Conversations with Liz Bean

Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Bean.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Wow.

That’s a long story, lol.

Which part?

My love of hair?

Or my intense addiction to dancing with my demons that almost cost me my life… or the saving grace of the birth of my son?

I was the oldest of four. My mother played the piano in our church and my dad had a very strong work ethic and intense drive to start his own medical supplies business and move us across the country when I was very young, chasing his dream to be his own boss. I found an intense love of hair at a young age. Saving my lunch money to buy braiding books from scholastic and coming up with the weirdest hairstyles to wear to the skating rink. I started playing with coloring my hair very young. And my mother disliked it.

Making a joke that the tub was a different color every week. (payday). It was the best day of my life when they did away with the rule in the tenth grade of only natural hair. I went to my friend’s house and bleached my whole head and went hot pink. I came home and walked in the door after knowing I’d be dead. My mother had the newspaper in her face reading as I walked in… then she put down the newspaper and started screaming when she saw my pink hair! “chuck get in here come to see you daughter”, she was livid and I was grounded. Lol.

So anyway, time went in I was told I was very sweet but I broke rules often lol. I had an addiction to coloring my hair… But. Sadly another addiction grew. My addiction to alcohol started young and grew as the years went by. I decided to finally go to hair school when I was 26. But I was a bartender too and sadly, I couldn’t stay sober through school. I shook so bad when rolling perms, I’d go take shots on lunch break just to calm my nerves. “Liz you have a true gift. But we are going to have to expel you”. I got kicked out of hair school. Years later, I went to rehab. Still, dream of doing hair and hopefully leading others one day.

My counselor asked me what my dreams were. What was the one thing if I had a choice to be if anything in the world what would it be? I told her. So, she got to work and found a grant for me to go to hair school again a full ride! Rediscover rehabilitation gave me the resources to go follow my dream and I was no longer homeless. I found out just a few months into hair school I was going to have a baby boy! I graduated from hair school 2 weeks before giving birth to Oliver. Unfortunately, my addiction resurfaced, Oliver and I were separated when he was just two months old.

I wrote to him every night in my journals in a women’s sober living home, I lived in with other mothers who lost their children. I did the women’s hair in my sober living home and my own to keep my dream alive while fighting for my son in the court of law. I swept hair in a local shop just to stay around the environment I adored. I landed a job at a high-end salon that taught me how important education was to perfect my craft. And they taught me a ton about marketing and helped me build my clientele doing hair gave me something to focus on when I was separated from my true love. Oliver.

After a long court battle that lasted almost two years, I reunited with joint custody and a great co-parenting relationship. I am over 5 and a 1/2 years sober, I have my boy and an incredible support system. I have plenty of hair guests that are still with me from the beginning. I have blessed the life I have today because of my son and the love of hair. I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over us to perfect my coloring skills and finally accomplish my dreams! Oliver and I are opening a salon in the northland called R e v I l o a Liz l bean hair salon. Revilo is my son’s name backward and the word also means to increase the value.

I love making men and women feel beautiful so they will pour that positivity into all areas of their life. I’m very excited to give my guests and all a guest a comfortable and uplifting salon filled with talented artists and an experience unlike any other. Down to the lavender hot towel with a head massage or quirky artwork and design picked by my son and me in the salon! Our mission is to increase the value of our guest’s life. Starting with their hair!

R e v I l o

Life is a gift. And I want to share the love with all and inspire a great team in our salon!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
So many rewards and challenges along the way. Challenges were trying to stay away from the drink so I could live in my dream of doing hair. Losing my son to my addiction, and taking a 90-minute bus ride to and from work to do hair. to keep my sanity. Leaving a stable job at a salon in a pandemic to work for myself booth renting to give my son and me a better neighborhood to live in and to finally get off public assistance.

When looking for a building to rent it took getting turned down 6 times till someone would finally give me chance! Hearing the words from a judge of taking my custody. Being homeless and living on saltine crackers. Scrounging for change under vending machines at night in apartment complexes. A lot of hospital visits, jails, institutions due to my addiction.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a hair artist who specializes in color and I’m known for my before and after transformations and color corrections. I think what sets me apart is I have a true heart and soul for this industry. Because it was the ONLY positive thing in my life for so long. It saved my life and kept me sober.

I’m most proud of putting in the hard work and dedication to opening R E V I L O with my son.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Watching my grandfather poor his passion out into the mic. And how much he loved God. And how passionate he was. I have a passion like that.

He was a baptist preacher.

When my mother saw my hair Pink for the first time.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.facebook.com/R-E-V-I-L-O-A-Liz-L-Bean-Hair-Salon-106137788592013/
• Instagram: @revilokc or @lizlbeanhairartist
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/R-E-V-I-L-O-A-Liz-L-Bean-Hair-Salon-106137788592013/

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