Hairdresser Lori Bryant feels at home in her salon.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Lori Bryant, owner of Hair Studio, blow dries Tammy Stevens' hair at her salon in Auburn.
Lori Bryant, owner of Hair Studio, blow dries Tammy Stevens' hair at her salon in Auburn.
“I can kind of close my eyes while I'm working, that's the great thing about doing something for a long time,” Bryant said.
As the owner of Hair Studio on 66 Owasco St., Bryant puts several years of hairdressing experiences - both good and bad - into practice every day she steps into her salon. Her chosen profession also affords her the opportunity to make use of her creativity on a continual basis.
“I'm one of those people that likes immediate results,” Bryant said. “I like having people feel better when they walk out one hour later.”
Bryant began honing her talent for hairdressing as a young girl growing up in Auburn by braiding and styling her high school friends' hair for proms. But during high school, the creative instinct that motivated her hairdressing also moved her towards a career in commercial art. Bryant enrolled in a three-month pre-college program at SUNY Fredonia to enrich her skills in this field. She briefly worked as a designer on print advertisements, but the hectic demands of the profession eventually led Bryant to decide on a new line of work.
“It's hard to be creative on a deadline,” Bryant said.
Bryant immediately looked to obtain her license as a hairdresser. She completed the eight-month program at The Auburn International Beauty School in 1981, but elected not to begin practicing her craft locally.
“Being 19, I wanted to go someplace different while I was still young,” Bryant said.
She chose Virginia Beach, where she lived for nine years with a close friend while working as both a waitress and a hairdresser. Bryant spent her last two years there as a manager at a Sears in-store salon, but she decided to return to Auburn when homesickness took hold. She also relished the return to the chilly climate of the Finger Lakes area.
“I hate heat,” she said. “I would rather have spent the time away in New York City.”
Her career came full circle when Bryant returned to the International Beauty School as an instructor in 1990. When the school closed three years later, Bryant went to work at the J.C. Penney in-store salon in the Fingerlakes Mall, joining several of her students.
“It's a very relaxed atmosphere with her; it's not stuffy,” said Tammy Stevens, a stylist and nail technician at Hair Studio.
In 2001, Bryant bought Maria-Jose's Hair Fashions, the business that would become Hair Studio, and brought along several of her former students to staff the empty hair stations. Two years later, Bryant took her salon to a space in the Owasco Street mini-mall that she outfitted with all-new hair styling equipment.
Over the years, Bryant had built such a strong rapport with her clients that most didn't think twice about following her across town.
“She's just the coolest woman, so artistic and creative,” said Ro Herbert, a client of Bryant's for six years. “You can tell styling is something she really enjoys.”
Owning her own salon places Bryant in a mentoring role with many of her stylists, whose own mistakes echo those Bryant made while she learned her way around the chair.
One of Bryant's most nerve-racking moments came when she color-treated a woman with black hair flowing down to her lower back. Part of the client's face was so stained with dye that Bryant could not merely clean it with a wet cloth. As the panic began to surge through her body, the client told Bryant to wet the rag with hydrogen peroxide, then dab it in cigarette ashes. The friction of the soot scrubbed the dye out of the woman's skin.
“When you make a mistake it teaches you what to do, so if you're afraid, you have to go for it,” Bryant said.
Clients - particularly Bryant's most frequent - often place a degree of trust in her to style their hair as she sees fit. Bryant respects this trust enough not to let her creativity run wild at the expense of their hair.
“No one has been dissatisfied so far. I don't do anything too crazy or turn people blue,” Bryant said.
But one group of clients continues to gall Bryant's normally cool head behind the chair: children. Their fidgety movements have often resulted in cuts to Bryant's own hands. She cautiously directs errant snips away from the child's head, in part because Bryant once cut the top part of a young boy's ear at a salon in Virginia.
“It's not my favorite kind of challenge,” Bryant said. “I'd rather have someone come in and ask me to fix their green hair.”
With a dozen beauticians working alongside her at Hair Studio, Bryant has plenty of places to pass along the salon's child clients. Having such a large staff of professionals helps Bryant shed her concerns about being a business owner and focus on being a hairdresser.
