Rising Stars: Meet Lauren Arnke

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Arnke.

Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I spent my childhood in the Bay Area and moved to Colorado during high school. That’s the first time I remember realizing I probably wouldn’t have the traditional career path I had always imagined as a kid. I started working from a pretty young age, and the only jobs available were babysitting retail or food service. Let’s just say the fast pace of the restaurant world was much more exciting than working at the mall, and I had already done the childcare thing. I loved working in restaurants but knew I was limited in my career choices, and would likely always be working long hours for someone else. Shortly after high school, I dropped out of college and moved back to California for a boy. I remember so vividly how it was to be 18 and so anxious about what I was going to do with my life. After a few years of restaurant service in San Francisco, I moved home to Denver to attend the Aveda Institute.

One of the things I loved discovering in Cosmetology School was the infinite growth potential that would be available throughout my career. It was never just about the hair for me. It’s always been about the education and the people, about providing exceptional service. During this time, I also started doing my own interpersonal work. I was deeply inspired by a coaching program we were working on and was introduced to the poems of Mary Oliver. She asked, “Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”. These words changed my life. I felt I was on the right path for the first time. I fell in love with learning about hair and salon life, and quickly found a home at a training salon here in Denver. I worked at this company for about six years, and in the meantime, had two amazing kids. I know everyone says this, but I truly believe something changes in you when you become a parent. You really see all of the possibilities in a much clearer and definitive way.

The last few years have been full of change, personally and professionally. I left the salon I thought I would always work at to pursue independent work and move into the path of becoming an educator. Somehow, whenever I achieved the next goal, something still felt lacking. This industry is full of people trying to do their best, but there’s also a lot of resistance to shift from the old-school ways of the hair world. I felt really out of alignment and integrity while trying on new salon spaces or working with different brands. For me, the silver lining of the pandemic was that I was forced to dive deeply into my own micro-business and decide how I could take it on more sustainably. Luckily, it all leads me to Olivet where I have been able to operate and grow my current business behind the chair. I have created more time for my family and my personal wellness. And, maybe now more than ever, it’s definitely about people. I truly believe that the future of hair salons will be a symbiotic relationship between clients, professionals, and our responsibility to the community.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have a really long answer for this question, but I think I’ll leave some to the imagination and just say, I have been through things I didn’t know where possible, let alone survivable. I am really working on accountability, so I’ll own that I’ve made many mistakes. Mostly, I sold myself short. I was an overachiever, but it came from a place of unrealistic perfectionism. I stayed too long in many relationships, personal and professional because I was terrified to come out on the other side with nothing. And then I lost nearly everything anyway; my business, my relationship, my family. It was all intertwined in a really codependent way. And I didn’t always handle the grief well. I have hurt myself and others. I’ve been hurt and betrayed. I’ve been broke with two kids in a very expensive city with no options. I honestly thought, at times, I was not equipped to be a parent if I couldn’t provide a certain lifestyle for my kids. It was a super dark time. But what’s great about loss and adversity, in this case, is that it pushed me forward. I had so much to be grateful for and a lot of determination. I had a lot of tools and just the right kind of support, even though it looked so different from what I imagined when I had started my career with an abundant dose of naive optimism. I’m still finding my way back to seeing the fullness of the human experience.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Behind the chair, I specialize in Short Precision Haircuts, Naturals and Blondes, and using Sustainable Products.

I love Haircutting with a passion, but I also love working with clients who want easy-to-wear Color. One of the ways I’m most excited to grow this year is to focus on Grey Blending services for clients who want to wear their natural hair as their base but want to experience the variation of child-like highs and lows that fade with age.

This question is really hard for me because I don’t see my career as being just one thing (creative, professional, or business). I see it as being all of these things. I am definitely the artist/creative because I have honed my craft in a way I’m really proud of. I like the way I do hair and have really worked to not take on projects that aren’t the best use of my time and skills. I see myself as a professional, in a role, who is expected to deliver results to my clients. I have bad days, but I really try to leave my own stuff at the door and make the experience fun, comfortable, and a little luxurious. I also take my business very seriously. For years I think it was commonplace for service providers to put their clients or staff ahead of themselves, or they were not present at all, and neither are sustainable. I take the business and growth aspects extremely seriously. It became very clear during COVID that the government had no idea what we do, nor how we run our businesses. And I think a lot of that is a reflection of salon professionals themselves not learning and growing as business people. I hope to turn that around. I think that’s what sets me apart; that I have big dreams about making an impact in that area.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The idea of risk changes as I get older. I’m at that age where I no longer have the interest or energy for taking on unnecessary risks. I’m such a sucker for spontaneity, but I’ve found that the more I have the urge to take an uncalculated risk, the more likely it’s not going to serve me. I’m getting married this year, and I’ve been thinking a lot about investing in people and what that means. I’ve come to believe risk might be the only path to reward.

I suppose I’ve taken a lot of risks as far as being willing to start new to stay on my personal mission. So much so, that I really had to make sure I was doing it in a way that got me closer to my goals, and not just to avoid discomfort. There’s definitely a little of both, but more than “risk”, I take into consideration, “Can I course-correct if this doesn’t go like planned? Can the life I have now handle the stress of the inevitable hiccups along the way? Is this best for the people I’m responsible to?”. Maybe they’re the same thing, but I like to think I’m making choices from a place of intention and research, rather than going after every shiny idea that comes along.

Pricing:

• Cuts $80-100
• Highlights start at $165
• Grey Blending starts at $65

Contact Info:

• Website: www.olivetsalon.com
• Instagram: @high.priestess.of.hair