Welcome, welcome, welcome to the sustainable hair stylist Podcast. I'm super, super excited to be here, I'm super, super excited to finally hit record and be here for you guys. My name is Ann-Marie Christell. And for the past 20 plus years, I've been working in the hair industry. And I've been working as a hairstylist and as a teacher. And for a very long time, I have had the urge to actually start to share my point of view of things, share how I see business, how I see life, and maybe guide you to shift some perspectives. So that you can actually work in a more sustainable and holistic way. And so that you can thrive in your business. And this is what I'm going to talk about and what I'm going to explore throughout this podcast. So I'm born and raised in in Sweden, I'm from a very, very small town called fog ista. And I think when I lived there, it was only like 14,000 people living there. And the only thing that's really famous from there is the rock than the house, you might know them maybe don't. And fun fact, some of the steel that they built the Eiffel Tower from actually came from that city. So maybe that's fun fact. At this very moment, I'm situated in Stockholm, Sweden, the capital of Sweden. But I love love, love, love to travel, I see myself more as a global citizen rather than Swedish, I don't really feel like it's reached person anyway. So. Um, and I've had to specialities. Throughout my career as a hairstylist, one of the things that I've been working a lot with is hair extensions. And I've been focusing on creating hair extensions that are non toxic, no glue, no tape, nothing that actually will hurt the hair, and create amazing hair for my clients in a more sustainable way so that they don't have to worry about their hair getting hurt. And the other thing that I've been specialising in is in locks, the creation, maintenance, and so on. And both of these parts is something that I also teach. And it is really, really interesting how we can doubt ourselves, and how we can actually hold ourselves back when it comes to going for what it is that you're meant to do in life. And it is really, really interesting, because I never thought that I would be capable of actually sitting here speaking, being on video. Being a teacher, because I had so much self doubt. I was never trusting that I was good enough. I was never trusting that no one would ever want to hear from me. I didn't trust any of that
at all. And an interesting story actually is how to universe. me in the butt. And it was over five or six years ago. I don't remember exactly but one client that came from Finland she she was in my school Long in Stockholm, getting your hair done. And
many times before, she has told me, Emery, please teach me. Please teach me what to do. And, Marie, please, I want to do what you do. And as many, many times before, I said, No. And if I said no, with my whole body, I said no, with everything that came out of me, because deep down inside, didn't really know if it was even possible for me to actually inspire someone else. Show them what it is that I'm doing, and actually have them do the work and actually strive. So as many times before, I said, No, it's never going to happen. Don't even dream about it. And so on. The morning after I was working from home, and I was doing the laundry. So I went to the laundry room that is in an apartment building next door, came back into the team to our apartment. And I had a feeling that I wasn't really feeling very well that morning. But, hey, I had tight, clean clothes. I was continuing doing what I'm supposed to do. When I came back into the apartment, I started to feel sick. And I almost fell onto the floor because I started to lose all my feelings in my whole body. It is almost like, you know when one of your legs is falling asleep, that was my full entire body. So the universe gave me a very, very big sign, like, Okay, you want that up in your life. So I'm going to kind of paralyse you. I wasn't paralysed, but I couldn't feel my body. So for about over a week, I was in the same state, I went to the doctor's, I tried to rest. And I tried to recuperate, because it's kind of weird. Not feeling your body. I still could do things, but I had no sense of anything in my body at all. And for those days, I got to think. So I realised that for over 20 years, I've been doing this work, I've been learning techniques. I've been evolving, growing, and creating something new. So what if I would never ever able to do hair again. All that knowledge, and the passion, all of that would be stripped away. If I wouldn't start teaching, give this to someone else. And it really, really took some time for me some pondering some exploration to even come to the conclusion that maybe I'm selfish. If I keep on holding all of this knowledge within maybe this is what the universe is trying to tell me that you have to start to teach. So I think in the five or seven or something, I decided, okay, I had a chat with