ep52 – Lauren Moser-Samuels

Speaking with my guest this week was such a pleasure. She is a NAHA winner and 5-time finalist. She is the founder and co-owner of the Hair Lab Barber School in Detroit, and she is frequently sought after as a freelance educator and public speaker. She has been featured in magazines as a curly hair specialist. She recently won the Midwest Hairstyling Awards trifecta as Texture Artist of the Year, Master Stylist of the Year, and Hairstylist of the Year. Please join me in conversation with my new friend, Lauren Moser-Samuels.

• She met Rodrick Samuels in a clipper cutting course, and their instant bond led to a new career, marriage, and a life-long partnership
• Lauren recalls her start with curly hair by doing her sister’s hair, with plenty of feedback – both good and bad
• Taxes, ethics, and growth in the beauty industry
• Rodrick encouraged her to enter NAHA at a time when she was not focused on hair, so the win was especially validating of her talent

Compete Transcript

Chris Baran 0:00
How great would it be to get up close and personal with the beauty industry heroes? We love and admire and to ask them how did you learn to do what you do? I’m Chris Baran, a hairstylist and educator for 40 plus years, and I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success

Well, I’m actually really excited about this week’s headcase. And not only that, for this for a couple of reasons, I didn’t know this person beforehand, but I got to meet. I got to meet her on here and she’s just truly an amazing person, amazing woman and a very powerful woman as well, I might say. She had been an NAHA winner and finalists five times. Then at the Midwest hairstyling awards, she came away with a hat trick if you can believe this, on Texture Artist of the year, Master stylist OF THE YEAR, and Hairstylist of the year, she is the founder and owner of Hair Labs barber school in Detroit. She’s a curly hair specialist, freelance educator, salon owner, public speaker, school director. And she has been sought after by all sorts of magazines and websites for contributions there have. And so I just want to jump into this. So let’s get into this week’s head case. Lauren Moser Samuels, so here she is.

Lauren, it is just an absolute pleasure to have you on here. And so first of all, welcome.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:34
Thank you, I’m excited to be here.

Chris Baran 1:35
You know, it’s, it’s really interesting, because I, I A while back I had a conversation with your, your amazing husband as well. And, and I may, I may want to find out some of the similar stuff. And then we can get the audience can compare the two. And it’s the same as my relationship. And here I’ll give, I’ll give my version of the facts and then my wife will give you the truth. So

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:58
that’s pretty much how it goes.

Chris Baran 2:01
So listen, first of all, I know that like, and I’m going to sort of give a swing back so everybody gets to kind of vibe in here is you’re known separately in for what you do. And and then you’re also known for that you’re married and you have an amazing business together with with hair lab, Detroit, and you also do things together. And, and I know that it’s you when you when you hosted the 2022 na Ha, you are the whole store. First of all, I just want to know go back into kind of the relationship with you guys and how that all worked out. Because sometimes people don’t they can. They can, they can work together, but they can’t be lived together and they can’t be partners together. That makes sense. So first of all, how did you guys meet?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 2:52
I feel like this is one of the tests to see who’s telling the truth. This is one of the let’s see her version and see how close it matches.You know, it was pretty interesting at the time that we met. I was single for a while I was really just focusing on my career, my kids. I really enjoyed my own company, if that makes sense. You just get to a point in life when you’re like you know, I’m gonna cut out all the drama and extras and just really buckle down and focus on on growing. I had been doing hair at that point for about 14 years, 14 or 15 years. And I you know, I’m a cosmetologist so in the cosmetology world. Aveda specifically, I did an apprenticeship at an Aveda salon. So like clipper cuts were not a thing. We’re not allowed to touch a clipper everything was sheer overcome. It was you know crafted men’s haircuts because we’re trying to pull them away from the barbers at the time it was the 90s right so but the irony there. Yeah, it was the night was back in the 1900s when I was not allowed to touch a clipper. But at that point in my career I had done so many things I had specialized in color I then moved on to hair cutting, I was getting into the curly cutting more and more. And one of the things and I had a I had a pretty decent sized male clientele. But one of the things that I was lacking was the clipper cutting skills. And in the mid 2000s, or like 2000 I don’t even know how you were referring to that time period but like she’s ever been tennis. All of these men that were coming for these shear over comb like crafted haircuts, they wanted the barber they wanted these type high and tight clipper cuts and I was just really out of my element. And I realized like I had to start taking classes on this because it was, it wasn’t just one client randomly, it started to become like a daily thing where I was getting sweaty, you know, that moment when the client comes in, like, oh, I don’t know, I’m hot. Like, I started to have a lot of those moments. And I thought, Okay, well, I need to do something about this. Because I don’t I don’t like feeling that way. I’m not one to like, sit with that feeling and just ignore it. Right. So I wanted to take a class. So I had reached out to him maybe a year before that to train my staff at the salon I owned. And we had a bunch of financial stuff kind of come up in the salon, and we just couldn’t do it at the time. So this was a year later. And I reached out to him to see if I could take the class. I had sent sold my sold the business. And I was working there. But I was it was I just needed some time to myself to figure you know, figure myself, so I asked if he could teach it. He was one of the barbers on my Facebook that was always promoting barbering, and barber classes. And I’m like, well, he’s the guy I guess, right? Like, I don’t know any barbers. I’m like, Well, this guy, this guy will work. He’s on here all the time. So I reached out to him and asked, you know, for a class schedule, or whatever, and he didn’t have one, you know, he’s like, just tell me when you want to come down and do the class. So he said he would do the class for free if I took him to dinner.

