Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennilyn West.
Hi Jennilyn, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Interestingly enough, I started out graduating from Utah State University as a Magna Cum in psychology. I was very smart, but school caused me a lot of stress, as I’m a total perfectionistic freak with panic attacks. During my senior year of college, I had panic attacks almost every day, and they knocked me out, making it hard to concentrate on school.
The more I thought about grad school, the less I wanted to go back to all the stress and panic I hadn’t learned to manage yet. In the back of my mind, a little part of me had always wanted to do hair, but I was afraid how people might see me, or that they wouldn’t think I was intelligent.
Until that point, I was known as the smart girl with the good grades, and back then, there was definitely a stereotype in Utah about hair stylists that had me worried. Luckily for me, my best friend in college was using her Cosmetology license to pay for her degree, and she was one of the smartest people I had ever met! She showed me that there was more to hair than I had ever thought there was before. There is chemistry in color, geometry in cuts, physics that deals with gravity and the way the hair falls, etc, etc. I was captivated and hung on her every word. I wanted to make that kind of complex art on people!
So, right before I graduated, I decided that I would go for it. I was following my partner to medical school in another state, and I wanted to go to hair school at the same time. Little did I know, my degree in psychology would come to be one of the most useful skills I would utilize during the next ten years of my career!
I attended an Aveda school in Columbus, Ohio, going 60+ hours a week to graduate in just around 10 months, and landed a job before I finished. For over four years under that company, I was able to take huge classes in nearly every area of hair: short cuts, long cuts, layers, fades, color theory, balayage, blondes, etc. The company I worked with was excellent in education but very poor in support of their stylists, and once I got my fill of classes and felt comfortable with nearly everything I could be asked, I knew I needed to leave and make my own way.
The problem was that my salon made young stylists sign non-competes and often sued my friends for leaving and working elsewhere. It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back I have to giggle at the amount of secrecy they forced us into just to do our jobs. I silently left them, took a new name, and moved into my own private studio, where I could cultivate my own culture. For almost a year, I went by a different nickname, a name I already responded to as a nerdy girl playing video games online: Cherry. And that is how my company and brand was formed: Chez Cherree.
Chez Cherree is a play on the nickname Cherry and the French words Chez Cherie (pronounced “shay sherry,”) which mean “The home of the lovely one.” I wanted that to represent anyone that sat down in my chair. You are home, and you are lovely, no matter how you feel that day. It’s my job to send you home feeling like the beautiful human you are, relaxed and feeling seen.
Leaving my old job was the best thing I could have done because it led me to forging my own form of the beauty relationship between hair stylist and guest. I was able to do what I love creatively, and incorporate my bachelor’s in psychology into every appointment, leaving you feeling seen, heard, and beautiful. I do not offer therapy, as I am totally unqualified for that, but I can offer a totally therapeutic, non-judgmental space, for you to feel and say whatever you need. There are times I have even picked up on symptoms as people tell me their lives, and then I can direct them to the kind of therapist that is qualified to help them with their issues. What an amazing experience to be able to help people feel beautiful AND improve their mental health for the day?
I moved back to Utah when things started falling through in my relationship, and when I got here, I decided I didn’t want to risk working for another company that treated its stylists like chattel. It was scary, but I found a private studio to rent in the top of a clock tower in Riverdale and reopened by myself. It was hard work, but not once was I unable to pay my rent. I’m so grateful for everyone that took a chance coming to me without knowing anything about me, and especially for those that kept coming back.
Today, 3.5 years later, I’m still in that clock tower, working steadily, trying to cultivate an air of acceptance and relaxation for everyone that comes in. If I can be even just an hour of reprieve from the world of judgment and condemnation that is outside my shop, then I’m satisfied. I love my art, but it’s so much more than that to me. Connection and cultivation of relationships are so important in my life, and I want to bring them into my career daily. I’ve made friends and family through my job, seen people get married, have babies, go through loss, etc, and I get to be there for them through all of it, which is an incredibly special experience to me. I’m so happy to be where I am, and for the journey that led me here! Thank you for taking the time to read it. I love my job!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
So many struggles! But that’s what I think has made it worth it to continue when I overcome them.
The first thing that was so hard for me was just pretending to be confident every time I meet someone new, juggling timing, doing my work, chatting, and listening at the same time. I remember asking a co-worker, “When does this start to feel normal?” She told me about a year for her. It definitely took me longer. Underneath the facade, I was shaking in my boots that whoever was coming in thought I was lame.
The second struggle was finding my place in a company that I didn’t seem to fit into. Aveda is a lovely brand, but everyone and everything has to look the same in their shops. I never felt like an individual or like I could be myself the franchise I worked for was pretty toxic and made you feel small and insignificant. In order to leave them, I had to work on intensely on believing in and advocating for myself. That’s hard work!
The third biggest struggle was letting go of my own hold-ups and insecurities when it came to opening my own business. It’s hard to walk up to someone and start a conversation, give them a card, ask them for work. I would post on Facebook marketplace thinking, “I’m going to annoy people. They are going to think this is dumb. They aren’t going to like my pictures. Etc etc.” I had to learn to overcome those thoughts and just go for it. It’s a vulnerable space, and that’s really hard for someone like me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in cut and color. I’m not going give you an up-do or a perm, but I’m going to attack any picture you give me until I can give you a nearly identical result, even if I have to go to a class to figure it out.
Cuts I specialize in:
Short, textured pixies and blended fades. Currently working with a straight razor on skin, so I can add it to my repertoire (Cos students in Columbus, OH aren’t allowed to touch them)
Texture and layers in long and medium cuts.
Shags
Bobs
Shaped cuts in general, meaning not a one-length haircut.
Color I specialize in:
Blondes, especially the platinums that are so difficult to achieve, and the cool, ashy tones.
Balayage (look it up cause it’s gorgeous!)
Dimensional color (more than one color coming through the reflection, even if I only put an all-over color on your head)
Blended grays/growing out grays
Fashion color, which means anything unnatural looking. I absolutely love blending the unnatural colors on your head. We know they aren’t your color, but they look like they grew out in a realistic way
I’m very good at taking a picture and translating it to your head. I ask a lot of questions to try to steer me in the right direction. My favorite, most heard compliment is that it is “exactly what they wanted.” I’m also good at listening to and receiving criticism so that I can tweak the cut/color at consecutive appointments.
The thing I’m most proud of is just how I connect with humans. I can find something to love in most people. We might be very different, but I’m so happy to reach across our differences and find something we agree on. I love creating a safe, therapeutic atmosphere where people come out feeling so much better. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we hug, but we leave better than we came in.
What does success mean to you?
This is a hard one for me…
I honestly think success is just doing something you love, doing it well, giving it your whole heart, and finding those that love and want to share your gifts as much as you do.
And doing something well doesn’t necessarily mean you start out being amazing. It just means that you educate yourself. You learn and practice your gift/talent, whatever it is until you can look back and see the trail of improvement to your current state. That trail is success to me. You keep trying even when you might fail for a minute. You might not be the best right now, but you keep going because you love it. Eventually, you’ll be way further ahead than you ever thought possible. There’s always more to learn, but the mindset where you can see that, accept that, AND still love yourself where you are: that’s success.
Pricing:
- 50/hr for color
- 45/hr for cut
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chezcherree.square.site
- Instagram: @cherrydoeshair889
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/chezcherree
