“We opened our salon in ten days.”: My Hangout with Renee & Sadie of Shadow and Shear
When I hopped on a call with Vancouver stylists Renee and Sadie, I figured we’d trade a few origin stories, maybe swap some no-show horror tales, and call it a wrap. Instead, I got a front-row seat to a wild, 10-day sprint that turned an empty Gastown microsuite into one of the city’s most buzz-worthy hair havens. Buckle up—these two don’t do “slow.”
“We opened our salon in ten days.”
Yep, you read that right. Once the lease papers stopped sliding, Renee and Sadie bulldozed through paint swatches, IKEA returns, and a frantic client-text blitz—and managed to launch Shadow and Shear only five days after their official move-in date.
“There’s no chill, but it’s fun,” Renee laughed. “We’re maniacs—in the best way.”
Sadie’s take? She nearly quit hair altogether when Renee first hinted at branching out:
“You can’t leave me—or I’ll have to go back to college and become a librarian!”
So, naturally, she came along for the ride.
Two Brains, One Super-Salon
It turns out their partnership is as deliberate as their decision-making is impulsive. Sadie loves re-merchandising retail shelves; Renee is the self-proclaimed “freak for paperwork and taxes.” One hustles content (Renee’s reel game is strong), the other wins salon awards for pre-booking rates (Sadie’s calendar is legendary). The result? A three-day-a-week schedule that’s fully booked and somehow still full of belly laughs.
ADHD Superpowers & Stylist Survival Kits
Both stylists credit a dash of neuro-spice for their creativity—and their straight-up honesty about mental health struck a chord with me. “I decompress before work… and again after,” Renee admitted. “We carry our clients’ highs and lows, so boundaries matter.” Sadie nodded, adding that learning to reply to DMs only during set hours saved her sanity (most days, anyway).
Their best advice to newbie stylists?
- Renee: Start social early and drop the mask—your vibe attracts your tribe.
- Sadie: If a salon doesn’t value you, walk. There are better fits out there.
Clients for Every Vibe
Need proof? One of Sadie’s former coworkers built a thriving business by barely speaking. “There’s a client for everyone—even the silent-appointment crowd,” she reminded me. Shadow and Shear’s tribe happens to like memes, vivid color melts, and the occasional Shrek stencil (yes, really).
The IKEA Jungle Wall That Wasn’t
My favorite backstage tidbit? Renee’s grand plan for a fake-plant feature wall. She made Sadie haul hundreds of dollars’ worth of greenery up the stairs… only to decide it looked terrible, haul it back down, and return every last leaf. Friendship goals, right there.
Why You’ll Want the Full Story
I left the chat grinning ear to ear—and itching to tackle my own to-do list with half their gusto. Whether you’re plotting an escape from commission life or just need a shot of creative adrenaline, Renee and Sadie prove you can build exactly the salon you want (and have a blast doing it).
Hit play on the video below to catch the rapid-fire banter—battery-installation confession and all—and see how Shadow and Shear turned ten hectic days into a forever home. Trust me, you’ll walk away believing “no chill” might be the secret ingredient your career’s been missing.
You can find Renee and Sadie at:
https://www.instagram.com/shadowandshear/
https://www.instagram.com/chrysalis.hair/
Transcript
Liam Shea (00:00)
say your names and how long you’ve been doing hair?
Renee (00:02)
Yeah, I’m Renee. I’ve been doing hair for almost six years now.
Liam Shea (00:07)
Okay.
Sadie (00:08)
I’m Sadie, I’ve been doing hair for almost seven years.
Liam Shea (00:11)
nice and wordy work.
Renee (00:12)
We have our own little microsuite called Shadow and Shear. It’s currently in gas town.
Liam Shea (00:20)
yeah exactly yeah okay so you open that not that long ago were you in a commission shop before that
Renee (00:27)
Yeah, definitely. It did both structures. So it did, you know, it would help build up newer stylists in the industry. And then once you hit that threshold and you making the commission.
Liam Shea (00:40)
⁓
okay, hourly or commission. Got it. What was that transition like? Going from being an employee to being self-employed.
Renee (00:51)
man, our story is kind of strange for it. Yeah, I don’t even know how to get into it really quickly.
Sadie (01:00)
We’re looking into breaking off for a couple of months and we had a lead on our space but we weren’t going to know for a few months so we were just kind of hypothetically preparing, preparing as much as we could without spending money or putting things into like a permanent place. And then when we did find out it was very quick.
Renee (01:23)
It’s
like 10 days. We opened our salon in 10 days. From like when we knew to when we could get in.
Liam Shea (01:30)
I knew you were moving quick from when I first talked to you. didn’t understand.
Renee (01:34)
Yeah, so again, like we did all the things online that we could do that wouldn’t have like huge consequences if we didn’t go ahead with it. And then when we found the space, we had an idea and we were in correspondence with the person, but we hadn’t signed the lease until like a month or so. It was quick.
Sadie (01:52)
think it was about a month before we went in and then they were able to give us a couple of additional days and then we opened five days after the start of the month to add some more days.
Renee (02:06)
Our
lease was on the first and we’re like, we’re starting on the fifth. Nice. Yeah, we got it.
Sadie (02:11)
And we got it in the last couple of days of June, so we ended up having 10 days. And we also needed time to market and tell our clients and start setting up our books. So we left a month before, even though we’d been hoping to stay longer, we had to take a month off before. So we did a lot of prep work for three weeks.
Liam Shea (02:32)
you
Sadie (02:37)
And then acted like maniacs for 10 days while we set everything up. Yeah.
