Hi there! My name is Kylie Borchers and I’m from Arizona. I feel that as a hair stylist, one of the biggest blessings of working behind the chair is the relationships that we build with our clients and the feeling we get when we create a beautiful hairstyle for someone… turning the chair around for them to see themselves and watching them feel a little more confident than when they initially walked in. I love getting to know my clients. We listen to each other and I get to care for them in a way that nobody else gets to. It’s a special, beautiful relationship with each client. I could go on and on about the major things that I feel blessed to be in the industry for, but I figured I would get a little more personal as my contribution to this blog really made me dig a little bit deeper inside (so bare with me, as this is my first ever blog post). Anyway, this has made me reflect a lot on my unexpected journey into becoming a hair stylist, a reflection of how God is full of surprises, and how sometimes all you really need is just a big ol’ leap of faith.
We all know how God works in mysterious ways. I never thought in a million years that I would be a hair stylist. If you asked young Kylie what she wanted to be when she grew up, my answer was always a professional basketball player. I wanted to play basketball in college and maybe one day overseas. I played basketball my entire life. I knew a lot about sports, pony tails, and Michael Jordan. However, by my junior year in high school I started to reach a basketball burnout. I had always neglected my longing to be an artist in order to continue building my skills as an athlete. I was terrified to quit basketball. It was all I knew. It was everything I aspired to be. I was afraid to be open to something new. But I knew I had to explore this different and more artistic side of myself.
By the time I had decided to resign from sports, I realized that my notorious pony tail was all the way down my back. My hair was incredibly long and I didn’t have to go to basketball practice after school anymore! Do you know what this meant?! It was time to get in touch with my “girly side”. I bought my first curling iron my senior year of high school and Lord knows how many hours I spent in front of the mirror burning both my fingers and my virgin hair all while beaming with pride over my poorly curled locks. I was stoked. I had replaced my basketball with a curling iron. I quickly found myself styling friends’ hair for school dances and falling in love with the art of hair styling. I knew that without basketball to drive me for college anymore, I wasn’t the least bit ready to attend a University. That’s when I broke the news to my parents that I wanted to go to beauty school.
Of course my parents were completely supportive. Shocked, unsurprisingly, as I was even shocked at this new journey for myself. But they trusted and supported me. This industry snuck up on me and swept me off my feet. Beauty school went by fast and learning was suddenly easy for me. I had no idea what to wear in this industry or what I wanted to do with my cosmetology degree but I knew that it felt right. I graduated beauty school in 2009 and haven’t put my comb down since.
In the beginning of 2015 I found myself feeling less than inspired behind the chair. After assisting, I had begun working at a commission salon where I worked for just under 5 years. I was aspiring for a full book of clientele and was frustrated and confused as to why so many years behind the chair hadn’t brought me very many clients. I wanted to be a really good hair stylist and I didn’t realize that I wasn’t in the right place for what I wanted for myself. I was stagnant. I wasn’t getting quality hair education nor did I realize how much I still didn’t know about the hair industry. I was lost, confused, and I was beginning to give up on something I knew I loved. At this point, I had unintentionally pushed God aside from my busy life and praying for guidance wasn’t a thing I found myself doing very often… if at all.
Flash forward to July of 2015. I was 8 months pregnant and found out I had to be on bed rest. (You ladies know that the pregnancy struggle is real!) So- I filed my maternity leave paperwork at the salon, took an early leave and waited for the arrival of my son. Once my son was born, I went back to my salon to find out that I had been fired. All of my items were packed in a box and someone new had already taken my station. I had never been fired before… what happened?! I was told that I had to be terminated because of problems with my medical leave and that they forgot to notify me. I was in a panic! I went home, I cried, and I fell to my knees. I prayed SO hard. It was the first time in a very long time that I had prayed in such a raw and effortless form. I had a newborn baby, a nursing infection, college finals for 12 college credits, and now I had no job or income to help pay for the new house my husband and I had just bought. I had no idea what to do and I needed God now more than ever.
I needed to make a decision and I needed to make one quickly. With hope in my heart and a baby in my arms, I decided that this new found practice of prayer was my only solution. I began to research all salon jobs in the valley. I wanted to find a salon home. Each salon that caught my eye, I would ask God, “Is this salon the right salon for me?” I waited for a confident response in my heart of “yes! this is it!”, but I never got that feeling. No matter how many salons I looked up, I didn’t feel a “pull” anywhere. I felt scared to work for another company that could get rid of me in the snap of a finger. Maybe this was my time to take a leap of faith and start my own business… It was something I always wanted for myself, but I have always been to scared to do it. I looked at my son and I felt motivated. I felt like this was right. But was it? I prayed. I researched. I listened for answers. And I prayed some more.
I had been searching for weeks for available salon suites in my area…and believe me when I say there was NOTHING available. After days of googling, phone calls, and driving around looking at salons, I stumbled across Palette Collective online. When I called to schedule a tour and told the owner I found him through google, he responded surprised and told me the website for the facility hadn’t been launched yet. I felt like this was a miracle! I was the first one to stumble across the website AND I was offered the very LAST room available in the square footage that I needed for my business. Coincidence? I think not!
It was in these moments that I realized God was answering my prayers. I knew that this was right. I didn’t feel a pull to make this decision, I felt a yank. “Yes! This is it!” I didn’t know how I would become a successful business owner, especially since I had just lost all of my clientele. But I trusted that God would be my new boss and guide me to get there. This new take on prayer was changing my life and it was time for me to follow that change.
The very next day I jumped with both feet and took my biggest leap of faith- I signed the lease to start up my own salon business…. Moxie Salon inside of Palette Collective. I told God that I would work as hard as I needed to if He would just guide my work in the right direction.
A couple of weeks after I opened up shop, I was referred by some clients and co-business owners to a church that was up the street from my work called “The Grove”. Word on the street was this church had a coffee shop. (Considering it has been since childhood that I had found myself attendedinc church, so the coffee shop sounded inviting.) I decided it was time to give church a shot. Prayer was impacting my life in a profound way and I was ready to take my leap of faith to the next level. My husband fully on board the whole way, we now have been attending The Grove since that very first Sunday that I opened my salon.
I was recently told that, “You know when you have found your purpose in life because when you follow it, God will start aligning your path to match the purpose He has for you.” To say I have been blessed behind the chair would be an understatement as being behind the chair is my blessing. In a roundabout way, it has brought me back to being the Child of God that I was when I really was a child. It has reminded me that God answers our prayers if we allow ourselves to be open to Him and His universe. Mostly, it has brought me the gift of serving others the way God intended us to serve.
Now, Moxie Salon has officially been open for almost 3 years. I have a strong and healthy son who is almost 3 and his favorite song is Jesus Loves Me. Now my family and I attend church and pray together. I am currently booking 4-6 weeks out which is the busiest I have ever been since becoming a stylist and I even just hired my first assistant to help me with double booking…. All because I found my mustard seed of faith. Thank you for taking the time to read about my story. God is good, my friends. So very good.