Meet Gracie Howard

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gracie Howard. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gracie below.

Hi Gracie, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

You know, I think about how I started being more confident in the real world and it always go back to my first job ever. I was a hostess at my favorite restaurant when I was a kid in Frisco. Being a host means you’re the first person people see when you walk into a restaurant so you have to have a good impression so they feel welcomed. I would get a little nervous, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t pick up in an hour. Just from sitting a few people, helping get their drinks if their server was behind helped make connections with people and it felt good to just let someone know you hope they have a great day!
When I started taking clients at cosmetology school, I used that same confidence and smile to greet them and take them to my chair! I’ve always wanted people to feel comfortable around me so I would try to ease into a simple conversation about how crazy Texas weather is to our pets and that would be our appointment!
You don’t realize it just takes one thing to see eye to eye with someone and you can have such a good conversation with them! I also think Gen Z is very relatable so that helps too!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I, as a hairstylist, want to make my clients feel beautiful and confident when they leave my chair. I want them to feel like they can walk out and go on a date! I want them to feel excited to show their partner when they get home! When I hear my clients tell me how much they love their hair or when they take pictures and I see how confident they look it makes me feel so excited for them and it’s also a proud moment as a hairstylist because you’re looking at your art!
I am also not your ‘traditional’ hairstylist. My rule of thumb is hair has no gender. If you want a clipper cut and you identify as a female, I’ll get you in for a clipper cut! It’s about how the client feels and I’ve been told by multiple people that they have been treated like a ‘women’s cut’ when they clearly have hair only long enough for clippers.
As an artist, I’m able to express myself, who am I to say other people can’t express themselves!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

You are never too good for continuing education (honestly in any field). New trends are always coming out when it comes t beauty or there’s always new techniques to learn as well! Even if you feel you’ve mastered something, there’s always a way to increase that skill or learn a new skill to help that other skill. I personally love helping people learn more! I consider myself a haircut and vivid hair color specialist, but I am always down to help teach someone, give advice to or learn from someone! I also specialize in Asian hair and alternative looks! There’s a lot to learn for everything and it’s always exciting!
By the time you put something into practice, it becomes muscle memory, which your clients who have been with you for a while notice that! It feels good to know where you’ve started and how far you’ve come when I look at some of my client’s hair.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My parents have supported me throughout every single thing in my life. They are my everything and I’m so grateful I was able to have what I needed plus more! We knew at a young age college was probably not going to be my route, but I had to find something to do to make money. Thankfully, I was able to get an idea of what I wanted to do when I first got my hair colored in sixth grade. As we continued to color my hair at the cool salons, I realized, I think I want to do this. The first people who were 100% supportive of cosmetology were my parents!
From when they adopted me from China to my first days of school, all of the ups and downs, high school graduation, hair school graduation, literally everything because there’s a lot to list, it’s always been my parents supporting me the whole way!
I love them so much and I am so happy for them because they’re able to live their days in the beautiful state of New Mexico now!

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