my husband. And we said, well, just try it out and see. Just put it out there and see if anyone wants to come and learn this. So he went really fast. I was had two classes booked out. And during the first session where I had a four day together with sifted six different girls from all over the world. I really found a new passion. And that passion is to actually give hairstylists tools to thrive. Give hairstylist the knowledge that they need in order for for them to really work in an easier way. Dare to value themselves and charge what they are worth. And understanding that the work that we do as hairstylist, it's not only making people beauty beautiful in their hair, we're actually bringing the beauty from within and out on our clients, we're just taking that beauty that everyone has within themselves, and showing the rest of the world how beautiful our clients are. And I think that that's really something that is a gift that we, like every single hairstylist should remember. And start to teach changed how I saw everything. And I realised that I would my doubts and insecurities and so on, I cannot let that hold me back to actually help other people thrive. And that just, I keep on working on it. But it's really a huge passion for me today. So what brought me into the beauty industry from the very beginning is, so I always hated my own hair, I have super thing. Very little, tiny, tiny Scandinavian hair naturally. If you've seen images of me online, or maybe you're watching a video here, now and so on, it's all fake. Nothing of this is real, it's someone else's hair. And for the longest time, for as long as I can remember, I've been playing around with my own hair, I've been wanting to have bigger hair, I will always wanted to have hair like my mom and my mom has really thick, curly wavy hair, that she can just brush her hair in the morning. And it looks like she's been styling it for like five hours and just looks like amazing Hollywood curly hair. But I didn't get that type of hair. And I think it is actually good because I would never be here at this very moment if I actually was born with her hair. So I was always playing with my own hair. And I was doing things on my friends hair and so on. And that brought me into start to work with the hair extensions and start to work with locks because my friends asked me to do their hair. Fast forward. Somewhere around the end of the 90s I had an online friend that actually took the leap with me and decided that she wanted to train me in the world of locks and hair extensions. And that really changed the whole direction on my life because I'm a highly super creative person. And I always thought that I would become an artist I used to go to art school and I used to paint a lot and draw and crates, sculptures and so on. But I think some were around when I actually started to do hair on my friends in one nights when Sonia actually took a chance on me and train me even if I wasn't trained hairstylist at that time. She saw something in me. She saw that I had the will because we had been communicating via email for years and years. And she she was like hey, you have to come and I have to train you because now is the time that you actually learn properly. And that was actually the late 90s That was actually when I started from the very beginning to work with non toxic hair extensions.
It it is a way that you can create hair extensions, wood, wood, nothing that is unnatural. There is no glue. There's no wax. There's No deeds, there's nothing any everything is just hold it on to the hair with a piece of string in different types of attachments. And when I started to learn these methods, and I came home to Sweden, and I started to work with hair, that I realised that I was creating art on my clients heads, and I was getting paid for it. So much easier than actually doing paintings and making money off of that. Because that's kind of hard. And it also took me out of my comfort zone because I'm super, super, super, super introverted. And I had that moment I was really uncomfortable with meeting new people. And as a hairstylist, you didn't get to meet people every single day, I had to train myself to be social, I had to train myself to be there listening, coaching and guiding my clients and actually understand what is it that they want? And how can I create that for them. So my journey as a hairstylist has been really forcing myself into personal development, it's been forcing me to shift how I see the world, how I'm showing up in the world. I've been learning things so that I can cope with myself, change the things that I don't like about myself, so that I can be the best hairstylist for my clients. After a few years, I got trained to become a real hairdresser as well. But I barely focused on those things because all the hair extensions and the locks kept on growing and growing. So just regular cuts in colour and so on has never been my main focus, but I have the education and so on.
