All month we’ve been featuring each of our team members and their Garnish Love Story. We’ve shared their perspective on how they fell in love with Garnish alongside Candice’s perspective of how she knew they were the right fit to be a part of our space. To close out our love stories we wanted to share a little bit about how Garnish came to be and how Candice really fell in love with Garnish and how that love has shaped everything Garnish has become since its birth.

The root of Garnish began long before it actually had a space of its own. Candice never set out to own a salon, but when she found herself continuously experiencing hard times at other salons, it made her start to consider the possibility. After experiencing salons where the culture just wasn’t quite right, salons where she felt there was a lack of integrity, salons that just weren’t progressive, and then finally finding what she thought would be her salon home only for it to be unexpectedly closed, she realized she would have to create her own culture and environment in order to have a space where she could really feel comfortable.

When that first began it was just a single salon suite of “one.” Candice was the only stylist and ran her salon suite with one other person—the assistant from the previous salon that had shut down. He helped her create a really great experience for her guests, and that’s what first started to establish the Garnish Experience. As she continued building her studio, she found that she had a knack for organization and creating processes. Then she hired a business coach and that’s when she really started to see that creating a salon of her own could become something great.

If you know anything about Candice you know that once she has a vision, she goes after it. As she began to cultivate the concept of a salon that could be a positive influence bringing stylists motivation, direction, and so much more, she began to look for actual spaces. As soon as she found the space Garnish is in now, she saw so much potential for what it could be. The natural light beaming in and filling the space gave her all the feels. She just knew that Garnish was going to be something really big.

The build out process took the next 6-8 months. Over that time period Candice emptied her 401k, took everything she had and poured it into this dream… and also at the same time found out she was having a baby. She was going through hiring and first trimester woes, but through it all felt like she had never felt about anything else before. When Garnish opened in August of 2014, it began with Candice and two other stylists who had said they wanted to work with her. And it has just continued to grow and evolve since. Now, she can’t imagine her life without Garnish beign a part of it.

Garnish has become not just a successful extensions salon, but it has also been a place of opportunity and growth for stylists. Candice has expanded from being exclusively behind the chair into training and education. Garnish is now becoming one of only 3 national host salons for Natural Beaded Rows Extension Education. She has shifted all of her energy into her true passion for changing the lives of women through the art of extensions, and creating amazing experiences. It is a hair salon, yes, but as so many people have found something inside of the space, it has become so much more than that.

Everyone that has come through the space, even those who are no longer in the space, have found something there. Whether they’ve discovered something new in themselves, found a path, or found alignment that has spun off into something amazing, it has been a place of change, growth, opportunity, and vision for everyone. When we asked Candice how she felt about everything Garnish has become, she said, “I am so honored to have been the founder and establisher of this kind of space.” The kind of space that positively impacts everyone who walks through its doors. The kind of space that has truly changed lives.

The love Candice has poured into Garnish has truly made it was it is today.

Each one of our team members means the world to us. Our team is the core of everything Garnish and we are so blessed to have such amazing people that make up our crew. We wanted to take the month of December to introduce you to each one of our team members in a new light—their Love Story with Garnish. Each story of how our team came together is a little different so we’ll be sharing both their perspective and Candice’s on how they came to be a Garnish stylist. This week’s feature is our OG, Niko.

Niko’s love story starts with a keratin treatment class several years ago. Niko was 19, a fresh new stylist, and she told us, “Candice walks in looking fly as hell. I told her she was so bad, then felt so stupid afterwards for telling her that.” Niko spent the whole class asking all the questions, wanting to assist whenever needed, and just trying to get to know Candice as much as she could. After the class they became Facebook friends.

Niko would occasionally see Candice around town and “get all weird because it’s Candice Motley!” and THEN she saw on Facebook that Candice had opened Garnish. While that was cool, Niko just knew she would never work outside of the downtown area. But she was also working in a space that wasn’t inspiring, and she knew her time there was coming to an end. The exact same week she got into a heated discussion with her boss, Candice reached out to her on Facebook and said she had one space left in her salon and thought Niko would be a really good fit. Candice invited Niko to lunch and if you know Niko, she is always down for a meal. She thought Candice was super cool, but even before they met up she had already decided that she wouldn’t work at Garnish.

When they sat down, Candice asked Niko about what she was currently struggling with within the industry. After Niko shared, Candice told her she thought she could help with those struggles and invited her to come look at the space. Still not sold, Niko stopped by the salon… and the rest is history. She smelled the smells and saw the things and felt the space and knew this was where she was supposed to be. A week later she brought all of her clients over to Garnish.

