The End Of My Career!
Inspired be Fat Girl’s post about knowing what you want to be when you grow up, I thought I’d share some musings of my own.
If you’ve not been reading my earlier series “A Brief History of My Career” (and why haven’t you?), then let me bring you up to date…
Ever since Grade 1, I have wanted to become a hairstylist. Right after high school I enrolled at Marvel College and became a Stylist. I took of like a shot and almost instantly became Yellowknife’s “Go-To Guy”. Within months, I was booked several weeks in advance. Within two years, I was unable to accommodate any new clients.
I opened my own salon and became the epitome of what a young, fabulous, naive hairstylist should be: I traveled the continent on a monthly basis going to this class, or that workshop. A few symposiums in Vegas. Colour classes in New York. Hands-on workshops directed by some of the industries biggest names… Ruth Roche, Chris Baran, Sharon Biro, Sam Villa, et al.
I tired of this soon enough, and decided to take my talents and move them to Toronto… for if I could make it there, I’d make it anywhere. My goals?
- Get my name into magazines.
- Work on serious photo shoots.
- Work on television.
- Work Fashion shows.
- Become a serious, well known, respected educator.
- Build a firm, solid clientele.
Well in just over two years, I’ve been named several times in NATIONAL magazines, most recently listed as one of the top Colourists in Toronto in Fashion Magazine. I’ve done several photo shoots for competition, magazine, advertising etc. Filmed several episodes of Prime Networks ‘Diva on a Dime’, as well as TLN's ‘Viva Dominicana’ and that makeover show that the Designer Guys did. Been hairstylist (and once a model) for a few fashion shows, some big, some small.
My career as an educator was brilliant. Having recently left the position, I still run into students that ask why I left, request that I come back to their salon to teach. Across eastern Canada there are stylists that have been asking why I left or where I have gone to. My clientele has built into quite a respectable size for someone who’s only been in the city 2 years.
So, on paper, I’ve done all that I’ve set out to do, yes? I should, by all accounts be happy and satisfied, yes? Actually, no.
You see, I left Yellowknife thinking that the reason I was unhappy is that I was there. I felt like I just needed to spread my wings. I wanted to see, just see, if I could actually fly.
Around the same time that I was deciding this, I started studying Kabbalah and Buddhism.
Kabbalah taught me that everything I valued in the material realm (known as the 1%) was not bringing me happiness. The money, the fame, the fortune that I sought was not going to bring the fulfillment that I was hoping for. Buddhism showed me what was happening to me from my past way of thinking. I was learning more about the type of person I was becoming.
While I was being continually overwhelmed by these principals, I came to the realization that I was unhappy because I have swayed from my original path. Before I got into the fashion industry I did a lot of volunteer work. Even early in my career I volunteered my services quite often. But then I got dollar signs in my eyes and started seeing everything through green tinted glasses.
Where am I going with this? Well many months ago, I made a decision:
I am leaving the Fashion Industry!
Any readers that are my clients, don’t worry! I am not completely leaving. I am just going to be making hairstyling my part-time gig eventually. I’ve decided that I can’t die after living a life selling the idea that our outer appearances are that important. I can’t die thinking that my greatest accomplishment was getting my foil highlights closer to the root than most colourists. Good things to be sure, and definitively something to take pride in, but I crave more.
I want to save the world!
If you’ve not been reading my earlier series “A Brief History of My Career” (and why haven’t you?), then let me bring you up to date…
Ever since Grade 1, I have wanted to become a hairstylist. Right after high school I enrolled at Marvel College and became a Stylist. I took of like a shot and almost instantly became Yellowknife’s “Go-To Guy”. Within months, I was booked several weeks in advance. Within two years, I was unable to accommodate any new clients.
I opened my own salon and became the epitome of what a young, fabulous, naive hairstylist should be: I traveled the continent on a monthly basis going to this class, or that workshop. A few symposiums in Vegas. Colour classes in New York. Hands-on workshops directed by some of the industries biggest names… Ruth Roche, Chris Baran, Sharon Biro, Sam Villa, et al.I tired of this soon enough, and decided to take my talents and move them to Toronto… for if I could make it there, I’d make it anywhere. My goals?
- Get my name into magazines.
- Work on serious photo shoots.
- Work on television.
- Work Fashion shows.
- Become a serious, well known, respected educator.
- Build a firm, solid clientele.
