Meet Gillian Kuhlmann of The Line in Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gillian Kuhlmann.

Gillian, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Beauty school started for me as a way to get out of going to high school. My friends wouldn’t let me cut their hair so I was always trying to teach them how to cut mine. When I saw the opportunity to get school credit for doing hair I jumped on it. I didn’t realize then that I was starting my career. At 16, the word career wasn’t even in my vocabulary.

After getting my first job in a salon my focus was on learning everything I could. Any class I was offered I took If I wasn’t offered something I asked for it. My obsession was always haircutting, and after a while I started teaching it as well. I never had much interest in styling until I saw a cover Orlando Pita did on a magazine and for some reason I was fascinated and styling started to interest me. Once I started practicing I realized I was pretty good at it, but I wanted to do more. I moved to New York, got a job assisting at Bumble and Bumble to learn as much about styling as I could, at the time all my favorite stylists worked there. In addition to styling I also learned a new tool, The Razor. I wasn’t sure about it at first but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed learning about it. I worked as a session stylist for a while doing photoshoots, ad campaigns, and runway shows. I loved it but after a few years I found myself missing the salon, I realized how much I loved the interaction with other stylists and most importantly the clients.

When I moved back to Los Angeles in 2010, I got a job at a small community salon in Santa Monica. I started to enjoy the everyday of salon life and develop my own style. I wasn’t reinventing the wheel, but I started to figure out how to incorporate the techniques and tools I’ve learned over the last decade.

After a few years I felt like I needed to shake things up a bit. In 2015 my friend and business partner, Monica and I opened The Line, a salon suite in Santa Monica. I’m a haircutting educator with Davines and this year I’ve started CUTclass, a monthly haircutting demonstration at The Line.

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?
No, absolutely not. No smooth road over here! And the more I think about it the more I’m realizing there might be more struggles and failures than successes.

There’s this Winston Churchill quote, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” I learned this quote at the first Sassoon class I took very early on in my career and it’s only been the last few years that I’m starting to really grasp it.

I think the biggest struggle for me has always been myself. There’s that internal battle, dealing with my own insecurities and confidence. Getting over the fear of what people will think? How will people react? Am I doing it right? And then running away from all of it because that little fear of failure has taken away my enthusiasm.

I’ve always felt confident in my work, but showing my work… thats a different story. What I’ve learned is that there are lessons in our mistakes and our struggles and if I take the time to learn from them, great ideas will come. So I keep practicing confidence by showing and sharing my work because it’s the best way for me to keep moving forward!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Line – what should we know?
A few years ago, I was feeling monotonous in my career. I thought moving to another salon would give me more energy but everywhere I looked felt like the same thing over again. I never thought I would own a salon but when suites opened up nearby it seemed like the right challenge. When we opened The Line in 2015 it gave me that spark of energy I needed. We’re a three-chair salon suite one block east of Santa Monica beach inside Salon Republic. There’s a different joy that comes from hosting a client in your own space. It’s like hosting a party everyday and when everyone in the salon is laughing together and sharing stories or all those little details are noticed like our wine glasses, the smell of our shampoo, the extra frothy almond milk cappuccino, I get super proud.

In the salon I do mostly haircuts, hair color. I also offer styling, extensions and texture services. My favorite part of this industry is relating with my clients so I work hard at keeping myself updated in all things hair so I can provide them with my very best.

As an educator, my focus is on haircutting. I love talking about haircutting and I love sharing the way I cut hair. I’ve been teaching with Davines for a few years now and this year I started CUTclass as a way to share haircutting with fellow hairstylist in our community.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Hands down my drive for education, teaching, and learning! Keeping in tune with what’s going on in our industry and staying a part of the conversation keeps me feeling successful.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1333 2nd st
  suite 100 studio 29
  Santa Monica, CA 90401
• Website: www.thelinesalon.com
• Phone: 424-259-1422
• Email: gillian@thelinesalon.com
• Instagram: @gfortytwo

Image Credit:
Photographer for black and white with short hair and blonde in leather jacket is Russell Mayes

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