Liam Shea (02:42)
you
Renee (02:45)
We go hard. There’s no chill, but like, it’s fun.
Liam Shea (02:46)
That’s…
bananas yeah that’s really bananas yeah when did you know you wanted to try being independent
Renee (02:57)
Okay, so this is my doing. So I knew before I started my, ⁓ I switched salons midway through my, you know, six, five year career. And when I started the new salon, I was very transparent with the owner. said, Hey, I’m at a point right now where I don’t know if I actually want to rent a chair or come into the salon. The reasons why coming into a salon as a commissionable.
employee is that I want access to education, want the community and I want room to grow within my peers. Either that or I’m going to go on my own. One or the two. And we had a very in length discussion about it. And we’ve actually built a really great relationship because of that because I’ve been so straightforward. And I was there for about a year or two and I’m like, it’s time to go. And the reason for that is just because like, I love the salon environment. I also have like,
10 years of management retail experience and it’s really hard for me to separate that into being an employee within somebody else’s space and I can be really respectful of that but there’s things that I want to do and run on my own. Sadie and I became really good friends in those two years and I broke the news to her. Sooner than I thought. Well, everything moved fast.
Liam Shea (04:07)
you
Sadie (04:12)
So it’s the end of the year or the start of the year, like right on that pass when she was like, hey, just so you know, in the upcoming year, I’m going to start looking into this transition and be moving on. And I was like, you can’t leave me or I’ll have to quit hair and go back to college and become a librarian.
I’m gonna have to start my life over.” And she was like, yeah, or you know, you could just come with me and we could do something together. And I was like, bye.
Liam Shea (04:46)
Yeah ⁓
Sadie (04:48)
Yeah.
Renee (04:49)
We’re literally inseparable. Yeah.
Liam Shea (04:51)
I like that. It’s so different to have a buddy when you’re scary on your own. Even if you’re the one that wants to do the things the most and it’s cool with initiating, it’s so scary doing it by yourself.
Sadie (04:57)
Yeah
This is a really tough industry. I had a really hard start in it myself. So at that point I was like, great, I’m now talented enough, have done enough of this to
Liam Shea (05:12)
You and me both.
Sadie (05:23)
kind of fly under the radar, do a good job, bring in my clients and not ruffle any feathers and survive. Yeah. And that was just the path I was on. And then Renee was like, no, what if we had a good time? And I was like, my God. You can have a good time at work. Yeah. So now I have a good time at work.
Liam Shea (05:38)
How would that even work?
That’s awesome. It’s really hard, especially early on and when you’re working for people. I I did an apprenticeship and while it was a really cool place to be, ⁓ it wasn’t particularly good for my self-esteem. I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. I’m not a fan of not being really good at things. I don’t really like doing things poorly. And I don’t know how to get to the place where I’m great at it, but I do know if it isn’t great.
So I knew enough early on to know that wasn’t it, but I didn’t know how to make it it was torture. Yeah. Good for you.
Renee (06:22)
Yeah, I just, I don’t know, I tend to be a force sometimes. I don’t even realize it myself. I don’t know if it’s a little bit of ADHD, but I’m like, I’m doing this now and this is what we’re doing. And it’s a little bit impulsive, but there’s a lot of like great energy and momentum with it. And I will bring you along.
Liam Shea (06:40)
Yes, yes, fellow recently diagnosed ADHD-er. ⁓
Renee (06:46)
That’s
funny you said that cuz you’re going around I’m like, he’s one of us. Yeah
Liam Shea (06:49)
Yeah,
Sadie (06:50)
I can see.
Liam Shea (06:52)
okay. Yeah, it made education very different. I wish I had known how my brain worked early on. I trained under a bunch of really talented people, which is great. I found the problem is really gifted people a bunch of it’s intuitive. Yeah. And so when they teach you it’s
Sadie (06:58)
Yeah.
Liam Shea (07:14)
not the whole process. It’s just got these gaps and you don’t know it has gaps. So when you go to do it, that’s not the same thing. And you said to do that and because it’s intuitive, they don’t even know it’s there. ⁓
Renee (07:28)
It is. It is that thing too, like a lot of you ask people that are, you know, in different skill sets than you, especially when you’re starting out and you’re like trying to understand on a different level of why and not just like the stats. And then the response that seems to I felt I was always getting was just like, it’ll just click one day, which there is truth to that. There’s things that sometimes you’re like, oh, like, you know.
I understand all of a sudden, but yeah, for sure, like education, it’s not just like K-step one, step two, step three. Sometimes it’s like, I need to understand more why. And like a lot of the times it’s like, well, you’ll figure that out later. And it’s like, but I want to figure that out now because now I’m not understanding the whole concept. So it is really interesting. Yeah.
Liam Shea (08:16)
I’d never held a brush at the beginning of my apprenticeship. I’d never done anything with hair. So all it was so foreign. ⁓ It’s nice at least now that there’s videos of everything. There were no videos of anything when I came up. were no VHSs and DVDs that product companies sent with really bad product knowledge and maybe part of a haircut.
Renee (08:28)
⁓ everything.
There’s that like one TikTok online, don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, and it’s like a I’m sure it’s an actual, or not a stylist, sorry, a client. And they’re like, point of view, your stylist is about to do your balayage, and they’re looking over the corner and the stylist is at the like computer watching the video of how to do it. It’s so true in a lot of ways, because like you have so many different ways to do things. It’s just like, there’s no right way.