Well in just over two years, I’ve been named several times in NATIONAL magazines, most recently listed as one of the top Colourists in Toronto in Fashion Magazine. I’ve done several photo shoots for competition, magazine, advertising etc. Filmed several episodes of Prime Networks ‘Diva on a Dime’, as well as TLN's ‘Viva Dominicana’ and that makeover show that the Designer Guys did. Been hairstylist (and once a model) for a few fashion shows, some big, some small.
My career as an educator was brilliant. Having recently left the position, I still run into students that ask why I left, request that I come back to their salon to teach. Across eastern Canada there are stylists that have been asking why I left or where I have gone to. My clientele has built into quite a respectable size for someone who’s only been in the city 2 years.
So, on paper, I’ve done all that I’ve set out to do, yes? I should, by all accounts be happy and satisfied, yes? Actually, no.
You see, I left Yellowknife thinking that the reason I was unhappy is that I was there. I felt like I just needed to spread my wings. I wanted to see, just see, if I could actually fly.
Around the same time that I was deciding this, I started studying Kabbalah and Buddhism.
Kabbalah taught me that everything I valued in the material realm (known as the 1%) was not bringing me happiness. The money, the fame, the fortune that I sought was not going to bring the fulfillment that I was hoping for. Buddhism showed me what was happening to me from my past way of thinking. I was learning more about the type of person I was becoming.
While I was being continually overwhelmed by these principals, I came to the realization that I was unhappy because I have swayed from my original path. Before I got into the fashion industry I did a lot of volunteer work. Even early in my career I volunteered my services quite often. But then I got dollar signs in my eyes and started seeing everything through green tinted glasses.
Where am I going with this? Well many months ago, I made a decision:
I am leaving the Fashion Industry!
Any readers that are my clients, don’t worry! I am not completely leaving. I am just going to be making hairstyling my part-time gig eventually. I’ve decided that I can’t die after living a life selling the idea that our outer appearances are that important. I can’t die thinking that my greatest accomplishment was getting my foil highlights closer to the root than most colourists. Good things to be sure, and definitively something to take pride in, but I crave more.
I want to save the world!
Some of you may scoff or roll your eyes, but trust me, I will do it. I am going to work the rest of my natural life trying to make the world a better place. Clear peoples eyes. Challenge peoples beliefs. Open peoples hearts. Give someone, somewhere hope.
I’m not quite sure how I’ll do it, but I do have a short term plan. So, submitted for your approval, here is my new set of goals:
I’m not quite sure how I’ll do it, but I do have a short term plan. So, submitted for your approval, here is my new set of goals:
- Enrol in a Fundraising & Volunteer Management Program at one of the three colleges in Toronto that offer it.
- Start work in the Not-For-Profit / Voluntary sectors.
- Encourage more people to volunteer on a regular basis.
- Encourage more people to reduce/reuse/recycle.
- Empower people to be the change they want to see in the world.
- Annually travel to Africa, India or any other 3rd world country to do volunteer work for a month or so.
- Die knowing that I’ve done something.
No small order, but I love a challenge. 
posted by Lance Morrison @ 10:04 AM
7 Comments:
When you saw me at the movie theatre, how was I wearing my hair?
Do you realize that since I've seen you, I've worn my hair down on a regular basis for the first time in three years?
You're not just doing foil highlights. By making people feel good about themselves, you're enabling them to make the world a better place, too, because they feel better about themselves.
Your chosen path is a very noble one, but don't jade yourself that your life is all dollars and appearances, because it's not.
Furthermore, if you stop doing my hair, I'll have to hunt you down and kill you.
Indeed.
I will always keep my hands in hair, but I just don't want to make it my lifes work anymore.
And, as I've said before, I agree that what I do now is helping people, I just want to do it on a grander scale.
So, hair two or three days a week will keep everyone happy.
To be clear:
It's not that I feel like I do NOTHING, it's just that I want to do MORE!
Make sense?
i like it.
lets all do MORE.
:P
be the change you wish to see in the world... I've heard that one.
goals that are true to yourself are the only ones that are important, but remember you can not save the world any more than Bono, Geldoff, or the Gates can. What you can do is change yourself, become an example and a teacher. stay centred and work hard.
that said, you WILL still do my hair when I'm in Toronto? (I had no idea I was dealing with someone of such expertise - my present highlights are such a mess sob!)
Are you actually planning a trip here, or is it just figuratively speaking?
figuratively for now... so stay in hair for a little longer - OR come down here...
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