Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in beauty services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Eon Capella Nieves, owner of Hair Fixin' Vixen, located in Bainbridge Island, WA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Hello! My name is Eon, aka Hair Fixin' Vixen. I'm here to enhance your natural beauty, lift your mood and affirm or remind you that you are amazing AS IS. I offer professional dimensional color, hair extensions, makeup, and photography services.
Tell us about yourself
We don't really have that kind of time to discuss the morphing my life has taken to get to this point of working in the beauty industry. Or do we? I am going to put in this a nutshell as best as possible. Stay with me. Or don't...
My mother tells me that I always wanted to sing and do makeup, and hey, I've accomplished both at this point, with one being that I had won a total of $850 cold hard cash money by entering karaoke contests when I needed money way back when I lived in Sacramento. The winning song, you ask? "That's What I Like About You" Trisha Yearwood.
Anyway, the other is that my aesthetic inspiration has always been to look as much like a cartoon as I can. And therefore, representing visually with makeup, hair styling, and fashion choices. I used to get asked if I was a stylist when I was a barista by how I went to work at a coffee house. My entire life, I've been the go-to in people's lives, the one they knew who did make-up and styled people's hair.
When I was about 5, my mom showed me that I could cut a beet open and use it to stain my lips and cheeks. I also used to pretend the little sandwich picks with the colorful plastic ends were makeup applicators at just about every restaurant as a kid. That and serious love for vintage fashion, styling hair, and doing makeup since around 13, it was inevitable that I go to beauty school.
The first time around (960 hours out of 1600), THIS beauty school was quite janky and was NOT the place to learn more about makeup (like I preferred at the time); it was more rather a "little-ol-lady wet set and manicure factory." Don't get me wrong, because I love vintage hair, knowing how to do wet sets is a gem of information. Further, I still enjoy giving a proper manicure.
Do you see how this story can get way too long? I'll try shorter:
• Started making flower hair clips to sell, you know, because of the vintage love (and still do)
• Discovered burlesque (life-changing, and it took seven years to finally get on stage)
• Strong desires to perform (community theater, sing, burlesque, anything!)
• Karaoke becomes an obsession/outlet (find out I can maybe, perhaps sing)
• Move to PNW in 2006 (where all my previous dreams eventually came true)
• Laid off in 2009 (with my vested lump sum, sign up for burlesque classes and eventually get to sing for paying audience)
• Finally, found a job (at said coffee house)
• Karaoke nights and coffee houses connect me with local community theater people (where I met and was in Rocky Horror with one of my current employers)
• Leave the coffee shop to join the Firefly Salon crew as the new salon manager in 2012 (been there ten years now!)
• Three years in, I bit the bullet and signed up for the Gary Manual Aveda Institute (GMAI) in Seattle
• Hustled and earned an amazing education (and apprenticeship within the very same salon) and have now been a licensed stylist for over five years.
If you're still here, I believe all those experiences make what I have to offer eclectic. With the combination of my cosmetology license and bachelor's in Business Management, graduating first and top in my class at GMAI (Halloween 2016), still being an insatiable student (I just can't get enough), having a passion for makeup, styling, pinup photography, photo editing... All the possibilities? These things motivate me. Also, passion, gratitude, and becoming an expert in my craft. And still crafting just what that is...
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Through blood, sweat, and tears, I earned my Cosmetology license in January 2017, after pushing through one of the most challenging experiences in my life to date. Shifting my path and changing my destiny at 40 was rough but so worth it!
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Comparisons, imposter syndrome, and lack of personal drive and motivation can be paralyzing. For me, it has to be a meditation to keep my blinders on and continue to chip away at my goals.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Low and slow progress is still progress. Try not to get immobilized by all the things on the ever-evolving, never-ending to-do list.
- When I get overwhelmed with all the things that need to get done, I stop and do whatever is in front of me; it's often a small nagging thing that is burning up the RAM in my brain.
- OR I set a timer for 15 minutes and do whatever I can in each area that needs my attention, in order of importance.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.dollfacedames.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eon.capella.nieves
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hairfixinvixen/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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