“When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to do hair,” Connie Lynn Roy shared. She went to high school at St. Mary’s in Kitchener, Ontario. Her reserve is M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island. She is the owner operator of Comfort Cut Salon. She’s had a brick and mortar location for a year and she’s been providing mobile services for people with mobility barriers for seven years. They are the first salon in the region offering mobile services for people in need.

In high school, braiding hair for her friends in the hallways and taking cosmetology class to learn more, her interest grew with her knowledge. While she didn’t know where it would take her, she knew that’s what she wanted to do. After she graduated, Roy went to hair school at Sudbury Regional Hair Styling. Partway through, the school closed and she had to switch to another school to finish her certificate. It was a ten month course. She did a two-year apprenticeship after she finished her certificate and was with the salon for eight and a half years before deciding to go out on her own.

Moving from Kitchener to Sudbury, a five hour drive, was scary for Roy. She lived with her aunt while she attended school. Her first two weeks of school, she didn’t talk to anyone, keeping it all in until she got home. She was so shy at first but developed the ability to open up as she learned. Clients chatting with her helped her open up and chat more.

“[Hairdressing] is a great profession. It'd be nice to get more people who are First Nations that are able to get into the career,” Roy beams. At one point in her career, she was serving some people at home and she was looking around while she was working at the shop and realized she had more to offer than what she was doing at the time. She started her mobile business and went off on her own, renting a chair in between at a salon. Watching the salon owner running her business, she felt confident she could do the same. She wanted to incorporate mobile services with salon services to stay current and that got her thinking bigger. She thought about what she wanted to have for her daughter and got inspired.

When it comes to challenges, Roy has struggled because she’s a single parent. As a hairstylist, she doesn’t get a lot of family time. She’s open with her daughter about her intentions of making a life for them. Her daughter wants to go into makeup and she brings her to the shop so she can do lashes. Her clientele and confidence have been picking up. Her daughter also answers the phones. “If you have a family, they really need to understand that you are going to work long hours,”she confides. The other challenge is needing to work with people she wants to learn from, be around, gets along with and trusts. She’s adding to her team and interviewing to hire a new team member soon.

Her favourite thing about her profession is meeting the new clients, talking to them about the business, the journey, and feeling their support and encouragement. WIth the challenges that come in the first two years of a new business working out the kinks and setting up the structure, she’s been encouraged by the people who have been there for her and cheered her on. She’s renovated and improved the space to turn it into a comforting, calm, spacious place.

Her advice for a young person that's thinking of getting into hair styling or opening their own hair salon would be “make sure who you apprentice under is good. Make sure you interview them as they're interviewing you, because you have every right to.. Don't be scared. Because a lot of people apply for jobs, and they forget that they can interview them, because you want to know that you're going to get the right education for what you need to be a hairstylist."

Roy had a hard time because when she looked for an apprenticeship she just looked for a place where she could get her hours and her license. She ended up missing out on the training that she needed, unfortunately. Without training, she was thrown in the deep end and she ended up anxious and encountering a lot of barriers. “Hair stylists can be intimidating, not going to lie. It depends on what end if you want a low end salon or a high end salon. Some people are very intimidating when you talk to them. You just want to find your fit and your flow and what direction you want to go as a stylist,” Roy encourages. 

Thinking of what’s next for her business, Roy is planning to continue to grow, adding more stylists. She plans to fill her chairs and make sure everything runs smoothly. She has a wellness side to her business and she hopes the rooms will be rented out by practitioners. She would like the business to grow enough to open another location in Guelph where she already has some clients. She hopes people will follow her salon at @comfortcutsmobile on Instagram, @comfortcuts on Facebook and check out their website www.comfortcuts.com.

Living her high school hair career dream, Connie Lynn Roy pursued the path that brought her joy. She didn’t know where it would lead, but now she runs her own salon with mobile services for people with mobility needs. Her apprenticeship had challenges, but she’s building her dream team and working towards expanding with her daughter by her side.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.