Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin VandenBrink.
Hi Kristin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Doing hair is my second career. I was a registered nurse and worked at Holland Hospital for 25 years and just recently retired. When I was 35 years old, I was extremely burnt out with emergency nursing and was praying and asking God if I should switch departments or what I was supposed to do next. I literally heard the Holy Spirit say to me, you need to do hair. I was not expecting to change career paths. I had always loved hair, makeup, fashion. But, I never thought of making a career from it. It took a couple years of affirmations, and when my youngest daughter could go to preschool I enrolled in the local Tulip City beauty college. I was 38 years old and my goal was to graduate before I turned 40. When I graduated, I worked in a salon in Grandville, Michigan called MGB. I worked there for five years and had an awesome mentor, the owner Mike Baas. I started out as a commission stylist doing hair, part-time and continuing to work part-time at the hospital. My clientele grew and I was able to move to chair rental. The fall of 2019 my friend approached me with the opportunity to open up my own little salon in Holland, Michigan.. December 2019 Beautiful Me Hair Studio was born. I was open for three months and then Covid hit and was shut down for three months. Then back open for three months then September 2020 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My world went spinning out of control. I had so many emotions. Confusion, angry, despair, hopelessness, questioning what is going on here God.. My little business barely made it through Covid and now I’m just sucker punched again. I did not understand why God was allowing this to happen.. Through God‘s faithfulness, I felt that he was going to take care of me and the business. It was absolutely amazing how God provided for me for the next year and a half as I went through all my treatment.. When I started chemo, I stepped into the wig world. Losing my hair was one of the most difficult parts of my journey. Hair is such a part of our identity. All of the sudden you go from being Kristin to a cancer patient. I was extremely overwhelmed, and I thought if I’m this overwhelmed and I know hair, what are people doing that don’t know anything about hair. I started to feel that maybe this was going to be the beauty to come from the ashes of everything that I was going through. That maybe God was going to allow me to go through cancer so that I could walk with other women through their hair loss journey. I started researching everything I could about wigs. Human hair wigs are the best, and when I started looking at how do I get human hair wigs to sell, I went down the rabbit hole of the human hair industry. I was appalled at how unethical and shady the human hair industry is and I thought there has to be a better way. In the summer of 2022, I sat down in front of my sewing machine with a ponytail, and I prayed, God you have to show me how to get this hair from this ponytail onto a wig cap. There were a lot of tears and frustrations. A lot of times I wanted to give up and throw my sewing machine out the window. However, when God calls you to do something, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. He gives you the passion in your heart to just want to figure things out. Eventually I figured out how to weft the hair and then I took a class and learned how to hand knot hair into a very fine lace.. Once I figured out the components of how to make the wig I put it all together and started working out the details of my three different designs. In the fall of 2022 I got my first call to make a wig from a cancer patient who had really long hair. I was able to shave her head and use her own hair along with donor hair in her wig. This business is organically evolving and it is so cool to see how God is using me and my story to bless other women. I now have a team of local women who help work on the WIGS. We are currently working on our 45th wig. Word is starting to trickle out about hair donations and having the ability to give women back their hair after starting chemo. My entire journey has not been without frustration or feeling overwhelmed. But, God has shown me his faithfulness and literally has orchestrated this entire thing. He has put people in my life to encourage me and help me with every detail of the WIGS business.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Having nursing as my background, I didn’t know anything about business. I had to listen to a lot of podcasts and you tube to understand how the business world works.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Beautiful Me Hair Studio?
I am a small hair salon with a full clientele. I am focusing on building the WIGS (Walking In God’s Strength) portion of my business. I take hair donations, employing local women, and have the ability to give clients back their own hair in their wig. This is a very specialized niche and not very many people in America are doing this.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Holland is beautiful. There are great restaurants downtown eighth Street and shopping. And of course, we love to go to Lake Michigan in the summer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Beautifulmehairstudio.com
- Instagram: Beautifulmehairstudio
- Facebook: Beautiful me hair studio
- Youtube: Beautiful me hair studio
