Hair color expert, Vadre Grigsby, started her career in beauty as an assistant at a hair salon in 1988. She quickly worked her way up and was able to open her own salon at the tender age of 23. Vadre was introduced to Pravana and its products by Steven Goddard (Pravana founder) before it had been officially launched. She was eventually asked to join the team as the Artistic Director of Hair Color.

Vadre shares more with us:

Q: Who influenced you the most while you were learning your craft?

A: When I first got into hair color education, I was lucky enough to assist Jo Blackwell-Preston during a hair show in San Jose California. It was so impressive to watch the way she related to people and listen to her talk about true in salon experiences we all deal with. Her relationship with her audience and genuine abundance of hair color knowledge inspired me to want to learn and share. Once I started doing advanced education, I met Karen Johnson. When we met I was doing in salon education and she managed education events for a large beauty distributor. I didn’t know then that she would literally have a huge affect on my life later. Skip forward 3 or so years and Karen sent me a tube of a soon to launch color that she was impressed with and thought I might be too. That was my introduction to Pravana and ChromaSilk. Working with Pravana and Steven Goddard changed the course of my career.

Q: Where did you attend school?

A: I studied at the Santa Clara Beauty College in California – which is no longer open.

Q: What was the turning point of your career?

A: Sacrificing and scrapping together every dollar I had to buy my first salon at the age of 23. Another turning point was when I was given the opportunity to be a part of Pravana.

Q: What is the best advice you have received?

A: The best advice is: we regret more the things we didn’t do or didn’t try then then things we did.

Q: What is the biggest career challenge you had to overcome?

A: As with many woman in this industry the balance of career and family can pose challenges. In this industry, we work ‘retail hours’, which could be a challenge. But in some cases we also have the flexibility to set our own schedule, which helps when trying to find the balance.