Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrienne Small.
Adrienne, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am a colorist, educator, and beauty mastermind curator based in Memphis, TN. I am a 35 years old mother of two, wife and licensed cosmetologist of 15 years.
I began doing hair literally at the age of 12. I started out braiding hair and my parents allowed me to accept clients in their home. It wasn’t until high school that I realized the beauty industry would be an actual career for me. My parents wanted me to attend college and even though I knew for sure I wanted to go to cosmetology school, I gave in and went to college instead. Leading into my Junior year, I got pregnant with my first child and it was at that moment, I realized I could take that leap and enroll like I always wanted to. I finished beauty school early (nine months vs the allotted 12) and began to work for a high end, predominantly white salon. This salon taught me the exact foundation I needed to not only become a great business owner but an educator as well. My first educating position was with a New York based company called Bumble and Bumble and this was the first time I was awarded the opportunity to travel and teach. I did this for three years and it opened so many doors and put me in front of all the right people!
Soon, through the power of social media, I was connected with a celebrity stylist by the name of Ted Gibson. He was looking for stylist to occupy his new salon in South Florida and literally on a whim, I sent in my resume, flew to Ft. Lauderdale to audition, and within two weeks after landing the job, I packed up my daughter and life in Memphis and moved. I only spent a year there but being able to work with celebrities and attend special events showed me a different side of the industry that I would have never been able to touch had I stayed in Memphis. It also showed me that what I thought I wanted was far from what God had planned for me. It was the best and worst experience of my career thus far!
Although I never intend on owning my own salon, when I returned to Memphis, I knew I no longer wanted to work for anyone else. I obtained my own salon suite and formed a new business venture that then was called Beyond The Chair Symposium. Beyond the Chair was my baby! It was a smaller version of these huge trade shows that was meant to showcase some of the best beauty professionals in the city of Memphis. From look and learn to hands on classes to business workshops, we held it all over the course of 3 days. It was for us by our type of event. We were the celebrities that no one noticed but we KNEW we were great at our skill.
Six years of Beyond the Chair and it got to the point where I noticed God was nudging me in a different direction. It no longer was a passion project but more of a burden so I knew he was telling me it had run its course. The very year I was ready to give up on Beyond the Chair, I was invited to a career fair at a local high school. I thought I would see roughly 50-75 students at my table and by the end of the day, I had touched over 375 young girls who all were interested in some aspect of the beauty industry and wanted to attend MY events and classes simply from our connection at their career day. Now, although I have a teenager, servicing them was the last thing on my mind. So I fought the idea of working with them. Oddly enough, every single month in 2018, I was asked to speak or teach at a high school about my profession. I was even asked to present at a national high school conference for entrepreneurship. After noticing I had spent an entire year servicing high schoolers as a beauty professional, I realized God was showing me it wasn’t the professionals that needed me, it was the young girls who hadn’t even touched the industry but had way more passion for it then the adults I thought I was meant for! It was at that moment that Beyond the Chair Foundation was formed. Everything I offered beauty professionals for six years is now a non-profit organization for beauty enthusiasts ages 13-19.
In two years, we have served over 100+ teenagers who are interested in any aspect of the beauty industry while awarding over $20,000 in beauty schools and aesthetic school scholarships, gifts, and prizes! Now known as The Adrienne Small Foundation, our annual six day summer camp will now offer a year round cohort program to ensure we are able to build a community with our “Girlpreneurs”, while instilling leadership and communication skills with our hands on courses and business workshops.
Although I am still behind the Chair, and my nonprofit has become a big part of my career, I still had a heart for creating platforms for professionals. I have been licensed for 15 years, but it wasn’t until the last five years that I found a love for hair color. Being a colorist allowed me to dig deep and be more creative. Again through social media, I was approached with the opportunity to become a brand ambassador for now global color company Celeb Luxury. Four years later, I am apart of their artistic team and an educator. Teaching hair color gave me a new perspective on teaching professionals. Meeting so many talented colorists while traveling and teaching gave me a new look on this side of the industry and I wanted to find a way to showcase all the amazing colorists who never get the proper recognition. That is where Hair Color Concepts™ Magazine came about.
Hair Color Concepts™ Magazine is your consumer and professional source for all things hair color! It’s not your normal hair magazine as we solely focus on hair color education. You get your product knowledge and color breakdowns, but we also make sure we feature stylists who don’t necessarily have the celebrity-based clientele or the 100k followers but are killing everything they produce. I guess you can say I definitely have a soft spot for the underdog, the beauty guru who doesn’t get their full praise, as I am that underdog that is seen but still proving their work is worth that feature. I wholeheartedly believe in being the change you want to see and as long as God breathes breath in my body, I intend on making sure I am that change!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely NOT!! Being a mother of two and a wife while juggling three businesses is a recipe for a bumpy road!
The biggest struggle is managing my time. Knowing when to say no and when to shut it all down. There is this thing called BALANCE that no one teaches you when you first become an entrepreneur and in the beginning, It doesn’t exist!
There are also the financial struggles. God will give you these visions and give you the go ahead to move forward while also expecting you to make it all great with what you currently have! It’s very hard and I have spent many days frustrated, but there is a different level of passion and faith that fuels the entire thing.
Hair Color Concepts & The Adrienne Small Foundation – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Behind the Chair, I specialize in transformative hair color on natural hair. What this means is that every client that sits in my Chair is relaxer free and at some point, they all become a color client!. I love being able to transform women through their hair. Hair color gives us a whole new identity and I’m obsessed with being able to change a life by simply changing their hair.
My non-profit organization, The Adrienne Small Foundation, provides year round cohort programs, workshops and camps to beauty enthusiasts ages 13-19. In two years, we have built a community of 100+ teens we have deemed “Girlpreneurs” and have awarded over $20,000 in scholarships and prizes.
My magazine publication, Hair Color Concepts Magazine is your consumer and professional source for all things hair color! We pride ourselves in servicing the professional who needs that extra push to be seen. That colorist who is absolutely amazing at their craft but hadn’t received the proper credit. We are that platform that shows our community just how transformative hair color can be while educating them on the proper techniques and products.
I am more proud of the fact that I am a very normal, relatable black woman who simply saw a need and pushed forward with fulfilling the needs. I found my niche, educated myself, did the research and created exactly what most thought I was incapable of creating.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Forming my nonprofit is definitely a proud moment for me. I have stood on many stages and taught many classes, but seeing my girls create businesses, get excited when they receive full scholarships from us to attend beauty school, or even achieve something as small as mastering a skill we taught them, that makes me extremely proud. It definitely shows me how I am truly living in my God-given purpose,
Pricing:
- Hair Color Services: $ 350+
- Sponsor a High Schooler: $300 (one time annual fee)
- HCC Magazine: $19.99 (print) $9.99 (digital)
- HCC Magazine Advertising: $100-$500
- HCC Magazine Submissions: $75- $225
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AdrienneSmall.com, www.HairColorConceptsMagazine.com, www.TheAdrienneSmallFoundation.org
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ByAdrienneSmall, www.instagram.com/HCCMagazine , www.instagram.com/TheAdrienneSmallFoundation
Image Credit:
Marcus D Porter Studios
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
