Do What You Love - episode two: Cole

**This is the second in a series of posts that I will be featuring here on Monday mornings that I made for the Gap, you can read HERE for more info about how this series came to be, and the finer details of what it's all about. In short: This is the first in a new series that will be featuring women who Do What They Love for a living. Women who are living their lives on their own terms, and finding success.

One of the reasons I fell in love so very quickly with Cole after just meeting her was how infectious her spirit was, she had this spring in her joints that kind of spun her around when she walked like kart wheels and sunshine-- it had a lot to do with the fact that she was so excited about her work life. She had been busting her butt at hair school, but she also had gotten herself an apprenticeship at the Salon she had set her sights on. She had that ability to picture her dreams, and then chase them down and make them real. She loves the people she works with, and the people she works for, and the way they handle their ongoing education for their stylists. She was just flat out excited about life, she loved becoming a stylist. When we first were married, we were both in that awkward position of not making any money. We were not earners. She was an apprentice, and I was just starting out trying to really pursue photography for the first time in my life, we decided we would just gut it out, neither one of us willing to throw it in and just find jobs that would pay the bills. I could never imagine asking her to quit, and she has always given me the same courtesy, even when we were at our lowest.

She lasted through her apprenticeship, and a maternity leave, and eventually earned her own chair, and has now steadily been building her clientele up ever since, and it's growing fast. We made it through the hard part together. In all of Cole's persistence to get to this point, I think she surprised herself when she got there. What I found interesting and have witnessed her go through was this incredible transformation and realization process she had in the beginning of her styling career. All of the sudden she was nervous to go to work, she was overwhelmed when she would return home. Not because of the hours, but because she had a bigger realization, I asked Cole to talk about those moments for this series: "There had been so much focus on developing the technical and creative skills involved, that I forgot about how heavy the emotional workload could be. Being a stylist you deal with so much emotion. I have no idea what's going on in my clients lives outside of the salon, if their having a good or bad day, if things are tough for them. What I do for them in the chair can make them feel better, or it could make them feel worse emotionally if they hate how they look... bottom line is that they come to me and they need to feel great about how they look when they leave. So every cut I made became this epic decision. The way I shape someones cut, or bring out their face, or give them some security, all of that responsibility hit me all at once, and it took some getting used to. Ultimately this emotional impact and connection to people is what had drawn me into wanting to become a stylist in the first place, so this was a great reminder at the end of a heavy technical process of what I love about my job. What makes it so meaningful to me. It's why I do what I do. It's scary sometimes. I love that."

**Pictured Above: Cropped skinny jeans (black wash) by: Gap


Legging jeans (classic wash) by: Gap

**All of the clothes seen in the still images and video were provided by the Gap for this series, you can check out the entire 1969 collection HERE

The Music was provided as always by the band: Rabbit! - Song: Life is Sweet - This song is available for purchase on their album Connect the Dots which you can grab HERE.

If you missed the first post in the series, please take a look HERE

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. The girl in the video that is getting her hair done by Cole, is our friend Maureen. She was our matchmaker. Maureen took it upon herself to spill the beans about all of my carrying on about how gorgeous and awesome I thought Cole was. I was at a point in my life where I had no intention of pursuing any kind of relationship and was going to keep all of my infatuation with Cole to myself. Luckily for me, for us, Maureen took Cole aside and sold me out. That little nudge is all it took. Thanks Maureen.

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