Life & Work with Aliya Harris

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aliya Harris. 

Hi Aliya, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Growing up, I was always beauty obsessed. Hair, makeup, fashion, etc. I was all about it. I was in high school at the height of YouTube beauty gurus and the obsession continued. With hair, I started out begging my mom for a sew-in (extensions) and eventually moved on to color. I considered myself some sort of DIY colorist, watching YouTube videos, heading to Sally’s and then to my bathroom. I completely fried my hair within six months! In an attempt to go from fire engine red to platinum blonde, my hair fell out in chunks in the shower. No color correction for me, it was heartbreaking, embarrassing, and just was not a good addition to my high school self-esteem. My mom said we could go wig shopping and take care of my hair until it was long enough to do a sew-in again. I’m sure the wigs looked horrible but I loved having the ability to switch up my look in minutes. As the years went on, the wigs got better and so did my “skills” as a stylist and entrepreneur. I was doing anyone’s hair who would let me- whether it was good or not. I knew I didn’t want to go to a university right away because I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew is I wanted to make money and be glamorous. My mom mentioned cosmetology school and I was a bit reluctant but went ahead and toured at two different Paul Mitchell locations. I ended up enrolling in Paul Mitchell The School Overland Park. I was 18, about to start living on my own, and for a lack of a better term a hot mess. I ended up taking a break at about 300 hours out of 1500. I worked, worked, and worked some more. Anyone who knows me knows that it wasn’t unusual for me to have two jobs at once and still do a hair or makeup gig on the side. I got a part-time job at Ulta Beauty and loved the beauty industry. This time around, my boyfriend kept asking when I’d go back to school and after some planning, I enrolled back at Paul Mitchell. With two jobs and going to school, I hustled. To say I was tired is an understatement. I went to school Monday through Friday 9-4:30, worked Tuesday nights at Ulta, and waited tables Wednesday night, Friday night, and double shift on Saturdays. A tired kitty indeed, but with an amazing support system and ambitious attitude. While in school, I knew I wanted to excel in two things in my career: color and social media. And that’s what I focused on. My first salon was not ideal for either of those things and honestly, neither was my second salon. As a new stylist, I didn’t have a lot of help from salon owners getting new clients and really didn’t know what kind of salon environment I wanted to get into. I stepped into a space with some heavy hitter stylists when I assisted a stylist in Kansas City. A big bulk of what I learned about technique, products, booking, and overall salon environment was there and I soaked up everything like a sponge. However, to assist, I took away from my own time taking clients. I was also still waiting tables. (Seriously, always two or more jobs). With a lack of direction, the universe started giving me little hints to the next part of my journey. I ran into an old friend from high school who mentioned his mom owning a salon and his girlfriend worked there. At a class a couple of weeks later I ran into that girlfriend and another stylist from Hair Lovin. I was unhappy at my current salon, no longer assisting and looking to up my career. I called Dana on a Monday and we talked forever. She was so warm and genuine and this wasn’t something I got a lot of in the hair industry. Two years and a pandemic later, I’m still here. Blondes, fantasy colors, and color corrections are my top three favorite services and I run the social media account for our salon on Instagram. For the first time in years, I have ONE job, and a healthy appetite for growth in myself and my career. And occasionally I still do my own hair in the bathroom. 

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?
Figuring out where I belonged in the beauty industry has always been difficult for me. I started in salons with little to no walk-ins and relied heavily on social media for clients. Without a lot of content, I really had to be strategic about social media marketing. Another issue I’ve always had, being a Black stylist in Overland Park, anytime there was a person of color on the phone it was mine because that’s “my thing.” I don’t have a race that’s “my thing” behind the chair. I love working with all textures of hair, as long as it’s hair color. This still bothers me when talking with other stylists. I’d like the cosmetology school curriculum to focus more on not just curly hair but all different textures so we can get out of this world where people of color are turned away from salons due to lack of education. Until then, send all your curly gals needing color this way! 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a hairstylist, focusing on color. My favorite things to do are vivid hair colors, corrective color, and big blonding appointments! I’m most proud of my color corrections. Not everyone is built to do hair, or get their hair done, for 8+ hours. I’d say my patience and “say yes” attitude is what sets me apart. I always try to underpromise and over-deliver. The longest I’ve worked on a client in one day was 10 hours! 

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the past year, we’ve seen a few premonitions of big shifts for the next 5-10 years in our industry: ethnic and curly hair is NOT going away so let’s do it right, independent education is becoming more popular than brand exclusive education and clients are keeping an eye out for social media trends. These are not by any means new concepts, but definitely what will be taken more seriously amongst hairstylists, salon owners, and clients. The old school energy of a “Black salon” only employing stylists of color who only do hair for POC versus “White salons” only accepting clients with “normal” or non- curly hair should’ve stopped a long time ago. People of color, whether natural, relaxed, or wig-wearing, should feel welcome in all spaces. From experience, this is almost never the case. In the past, I only trusted Black stylists with my hair because of poor experiences with stylists who were uneducated with my hair type. Specializing in something is one thing, excluding a race from your services is another. Our industry has the talent to do better, we just need to make space. The same goes for curly hair. If we had a dollar for every client who double-checks if the stylist is good at curly hair, we’d all be rich! I understand the fear behind doing something you haven’t practiced, what I don’t understand is a business turning away clients. With the pandemic, we’ve lost a lot of in-person education, and in an industry where you have to stay on top of trends, this has been stressful. Big brands who gave us zoom meetings with product knowledge and techniques on lagging cameras did not cut it. The independent educators who put together “real” content talking about salon systems, techniques, and their own education have been well received by stylists because we appreciate someone who works behind the chair and has had the hectic year we have. Combined with how accessible social media is and how much it’s growing, if you’re a stylist, this is becoming more common for our clients to watch other big stylists! They’re learning the terms, trying to understand what we do and why what we use, and most importantly, what we charge. Charging your worth is the goal of any small business owner, we are no different. But keeping up with color and cutting techniques, products and social media trends is all the more important in our fast-paced industry, and that’s not slowing down. The last thing I’ll mention is retail. With Amazon prime taking over (don’t get me wrong, I love it too) it’s tempting to just order those products we just told you about. The problem stylists are running into is that we can’t guarantee the product you bought is what you think it is. Whether expired, diluted or just not the product it says it is at all, we can’t tell you one way or the other because you didn’t buy it from a salon retailer. Brands on Amazon can also tend to be marked up higher than on the salon shelf. Also, that new shampoo you found on Facebook, take it out of your cart, please. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hairlovin.com/aliya-harris
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glamourkittensss/?hl=en

Image Credits
Aliya Harris
Matt Ziegenhorn