And like, that’s the fun part is once you get into hair and you can start like, yeah, I know my fundamentals, but like, I know what I’m doing, but I’m making stuff up, you know? And that’s the beauty and fun of it. And I think that’s where the whole creativity for the ADHD part of it comes in. It’s a lot of fun.
Liam Shea (09:19)
Yeah. How did you get into hair?
Sadie (09:23)
⁓ Well, when I moved to Vancouver, my child was two and a half. And I had been, I had done a lot of things at that point already. And I was halfway through a degree for communications and poli sci in the States. And the reason I was able to do that there was that my parents
would watch my child from me, but when we came here I no longer had that support. And when I looked into transferring into a school here, not only was it improbable for me to expect to afford to go, but I also couldn’t transfer the majority of my credits. So I would basically have to start over. My kid would have been at least eight by the time I was starting anything, and I wanted to go ahead and like…
launch something and get something going. had taken a lot of years off to raise her and I wanted to get going. didn’t want the schooling to take forever. I wanted to set a good example for her. I hate housework so I was a bad housewife and I wanted to ⁓ work on my feet with my hands doing something creative enough and I wanted
Liam Shea (10:26)
.
Sadie (10:38)
a rotating door of people to talk to because I like to talk. And hair fits all of those things. Sure does. So I was like, okay, well, you know, in high school, my hairstylist was always like, you should do hair. And I was like, excuse me, Joyce, I am going to be a Broadway star. I am going to be famous. I don’t need this. Don’t be ridiculous. Now I do hair. I sent Joyce a basket of flowers and an apology.
for all of the color corrections I made her do for no money and for thinking I was above her. Yeah, so then I went to hair school and I was like, well, you know, I’ll either like it or I won’t like it and I won’t continue. And then I did like it. And then I was ⁓ doing hair and I was like, wow, I actually love this. I didn’t know I wanted to be a hairstylist when I grew up. I knew I wanted to sweep hair. Didn’t know I wanted to cut it.
Liam Shea (11:12)
you
Sadie (11:37)
That was news.
Liam Shea (11:38)
I don’t need a lot of people that want to sweep hair.
Sadie (11:40)
When I was a kid and I would go to the stylist I loved it and I would always be like please let me sweep the hair for you. loved it. It’s very satisfying. didn’t like that?
Renee (11:50)
No. first job was in a hair salon. And I hated it. I’m pretty sure I got fired. And I never thought I would be in a salon again. like, 9.30.
Sadie (11:52)
fighting my sister
Liam Shea (12:03)
man, so how did you end up in here then?
Renee (12:07)
Kind of same scenario, but not really. I ended up pregnant. dad worked on set. I was previously doing makeup, doing stuff like on set and other places as well. And then I was like, well, one of us needs to do something different because, you know, it’s not going to happen the other way. So.
Yeah, I was a hair model a lot during my first six months of pregnancy. And ⁓ I just kind of fell in love with the environment. So I kind of sneaky went to school on my mat leave. And then at the end of it, I was I was kind of working in the salon under the radar a little bit before my mat leave ended.
Liam Shea (12:55)
Well, I guess that’s what the Matt leave that’s not uncommon
Renee (13:00)
Yeah, so, but then yeah, as soon as I got, after my six months of school, I was on the floor. I ended up hustling really hard and within four months had all of my four days and like my career started pretty fast for me. I even got into a teaching role within like a year as an assistant because of how quick I went through my program. So yeah, it’s, I’ve had a lot happen in the span of two to three years.
Liam Shea (13:29)
So that’s impressive. That’s some hustling. Yeah, most people don’t make it in the industry to make it either. Even if you’re good at it, again, that’s not really why you would make it. It’s really hard. Surviving in the environment of salons can be really hard depending on where you end up. I mean, they’re all hard, but some are really hard.
Renee (13:30)
Yeah, it’s a lot of hustling.
I understand why.
It’s really
Especially now. Yeah, but there’s a client for everyone. You just have to show your personality.
Liam Shea (14:04)
Yep, even if you don’t want to talk as a client.
Renee (14:07)
It’s a client for everyone. Yeah.
Sadie (14:09)
I used to work with this great girl and that was her whole thing was that she didn’t really talk and she’s fully booked and super successful because her clients love that she’s not going to talk to them. Yeah, they had to, she had to pull me aside at one point and be like, Hey, I love it when you assist me because you’re really good at assisting, but I need you to stop talking because my clients are complaining.
Liam Shea (14:22)
It’s a bunch of people that want to be left alone.
Renee (14:36)
Okay. You build your environment, right?
Liam Shea (14:39)
that’s not possible or at least for me. ⁓
Sadie (14:41)
It wasn’t
possible for it. I tried really hard, you know? I would do it as long as I could keep my mouth shut and then I would leave. Or assist someone else.
Liam Shea (14:51)
Yeah.
Renee (14:53)
Silent appointments are not an option per se.
Liam Shea (14:56)
Yeah, either of you have mentors early on or somebody that’s sort of like, yeah, I’m in a direction.
Sadie (15:03)
Yeah.
Renee (15:05)
Definitely. I don’t know if I like directly call them mentors to their face, but like I have a lot of people that I really idolized and looked up to and work next to and you know any second I could watch them and I’m actually like really good friends with a lot of them now which is super cool. I was such like a hardcore as we all were like Paul Bryant fangirl and I’m like friends with a lot of them now which is super cool and it’s fun like it’s great.
