Life & Work with Sarah (Seola) Kim

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah (Seola) Kim.

Hi Sarah (Seola), please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It has been my 14th year of doing hair by 2021. I started quite young when I was 19 in Korea. I never knew at the first place I would fall in love with doing hair for this long but surprisingly here I am still doing hair, haha. Originally I wanted to be a chemistry engineer. I knew myself very well that I am so active that I can’t be work in the lab my whole life. I probably would get bored of it. I am always interested in handcraft work such as painting, knitting. I remember when I was in middle school, every summer vacation I used to do simple cornrows myself. Sometimes did my friend’s hair too and I got paid by ice cream, haha. I guess that was my 1st client I ever taken! Even I did individuals hair extensions on my hair just for fun. It took hours doing it but I was having fun with learning something new and get prettier. (Back then there is no YouTube, I had to go to salon and get it done on my hair and came back home undo it and do it again on hair to learn myself) One of my relatives was quite famous stylist in Korea, and his story inspired me & my sister. We both got into hair after. I work as an assistant for seven years. It is quite a long time compared to other stylists in LA. I started with haircuts and all different kinds of perm included Japanese straightening perm and hair extensions. I was trying to learn as much as I can to see what I like to do the most. I found out myself that I enjoy coloring the most. There is no easy hair but it challenges me the most and keeps me creative 😉

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I came to the state at age 23, since I am an immigrant, language was the biggest obstacle in the beginning. I believed that communication is the key to personal care service. However, the very first two years I had a hard time explaining all the things I wanted to say to clients. Luckily all of my clients were so nice and kind that they were patient with me. I do appreciate it so much 🙏 I would say every day I am facing the challenges on every single client. Like I mentioned earlier, there is no easy hair to me 😅. I think because mostly I do blonding a lot. Although the biggest challenge for me, when I have a client who needs a hair break but they can’t be patient. There is nothing I can’t do or doing any kind of service due to concern of hair condition but she wants to go lighter and light soon.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a hairstylist/colorist. I am known as blonde specialist especially on Asian platinum blonde hair. I think a lot of clients believe me that I do care about the hair. It makes me proud of the most than just doing good hair work. I know LA is a very big hair city, there are so many talented and amazing stylists and colorists here. If I ask myself what make I special, I am able to handle different style of hairstyle. I tried not to stick with one kind of style color or haircut. Even blonde hair, there are so many different ways that make blonde hair, baby lights, balayage, foliage, highlights, global bleach, etc. With all of my long period assistant experience, I am able to change my technique according to clients needs.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Even though I am known for a blonde hair specialist, I am good at brunette hair. 😘

Pricing:

• Hair consultation $0!! Feel free to ask any hair questions
• Full highlight 480
• Babylights 480
• Platinum hair 600+
• Haircut 175

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.seolahair.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLrnH0bDHke/?igshid=1sdib61smjjkh
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/khXF2m1Kjdb