Kinetra Stewart, TheVintageHipster: Bridal Hair Expert, Entrepreneur, & Educator

How do you learn both the technical and business skills you need to take your business and yourself from a freshly minted beauty school graduate with little professional experience to a much loved bridal hair stylist with your own company, a booth at Wedding Expos, 40 weddings the first year after launching your own business and then on to winning WeddingWire Couples Choice Award and TheKnot Best of Weddings Award in 2 years (along with being covered in The Washingtonian Bride & Groom magazine 3 times)??

All while raising 2 children and supporting a military spouse in new surrounding at least once every 3 years, sometimes more often?

The effervescent and vibrant Kinetra Stewart tells us that in one word, it's "Passion".

She has a lot more words for people who want to learn how to do amazing up-dos and styles for weddings and the actual game-plan to run a business which she teaches in her Bridal Stylist courses, the next one being April 14 – 15, 2019, in Virginia  ( Contact: info@thevintagehipster.net or follow on Instagram:@_thevintagehipster_ ) but that passion for the client is the driving force behind all the techniques she brings.

Kinetra's story

Even though she makes it look easy and effortless, Kinetra knew when she first graduated in 2011 with honors from the Blue Cliff College Cosmetology program in Alexandria, LA, that hard work, not always fun, would be the start of her climb that would take her to where she is today, trying to give back to the new generation of recent grads and people ready to run their businesses while running a family.

Her first job out of school was at a SmartStyle inside a Wal-Mart which was a really great way to put in the hours and get the real world experience that a recent grad needs, even if a busy salon inside a Wal-Mart may not be the ending point the dream she'd had since childhood.

Like most people who have passion for their career, Kinetra knew, though, from her very first job that it's not where you work, it's how you do your job that separates the average from the people who gain true success, and that success means loving who you are, what you do, and who you do it for, and that's what she's trying to share with her students as well.

After that first job, Kinetra worked at a Paul Mitchell Hair Salon with a wonderful manager, Lori, who helped make sure she encouraged Kinetra to expand her horizons and reach for the sky. (This is a warm shout-out to Lori from us here at HairArt Inc. for building women up and helping them learn to soar in this wonderful competitive exciting field.)

There Kinetra honed her skills in color, cuts, relaxers, perms, sew in extensions and all the other specialized hair knowledge and techniques that only practice practice and more practice make perfect.

After she became pregnant with her second child, and the chemicals involved with standing behind a chair in a busy salon weren't an option any more, coupled with another military move with her family, she kept up her skills and started her first quiet foray into running her own business doing hair from home while on assignment in Hawaii.

Kinetra wants people to understand that everybody needs to pick the balance that's right for them, and their families and that it's ok if sometimes you're the boss, and sometimes you're at home, and sometimes you have the studio of your dreams, because you'll always find a way to make it work in the way that's truly best for you.

In 2014, with her youngest a little older and a move back to the mainland, she got a chance to start making her dream more of a reality and she tells that story like this;

Kinetra tells us that she chose the name of her business because of her Hippie spirit and love of old things, and it's how she put a little piece of herself into her customer-centric business.

After leasing and building up clientele for 3 years, Kinetra says she wanted to put money into something she could own, that was all her, and that's when she had an assignment that would change her direction and begin her next real investment in herself;

After her wedding, I enrolled in my first Updo Class with Lala’s Updos in New Jersey. Lala created a solid foundation in updos for me.

Here at HairArt, we love from the bottom of our heart, the absolutely amazing Lala's Updos @lalasupdos and the amazing things she can do to real hair, and the looks she gives our HairArt Mannequins.  

Speaking of which, we have another quote from Kinetra Stewart that we'd love to share;

"I absolutely love HairArt Mannequins. They have the best mannequins and customer service on the market and well worth the investment. I’ve had my HairArt Mannequins for 3 years and the quality is still present. I have manipulated their hair in so many ways from applying high levels of heat, chemically treated, teased their hair to practice creating updos, and the quality is still there after 3 years! HairArt is the only company I will purchase mannequins from."

Kinetra continues to travel back to the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia to book weddings and also host Bridal Hair Workshops to help anyone in our industry who would like to begin their career as a Bridal Hairstylist Full Time or to earn additional income on the side. As long as you have the passion, and want to make your customers and clients happy, where and how many hours you work isn't what's important, it's all about how well you do your job.

She has workshop coming up on April 14 – 15, 2019 in Virginia.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn Updo techniques and skills to strengthen their skill sets along with learning marketing strategies to increase their chances of being hired by brides.

She will be providing a starter kit for all attendees participating in The Bridal Hair Workshop featuring the HairArt Mannequin, Stella