Today we’d like to introduce you to Caitlin Spear.
Caitlin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Ever since I could remember I wanted to be a hairdresser. When I was 3/4 years old my mom and dad would find me hiding under tables with scissors cutting my own hair or my dolls…. let’s just leave it at my dolls and I always had a special flair to us! Years pass by and I get two little sisters who became my new dolls to experiment on. This grows my love and passion for doing hair and makeup even more. Senior year at my high school is approaching and my dream has still not changed since I was little, I still wanted to do Hair and Makeup. With that being said I research many schools and with the help of my loving grandparents, I was able to attend one of the top schools, Paul Mitchell. I remember my first day there, only a few weeks after high school, there were about 30 girls in my class and they all were a few years older than me and already knew how to color and cut hair. I felt so out of place at this time as I felt like I should have known more like them, A few days later, we do a undo competition. You where to find an inspiration photo online or from a magazine and replicate it. I placed second in that competition out of the 30 girls! That competition boosted my self-esteem and I was ready to take on anything and everything. As my time was about to end at the school, I was chosen to do a magazine spread on bridal hair with one of the most amazing stylists in the hair industry. This was a huge building block for me as it really made my career blossom. I started booking hair for weddings before I was even out of school. As my work doing wedding hair grew I was offered to be a freelance artist for a wedding company out of Ventura. The owner took me under her wing and taught me all I could know about makeup. So now not only was I booking hair but now makeup too! As I’m building my clientele and becoming more and more know my career slams on its breaks,hard. I get in a horrible car crash and almost lose my hand. I’m airlifted to the hospital where they then proceed to try and save my hand. After numerous surgeries and working so hard at physical therapy, my hand went from possibly getting 30% movement back to getting 90% back. It took a long time to recover from this but it has only made me stronger. My clients stayed with me the whole time and were daring in letting me do their hair or makeup when my hand wasn’t completely back yet. So it’s now 3 years after my accident and I have never been so booked up in my life. This 2016 wedding season has been so beautiful and I can’t wait to see what the 2017 brides bring me for their styles and looks!
Has it been a smooth road?
I have defiantly have had MANY bumps in the road. But these bumps make you stronger not only as a person but as an artist. The biggest bump was when I almost lost my hand.
Tell us about your childhood, what were you like growing up?
Oh goodness… as my mother would say “Caitlin beats to her own drum”. I loved to paint. My favorite things to paint were my parent’s patron bottles haha. I got in a lot of trouble painting those bottles at times because I would open the bottle and put paint in it. I thought it was water. I also loved to dance! I would take as many classes as my parents could afford….you could say I just loved to be creative. However, I did take piano lessons when I was younger and the teacher had to stop our lessons because I would never sit still. So some creative outlets weren’t my cup of tea. When I wasn’t dancing or painting I was playing with friends or my little sisters. I would make up dances for my sisters, do their hair or makeup, teach them cheerleading. They were like my alive barbie doll! Don’t let that fool you, though, my sisters and I fought but my brother, who is 18 months older than me, he and I fought like cats and dogs. He and I would fight over the littlest things and it was all the time…our poor parents! Although we fought I’m so grateful for him. We didn’t know it at the time but we were teaching each other how to stand up for ourselves and fight for what we want and how to drive our parents crazy haha. As much as I wished I was an only child when I was younger I’m glad that that’s not the case. Without my siblings, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
Is there a specific memory from when you were younger that you really miss?
I wouldn’t say favorite but most memorable is when I was in kindergarten and I went over to my friend Danielle’s house. She just got a new hair cut and it was a cute bob right below her jawline (at the age I just saw short hair with a bow in it and I wanted it). I told Danielle how much I loved her hair and she says, “I know how to do it. I watched her”. I say Great. So first we had to get my hair wet so what so we do, go swimming of chores. Then we go upstairs in her house and she cuts away and I’m soon happy. We didn’t want our moms to find out what we did so we flushed all my hair down the toilet then clipped it up in the cute butterfly clips from the 90’s. My mom came and picked me up and I walk out and she makes me take all the clips out of my hair and get in the car. It is not until we get home she see’s my new hair cut, which I thought was fabulous and she did not. In the end, we both got in trouble and I got a haircut that looked like boys haircut but I wore a tired ribbon in it and was very proud
What are your plans for the future?
Well, I’m engaged to the most amazing man and we plan on getting hitched mid-2017. So that’s my biggest change and event I’m planning for. I’m apart of all these beautiful weddings weekend after weekend and I know they take a lot of work but man, this is way more work than I thought. Luckily I have one of my two amazing sisters in law helping me. She seriously is a wedding ninja. I also got a new puppy…so wish me luck haha
Contact Info:
- Website: www.caitlinspear.com
- Phone: 818 665 9524
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Caitlinspear01
- Other: #caitlinspearmakeuphair