⁓ And I talk to a lot of them online too, even ones that aren’t here local. My biggest thing that I tell people is if you have somebody that you’re obsessed with online that’s in the hair industry, we’re not scary. You can just talk to them. Most of the time they’ll tell you what’s up and they’re gonna wanna help. And I feel like…
You know, I’m really lucky when I started in the industry that I was like kind of in that middle of the old mentality shift of salons, the new mentality where like people no longer on the gatekeep and like we all want to share and support each other. And like, it’s been really awesome to be able to like understand a little bit of the old traditional way of it all. But seeing how everything’s shifting now and becoming a community. Yeah. A different community. Cool. Yeah, it is really cool.
Liam Shea (16:21)
So what
about you? Or anybody you consider a mentor?
Sadie (16:25)
And that’s all.
Yeah, in my first salon job, I got to train under Shimona Henry. don’t know if you know her, familiar with her work. That was the best because she does, she has obviously came from a background in makeup and photography and did her pinup photos. And that’s how she got into hair. So she was so into pinup updo’s and stuff. And in school, I got really lucky. And one of my teachers was like a braid master.
So did a lot of up-do work and a lot of grading in school and I was really into it and getting to do that with Shimona after school really enforced it. And then she also did so many vivids ⁓ and yeah learning with her was really great. I don’t think I would have stuck with her after school if I didn’t have that time with Shimona.
Liam Shea (17:18)
Yeah, very few people survive long term after school. I mean, it seems like a bunch of people don’t even get a job after school.
Renee (17:28)
I don’t know, we were talking about this the other day, like, I think people don’t understand that it’s not just hair. So it’s such an emotional, intensive toll. And there’s the first anxiety part. And I remember my first day I was shaking, but you know, I have a little bit of an effort mentality where it’s just like, just got to get over it and do it, and you’re going to fail and you’re going to learn from that and just continue. But like, getting over that first little bit, like even a
Sadie (17:28)
It’s hard.
Renee (17:57)
this one that we were at, which is like telling all the new people like just push through it. You know, about two years, push through it, see if you can make it, it will get better, it will get easier. There’s a reason that you’re helping and assisting. You are learning from this. I know you don’t think you are, but you really are. And like just getting through that push, but also like all of the mental stuff and the impact and the
Liam (18:21)
you
Renee (18:21)
It’s
not a burden, but like the load, the mental load that you bring on, it’s so intense and impactful on your mental health. my favorite thing to do is to decompose before I get to work. Not decompress, there we go. To decompress. I do it before and then I do it again after, you know? Like I’m just like, okay, I need a minute.
Liam (18:40)
personally as well.
Renee (18:47)
get into the day and then I’m like I even want to talk to anybody after work for like a solid 20 minutes. So that one’s tough and I feel bad for our partners and loved ones and whatever because like they sometimes get the worst version of us when we come home but the reality is it’s like we deal with really heavy things that our clients go through because we see them quarterly and we go through their hardest and best moments of life and that’s also the best thing about this job too. Definitely. Like tell me what’s up.
Tell me what’s new. ⁓ that’s great. that’s awful. And you can catch up and like, it’s a reward.
Liam (19:21)
I find the touch aspect of the job makes every relationship intimate immediately. It’s such a strange thing that you can be that close with a person that quickly.
Sadie (19:27)
Yeah. Yeah.
I don’t know if you do this. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about this. I always put intention into people’s scalp massages. Like I put an intention of like a feeling that I’m hoping for them.
Renee (19:46)
Witchcraft.
Liam (19:48)
Energy? No? ⁓
Sadie (19:53)
I
don’t know, it feels like something you would do. I was laughing when you were talking about the video and then you started talking about when you first started and how nervous you are and stuff. I have this really distinct memory from the first time I had to do a haircut at the salon where I was like, this girl had the most basic hair ever and she was like, I just want a long layer cut, right?
Renee (19:55)
Thank you.
Sadie (20:19)
And I was like, how do I do that? Do I even know how to cut hair? What’s a long layer? And I ran to the back and was like Googling. I was like watching videos on how to cut hair. I was like, I don’t know anything. I just finished school. I knew exactly what to do. But at that moment, I was like, oh my God.
Liam (20:39)
Yes. ⁓
Renee (20:40)
Now I don’t even think about it. Every now and then there’ll be a client and I’m like, I actually have to really use my brain for this. Not that I’m not using my brain in any capacity, but it becomes like, you know, muscle memory.
Sadie (20:42)
No!
Liam (20:58)
I find sometimes I have to watch that because sometimes I find for me it turns into an overconfidence and that’s where I make all my mistakes. Maybe this is fast. ⁓ just cut myself. Well that’s good. nice. With the straight razor. That’s good. That’s bleeding a lot. Yeah fun.
Sadie (21:06)
Yeah
You just described every single day of work.
I think I’m single-handedly providing a one-year salary for at least one Band-Aid employee.
Liam (21:29)
Love it. And I was telling my sweet mate, Britt, because she’s been doing lots of shags and I was like, she tried to raise a shag. They’re a lot of fun. I saying, if you’re worried pre-band-aid, you just band-aid all the spots on your finger before you start cutting. So you’re allowed to tap your finger with it when you need to or put like a rubber thing on. Yeah. And then you don’t have to cut it. You just cut the band-aid.
Renee (21:56)
You’re shocked you just don’t have one on permanently.
Liam (21:59)
Yeah and they’re always the cuts are always in the same places.
Sadie (22:02)
I like to live, I like to live, you know, dangerously.
Renee (22:06)
Or
you know, just use a guarded blade.
