Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Mueller.
Hi Gina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My journey began back in high school when I developed a passion for hair and makeup. I would spend hours in my bathroom playing and experimenting with creative styles. My senior year of high school, I worked a few weddings and loved it. Senior year of high school, my family decided to move across country and I was struggling to decide what I wanted to do post-graduation. I decided to attend cosmetology school to fulfill my passion. Cosmetology school was a time of personal growth for me. At times, it was actually pretty rough. At one point, I even thought about becoming a beauty school dropout, que Frenchy from Grease. I had decided mid-way through that I wanted to pursue a business degree and experience college to the fullest extent possible. I managed to finish school and headed to university about one month later.
I attended Texas Tech University to study Public Relations. I thoroughly enjoyed my degree, joining a sorority, and all of that college has to offer. After my first year, I was offered a job working part-time at a high-end hair salon right near campus. This job was truly where I learned the skills, I needed to build a current clientele. My second year of college, my dad tragically and suddenly passed away and it was a massive shift in my trajectory at school. After that semester, I took a step back from working at the salon to focus on my family and even thought about transferring schools. When I came back to school in the fall, I focused mainly on my internships for my degree and took one or two hair clients a week out of my house. I continued to take clients weekly from home until I graduated, including after I returned from my three-month study abroad in Italy.
I decided to accept a sales position my senior semester of college and quickly started that job in Dallas after graduating. It did not take me long to realize that Corporate America was not going to work for me. It was about two weeks after starting my job, I decided I was quitting to go back to pursue my passion – hair, and makeup full time. I took a major risk going back and starting from scratch in a new city from where I last built a clientele. I used the connections that I could to start slowly building a client base. I focused on educating myself the best I could through YouTube videos of my favorite stylists. I slowly started to build through word of mouth and social media.
Currently, I am on my third location since 2018 and I’ve been in my own entrepreneurial suite for a little over a year. I have been self-employed for almost three years now and have grown to being booked out consistently 10-12 weeks and have been unable to accept new clients for about 8 months now. On top of my career inside the salon, I continue my passion by sharing my hair and makeup tips and tricks through my personal Instagram account and tutorials and I still work weddings, mostly for friends and family. As a next step in my career, I would like to continue growing my platform for beauty-related content as my career evolves and hopefully be able to share my knowledge with others.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I have definitely had my fair share of challenges. I would say that most of my challenges have been part of my personal life. While the sudden and traumatic passing of my father was not technically related to my business or my career, I have had to overcome those things as a person to build my business. I have in the past struggled finding a location that I felt suited me and after moving to my third location just over a year ago, I finally feel like this is a good fit. Each time you move locations you lose clients, but the pros of moving definitely outweighed any cons. I try to take the hard situations that I’ve been in and use them to help me grow and be a better person and businesswoman.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a hairstylist full time and I have my own studio space. I am known for specializing in blonde hair and mainly focus on color and extensions. I have a long history of makeup and working weddings and special events, but with how busy my schedule is now, I no longer have time. I promise every client that they will never leave my chair with hair that I myself wouldn’t walk out in and focus my technique on subtle grow out and keeping them as natural as possible. I would say I am most proud of the growth my blonde clients have within a year of coming to me. I have taken on a good bit of clients who have come to me with damaged, fried off blonde hair and with special care and a routine of maintenance that I help set out for them, I have seen such significant growth and thickness in their hair, recently as much at 5 inches in a year while keeping them even blonder than before.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I focus on YouTube for the majority my education in cosmetology. I have a number of stylists that I watch their educational videos to keep myself fresh or pick up on new techniques. Lately, even Instagram has been a great source of inspiration and also informative for new tips and formulas. As far as personally, I tend to enjoy mindless entertainment like BravoTv to keep a lighthearted space and relax and unwind. Self-care is just as important as working hard.
Contact Info:
- Website: getglamwithgina.glossgenius.com
- Instagram: @getglamwith_gina
- Other: instagram: @theblondemeatball
