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Committed to her students
Stillwater ' s first barber school owner celebrates 20 years
For Heather Sinclair , waking up each morning means making every day beautiful for a lot of people – she is the owner and director of Hello Gorgeous Salon and Hello Gorgeous Barber School in Stillwater . Sinclair , 44 , has had her salon on the The Strip for two decades , celebrating 20 years in April . The school marked its seventh year running this past February .
“ We are the first barber school in Stillwater ,” Sinclair said . “ There was definitely a need for it .”
The school is nationally accredited , like many colleges – it took about three years for that to happen , Sinclair said , but that enables students to get financial aid . Sinclair said opening the school was a calling . “ I ’ m able to give back and help people find or change direction . We get people of all different types looking to change jobs , or just starting out . With COVID we had a lot of people wanting to change jobs ,” she said .
Sinclair , as a visionary , saw the trend of barber schools beginning to open up around the country and something clicked in her mind and she knew that ’ s what she would do – but when she opened the barber school , she had no idea the impact the school would have and how many people would migrate there to learn from her and the teachers there .
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I think the barber school and the salon bring the surrounding towns to Stillwater . Our salon on the strip , it used to be that demographic was just the college . Now the salon and the school bring people in from other towns and all over ,” she said .
HEATHER SINCLAIR , owner and director of Hello Gorgeous Salon and Hello Gorgeous Barber School in Stillwater .
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