Liam (22:08)
I mean that’s one way to do it, sure. It’s ⁓ different type of a blade. cuts differently from a blade I find. I can’t get the same angle.
Renee (22:15)
Yeah,
fair enough. I don’t trust myself.
Liam (22:18)
I
hear you. Yep. I’ve led a lot early on. Now I’m pretty good unless I’m being overconfident in that. Yeah. Whoops. Okay. So great. I love hair stories. Were you both at the same salon at the beginning of your careers? No. No.
Renee (22:35)
I switched salons, I wanted just a new environment. I was at like a two year, two plus year point and I was happy there and content. I just wanted to be challenged and see what else was new. And again, this was kind of where I was like, do I want to go rent a chair and go by myself or do I want to continue to go into the second salon? And the second salon for me, the biggest thing I took out of it is that I was ready and it just
gave me the validation that I had all my anxieties about. I could have done without it, but I still think there was a lot of value in that. like just seeing a different workplace culture and environment in a different salon, the whole like green is grass on the other side. All salons have their pros and cons regardless. what? I what I mean. I can mix them all up. don’t even care. Confidently wrong.
Sadie (23:27)
Green is grass on the other
Liam (23:32)
know what you’re saying yeah yeah it’s good to know what else is out there it’s hard if you just do one what about you what did you meet at your first shot
Sadie (23:43)
No. We met at my fourth shop.
Liam (23:46)
Okay.
It’s a lot of moving early on.
Sadie (23:51)
Yeah, my first salon, was there for nine months. And that was when I trained with Shimona and I stayed longer because of my training with Shimona. She was such a great mentor. the shop overall was a bad fit for me. And there was a time period where I wasn’t sure like, is this what every salon is like? Is this how I can expect to be treated everywhere I go?
So am I then wasting my time if I try to find somewhere better? How long do I stay and give this a try before I’ve given it all that I can? Looking back, I should have left a lot sooner, but you live and learn and I didn’t know. I think that if I could like give advice to younger stylists, that’s probably the biggest takeaway I had. It’s if it doesn’t feel like a good fit.
It’s not and there actually are other places. It’s not the end-all be-all and you can go somewhere else. ⁓ So then I went somewhere else for two and a half years. ⁓ That was a really good environment for a really long time and when it stopped being a good environment I moved on. I went to Lockett, Harris Lawn. I don’t know if you know Simona. And when I went to Simona
Liam (25:14)
you
Sadie (25:15)
All
of a sudden after she hired me, everything in her life changed and she ended up closing the salon. So she sent me over to the salon where I met Renee. She was like, listen, if I was going to go work for someone else, this is where I’d go. This is the best place for you. You’re going to be very happy there.
I didn’t like it. I was really upset to have to do so much change in such a condensed period of time. But I just trusted her and I just went ahead and she was totally right and I never regretted that decision.
Renee (25:47)
Yeah. Yeah. The first day we met, I walked up to her and I’m like, you don’t know this yet, but we’re going be really good friends. And she’s like, what does this person want from me?
Liam (25:48)
Wouldn’t have matter otherwise.
Sadie (25:58)
I what
are you gonna do to me?
Liam (26:01)
What have I
Renee (26:02)
My
hair.
Sadie (26:05)
And then I kept, I held her away for a while and then her, coworker moved in with you and invited me over and then spent the entire time hanging out in own bedroom and I was just hanging out with you and then I started coming over all the time to see you.
Liam (26:20)
That’s nice.
Renee (26:20)
Yeah, now we live a block away from each other. Yeah, love it. Yeah, and our families are like, intertwined. Me too! It’s great.
Liam (26:26)
Love it.
Both one kid? Yes. Some more aged kiddos? No.
Sadie (26:33)
No, okay. force them together. We force mine. Mine is almost 11. Right. She’s too cool for this.
Liam (26:35)
Yeah.
Renee (26:39)
Yeah.
Liam (26:44)
I
mean, 11 is a… yeah, you know everything at 11. And no one else knows anything. The… it’s amazing how young they are when they start sounding like Napoleon Dynamite. I was just so surprised when you’re like, I thought this was a later thing. yet it’s not a later thing. You’re making that sound?
Sadie (26:53)
You have no idea.
Liam (27:13)
When you decided to make the move to be independent, was it? ⁓
Was it scary?
Renee (27:25)
I want to say the answer is yes, but like it wasn’t with Sadie because we’re just like first of all First of all all we ever do is have fun So ⁓ we like like we work every day, but like not to be like we don’t work every day We’re having fun every day, but like we do like I love just going to Costco and hanging out and like you know
we’re just like, we’re always laughing and that’s the great thing about our friendship and having this partnership is that like, I’m like, I don’t think it’s normal for people to like be belly laughing every single day. Like we have something very special there. So like when we decided to go and move, we were just like,
Liam (28:13)
you
Renee (28:14)
I don’t know, let’s just do this together and luckily the things I hate doing, you like doing and luckily I’m a freak for paperwork and taxes. So like, you know, it really balanced out.
Sadie (28:27)
I like to redecorate retail shelves
Renee (28:30)
We’ve had knock on wood, no hiccups. We’ve been extremely lucky.
Sadie (28:36)
No, major. Just that we couldn’t figure out how to charge our machine that one time. But that’s the worst thing that happened.
Renee (28:43)
Yeah
Liam (28:44)
That wasn’t a between you two, although I can see how that could create a thing. Yeah, tell me.
Renee (28:47)
Yes. We have a confession.