Niko shared that when she first got to Garnish she was the baby of the salon, but so fired up for her new salon home. She poured her heart and soul into Garnish, and she found that by doing so it pushed out all the negative people in her life as she filled herself up with all the positivity. At the beginning, she didn’t know if she would make it at Garnish because it was just so much more than she was used to, but with Candice’s encouragement and support she made it through. Every year since has brought something new. Her first year she built up a solid clientele, her second year she started learning extensions, and her third year Garnish transitioned to be extension exclusive.

In Niko’s own words, “Being with Garnish (if Garnish was my man) has forced me to elevate. It has brought me so many amazing people—everyone I’ve worked with I’ve loved. It’s brought out the best in me, has forced me to rise to the occasion, and I feel like I’ve grown up in the past 4 years. Everything that has been promised has come true for me. I’m so thankful to be in this space and to really have said yes from the beginning. It has molded me into the person I am today and I love the person that I am today.”

When we asked for Candice’s side of the love story, she immediately said, “I knew that Niko was coming as soon as I invited her in to see the space.” Her love story with Niko through Garnish has become a really incredible friendship, and truly someone that Candice just fell in love with. Niko’s work ethic and how she was able to rise to any occasion made her such a pivotal part of Garnish. Even four years later, they communicate so well, and make a really great leadership team for the salon. Niko brings something so magical to the space.

Candice told us she is so proud of Niko for going through everything she’s been through and changing so much in her personal life to show up differently in her professional life (because the two things are married together!) We’ve been so excited for new role as she has stepped into management this past year. Candice said she can’t wait to keep seeing her grow, and keep seeing her say yes. Through all the change, Niko has stayed open, humble, grounded, and on top of everything and there’s nothing that is thrown at her that she throws away. Candice said, “I’m excited to see her career blossom. I don’t know where Garnish would be if it wasn’t for Niko. This is a scenario where both sides win, both people win, both spaces are better with that person than without. All the effort she puts in, she gets back from Garnish. Pretty much, we’re in love.”

Each one of our team members means the world to us. Our team is the core of everything Garnish and we are so blessed to have such amazing people that make up our crew. We wanted to take the month of December to introduce you to each one of our team members in a new light—their Love Story with Garnish. Each story of how our team came together is a little different so we’ll be sharing both their perspective and Candice’s on how they came to be a Garnish stylist. This week’s feature is New Talent Stylist, Reece. 

Reece’s love story begins a little bit before Candice went to his school, Paul Mitchell, to give a presentation on hair extensions. While at Paul Mitchell, there was another student who wore hair extensions the entire time. One day she needed someone to put her extensions in and allowed Reece to apply them. He told us, “in that moment I thought it was so crazy what extensions could do and I knew I wanted to pursue them.” Reece also knew that cosmetology school was just the basics and he didn’t want to just graduate and go out on the floor. He wanted to go somewhere super strong in education. He had been talking to all his schoolmates, and his sister who was also in school with him, and really just putting that energy out into the universe.

He said, “One day at school there was this beautiful lady carrying so much shit and so much hair into the school and I was just wondering what was happening.” Candice was at Paul Mitchell to do a presentation on hair extensions and she had brought pretty much the entire essence of Garnish in addition to all the hair. Succulents, garnish décor, and several types of hair extensions.

Reece said that everyone was dressed so nice aand so polished and were so professional in how they were speaking that he immediately began to fall in love. At the time, Candice was wearing removable halo extensions, and she took them out in front of everyone. This moment of realness was one of the biggest sellers for Reece.

At the end of the presentation, Candice asked for a model. Reece told us he, “shot up faster than lights could turn on,” even knocking people over. Despite the fact that all she put in his hair was five fusion bonds, he thought it was so cool and those five little extensions made him feel “brand new.”

It was very little hair in terms of extensions, but it gave him “mad confidence” and really illustrated to him the impact extensions can have on how you feel. Volunteering to model was also Reece’s way of getting his foot in the door as he realized he would have to actually go to Garnish to get the hair extensions removed.

When he walked into Garnish he thought it was so beautiful and such good energy. The whole vibe was so nice and so clean. He told us he wanted to work at Garnish so bad that even just sitting in Candice’s chair to get his extensions removed that he was so nervous. He made sure to deliver his application in person because he wanted to stand out… little did he know that he already had!