Chris Baran 6:35
That was a fair shake. Well, I guess, by side, I thought, no, that’s that’s a good deal. But I get from a lady side.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 6:44
Right. And I, you know, I was with a friend of mine in Philly, who owns a bunch of barber shops, they own salon, his family owned salons and stuff. So I’m like, What do I do? What do I do when he goes well, I mean, you have nothing left or nothing to lose. I’m like, my whole life. What do you mean, this guy’s just walking down to the deep south so he can chop me up or something. But apparently, My life wasn’t really worth much at the time. So my friend said, you should just do this because you’re got nothing else going on. So I said, Okay, so I said, Well, where should I stay? Like, I don’t know the area like where I don’t know where I’ll be or you know what? Hotel is near there, you know, and he said, you can come stay at my house. I was like, this was just getting weirder and weirder. Now. At the time, though, I’m in Philly. Staying with my friend who does hair, right. We met we met through the industry. And I said, Oh my god, he said he can stay at my house. He’s like, you’re at my house. I was like, Well, yeah, but I know you right? We’ve met before. So but he was here’s the weird thing he wasn’t flirting with Oh, gotcha. He was just take this class stay at my I wasn’t which made it creepier. Right. Like if he was flirting, you’re like, Oh, he’s but he wasn’t it was the weirdest thing. So then I thought, well, maybe I should get to know Him if I’m staying at his house and taking a clap. You know? It’s gonna be awkward. So I would try to message them small talk just to see like a vibe. There was no vibe. Even answer me I’m like, Okay, this is weird. So one night I caught him must have been in good mood he gave me like, sentences and response. So I thought okay, well here we go. And we ended up talking on the phone that night for hours and then we met two weeks later, and we’ve been together ever since. So I’ve never got that class I just gave him all my clients like me moved up here. We opened a salon and I was like, here’s all my clients. So I guess I didn’t need to learn it at that point because they took he took over all my mail. And I want to I want to just jump back into that because first of all, I love the story and quite frankly he never told it that way.

Chris Baran 9:15
So it’s nice to get clarity but what I what I think is for the people that don’t know him I mean number one I would suggest here you know initial thing of you know go watch go watch the podcast you’ll get to know more about him but I mean it from this as I know him as a very positive caring gentleman and and I think that what’s gonna come off as serial killers Well, I guess you know, certain sociopaths can be that same way as well. But you know that the point is, is he is not and he’s not as creepy and he’s just a wonderful gentleman and I love the fact that you guys got together and And, and because it’s always to me when I see two powerhouses together, and I can relate this sort of, with my wife and, and, and myself I wild note, you know, Rita is very comfortable in the background does not want her picture taken, just wants to stay in the background etc. You know, it’s like the one in one in one in one equals three or four, you know because the sum of the whole is greater than sum of individual parts that’s in our relationship. And that’s the reason why we’ve lost now whatever the hell it is 5354 years, but and I love the fact that how you two got together and you’re actually better because you’re together than you are individuals. So congratulations on that. And I’m glad now that we set the story straight so I can bust his chops. The next time I see him

Lauren Moser-Samuels 10:49
he was great. Yeah, that was great. I’m here though. I we made it through I survived. We survived. Yeah.

