If you attended All About the Girls Part Six last month, you could tell everyone brought their A-game when it came to style, both with clothes and with hair. This included host Jenny Craig-Brown, who rocked an incredible faux-hawk that many adored, which was styled by none other than La Porte native Sara Hicks.
However, Hicks never imagined herself as a hairstylist when she first started out.
“I honestly thought it was just going to be an easy way to get out of high school for half a day and hang out with my friends. I didn't realize there were going to be tests, chemistry, electricity, and everything else involved,” she said.
In fact, Hicks worked in a factory for four years before making hairstyling her career.
Her passion for hair grew when she realized there was more to the work than just the styling and that the reward was bigger than just seeing the finished product on a client.
“I actually was really shy in high school,” she said. “Once I started getting to know people a little bit more and seeing how I can make the day a little bit better, it made me enjoy it more. I feel like being able to help other people made me want to reach out a little bit more. And then the more I got into the science side of hair color, the more I enjoyed it.”
Hicks said this was especially true within the last couple of years due to the pandemic.
“I definitely enjoy helping people, whether it's just giving them 20 minutes to sit down and relax and regroup or making them feel like a totally different person or helping them through hard days,” she said.
She said her work provides the first bit of human interaction some people have had in almost two years, which really amplified the fact that being a stylist goes beyond the hair.
“I feel like especially after COVID, we don't realize how much people don't see others. We might be the first person that's had physical contact with somebody that was in their house for three months,” she said.
When working with a client’s hair, she lets them lead the way and tell her what they want. She then works with them to find what would be best for them when it comes to both maintenance and appearance.
“I ask mostly what they want to do and how much maintenance they want; how much time they want to spend in the morning," she said. "From there, we have to go off of, you know, what's the texture of their hair? What is their hair going to do versus how much time they want to spend on it and kind of go from there."
While her favorite style to do now is beach waves, she also enjoys giving people a variety of looks that help boost their confidence and make them feel like a brand-new person.
“I feel like beach waves are really trending. I don't think they're going anywhere right now,” she said. “We do a lot of that, but I also like doing something that's different from what somebody wears every day. Whether it's straight or curly, sometimes styling it a way they're not used to makes them feel a little bit different.”
Hicks currently works at Hair Fitness in La Porte and loves her job at the salon.
“We’re a commission-based salon, and we work together pretty closely where each person builds up their own clientele. But we also work really tightly together. If somebody is running behind, there's always somebody there to help pick you up or help out. We get to meet all the other stylists' guests here and always get to say hi in the morning. If their stylist can't get them in, they still have a friendly face and aren't a total stranger most of the time.”
Hicks said she has truly found her passion working with hair and couldn’t imagine styling her life any other way. She’s happy that she’s been able to go so far with something she wanted to try in high school and couldn’t imagine it would turn out how it has today.