Candice told us that as soon as she met Reece, as soon as he offered to help her carry in all the things for her presentation, she just knew that that was it and he was one of Garnish’s people. He had such good energy, was so positive, and had so much tenacity for learning his craft.

Throughout the entire application process he did everything so professionally, and it was easy to tell how badly he wanted it. He didn’t care that the program could be two years long, he didn’t care what the pay rate was, what long hours he might have to work, etc. There was nothing Candice could have done to deter Reece from wanting to work at Garnish. As soon as he was hired he brought so much energy into the studio. And now, a month from testing out to be on the floor as a stylist, he still breathes so much life into the salon. Reece will be our first to graduate through the Garnish Academy, and our love story with him just keeps on growing. Stay tuned for Niko’s Love Story coming up next week!

Each one of our team members means the world to us. Our team is the core of everything Garnish and we are so blessed to have such amazing people that make up our crew. We wanted to take the month of December to introduce you to each one of our team members in a new light—their Love Story with Garnish. Each story of how our team came together is a little different so we’ll be sharing both their perspective and Candice’s on how they came to be a Garnish stylist. First up is our sweet Studio Apprentice, Amani.

Earlier last year Amani was working at a full-service salon watching her fellow stylists taking all services, double and triple booking, and just in full-on rush mode all the time. She has always liked to take her time with her guests, truly connecting, and couldn’t see herself rushing people in and out and double booking. She knew when it came to hair she wanted to do something deeper and more rewarding. Enter Niko.

Amani told us that it all began when she started following Niko on Instagram and watching her live videos. Inpsired by Niko she started following Garnish. It didn’t take long for her to realize that THIS was what she wanted to do—work with women who had fine hair, thinning hair, and experiencing hair loss. She wanted to do extensions, but was comfortable in her current space and scared of what leaving would look like. Enter Candice.

When Amani saw the video of Candice talking about transitioning Garnish into an extension-exclusive salon she knew that this was where she was supposed to be. She thought it was such a brave and risk-taking decision to make that it inspired her to take the risk and reach out to Niko about Garnish. She sent in her video, filled out the infamous 10 page application, and the rest is history.

In her own words, Amani says, “These are my people. I love them. They touch all of my heart strings and help me be a better person.”

Recently, after having returned from the Thanksgiving break, Amani had a realization that she feels perfectly reflects her love affair with Garnish. She says, “I love off time, I love vacation, I love traveling, and Garnish is one of the only places where I really have to work hard. I am pushed to the limit every day here. You would think it would be hard to come back but it felt so good to come back. Who is happy to go back to work after a 5 day break?? It says a lot about where I work and the people I work with.”

When we talked to Candice about her experience with Amani joining the team, she shared how she knew from the moment she first saw Amani’s application video that she was meant to be a part of our team. No matter how her shadowing went or what skills she had, Candice could tell immediately what kind of person she is. In the past year, we’ve watched Amani change and grow and now her confidence is through the roof and we see such a different person every day. Garnish is all about hiring for who you are on the inside, and with Amani it was clear from the very beginning that she would become a part of our team.

We are so blessed to have Amani’s positive energy, incredible work ethic, humor, and fun as a part of our team. We can’t wait to see how her talent continues to blossom as she transitions from apprentice to stylist in the next year.

If you’ve been into the studio, or even perused our website, you know that we have an application process in order to become an extension guest at Garnish. It might seem crazy to have to apply to a hair salon to have hair extensions put in, but there’s actually a pretty thorough reasoning behind our process. We wanted to break this down for you so you could have a full picture view of why this is so important inside of our industry. Our application not only garners information from the applicant, but we’ve set it up to provide a ton of important preliminary information as well.

One of the most important aspects of having a great hair extension experience is understanding the investment. With both the financial investment and time investment being significant, we want to make sure that everyone is knowledgable about what it takes to get and maintain extensions.

We also want to ensure that they are a great candidate for the type of extensions that we offer, and that we are able to meet all of their expectations. It’s important to us that we’re all on the same page, and that we are a good fit for one another. As an extension guest, you will be spending a lot of time in our studio. We are in the business of building relationships and changing lives through the art of hair, and we want the entire process to go smoothly all around.

You don’t want to devote an hour of time to come in for a consultation if we can tell right away that you’re not a good candidate or we are not a good fit for what you’re looking to have done.

What makes you a good candidate for hair extensions?

