depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, self harming tenencies, suicidal ideation and an eating disorder (just to name a few lol). After the breakup I fell even deeper into my xanax addiction specifically. It made all the terrible things going on in my environment and my head quiet. I was able to eat. I could sleep. I could physically feel nothing. At this time I had just turned 19.
9 months after graduating highschool I started hair school. I knew I wanted to something with my life, in case i survived my battles. At the age of I want to say 17 I had decided if i didnt accidentally OD before I turned 23, I would commit suicide. Yet, something (I believe in the universe, not a god or religion) made me start hair school. Now, dont get me wrong, hair school was easily the worst year of my life, a lot of contributing factors in that as well, but I wont go into now, but it gave me something for me to focus on. The lows were low, I was so scared to mess up I didnt even try. I saw all these students along side me earning awards, gaining social media followings, getting good job, and felt so less than. Ironically Im one of the few that still do hair out of my graduating class. I graduated hair school feb 19th 2020, and then the world shut down. The months leading up I was a drinker. I had quit doing drugs for the most part but would drink , not exaggerating, a half a handle by myself in a night. I wqas hungover almost every day of cosmo school. I was fully sober from march 2020 to present day.
My first salon experience I was an assistant. It was the definition of “I had to do it so do you”. I was getting yelled at in front of clients, cleaned floors on my hands and knees with clorox wipes, I could go on but i wont. Simulltaniously I had just gone through some really tough things in my personal life, and figuring out that I am a lesbian, while dating a girl that judged everthing I did.
Life just sucked for a while. I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. I was at a new salon that Id rather not go into too much detail about, but we can say I am very glad to be where I am now. I was california sober, deep in therapy and finding meds. Another horrific relationship. I believe the universe was showing me what Im made of. To want to live because i want to be alive, i want to live for me. In late 2022 i met my now partner madison, that completely turned my life around. I was 3 years off drugs when we met but I would slip up and drink alone in my apartment. Madison was sober from drinking and ever since we met I havent had a drop. She showed me tender, patient love I didnt know existed. We would always joke that my bar was on the floor standards wise. She always gave me tough love in a way that made me grow into a louder, happier version of me. Because shes the best person I know, I moved from wichita to Dodge City Kansas Dec 2023. I started booth renting for the first time, meaning being my own boss, with an incredible group of women, who became friends. I learned how to run a business my way. After a year and a half and me asking my girlfriend very nicely, we moved to the KC area this June 2025.
I am working in an incredible salon, still being my own boss, but niched down. I specialize in gender affirming and alternative hair, offering custom cuts colors and extensions. I chose to do this specialty because as a lesbian nonbinary person I know how it feels to be out of place and leave being more dysphoric than you started, or just a bad haircut. I know what it feels like to be on a gender affirming journey and feeling hopeless because you dont know where to start.
Thanks to my past self always carrying on when it felt impossible, I am now able to help so many amazing humans not feel that way. I have to say I am really proud of that.`
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Of course being a drug addict in highschool was not easy, but a really big part of my life was ruled by my undiagnosed mental health problems. It took a long time to find the right kind of medications to make me feel balanced without feeling foggy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Doing hair is my art form, my passion. There are so many reasons to love what I do. Of course I get to make people feel beautiful/handsome and hear all the drama, thats a given, but i get to help people look like themselves. Being able to look in the mirror and loving what you see. A lot of my clients are currently on their own journeys to finding gender affirmation in their hair. When you dont know where to look that can be terrifying. It is such a vulnerable moment in someones life and sitting in the hair chair can cause crippling anxiety, I am so aware of that when working with clients. I always say its my job to be able to interpret what youre wanting. Send me inspo pics, tell me what you do and dont love. Sitting in my chair ensures you are not on this journey alone. I am a Gender Affirming and Alternative Hair Specialist offering custom cuts, colors and extension.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I obviously have taken many risks in my life, but what is most relevant to my career is I have moved cities twice in less than two years. In December 2023 I took a leap and moved from my home town, Wichita KS, to Dodge City Kansas. I always joke that my girlfriend is lucky shes cute.
I had never ran my own business before and was a little overwhelmed at first. Purchasing all the color and product, booking all the appointments, creating something to be proud of. It didnt take long for me to fall in love with all the responsility. When you do all the work, the relationships you create with clients is so much more personal. I gained clientele quickly and was the happiest id been in a long time.
Then in June of 2025 my girlfriend and i took another chance in moving to Kansas City. My main goal for a long time has been to be able to niche down and do queer rainbow hair all the time, and I feel like I have found that here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lavenderhairco.glossgenius.com
- Instagram: lavender.hair.co
- Other: TikTok lavender_hair_co
