Meet Kara Day

We were lucky to catch up with Kara Day recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kara, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

When I was 23 years old, I was just beginning an apprenticeship in Portland, Maine to become a hairstylist and this program required 18 months and 2500 hours of training in order to obtain my cosmetology license. During this apprenticeship, I was in a very toxic relationship where I experienced a lot of domestic violence including physical, mental and emotional. I found out I was pregnant in October 2017 and made a plan to finish my apprenticeship training before going on maternity leave in June 2018. An unfortunate circumstance at home forced me to start my leave early and when my daughter was born at the end of June 2018, I had 6 weeks of leave before having to return to work. When I did go back to work 6 weeks postpartum, although I was still finishing my apprenticeship hours, I worked under my bosses license as a hair-cutting and bridal specialist.

I did this until February of 2019 and during this time, I made the decision to leave my daughters father and filed for a PFA order when she was 6 months old. This caused him to leave the picture completely and as a single mom to a newborn at 24 years old, I decided to leave the salon and go back to a previous 9-5 job working as a project manager for a lighting company. However, because the salon took 6 months to file my paperwork upon initially being hired, I was technically 200 hours short of completing my training and could not get my license. It was discouraging and a hard decision to make, but I needed a steady income and work hours that aligned with daycare. I did, however, continue to work about 10-13 weddings in the summer as the second stylist for one of my best friends and knew that some day I’d get back to doing hair full time.

I did this for 3 years, moved closer to my parents during Covid, and simply did what I needed to do to survive as a young single parent.

Once life settled a bit, I decided to move back to Southern Maine in March of 2021 and at this point my daughter was 2 1/2. While getting my hair done one day, my friends co-worker told me she was opening a new salon in Portland and asked if I was interested in finishing my 200 hours at her salon and could have a chair there to booth rent upon getting my license. I had a conversation with my boss at the lighting company and he allowed me to only work half days, 2 days a week, on my full-time salary so I could work 12-4 every Wednesday and Thursday at the salon to complete my hours. I started this in October 2021 and by March 2022 I finished my hours and passed my exams for my cosmetology license. I gave my notice for the end of March and became a full-time self employed hairstylist with no clientele in April 2022.

This was the scariest decision I ever made and the absolute most rewarding at the same time. I simply put my head down and hustled using social media marketing and word of mouth to build clients both behind the chair and book weddings of my own. The day I removed myself and my daughter from the abusive environment was the day I finally chose myself and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from giving both myself and my daughter was we deserved.

By 2023, I had a consistent clientele behind the chair and booked just over 30 weddings grossing $125k.
Now in August of 2024, I have:
– Grossed over $100k already
– Opened my own booth rental salon, Bloom Salon Maine
– I am doing hair at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024
– I am doing wedding hair and makeup in Italy in September 2024
– I am leading my own hair team at New York Fashion Week in February 2025
– I have over 50 weddings booked for this year
– I already have 30 weddings booked for 2025

And doing this all while being a 30 year old single parent to a six year old.

The most rewarding thing on top of all of this is my daughter tells everyone she wants to do what I do when she grows up. And while I feel immensely guilty for working so much I know I am setting the best example for my daughter.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I was born and raised in Hampden, Maine as the girly girl of my family. I started college in chemical engineering and switched to business marketing which ironically enough, both benefit me in my now career. Now working in my 7th wedding season as a bridal hairstylist and makeup artist, I have realized it’s time to choose weddings or working behind the chair as balancing both schedules is difficult. This was my push to open my own salon because now I will be able to put my 100% focus into weddings while still having a space to do bridal trials and host bridal education classes.

The wedding industry is not for everyone but it’s something I’ve become very passionate about. Specializing in “soft glam” hair and makeup, my goal is to make brides feel like an elevated version of themselves but still feel recognizable when they look into the mirror. I also highly value good communication, timeliness, and a calm energy so my brides can have an enjoyable experience during a high-emotion day.

With high demand in Maine weddings, I am hoping to build a bridal team here as well as plan a potential move south in Summer of 2026 where I can expand my business. I am also always open to more travel and destination weddings.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Be authentically you!
Impostor syndrome is probably the number one things holding a lot of people back no matter what career field you are in. But pushing past it and showing up on my social media, without fear of what people would think, it was helped grow my career so quickly.

2. Never stop adding value to your business!
While inflation is real, a lot of people use that as an excuse to raise their prices. While it’s a valid reason, I think it’s important to remember we should never stop learning. There is ALWAYS room for improvement and room to be better, whether is taking education classes or physically adding value to our service (a quality light, chair, table, product, etc).

3. Great communication!
It sounds silly but it’s so important to be a good communicator, specifically in the wedding industry, both leading up to the wedding day and the day of. I often get asked how I create such good relationships with wedding planners, photographers, or even receive referrals from past brides and my consistent communication is a key factor. It is essential to building relationships and those relationships are what will help your business grow.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Some may say I “girl bossed too hard” hahaha, but I do have a lot on my plate and I feel myself going down the road of burnout. I have a hard time saying no to opportunities which often over fills my plate. What makes this worse is that I am also a control freak and have a hard time delegating responsibilities to others but I have plans to re-organize my business for the new year including:

– hiring a bridal coordinator to run my email
– hire booth renters and stop working behind the chair by Summer 2025
– build a bridal team and not over book myself weddings
– continue to practice boundaries so I can actually enjoy my free time at home
– investing in a new platform to have an all-in-one portal for emails, contracts, invoices, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karadayhair.com
• Instagram: thekaraday
• Facebook: Hair by Kara Day
• Other: TikTok: thekaraday

Image Credits

(In order)
Lena Nugent Photography
The Libbys Photo and Films
Tay Sikes Photo
The Studio Citrine, Samantha Dahlborg
Leah Lens Photography
Anokiart Photography
Leah Lens Photography
Lena Nugent Photography
Emily King Photography