Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenn Schouten.
Hi Jenn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve been in the beauty industry for about 30 years, and over that time, both the industry and my relationship with it have changed tremendously. I started behind the chair, and for many years I experienced beauty through the traditional salon lens. As I grew personally and professionally, I began questioning some of the ideas our industry had been built around, what beauty is supposed to look like, how people should feel when they walk into a salon, the products we use, how we impact the environment, and even how we care for the people doing the work.
Those questions eventually became Elevate Organic Hair Salon + Spa, which I founded in 2020.
I wanted to create something that felt different: an inclusive, intentional space where beauty wasn’t about fixing something that was wrong with you, but about self-expression, self-care and radical self-acceptance. Clean beauty and sustainability became important parts of that, but so did the experience itself, creating an environment where people could slow down, feel comfortable being themselves and receive care in a way that considered the whole person.
Of course, building a business rarely follows a straight line. Elevate has gone through several iterations, and I’ve had to evolve right alongside it. I’ve learned how to move from being a hairstylist to being a business owner and leader, how to build and support a team, how to make difficult decisions, and how to let go of versions of success that no longer fit.
Most recently, we relocated Elevate from Mission to Prairie Village and intentionally moved into a smaller space. At one point in my career, I probably would have viewed “bigger” as the obvious marker of growth. Today, I see growth very differently. The move allowed us to reduce overhead, become more intentional about how we use our space and resources, and focus on building a healthy, sustainable business rather than simply a larger one.
Today, Elevate is a salon and spa with a team of professionals offering hair, scalp, facial and massage services. We’re continuing to explore what it means to create a more thoughtful beauty industry, from the products and practices we choose to the way we care for our clients, our community and one another.
Thirty years into this career, I think what excites me most is that I still don’t feel finished. I’m still questioning, learning and evolving. Elevate has become less about building the salon I once imagined and more about continually asking what a beauty and wellness business can be when its decisions are rooted in intention, impact and alignment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I founded Elevate in 2020, which, in hindsight, was quite a year to decide to build a business centered around human connection and caring for people.
Like so many small business owners, I learned very quickly how little control we actually have over the circumstances around us. There have been financial challenges, unexpected problems with our physical space, the complexities of building and leading a team, and most recently, the decision to relocate after ongoing issues with our previous location. There have also been seasons when significant things were happening in my personal life at the same time the business still needed me to show up.
For a long time, I think I believed resilience meant being able to carry more. If something wasn’t working, I worked harder. If there was a problem, I figured out how to solve it. That determination helped me build Elevate, but I’ve also had to learn that resilience isn’t always about pushing through. Sometimes it’s about being willing to change direction.
Leadership has probably been one of my greatest areas of growth. Learning to trust and delegate, have difficult conversations, create accountability while still leading with compassion, and understand that I don’t have to personally carry every part of the business has challenged me in ways I never anticipated when I became a salon owner.
Our recent move from Mission to Prairie Village really represents that evolution for me. We moved into a smaller space and became much more intentional about our overhead, our systems and what we actually need to operate a healthy business. Earlier in my career, downsizing might have felt like moving backward. Now I understand that sometimes the most successful decision isn’t expansion, it’s creating something more sustainable.
The challenges have taught me to be much less attached to what I think the journey is supposed to look like. I still have ambitious goals for Elevate, but I’m learning that growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of myself, my team or the values the business was created around.
I think that’s been one of the greatest lessons of entrepreneurship for me: you can be incredibly committed to your vision while still allowing the path to that vision to change.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Today, I’m still a hairstylist, but my work has expanded far beyond what happens behind the chair. I’m the founder of Elevate Organic Hair Salon + Spa, and much of my work now is about creating the vision, culture and experience behind the business while continuing to work with clients myself.
Elevate brings hair, scalp care, esthetics and massage together in one space, with a focus on lower-tox products, thoughtful practices and a more holistic approach to beauty and wellness. We’re always asking questions about what we use, why we use it and how our choices impact our clients, our team and the environment.
But I think what we specialize in most is how we make people feel.
The beauty industry has historically made a lot of money convincing people there is something about themselves that needs to be fixed. I want Elevate to be the opposite of that. Our mission is rooted in radical self-acceptance. You can want to color your hair, get extensions, care for your skin or simply spend an hour receiving a massage without any of those things meaning that you weren’t already enough when you walked through the door.
That philosophy influences everything from the products we choose to the atmosphere we’ve created. We value a quieter, more intentional environment and recognize that not everyone experiences a salon the same way. We want our clients to feel comfortable, cared for and able to be themselves here.
I’m also incredibly proud of the team and culture we’re building. I’ve learned that creating a great place for clients also requires creating a healthy place for the people providing that care. We’re continually working on how we communicate, how we support one another, how we grow professionally and how we create careers that allow people to have lives outside of work. I don’t think those conversations are separate from the client experience, I think they’re directly connected to it.
What sets Elevate apart probably isn’t one particular service or product. It’s our willingness to continually question the way things have traditionally been done in our industry. Sometimes we keep the tradition, sometimes we change it, and sometimes we decide it doesn’t belong in the kind of business we’re building at all.
What I’m most proud of is that Elevate continues to become more aligned with its values as it grows. Success for me isn’t about being the biggest salon or doing the highest volume. It’s about building a business that is intentional, impactful and sustainable. For our clients, our team, our community and the world we’re all sharing.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is living and leading in alignment with what I say I value.
That sounds simple, but I’ve learned that it can be one of the hardest things to practice. It’s easy to talk about caring for people, community, sustainability, balance and well-being. It’s much harder to make decisions based on those values when they require you to change direction, have an uncomfortable conversation, say no to an opportunity or redefine what success looks like.
I care deeply about people and the impact I have on them. That includes my family, my team, my clients and the larger community I’m part of. I want the people in my life to feel seen, respected and valued, but I’m also learning that caring for others doesn’t require abandoning myself in the process.
That has probably been one of the biggest areas of growth for me, personally and as a leader. I spent a lot of my life believing that being a good person, partner, mother, employer or leader meant giving more of myself. I’m learning that I can be generous and compassionate while also having boundaries, asking for what I need and allowing other people to carry their part.
I also care about being conscious of the impact of my choices. In business, that shows up in how we treat people, the products we use, the waste we create and the kind of culture we’re contributing to. Personally, it means continuing to question my own patterns and being willing to change when my actions aren’t matching the person I want to be.
At this point in my life, I’m less interested in looking successful and much more interested in building a life and a business that actually feel successful from the inside. For me, that means meaningful relationships, work that has a positive impact, time to experience my life while I’m living it, and continuing to become more fully myself.
Ultimately, I think what matters most to me is leaving things a little better than I found them. People, places, my community and, hopefully, myself too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elevateorganichair.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevateorganichairsalon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevateorganichairsalonspa
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevate-organic-salon-spa