Sadie (28:49)
have to tell your
story.
Renee (28:50)
We never put the battery in. You came all the way and you really just leave it
Sadie (28:55)
I
could- and then the next day we were like, it’s- we’re- it’s wrong with it, and Rikki and I were like, there’s an extra battery in the back, let’s put that in a C in the-
Renee (28:57)
my f***ing
Liam (29:05)
Maybe the first time doesn’t work. Did I send you information to put the battery in? I didn’t.
Renee (29:08)
Like I found the problem.
Listen, it’s a common sense thing.
Liam (29:17)
I mean, is it? If you don’t know, you can’t know. Note to self, make sure the video explains to put the battery in.
Sadie (29:23)
Very
Liam, didn’t watch a video.
Liam (29:30)
Well, I would send it to you. It wouldn’t just be sitting there It’s one of the weird things about doing this job is I don’t have enough time to know It all documentation I need to create except it would take me time if I did I’ve got a bunch of videos I’ve made and I haven’t been able to get it together to put it in a folder Sorry Denver so that Denver can turn them into support documents. They’re just sitting in this place. No one else can access because you know
Sadie (29:39)
potentially
Renee (29:57)
You time and legs.
Liam (29:58)
I’ll
take my ADHD meds and sort of sex-
Sadie (30:00)
It possible that you did send it to me. And I looked at it and said, ⁓ right, and then never looked at it again. Because you are not the only one.
Liam (30:09)
can’t note you enough.
Awesome when you did you discover together were you there together?
Sadie (30:16)
Yeah,
it was very funny. We laughed really hard.
Renee (30:18)
and
I’m like,
Liam (30:20)
I’m sorry I
Sadie (30:21)
We were
like, we’re never telling him. As we sat here, I said, should we tell him?
Liam (30:24)
Amazing. I really appreciate
Renee (30:28)
time.
Liam (30:28)
It also makes me feel much better. I’m like, okay good. It’s like I didn’t…
Renee (30:33)
There’s
nothing that you It was user error. ⁓
Sadie (30:37)
It was user.
Liam (30:39)
Can’t know till you know.
Renee (30:41)
They’re like, there’s an extra battery. How sweet. That’s awesome.
Liam (30:44)
What comes with an extra battery, that’s great. I’d love that. ⁓ I really appreciate that story. Yeah, I’m definitely not going to post that on anything. ⁓
Renee (30:58)
I have no shame.
Sadie (31:00)
No, we don’t have a lot of…
Liam (31:01)
Holy Glory
Renee (31:02)
I
know that was our biggest hiccup. We’re like, ⁓ our machine’s not working. It’s the day before. We have to message Lee. You’re like, you just got to plug it in longer.
Sadie (31:09)
You shall
Liam (31:14)
I’m super glad that I get to show off my right We do like every hour back and forth message where it’s gonna take seven days Yeah, like one little process it not that I fixed it when I got there I just said to plug it in for longer, We’re plugged in with I didn’t think it would no
Renee (31:18)
It was so
It was a valid… You
Sadie (31:34)
No.
Renee (31:36)
said like, you know, it’s a new machine and the battery might be completely dead so just charge it overnight and if nothing works in the morning, please let me know. And then we’re like, yeah, do that.
Sadie (31:47)
like nothing worse than the morning I’ll bring my own machine on it and we were like ⁓ my god we all gave that man a heart attack and
Liam (31:59)
No, it’s a good one. Should have posted that on your social. That would be, ⁓
Sadie (32:07)
We were trying to be cool and then we gave up on your couch. ⁓ Yeah, it was not that scary to open up the business because we are slightly unhinged.
Liam (32:16)
Great. But in the gray sort of
Renee (32:19)
in the great way.
Sadie (32:19)
In
a great way. I a great time. I think my favorite part was that Renee decided we were going to do this whole wall with these fake plant tiles from IKEA. She got really hyper fixated on this. She measured, figured out how many tiles were in, she figured out where she was going to cut them. She made me go to IKEA and buy over $200 worth of these plant tiles. We take them back. They lived in my trunk.
for an unreasonable amount of time. were very, very bulky. have a lot of space. I dragged them up into the salon and then we put like six tiles together to hold up on the wall to see how we liked it. And Renee was like, I hate that. We’re gonna take that back. Back to go, back to IKEA and wait in the return line and return.
Renee (33:04)
Really ugly.
Sadie (33:15)
All these top plant piles. This is not the first return that I’ve been dragged through at IKEA with Renee because she thought something looked good at IKEA and then set it up at home and said it was ugly.
Liam (33:30)
So lucky to have you because if Renee and I are similar in any way, we actually just wouldn’t return it. It would just sit in the trunk. you? No, she would.
Sadie (33:39)
the
Liam (33:44)
I
through my storage locker and found like the thing that keeps kids from rolling out of bed that I never unpacked out of the plastic from Ikea. Yeah, yeah, I try and get the time together to do that. There’s a lot of stuff over there.
Renee (33:52)
Can we sell that stuff?
Sadie (33:53)
Yeah,
we saw it.
Renee (34:03)
does say?
Liam (34:05)
I
try and not take too much of the credit for the time of the kids because my significantly better half has a much harder job than I am. Like I’m on work vacation right now.
Renee (34:16)
Absolutely. You know what? I love it. I love going to work. Work is… I love my kid and I’m so sorry to all the parents that are like super into their kids. I’m super into my kids. Also having kids is hard. It’s hard and slightly awful but great and like… you need to have to work. a break and I get to talk to humans. I get to talk to adults.
