Love, Your Beauty Godmother

By Blyss Macias

The magic is in you. It always has been.

When was the last time you sat back and tried to discover the woman underneath the mask, so you could love who you truly are?

Beauty is a very essential, but very misunderstood, part of the feminine spirit. Contrary to what Hollywood and the world of ad

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kingdom Books
• Release date: Nov 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798986687421

Book preview

Table of Contents

Introduction

Beauty has always been near and dear to my heart even as I was working out my own journey of how beauty belonged in me. As I have been on that beauty journey, I found I could not keep all the amazing benefits and confidence true beauty brought me to myself. I needed to share it. I needed to shift the standard.

One of the most significant moments in this journey was when I realized I had to open my own business.

I remember the day when the name for it came to me.

A typical, busy day working at a high end salon began with a quiet morning. I’d buy a muffin and a latte from the coffee shop next door and open the shop with about three other stylists. I’d prepare some hot towels, get my tickets with the list of clients for the day, and set up my station. More stylists would begin trickling in, and by the afternoon, the salon was buzzing.

Salons have a particular hum to them, dynamic conversations happening from chair to chair as clients are connecting with their stylists. Water from the shampoo bowls flowing, blow dryers running, the rhythm of sweeping, all collide for the symphony that is the salon atmosphere. I love it. Honestly, even the break room is usually not that quiet, but is still a safe haven when you're having lunch.

I remember sitting in that break room one afternoon, probably eating a chicken, caesar salad from a local shop I was obsessed with. I had been contemplating throughout the day. Some of my close friends, and many of my clients, recently mentioned I should open my own salon. This topic was becoming a recurring conversation, and it seemed like everyone was in agreement. Everyone except me.

I never had the desire to open my own salon; it sounded like an unnecessary responsibility added to my already overloaded schedule. I didn’t feel I fit the mold of the beauty world. I loved fashion, creativity, and expression in make-up, style, and hair. The more over-the-top, the better. However, when I looked around at other stylists, beauty professionals/ influencers, celebrity artists—I just didn’t fit in. I didn’t have the same priorities.

Doing hair has never been just a job to me. Unlike many of my colleagues, I didn’t get into hair as a stepping stone or side gig while I finished my degree. Even my conversations with stylists about dating and life outside the salon didn’t always click. For the most part, the culture of the beauty industry is pretty people making money and causing drama. Living like rockstars—sex, drugs, and partying on the weekends—then living off of caffeine and one meal a day during the week. Too often people, especially those in the beauty industry, buy into the lie that being good looking and living in a way that "looks good'' and exciting is all there is to life.

I loved being in the salon. There was always something else to discover, but I never found my one thing. I earned the title of master colorist. Eventually, my obsession with learning brought me to a cutting specialist, but I could never really narrow down one thing in the craft. I just loved the art of beauty.

And I loved my clients.

Even if their service was a super simple one color touch-up, I was excited to see the women in my chair. I loved hearing their stories, asking how they met their spouse, talking about their favorite restaurant—simple things.

On this particular day, a new client came to see me. Well, she was new to me, but not to the salon. The other stylists scowled as soon as they heard her name. They were quick to tell stories from previous experiences, and opinions on what I should look out for. Talk about second-hand anxiety. I started getting nervous, playing out terrible scenarios in my head for this client I hadn’t even met!

However, as soon as she sat down, I could tell my fellow stylists were just being gossipy. This woman had nothing but love for people, but she had a very hard time valuing herself. She raved about her kids for the entire appointment, her eyes beaming with how proud she was of them. Her marriage was in a tough spot. There was a lot of disconnection in the relationship. She wasn’t angry, as many women would have been; she just wanted her and her husband to be close. She wanted him to be happy, to be fulfilled, and it broke her heart to not see him at his best. Her love for him, even when she was so disappointed, amazed me. Everyone she talked about she adored.

But the conversation would shift anytime I would ask her about herself.

There are many things that could be causing her self hate—trauma from her childhood, or just being beaten down by life. She was so negative, she was making herself sick. In the short time we spent together, I discovered she'd been bombarded by illness, both mental and physical, for years. Hearing it all, no wonder people thought she was a little uptight at times. The poor thing hadn’t had a normal life in years! She felt helpless, misunderstood, and lost. As a Christian, all I wanted to do was hug her, pray over her, and tell her how amazing she was. I thought through every resource I had access to. Were there any doctors I knew? Could I get a pastor to pray with her? Was there a book on self image or self love 101? Could I pull from inventory and give her a free drink? My thoughts were reeling. How could I show this woman some love and some hope? But I stopped short.

I had just recently gotten a talking-to from my boss about making people uncomfortable with my religious beliefs and not letting them seep into work. I was, too positive and needed to let women rant or gossip in the chair if that’s what they wanted to do. Who knew having positivity could be a bad thing? It really frustrated me. This woman could have used my help. She could have had a revolutionary solution, a new connection, or at the very least a different, positive view of herself. But all of that was somehow against work protocol? This made no sense to me. Weren’t we, as stylists, the experts on true beauty? Wasn’t it our job to make our clients feel better leaving the salon than they did when they first came in? I was going crazy trying to figure out how to do my job without losing my own identity and everything I believed in at the same time. As I thought about this encounter while I was in the break room, it hit me.

I did need to open my own business, and I needed to call that business The Industry. Not because I was going to have the most prestigious salon, the highest quality customer service, or the best cutting edge techniques known to hairstylists far and wide (though those are goals of mine). My business would be called The Industry because it’s bringing us back to the heart of what the beauty industry is supposed to be all about.

The beauty industry has monetized part of the human identity. Not that beauty professionals don’t deserve to be paid, they are masters of image creativity—constantly learning, growing, and perfecting service and technique, all while adhering to the strictest health and safety law. Trendsetters, brand owners, marketing agencies, educators, celebrity platform artists, and eager assistants have all turned the business of helping people feel and look more beautiful into a global, multi-billion dollar industry. Why is it then that so many women still struggle with self-image and low self-esteem? How is it that so many of us have lost what true beauty within the identity of