So, throughout the years, I've been running my own business. And it has been ever evolving and ever changing. I've done a few different things on the side as well. I've been running an e commerce Store. We've been designing different things, selling them online. But I also had to store and, and so on, but my main focus at all times has always been working with hair. And now that has also shifted so I work a few days in the salon. Because I still love, love, love, love those transformations with my clients. In then on the side, I'm having online courses, coaching and guiding people that wants to work with natural hair extensions, or they want to work with lox. And I help them really build their dream business. And I truly, truly believe that as an entrepreneur today, we always have to start to ask what is the type of life that I want to have? What does my everyday want? What what do I want my day to look like? And how can the business that I have support that type of life? Because as an entrepreneur and I can speak about this from the depths of my heart that having a balance between your business and your private life and understanding that it is something that is intertwined and it is something that you need to find the balance and it will blend together. And how can you make that work without it becoming too overwhelming so that you don't feel that people are pulling you in different directions. And so that you can actually also have time to rest. So that you can have time to get inspired. And still live your life with your family, and have a business that you love. And that is why I truly believe that when I'm talking about being a sustainable hairstylist, I also talk about the holistic, holistic aspect of being an hairstylist as well. Because just working as a sustainable hairstylist, sustainability is something that how what are we doing in your life and in your business? What kind of impact to the have on the outside of the world. But you cannot forget you as your own personal self, because as a hairstylist, usually you are the two you are the one that is creating all of these services, you are the one coaching and guiding and being creative and helping your clients. And we have to be as hairstylist call centred, when we should be able to hold the space for our clients. And we have to rise rate, raise our energy so that we can do all of this, keep a happy smile, smile on our faces and really thrive. So I always bring in the holistic aspect of you as the hairstylist, because we always have to start with us ourselves. And then we can help others.
And I've had quite a very hard life. I'm not going to go into details here about my background and my story.
But I've experienced some trauma growing up. And I've had some really, really hard difficulties. Sometimes I'm still surprised that I'm alive today. And I came to a point where all of this started to come knocking on my door. It was starting to really influence how I was showing up. I was crying every single day. And I knew that it's time to actually deal with this stuff. And one of the biggest lessons that I've had as an entrepreneur as a hairstylist is that I myself, I have to take care of myself first. Because it doesn't matter how much I take care of everyone else around me. If I don't feel okay from within, it doesn't matter how much outside shallow, like how many followers you have on Instagram, or how much money you are making or how much praise you're getting, or how many people are looking up to you or how happier clients are. If you don't feel happy from within. None of that extra stuff that is outside of you will mean anything if you cannot feel just the simplest gratitude and joy from within. And I was stuck in a miserable state. And I realised that I have like two choices. Either I will start to deal with all of that crap. Or maybe I had to drink more alcohol or I should, I don't know put my head in the sand or Maybe I won't survive, because it was those two big polar aspects that was pulling me. So I started to really grow and evolve and ringing up, all of that was coming up for me. And working through it. It was a lot of energy work, it was a lot of therapy, a lot of mindset, growth, coaching, and so on, that I continuously was doing. Finding new ways to looking, looking at live finding you challenges finding, like feeling everything that was actually coming up for me. And it has really built me with this huge toolbox of things of how to deal with things that are coming up for us or for me, for you, maybe. And it really has made me see life in a brand new way. There was at this, I was at this point where I didn't know if I could continue living. I didn't know if I couldn't find joy in anything. I was really, really depressed. And I was really, really digging myself hole in the ground, because the it just kept on going deeper and deeper. And with a few years of work, I have come out on the other side, I truly enjoy life, I have understood that I will never be fully healed. And this is some work that I will continue to do every day for the rest of my life. But I believe I've chosen this path. So I'm totally fine with this. And so that's why I have such a huge passion of helping other people see life in a new perspective, see business in the new perspective, and also grow and evolve. And find those moments, those aha moments where we're just like, can look back and like how, what happened? How did I even get here? Sometimes we have to look back, where we were to actually see what an amazing journey we have been on. And I think this way of looking at business, and my personal life and how they are intertwined. And in how to find the balance between that is super, super important for me. And it also has, I continue to learn different things, I continue to learn new different aspects of how I can find that balance within myself and actually also teach it to others. And this is why I'm talking so much about this