“She's at ease behind the chair, giving someone a whole new look and helping them feel good about themselves,” Stevens said.
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you go
What: Hair Studio
When: Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Where: 66 Owasco St., Auburn
For details: Call 253-7366
As the owner of Hair Studio on 66 Owasco St., Bryant puts several years of hairdressing experiences - both good and bad - into practice every day she steps into her salon. Her chosen profession also affords her the opportunity to make use of her creativity on a continual basis.
“I'm one of those people that likes immediate results,” Bryant said. “I like having people feel better when they walk out one hour later.”
Bryant began honing her talent for hairdressing as a young girl growing up in Auburn by braiding and styling her high school friends' hair for proms. But during high school, the creative instinct that motivated her hairdressing also moved her towards a career in commercial art. Bryant enrolled in a three-month pre-college program at SUNY Fredonia to enrich her skills in this field. She briefly worked as a designer on print advertisements, but the hectic demands of the profession eventually led Bryant to decide on a new line of work.
“It's hard to be creative on a deadline,” Bryant said.
Bryant immediately looked to obtain her license as a hairdresser. She completed the eight-month program at The Auburn International Beauty School in 1981, but elected not to begin practicing her craft locally.
“Being 19, I wanted to go someplace different while I was still young,” Bryant said.
She chose Virginia Beach, where she lived for nine years with a close friend while working as both a waitress and a hairdresser. Bryant spent her last two years there as a manager at a Sears in-store salon, but she decided to return to Auburn when homesickness took hold. She also relished the return to the chilly climate of the Finger Lakes area.
“I hate heat,” she said. “I would rather have spent the time away in New York City.”
Her career came full circle when Bryant returned to the International Beauty School as an instructor in 1990. When the school closed three years later, Bryant went to work at the J.C. Penney in-store salon in the Fingerlakes Mall, joining several of her students.
“It's a very relaxed atmosphere with her; it's not stuffy,” said Tammy Stevens, a stylist and nail technician at Hair Studio.
In 2001, Bryant bought Maria-Jose's Hair Fashions, the business that would become Hair Studio, and brought along several of her former students to staff the empty hair stations. Two years later, Bryant took her salon to a space in the Owasco Street mini-mall that she outfitted with all-new hair styling equipment.
Over the years, Bryant had built such a strong rapport with her clients that most didn't think twice about following her across town.
“She's just the coolest woman, so artistic and creative,” said Ro Herbert, a client of Bryant's for six years. “You can tell styling is something she really enjoys.”
Owning her own salon places Bryant in a mentoring role with many of her stylists, whose own mistakes echo those Bryant made while she learned her way around the chair.
One of Bryant's most nerve-racking moments came when she color-treated a woman with black hair flowing down to her lower back. Part of the client's face was so stained with dye that Bryant could not merely clean it with a wet cloth. As the panic began to surge through her body, the client told Bryant to wet the rag with hydrogen peroxide, then dab it in cigarette ashes. The friction of the soot scrubbed the dye out of the woman's skin.
“When you make a mistake it teaches you what to do, so if you're afraid, you have to go for it,” Bryant said.
Clients - particularly Bryant's most frequent - often place a degree of trust in her to style their hair as she sees fit. Bryant respects this trust enough not to let her creativity run wild at the expense of their hair.
“No one has been dissatisfied so far. I don't do anything too crazy or turn people blue,” Bryant said.
But one group of clients continues to gall Bryant's normally cool head behind the chair: children. Their fidgety movements have often resulted in cuts to Bryant's own hands. She cautiously directs errant snips away from the child's head, in part because Bryant once cut the top part of a young boy's ear at a salon in Virginia.
“It's not my favorite kind of challenge,” Bryant said. “I'd rather have someone come in and ask me to fix their green hair.”
With a dozen beauticians working alongside her at Hair Studio, Bryant has plenty of places to pass along the salon's child clients. Having such a large staff of professionals helps Bryant shed her concerns about being a business owner and focus on being a hairdresser.
“She's at ease behind the chair, giving someone a whole new look and helping them feel good about themselves,” Stevens said.
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you go
What: Hair Studio
When: Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Where: 66 Owasco St., Auburn
For details: Call 253-7366
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