Hi everyone, my name is Chantelle, and I am the owner of Extended Lengths Salon. I have been creating clients dream hair since 2014 and I’ve loved every minute of it.
I wanted to introduce myself and give you a little insight of how my hair extension journey began so sit back, relax, go grab a cup of tea and I hope my journey inspires you to follow your dreams.
Let’s start from when I had just left school,
like every 16 year old I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. I know I loved everything to do with beauty, you would not catch me without my nails, brows and clip in hair extensions done. I decided to enroll in a beauty academy in Chelmsford/Maldon.
I really enjoyed the academy as there was a maximum of 7-10 students, I felt like I really had the full attention of the teacher, who was amazing at pushing you to reach your absolute best! I love to learn. I am very quick at learning new skills if I enjoy them, so I flew through all my exams and 3 years later I was a qualified beautician.
Unfortunately, my passion for beauty slowly faded and I stopped loving at what I was good. I did try to go mobile for one year and it was just not for me. It was time to find a new job I had a car on finance and other bills which had to be paid. I started to work in a call center to earn some money, it was the most boring job of my life, but I needed to pay my bills.
I was young I wanted to go out every weekend with my friends. I needed a new outfit to keep up with the trends, money for nights out, clubs/drinks/taxis and most importantly I need my hair and makeup done.
This is where my hair extension journey began.
My friend and I decided to get semi-permanent micro ring hair extensions done. Being young we decided to go with the cheapest “hair technician” we could find. I will not go into detail on this subject as I know everyone has to start somewhere but they were awful. I ended up YouTubing how to correct the application. After hours of fixing my friends hair I was incredibly surprised at how good I was and at how much I enjoyed applying the hair extensions. (Just a little disclaimer, please do not ever attempt to try to do your own hair extensions)
A couple of months later I enrolled in my first hair extensions course, it was like my mojo has instantly returned. I was back!
I started my hair extensions business alongside of my part time call center job, I did this by working mobile driving here there and all over the place to transform client’s hair into luscious locks. One day I plucked up the courage to leave the call center and do hair extensions full time. It was the scariest time of my life as I did not know if I would have a regular income. I was very anxious, every bad scenario was going through my mind, would my hair extension business work? Would clients even want their hair done by me? what if I were not good enough? But I was incredibly lucky as overtime my client base grew and grew, so did my passion for hair extensions. Little did I know that in 6 months’ time my client base would grow this quickly I could not physically fit all my clients in as quickly as I wanted.
It was time to find a base. I was lucky enough that my mum and her husband said they would transform their utility room into a salon for me. This was great I could see so many more clients in a day. I worked at my mums for a couple of years until I moved out, once I had my house sorted, I set up the spare bedroom as my new salon room.
Working from home and for myself was the best thing I have ever done I’m so glad I took the leap to follow my dreams. Now me and my fiancé have bought our own house! My house had a little run-down garage in the garden, which was perfect for me, I had my own building to create my little salon in. I had some immense help from my family to make my dream salon come true.
I am so happy at how far I have come in these past years, and I push myself every year to be better than the last. After working non-stop I now only work part time as I am a mummy to two beautiful children.
I am very business driven and I have decided to open my own Extended Lengths Academy. You will be able to attend my masterclasses to improve your hair skills and find out my tips and tricks of the trade. I will also be offering training classes which you will be able to learn how to do extensions yourself. I have wonderful things lined up which will be announced very soon!
I am overly excited to see what the future will hold for Extended Lengths Salon.
Remember never give up!
Chantelle