Loretta Wollner: Five Things Anyone Can Do To Have Fabulous Hair
Embrace your natural beauty. I had a client who always styled her curly hair straight, recently she asked me to start working with her natural curl and she is loving it. Her confidence is up and she feels fresh and beautiful. This also goes along with trying something new, it’s fun to change looks. Also I think looking and feeling beautiful is so much more than aesthetics, it’s about confidence and how you feel inside. If you feel good inside you will radiate beauty and feel it.
As a part of our series about “Five Things Anyone Can Do To Have Fabulous Hair”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Loretta Wollner, a celebrity hair stylist with 25 years of experience in the beauty industry.
Loretta is currently servicing clients in the Hamptons & NYC for private appointments offering cuts, color, styling, keratin smoothing treatments, and hair extensions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was always a creative and artistic minded person so in high school I was given an opportunity to go to beauty school and found Icould use my talents to help people look and feel good.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I was a lucky one who found my passion early in life but wanted to challenge myself by going to business school in my later 20's . I think I wanted to prove to myself I could be more cerebral than artistic, it was a crazy time for me. I was working full time in a salon and going to school full time, it helped me to be balanced in business and creativity equally whereas before I was focused on the art of it only.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
The tipping point was when I started to work for myself by freelancing, my business took off. I find when I’m free to create in my own space where my clients are my “bosses” I’m happiest. I think that was key for me and my energy shifted into a space that was most inviting for my work.
In your experience what were the most effective ways for your business to generate leads and sales? Can you share a story or give an example?
The best way to generate leads for me has always been word of mouth. When people feel good with what you’ve done then they are your biggest advertisement.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Oh, there are so many, I worked at the Louis Licari salon and Louis ran a tight ship but with a relaxed feel. He fine tuned my artistic skills and taught me how to have conversations with people and how to directly address clients expectations and produce long term results while making them feel beautiful. Also my best friend Neda and former boss actually is probably the most influential. I was very insecure starting out and she always built my confidence, it helped me to stay in the career and work on not judging my work so much and just let it flow out . My friend and makeup artist hubby Jasen Kaplan has taught me working with people can be fun and humorous and gets me out of my natural serious mindset. Its funny too along the way there were many people I didn’t instinctively like but as I got to know them I learned there is something you can find to like about everyone.
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
When I was 15 and started beauty school the teacher told my mother and I that I knew how to cut and I could cut my sisters hair so I tried. Two and 1/2 hours later my sister had one side about 3 inches longer. I wound up fixing that after another 2 hours . I learned a lot of patience and that my sister is a good sport and actually now has complete trust in me with her hair.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
Try to let things happen and don’t judge yourself along the way, you never know where you will end up and there’s a space for everyone in this field. Every type of personality wants a haircut so therefore you will match with some and others not, stay positive and focused.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you please share “Five Things Anyone Can Do To Have Fabulous Hair”. Please share a story or an example, for each.
Fabulous hair is completely relative to how you feel inside. These days you have so many options of looks, start by evaluating your own hair then decide what you are looking for if its a cut or a style figure out if it can be achieved with product/treatment/ect . Frizzy hair can be made frizz-free with treatments and/or product’s, fine hair can be made voluminous with products and/or extensions. Talk to your stylist about your expectations and ask them to have a conversation about what you need to do to get there. maybe you already are and just need to hear it, maybe you need a few tips to help you get there, maybe you want a whole new look. Hair is fun and should make you feel fabulous
Can you share 3 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Embrace your natural beauty. I had a client who always styled her curly hair straight, recently she asked me to start working with her natural curl and she is loving it. Her confidence is up and she feels fresh and beautiful. This also goes along with trying something new, it’s fun to change looks. Also I think looking and feeling beautiful is so much more than aesthetics, it’s about confidence and how you feel inside. If you feel good inside you will radiate beauty and feel it.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I think inspiration comes from within, inspire literally means to breathe in. If you can try to inspire yourself and lift those around you then that’s the movement. I try to focus on that everyday as part of my work, that’s the most impactful work you can do as a human.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Find what you love in life and do that everything you need will always come from that also remember to learn all the rules and then break them like a true artist
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you’d like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. :-)
Its a tough call between Steve Jobs and Deepak Chopra, two of the greatest minds. I’m inspired by what both have done in the world.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.instagram.com/loretta_wollner/
Thank you so much for this. This was very inspirational, and we wish you only continued success!
About the Interviewer: Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion in startups. She has successfully built 6 startups to date. Her passion for entrepreneurship continues to flourish with the development of Stretchy Hair Care, focusing on relieving the pain associated with detangling and styling natural black hair. For far too long, people with tender heads have suffered in pain. Until now.