Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda McDonald.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been in the hair industry for majority of my adult life. I went to a local hair school in Lakeland FL when I was 20. It wasn’t a fancy school but it got the job done. I graduated and started working right away in a salon. I assisted for a stylist in the beginning and then started working as a stylist at a commission salon. The environment was terrible and you worked your tail off but I learned so much just by trial and error there. Practice makes perfect. I got married and we moved to GA four months later. I found out that GA does not accept FL cosmetology licenses if you have been working less than two years. I just so happen to not meet those requirements. My two options were to either go back to school for three months and spend more money to get the required hours or do an apprenticeship which would mean starting all over again and would take a year or more.
We were young (21 and 22) and newly married and just moved states so money was tight to say the least, so I found a salon that was willing to take me on as an apprentice. It turned out to be a great setup in the long run since I was able to take clients of my own before or after my assisting shift and start to build my clientele. The salon I apprenticed at was a chair rental salon. The stylists just paid a weekly rent and were able to set their own hours and pricing. Once my apprenticeship was finished I started renting a chair there too and had a decent clientele to get started. I was at that same salon for 10 years! I know that’s unheard of in the salon industry. Most stylists hop from place to place. The thing that kept me there so long was the people I worked with. They were all so wonderful and most of us lol, got along very well.
2020 came around and the world was crumbling from the pandemic. In March all salons had to close their doors and wait till we could reopen. It was scary and the idea of not working and not making any income was very stressful. I came up with the idea to offer my clients at-home color kits that I would make up for them. I put together their color formula and put it in a bag with gloves and a color application brush and then they would come and pick it up off of my front porch. I made a video for them on how to mix the color together and apply it at home. It saved me and my clients! I was able to make a bit of income and they didn’t have to go months with their grays showing!
During the lockdown, I took advantage of the time to sit and reflect on my position in my salon. Again I had been there for years, I loved the people I worked with but the owner of the salon let’s just say, to put it politely, was not the most professional and made some unethical and poor business decisions when it came to running the salon. I had been unhappy there for a while and I felt like this was my chance to maybe do something about it. Plus I was struggling with the idea of going back to a busy people-filled salon in the height of a pandemic. So I started looking into a salon suite. Salons by JC off of Powers Ferry was the first and only place I looked at. It was in a great location and they had a window suite left. I went to check it out and immediately fell in love with it. I didn’t pull the trigger on it right away though. I was having a hard time with the idea of leaving the salon I had been at for so long. My husband and I went for a walk and we weighed all the pros and cons. And the only con to leaving and starting my own suite was that I would miss seeing my friends at work every day. But I knew in the end I would still get to see them and spend time with them outside of the salon. So I signed the lease the very next day. It took me two weeks to get the suite ready and I was up and running on July 7, 2020. Frankie Fay Salon is named after my grandmother Fay Francis Taylor. Her and I are very close and I have always admired her.
Opening my salon suite was the best business decision I ever made! It has given me complete freedom to run my salon how I want. No one to tell me what I can and can’t do. I was curious as to if majority of my clientele would follow me and they did! I lost some but I have gained some amazing new clients as well. Statistics show that even moving a couple of miles down the road, you will lose about 20% of your clients. Many people made the comment “Wow you moved your business in the middle of a pandemic! That must have been scary.” The truth is a had no fear. I just jumped head first and couldn’t wait to see where I landed. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I had a lot of people in the begin ask me if I feel lonely working by myself and the truth is heck no! I absolutely love it! And I’m never truly alone. I have my clients and have made tons of friends at the suites. When I first opened Frankie Fay I had this idea that this would be the first step into opening my own salon one day with maybe 4-5 chairs at the most but the longer I’ve been on my own I honestly don’t think I could work with anyone else ever again! Well I actually know a few people I know I could definitely work with and we would vibe for sure no problem. But for now and for the foreseeable future I am so happy and content to work on my own.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It wasn’t smooth but it wasn’t too bumpy either. I’d say the biggest struggle was just trying to navigate through the pandemic and trying to find what was going to be best for myself. I’m so grateful to my husband Tyler. He was my rock throughout the whole thing. Without him, I think I would still be at my old salon miserable and unhappy. He was the one who really helped me realize that I needed to stop thinking about everyone else for a min and put myself first for once. As a hairstylist, I believe we all have this need to please others, especially our clients. It’s what makes us amazing at our craft but it also can get to the point where you forget about taking the time for yourself too. We can’t help others without taking care of us first. I’m so grateful I had Tyler to help me realize that making this transition to a salon suite was the best thing for me. In the end, it was also the best thing for my clients too. All of them rave about having a comfortable, quiet, calm space to come to and relax. It’s my second home and I look forward to going into “work” each day.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
A little about my salon, Frankie Fay’s is a low toxic, hair has no gender pricing, come as you are salon. I specialize in Shags and textured French bobs and lived in color.
All products used in the salon are low toxic (safe clean ingredients) and cruelty-free. I use Original Mineral hair color which is an Australian color company and is one of the safest color lines on the market. I had some clients that were sensitive to other color lines and their scalps used to inch. Since using O&M color, they don’t itch at all.
What sets me apart but I’m hoping more salons are doing this is having inclusive pricing. Just because you are a man or a woman shouldn’t decide on the price of the service. Last year I made the decision to stop taking tips and just include it into an hourly/product used price. Tipping is a performance-based pay and those of us in the beauty industry are not performers. We are artists and you would never tip an artist that you have commissioned a piece of art from. Having gratuity-free pricing has taught me to value myself and has gotten rid of that “hustle” mentality that has always been pushed on us in the industry.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I know soooooo many stylists out there who are unhappy in their salons. My advice to you is do something about it. You are amazing and worthy of something better. I always thought it was normal to come into the salon every day and deal with toxic people, drama, an overstimulating environment, a boss who asks like a child, but it’s not! It’s not normal at all and it shouldn’t be! I just hope my story inspires even one hairdresser out there to change their stars.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.frankiefay.com/
- Instagram: @frankiefaysalon
Image Credits:
Myself Amanda McDonald
