I was brought up in a Christian home, and my dad especially took the law of God seriously. He would often say things like “if God wanted you to have curly hair, He would have given you curly hair.” I always had – and always will have – a great love and respect for my father and so I didn’t pursue the idea of becoming a cosmetologist. I thought he would never approve, and really, his approval was all that mattered to me then.
So all throughout my high school years, I planned to be a tennis coach, like my mom. However, when I had assignments in my classes, such as job shadowing or developing a virtual business, I chose to shadow a hairdresser and to build a salon.
Catrina is a Cape Cod girl through and through. Here she is enjoying one of her many walks along the quiet beach. A reflective time where she can converse with God without the cacophony of everyday life.
I continued my efforts to make people beautiful with my store-bought shears and began cutting the hair of anyone who would let me. I had a teacher who often gave me passes to return to the class I was missing while I cut the hair of her students…and she watched. I also had the favor of a couple of the gym teachers who gave me their keys so that I could cut hair in the locker room.
I became well known as “the high school stylist,” yet I had never had more training than that one visit watching my mom’s friend. I was living my life’s dream, although I never expected that I would ever get the formal training to make it a career, because I didn’t want to offend my dad.
Be who you want to be!
During my senior year I was the captain of my high school tennis team. Our team, including myself, was not very good. One day, I came home from yet another loss, and my dad asked me how it went. I told him the details of the match, and he responded with words that changed my life: “I think you would make a better hairdresser than you would a tennis coach.”
To me it was like he said, “permission granted, be who you want to be.” I don’t think a month passed before I was enrolled in Blaine Hair School and one thousand hours after starting there, I began my career as a cosmetologist at the age of eighteen.
That was more than thirty years ago now, and I still love what I do. Since then, I have furthered my education with a certification in Image Consultation, and for the last fifteen years have enjoyed helping men and women find their clothing personality and seasonal pallets. It has amazed me to see how much of my clients’ lives change when they understand what looks best on them and how to achieve their own personal image.