Chris Baran 10:56
So that’s awesome. So give us a kind of a history on on. On. How how did the hair lab? Detroit? Start? What what happened there? Because you guys had you didn’t start off there.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 11:10
Right? Right. Um, so I had like I said, I owned a salon prior to a hair lab. with some friends. I learned that I love being part of a team. But I do not love having business partners. So our drives were just different, you know, and I was always like, Okay, we did that know what, right we did this know what we did this. Now what and they were like we did this, let’s put our feet up and copes. Right, so we just, there was friction there because we just had different ideas of movement, I guess. Um, so before we met, I had already sold that and gotten gotten out of it. And I was working. I was working there still, because I liked everybody. You know, it wasn’t. It wasn’t a toxic situation. It was just, we want different things. And instead of waiting until we hate each other, let’s just do our

Chris Baran 12:08
right this is your this is your the other partner that you had? Yes. Yeah, I had

Lauren Moser-Samuels 12:13
three other partners. There was four. So that so you know how, though? Yes. So um, so I’d already sold that. So I was pretty free to do what I needed to do at that point. I was throwing hair events for that company in Philly, that my friend owns. So I was doing those here. And then we met, and he was already doing some education for Andover. And we started doing education together. So we started doing shows and classes here in Detroit, and just wherever salons would hire us schools would hire us. But we didn’t really have like a brand that we were teaching under just because it was we were two separate people that came together. And so he actually came up with here Lab, which I’m not real good at naming people or businesses. So I tend to rely on the people around me to help with that. But he came up with I’m like, No, I don’t want it. He came up with that. And we originally were just teaching under that brand. And then we ended up opening the salon brick and mortar. Yep. We did that for five or six years before we opened the school with Larry Curtis. So that’s kind of the trajectory of everything. But we ended up closing this line when we opened the school just because yeah, managing both would have been

Chris Baran 13:49
well, you can’t wait to when you have a school. It’s just it’s, it’s, you have to be there full time. So you know, I mean, you, I’m involved in schools, but you’re there full time, you have a way better understanding of it than I do. But I do know that if you’re if you’re the owner, you need to be there because nobody will run it like you will. I mean not saying you have to do everything. I’m just saying that. It’s there. I totally understand. I was I have to admit, hey, I was stalking you. Before this and I went to I went to the site that you have and there was a quote that you and I can’t remember what I saw it on a wall or whether it was a quote that you had written in, but I thought it was so profound. And I just want you to talk to that point. Because you are curly hair specialist and and the quote I’ve got a wrote it down and correct me if I wrote it down wrong. But it says we teach our students at hair lab Detroit that you are cutting and here’s the part that I loved. You’re cutting hair texture, not cutting ethnicity. Can you just I just love that. Can you talk to that point?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 15:00
Yeah, I think especially when it comes to curly hair, people get so caught up on the racial part of it, you know, black hair, white hair. And I don’t know if anyone walks around with their eyes open lately, but there’s a lot of mixing going on out there. So it’s a little too hard to, to be putting it in a box. And at the end of the day, right, it’s all a fabric. So we’re, we’re dealing with a fabric that happens to grow out of somebody’s head. So it makes more sense to talk, texture, curl pattern, things like that, then the color of someone’s skin, because I promise you, I’ve had people in my chair that have white skin, and what would traditionally be known as black hair. And to call it that is incorrect, you know, so we just like to talk in texture, because also, no matter who you’re talking to, and what you’re talking about, if you’re referencing this type of thing, don’t you feel like you get a lot more information? If I say straight hair, or coily hair? Or wouldn’t be hair, then black hair and white hair? Right? Because I could say white hair? But does that mean? Straight? Does that mean? Wavy? Does that mean? You know,

Chris Baran 16:21
and you know, I love that, because that tells me at the schools that you’re teaching it number one. Number two is, is that I mean, first of all, hair doesn’t have a gender, you know, it’s just like its hair, you know, I remember, sort of my background was dipped very heavily into soons. And I remember that’s one thing that they taught was just, it’s just a texture. You know, and you can’t align yourself with just one texture, just like, you know, and it may be a bad analogy. But you if you’re an artist, you may end up in one area with oils or with I saw this amazing artists just the other day, who makes these 50s You know, 40s 50s kinds of scenes, very, very high opacity scenes. And he makes them all just with tape, and then shining light behind them. So but as different mediums that you go to, but you have to know a lot about all of the mediums before you become specific, you know, like a doctor, you got to be generalist first. And then you pick it. No, you can be a generalist forever what you want to do, or you can just be specific, this is all I want to do. But in our industry is if you want to make money, you know, then you got to know everything. And I love what you said earlier is you just became I can’t just sit here in my own school, because I’m afraid when somebody comes in with XYZ stereotype, you’ve just got to go out and learn it for God’s sake. Well,

Lauren Moser-Samuels 17:48
and that’s how, you know, my sister has curly hair. So that’s how I started doing curly hair because sisters are made. So when you cut their hair, and you know what they’re doing, or what you’re doing, they’re gonna make sure you cry, right? Make sure that you know deep down in your heart that you are terrible at your job.