Sadie (34:38)
to ask all
that work. It’s great. I don’t have to be careful about what I say as much.
Liam (34:45)
You’d love the thing I have now. Eventually it’ll probably happen for you where you want to add something additional to just doing hair. Not that it’s not awesome and enough, but I have a sneaking suspicion. It’ll either be a salon with employees or it’ll be a, that’s what’s so fun about doing salon monster and doing hair. So I’m always two days a week and this is 24 hours a day, give or take the rest of the time. And it’s really fun, like having a project and stuff that ends every hour or two.
Yeah.
Sadie (35:15)
Yeah.
Renee (35:16)
That’s what I like about hair. When we talk about this too, like, hairstylists all have this, like, okay, so first of all, I believe that all, hairstylists are probably neurodivergent because we all are creative and need the instant gratification, the talking. It’s just such a good environment for us people. But also, I feel like there’s like this,
subconscious pipe dream that we have to do all of these other things with it too. So we see a lot of hairstylists that have a music career too or do art or all these things and they all kind of intertwine with each other but not and then there’s a whole collective like how Danger Jones is making that whole collective. They’re just like it’s not just about hair anymore it’s about the community of how it goes into everything else. But yeah, it’s weird. It’s fun.
Sadie (36:05)
Creative.
Liam (36:05)
you
I
Renee (36:10)
That’s why it’s great for us.
Liam (36:12)
Do you two ever go to hair shows?
Renee (36:14)
I’ve been to a couple of them. I look forward to doing more this year. I have it on my list if life will let me. But yeah, I think that there’s a lot of cool like energy and passion that comes out of them. And like that’s a lot of fun.
Liam (36:22)
Yes.
the ones that aren’t here. Yeah. In particular. Yeah. Not that it can’t be fine to go to the convention center, but they’re not usually. No. They’re interesting.
Renee (36:34)
Yes.
No.
Yeah, and I do find like, I do struggle a lot with going to those because I find them extremely repetitive. Yes. And even with the education part of them, like I do love seeing what everybody’s doing, but I do find it difficult to stay engaged with the things that I want to pay attention to because they’re always doing it on stage with like three or four different people. So like finding the education that works really well for you, I think is super important, but I gotta leave. Yeah.
That’s the also great thing about being a hair stylist, becomes a business expense, got a new vacation, doesn’t know to go.
Liam (37:13)
Yep, Slonemonster. went for Slonemonster to New York last year to whichever hair show that is. IBS, that’s what it is, unfortunately. I was like, you sure you wanna? Did anybody, was there somebody in the room that wanted to speak up? No one?
Sadie (37:32)
Everyone approve?
Liam (37:32)
That’s
taken already just as a heads up. Okay cool. I went to that and at the same time they have the hairbrained video awards at the same which I went to that which was rad and then next month I get to go to New Orleans to buy you Street Blonde. It’s gonna be fun. Okay I don’t want to take up all day but
Renee (37:47)
So fun.
Okay.
Liam (37:57)
If you were talking to you at the beginning, what’s the one piece of advice you’d each give yourselves?
Renee (38:04)
start social media earlier and be less professional. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, especially moving. It started happening for me in craft, the salon that we were at. ⁓ kind of, and I was really fortunate to have a owner there that really
encourage my creativity, but I just started to drop my mask a lot and then become my true self and be a goofball and do the weirdest things. like that a really boosted my social media. But also like all of the new clients I’m getting, I know it’s a thing, but it’s like actually wild to me the percentage of how many people are like we vibe.
And it’s the same kind of person I want in my chair and ⁓ the whole social media thing like I don’t have a massive following but like the local small community and following that you have is in a lot of ways a lot more beneficial to you than having the like 100k plus. ⁓ I get almost all of my new clients from social media.
I’m not even doing it that often anymore, but everybody’s coming from there and they find me because my profile stands out because of my personality. That’s it. I wish I’d stop listening to the, there is some merit in going around and handing out stuff, but it’s not as impactful.
Liam (39:34)
Oh
yeah. you’re looking for. Yeah. Yeah. you?
Sadie (39:39)
I was listening to Renee so intently that I wasn’t thinking about
Liam (39:44)
this
at all. Right that’s okay. Is there something you would tell yourself?
Sadie (39:48)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I would say learning is really hard and try not to make it a self-defense course, which I still have to remind myself. Don’t look at me. I still have to remind myself daily. I just think how bad it would have been before. I’ve been reminding myself of that daily for eight years. And I think that it’s really important
Renee (40:08)
we
Sadie (40:17)
as you enter this particular career to be really kind to yourself and if you feel like you’re in a place where you’re not being valued and appreciated, you probably aren’t and there’s nothing wrong with leaving and finding something else. doesn’t matter how popular that stylist is or how cool the aesthetic is in that salon or how badly you wanted to work there if you get there.
and you’re not being treated well, that is not your fault and you should go somewhere that you are vibing.
Renee (40:53)
Yeah.
Liam (40:54)
Great. Great advice.
Sadie (40:56)
Yeah, someone should have told all the students that.
Liam (41:00)
It’s tough. It’s great advice and yet you’ll still they’ll still be a thing. You have to suffer through until you go. Oh, oh, I see what you. Yeah, suffering is the thing you’re saying. don’t need to do. Yeah. Cool. And I’m worth it. Oh, God, it didn’t make sense. Yeah, just be better. Be better. Yeah, yes. That’s
Sadie (41:10)
That’s what that advice meant.
they’re faster yes
Try harder, do better.