A lot of women have unfortunately experienced hair loss brought on by various things—hormones, stress, vitamin/nutrient deficiencies, etc. Before we put extensions in we want to make sure the hair is in good condition. If you’re currently shedding hair, one of the worst things you can do is add semi-permanent extensions to your hair.

It’s important to us that before you invest both money and time, we understand if your hair loss has been diagnosed yet and if it’s still occuring so we can properly guide you to the best hair solution for you and your hair. We also ask a variety of other questions that help us determine if you’re a good candidate for hair extensions. We need to know if you’ve experienced any hair trauma, a bad hair color or haircut, or anything else that might pose a problem to you having a seamless blend with hair extensions.

Other important questions are if you’ve worn extensions before and what feedback you can provide from your past experience. We also ask about medication because some medications can contribute to hair loss. And finally, one of the most significant questions we ask is about your lifestyle. There’s a lot of activities that people engage in such as rock climbing, hot yoga, etc. that may not be the best fit for some of the methods that we offer. Learning about you helps us really sift through and make a well-informed decision on what will be the best fit for you as our professional recommendation.

It’s also absolutely vital to us that every guest is well-informed about the investment for every aspect of hair extensions. We want to make sure that you know everything that goes along with wearing extensions. The application helps us learn what’s important to you for your hair extensions experience, and allows us to manage expectations on both sides. Learning these details is something we can’t know just from looking at a photo. If we see something that is a red flag, we will reach out and let you know before you consider coming into the studio because we want you to be well-informed.

The final aspect of our application process is the photos. We ask you to upload a few pictures of yourself currently and your biggest inspirations. Together, these show us how much of a hair extension journey we are going to be on and how much hair we are going to have to apply. We can gain so much insight based on the photos you provide such as is your end goal realistic, or is it at least something we can grow into?

It also helps us determine if your hair needs will fit into something that we offer here in the studio.

From start to finish the application only takes about 10-15 minutes to fill out, and consultations are typically set up within the next week or so. We’ve cultivated this thorough process to ensure you have a great experience. We have such a high satisfaction rate inside of our studio and we believe it’s because of this application helping us and our clients sift through information and really set up the process to go smoothly.

If you’ve been considering hair extensions and have been wondering if you should fill out an application, we’d love to hear from you. Just click here to apply and we’ll be in touch soon!

Earlier this year, when we redesigned the Garnish Extension Studio website, we added a subtle but very important new feature—a banner along the bottom of the page that lists our monthly affirmation.

When we relaunched our newsletter, we decided to include this monthly affirmation to make sure it could be seen by as many of our guests as possible. Why was this so important to us?? Well, I guess you could say it’s because we’re BIG believers in the magic of affirmations.

If you ask Candice, Garnish came to be by her speaking it into existence through affirmations. Long before Garnish was its own space, she leaned into her affirmations that she would be a salon owner, and that she would have an extension studio. It didn’t just happen by chance. Affirmations and intentions go hand in hand!

We also believe that affirmations and the beauty industry go together equally as well. Our craft may be in beautifying your look externally, but we adamantly believe that services like hair extensions are only there to amplify what’s already on the inside. That is to say that you are worthy, you are enough, and you are perfect as you are—without ever having to get your hair done, or lashes extended, etc.

As an extension-exclusive salon, we know that it would be super easy to get wrapped up in just the look of things. And while we LOVE that our guests feel beautiful at the end of their transformations, we want to positively contribute to how they feel on the inside just as much.

We think of hair extensions as that extra something on top of an already amazing foundation. Part of our belief in affirmations and feeling worthy, is the idea of being worthy of taking care of yourself, taking time for yourself, and investing in yourself. Hair extensions falls into that category of self-investment, and it’s our view that the two feed one another.

When you love yourself, you invest in yourself, and when you invest in yourself your self-love grows. It’s part of why women experience such a glow at the end of their hair service. Part of it is looking in the mirror at their new hair, but the other part is feeling amazing for doing something they’ve wanted for so long.

When it comes to the confidence gained by wearing hair extensions, we definitely believe in their transformative power, but we also know that a look doesn’t represent a person in their entirety. That’s why we find it so important to have an affirmation based business within the beauty industry. How you look is not there to replace the worthiness that you feel. It’s always our goal to help your inner beauty reflect on the outside through having a look that makes you feel empowered to live confidently and authentically.

Here’s a few of our favorite affirmations for you to practice as often as you’d like (we recommend daily).

I love myself as I am.
I am worthy of taking care of myself.
I am worthy of abundance in my life.
I am proud of myself.