Meet Riley Skelton of Montage Salon in Colorado Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Riley Skelton.

Riley, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Rural Wyoming in a small town of just 3,000 people. Growing up in a small town, defiantly has its benefits when you are younger. Although I love and appreciate my hometown, I feel more at home in Colorado. I have been in Colorado for ten years, living in both Colorado Springs and Denver. Most of my time has been spent in Colorado Springs.

My journey hasn’t been the easiest. Without going into much detail, I moved from Denver to Colorado Springs to escape a life that wasn’t worth living. Between toxic relationships and the struggle with being homeless off and on, I was given the opportunity to move down to Colorado Springs. It was the best choice I made for myself at that point in a long time. I was able to get back on my feet, working a full-time job. About a year after I moved to the springs, I was convinced by someone to go to school for hair. I was completely on the fence because that would require me to find a new job and shake up the stability I had finally achieved. I decided to take a look at just one school to see if it was something I was truly interested in.

In fact, I set up my original tour of the school and then called it off and waited a little while longer before actually taking the tour. With the support of my then bf (now my husband), I finally decided to make the leap and quit my job in sales, work front desk at a salon (Montage Salon) and go from there. After I graduated from a school in July of 2016, I had my license within a week of that. I knew that I had started my career later then most people do in the industry. I had just turned 26 when I started school. I was motivated to make up for lost time that I felt I had missed. I took classes and still do to continue my elevation of my craft.

After a year of being licensed, I saw a Massif Fashion Week Beauty academy come across my page. I looked into it and honestly thinking nothing would come of it and applied. To my surprise, I had been accepted to participate. Since that moment, I have been blessed to work with many talented models, photographers, MUA and hairstylist doing different editorial shoots. Building more on to my craft, which the editorial world help me in a salon as well. I am now an Advanced Senior Stylist and a Men’s Cutting/Grooming educator within my salon. I do almost anything in the salon besides waxing, nails, makeup and perms. When you have a passion for something and set goals you can achieve anything you want.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No roads are truly ever smooth in life. There will always be bumps and more when we are on our journeys in this world. It’s about how we handle them and continue with life. The biggest fear during the process of deciding to go to school was the financial stability we had secured. Shaking that up terrified me and going to a job (front desk) from a sales job where I made good money was scary as hell to be honest. During school, I had a car that was just a beater but got me around from point a to point b. Within four months of just starting school, my car died and I didn’t have any money to spend on a new one and panicked to the fact I didn’t know how we would pay for a car payment.

Which we ended up getting signed up for, we had to make it work and we did. It was an emotionally exhausting process but totally worth it. When working the different fashion weeks, it was also challenging. I would work in the salon and then drive up to Denver and then drive back down. I would do this all week for every fashion week I participated in. That was the physically exhausting portion of it. Living paycheck to paycheck isn’t an easy life to live. As a new person in the industry, I was surrounded by such awesome talent both in the salon and out of the salon. I often wondered if I could even come close to the talent of my peers and the people I looked up to. There would be nights where I was so disappointed in my quality of work I just wanted to give up and quit.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Montage Salon story. Tell us more about your work.
I work for Montage Salon, which is an Aveda Salon. I have been with them for five years. I am a Men’s Specialist and am the Educator for men’s grooming and hair cutting. I also specialize in natural balayage and bob style haircuts. I am also certified in hand-tied hair extensions as well. We have an amazing team dynamic within the salon and we support each other like family.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t personally believe in good or bad luck. We get out of life what we put into life. It’s actually something that my husband and I talk about with our daughter all the time. If you constantly put bad energy out that’s all you will get.

Contact Info:

• Address: 11550 Ridgeline Drive
• Website: Montagesalon.biz
• Phone: 7195743205
• Email: rileyjayhair@gmail.com
• Instagram: @rileythebarberstylist

Image Credit:
Mia Griggs, Catarino Moreno, Ricardo Mejia, Corey Myers

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