Enchantment Desert Magazine May 2017 | Page 4

A woman surviving in a male dominated profession

So I guess I could start before I started cutting hair I was the finance manager for the car dealerships for about 12 years I came to a point in my life where I wanted to do things my way and not how everybody else had seen things my parents were against me cutting hair because they thought there was no retirement. I was 33 when I went to cosmetology school very quickly I developed a love for cutting. In cosmetology school you learn a lot of different areas but none of them interested me as much as cutting straight out of school I took my first two jobs one was for a corporate style place to cut hair the other was my very first barbershop which was line it up. The problem that I've always had as a woman cutting in a man's world was you you were automatically assumed to be I candy nobody takes you seriously. I remember several times asking several barbers for help in learning a technique or skill in fading One out of those 10 barbers would actually help the other nine thought I was there to admire them and eventually think I was going to sleep with them. After getting nowhere at line it up I moved to booth rent and did the corporate thing again part time it was always consistent money for me after a while I just started shooting up the ladder on before long I was a manager I was getting sent out to different cities different states all over New Mexico and parts of Colorado. I wan the most customer account growth at the accelerate be the driver in Las Vegas Nevada. I took a store that was about to close and made it the number one in the region. After that I was fired because I questioned people that weren't getting raises.