Liam (41:27)
Awesome. What point, because you’re both doing pretty well on social media. Do you have separate accounts? Do you have a salon account? Yep.
Renee (41:36)
have a Solana cat that got’s neglected.
And then, while she is taking it You neglect. I neglect all the social media because it’s a huge burnout, it’s worth doing.
Sadie (41:39)
is not true.
Liam (41:43)
I
Yeah, my last personal hair post. June of 2020. It’s just like there’s one reel from when I was in New York and the reel is that Salon Monster post that I’m a collaborator on.
Renee (41:52)
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s not good.
Yeah, it’s not. It’s a whole job. a whole. Yeah, but learning how to utilize it properly, like people don’t realize that the newer generation slash millennials and up a little bit of us no longer use Google. They’re using Instagram, TikTok, all of those things. So using their captions and stuff to write what the Google search engine would be looking for is how you’re to get found.
Liam (42:09)
My hair.
Sadie (42:12)
Yeah
Renee (42:37)
And what you were saying earlier with not assuming that everybody knows anything. So, or the common sense thing, I like to do with the hashtags and stuff. Like you have to dumb yourself down a lot and pretend you don’t know anything about hair. And that’s the things that your clients are going to be Googling or searching. if you’re, you know, like, yeah, like Vancouver hairstylist, like that’s as simple as it’s going to be. not going to be like,
Balayage hairstyle like they’re not going to be looking for that they don’t know that terminology so I have to turn that Side of your brain off and I found once I shifted my mentality to that being like how could a five-year-old five foot find this It’s really changed my engagement or my client all coming in
Liam (43:25)
Yeah.
Yeah. Are you both big pre-bookers?
Renee (43:28)
Yes.
Sadie (43:29)
I won an award last year for my free book.
Liam (43:31)
You want that you can win an award for booking
Renee (43:34)
You
can remove the last one.
Sadie (43:35)
When
you work at a salon run by Tanya, yes, you can. That’s a wonderful thing to do. Yeah, she’s a wonderful team leader. ⁓
Liam (43:39)
That’s actually kind of an awesome thing.
Wow.
Renee (43:45)
I think she created an award for me because of all of the weird hair things I was doing. Yeah. Like I put Shrek on somebody’s head.
Sadie (43:53)
new awards every year to just honor a couple of her team. She’s really really great.
Liam (44:00)
We should find a way to do that in salon monster to be like who’s pre-booking the most and send them a congratulations You’ve done the best job out of this many salons and stylists of pre-booking Yeah Okay, yeah, love it. Are you both fully booked?
Renee (44:19)
But we need to be.
Liam (44:20)
booked as much as you want to be helped out.
Renee (44:22)
Yeah, we work three days a week. We work 10 hour days sometimes, but we’re at a point where we are comfortable. We’re running our own business. We work three days a week. It’s great. We just hire three days a week.
Liam (44:35)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, no, no, That’s why I said 24 hours a day when I said salon. I was responding to people last night at 10 PM. I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t give people the impression that I’m available that late. And yet, yeah, for those asleep, I am available.
Sadie (44:55)
Yeah.
Renee (44:55)
10pm is the time for us to do things. Honestly, I feel that so much.
Liam (45:00)
Dinner
at 9 after my oldest is asleep or not asleep but in bed he’ll call me in 300 times but I have dinner like Leila and I have dinner at 9 we watch a show and then I get to work till about midnight. Give or take? Yeah.
Renee (45:12)
Yeah.
I’ve had to like stop myself before. like, it’s 2 a.m. and this client is messaging me and you’re about to book them right in. Like, yeah, setting those boundaries is really hard.
Sadie (45:26)
That was advice someone gave me in my second salon was that I needed to set like a boundary about when I would respond to messages on my own because I was doing that and people were like kind of taking advantage and an older stylist was like you just need to just because you see the message doesn’t mean you need to respond at 11 p.m. You need to wait and respond during you know set hours so that people know
That’s when you’re available.
Liam (45:56)
Wish I could do that.
Sadie (45:59)
Yeah, I’m not saying I do that, ⁓
Liam (46:01)
I don’t respond when they send the message. I’ll never remember if they’re gone forever Another text message right just before you arrived from somebody who messaged me First a month ago after they were back from a surgery and then again last week and then just now going are you gonna be able to get me in? Should have just said no the first time but
Sadie (46:05)
Yes! Yeah, me too.
Renee (46:24)
That’s the other thing too, learning how to say no.
Liam (46:27)
Well, the salon monster thing helps. I do her Sunday, Monday. I fit one or two people in on Tuesdays. That’s it.
Renee (46:36)
having other things was really great.
Liam (46:37)
boundaries and other things. Yeah, boundaries are hard. Yeah. Well, I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Whatever that means.
Renee (46:46)
⁓
We don’t even know
Sadie (46:49)
can’t wait to find out either.
Liam (46:51)
like however I can facilitate please let me know how can people find you online
Sadie (46:56)
Thank you.
Renee (47:00)
At Shadow and Cheer.
Sadie (47:02)
Shadow and sheer on Instagram and it’s hair by crystal
Renee (47:07)
That hair… Hairdog.
Sadie (47:10)
It’s chrysalis.hair.
Renee (47:13)
remember it right now.
Liam (47:16)
Awesome.
Renee (47:17)
Chrysalis dot hair, yeah.
Sadie (47:18)
I’m here by Sadie’s.
Liam (47:22)
Yeah. Love it. Thanks.