because I'm so passionate to actually help others find that within themselves as well. And it is interesting because when we are growing a business, one aspect of is as a business owner, maybe you are the face of your brand. We, as the face of the brand, we also have to continuously work and grow and evolve to really thrive. And we also have to evolve with our business as it's growing and match that up. And I think that that's so so important that we remember that if you do not have like have the goal that you have set up to reach this year, ask yourself what is it that I need to change within to get there? The person that probably already has that the version of you that already have that kind of business? How is that person showing up? And how can you start to work in that type of way? already now to reach those goals. And something that has made me. So one aspect of me actually not working as much with hair, and hair cutting and so on is because a few years in of working as a hairstylist, I started to actually become allergic. I'm allergic to different things. But I started to become more and more allergic, I started to have big rashes. On my hands, I started to have really, really bad asthma, even I'm normally allergic to spring. If you hear me sneeze during this, it's because it's spring here in Sweden. But I started to get really sick from the chemicals working as a hairstylist. And luckily, I still had my specialities that I could work with, and do all of that. But I have become an advocate for working and using products that are sustainable, that has less toxics in them. And the more non toxic hair products that I can use, the better. And this is something that I haven't talked so much openly about on out into the world. And I don't really know why, maybe I thought that other people weren't going to be that kind of interested in it. But I realised now more and more and more that. So we are using so many chemicals every single day. And the less we can use, the better, the less we can use the more like sustainable products, eco friendly products, and non toxic products that we can actually start to buy. We are creating an impact in the world. And we're actually saying that we want to have more of this and the more we can talk about it, the more we can actually create a change in the world.
I'm going to talk on a whole episode about this later on. So I'm not going to go into detail about it. But for me, having a sustainable hair business and also inspiring other hairstylist to work in the same way has become such a big calling. And it really has grown into a huge passion that I realised that other wants to hear about as well. And that's why I actually named this podcast, the sustainable hairstylist because I want more hair stylists to wake up to see that there are other ways of working. If you are starting to become allergic, there might be a reason for that. And we're going to get into detail about that as well. But there are other ways of working. And you can still do amazing hair colour with safe hair colours that will not cause as much of like or either an allergic reaction at all. So I'm going to go into detail about that more. But this is a huge passion of that I have like how can I live in a more holistic way in a more sustainable way? How can I show up and inspire others to do the same? So this is what this whole podcast will be about. For you to really see how can you shift your mindset around things? How can you work in a more sustainable way? How can you live in a more holistic way? How can you see business? How can you use different business tactics to actually grow your business? So how can we market ourselves? How can we become the face our brands, and I might even have my lovely husband, Andy, that is part owner of our business. come as a guest, he has agreed to do that. So we'll see when he will pop up into the podcast as well. And I'm also going to invite other experts in the industry to come and join me as well in interviews and so on. And I really also want to hear from you. What you want to hear from me? What do you want me to explore? And what is it that I can help you with? Because I'm here, I've lost all the fear of actually showing up and speaking and so on. I really realised that this is one of my huge passions, and why I'm here is to help you really step into the best version of yourself and do the work that you are meant to do here in the world. And this is really, my, where I thrive nowadays. And I know the little Ann-Marie is very proud of her where she's become, how long she has come. And I'm going to really invite you to as well to go on a journey together with me. So I'm going to end this now. I've been blabbing all about myself. But I really wanted you to understand a bit of my journey, understand a little bit more of who I am, and why I'm here and why I'm doing this podcast. So I'm super excited to have you here. I want to say Super, thank you for listening. And if you would want to help me out, I would really, really be happy if you could put a review on iTunes, that would be super, super lovely. And maybe you know a hair stylist that really really needs to hear this. Maybe someone that's working with hair extensions, or someone that is a lactation. someone that wants to work in a more sustainable, holistic way, as a hairstylist or in the beauty industry. Most of this stuff can be applied to a lot of industries. Even if you maybe are not an entrepreneurial, you're welcome to join in and listen. So please share this with the people that really really mean it. And I really want you to let me know through DM on Instagram to let me know what is it that you want to hear from me. So you can DM me at ScreenFlow underscore at the Instagram and I would love to hear from you and see what is it that you want to hear more of in this podcast. So I want to say super Thanks for today. And looking forward to go on a new journey together with you. Bye