Chris Baran 18:05
That’s the That’s the price. Yeah.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 18:08
So I developed my curly cutting system on her specifically just because she was the only one to give me honest feedback. And what I’ve learned with curly clients is that they don’t get feedback at all, because they go into it expecting you not to do it, right. So when fulfill what they think is going to happen. Of course, they’re not calling and complaining they expected, right? So as I got better at dealing with curly textures, the curl started to get tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter. And the requests were getting a little more unfamiliar, in terms of the styling that they were asking for. I just wasn’t sure. Because when you get into different cultures as well, right, so each culture has their approach to hair. Now, you’re talking about the African American community. This goes back generations and generations and generations of moms and daughters and aunts and nieces, right? They’re all doing each other’s hair. So like sometimes some of the styling methods or whatever. They’re not taught in the same way or the same words, aren’t you? Right? So it might be more like a vernacular thing than anything else, just that it’s more casual when you’re talking historic hairstyles, right, versus what we learn in school or whatever. So I just started to get a little more uncomfortable again. So I started and now my job and doing hair. 15 years at this point, I went and I assisted on Saturdays for free. A stylist that worked at an all black salon So there were barbers there. There were cosmetologist there, there were, like people that specialized in color and all that. So for me, I needed to do it for just the like, cultural submission. Yeah. What version I should say not submission submersion, because I really wanted to understand a the trauma behind the hair, right? Because there’s a lot of trauma going on with curly haired people, whether it’s they were taught their hair isn’t professional, or that their hair is the problem, or, you know, because we’ve heard stylists go, oh, they just have bad hair. And I’m like, Well, yeah, it’s no hairs innately bad, right? Like, hair doesn’t grow out of your head. Bad. So it’s either pushed to be bad, or you don’t know what you’re doing. Bingo. So

Chris Baran 20:56
I love what you just said there. Because it isn’t that, you know, yesterday, I love the fact about how you talked about trauma. And that’s, that’s not only from, that’s culturally, it’s within the business, etc. But the fact that you said their hair is bad. And I find that happens so much nowadays, where we make excuses for why we can’t do it. And we just say, well, that’s bad hair. Who would want to do that when it’s hair? That’s our job. It’s like saying, oh, liver is bad. Now, my liver might be bad, but it’s true completely because of what I put into it. But the reality is, is hair is hair, and weather. And I know we’re not allowed to use this word anymore, that we’re not supposed to for being PC. But even when we used to, they used to use it negatively saying, Oh, it’s just frizzy. But I don’t, I’m sorry, but I think if if that’s a texture, it’s beautiful. You can have you can make it like, I can’t remember who that was an actress that was on a black actress that was on TV commercial in the last while I don’t remember the commercial, but I always remember her. And in that 32nd spot, they showed her in different arm that one time it was just perfect curls. And it was like the way the color was put into it. And then then it was then it was smoothed out a bit more. And the next time it was in this amazing, you know, Afro frizz that looked spectacular on her. And I think that it’s we just need to wise up as a community and we need to, you know, stop blaming, and just start learning. I think that’s a key area that we have the things that we’re afraid of. We’re just afraid of it because we don’t know. And we want to be safe. You know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So now I understand and again, a better feeling way that you’re a curly hair specialist curl. I mean, I think you’re a specialist and everything you do, but he’s, I think if we could get as a community get together, and I’ve always had this dream, that wouldn’t be great. If there’s sometimes this separation in our communities, you know, hairdresser, to hairdresser, whether you whatever color your skin is, that we create a separation because we view ourselves as competition. You know, if I’ve got a salon next door to you, I feel like I’m your competition. It might be might be, it’s more, I don’t like you because you’re bad mouthing me, and I’m bad mouthing you, and therefore we can’t get along. But I just think that we’ve got a community and look at we, I just saw, it would just came out the other day where pro beauty just came out with a report on the earnings that happened in the industry and where and, and we had they quoted that there was an ad, I think, was 81 or 82%. decline in the industry, from in 2018 to 2022. Well, I went well, we had COVID, of course 81% decline. But then they started to talk about the increase. And there’s actually, I think about 30% Less hairdressers out there right now than there was during COVID. And that’s why so many salons are saying look at I’ve got all these people and I just can’t find hairdressers. So that’s why schools like yours are doing the job of teaching all these these different kinds so that we can accommodate them. And we need to accommodate that. So I think that’s where where we our industry needs to get all of those kids up to speed as fast as we possibly can. But with this, I’m sorry, and I’m gonna apologize right now because I’m going a little bit of a rant on this ever since I saw that report, because I have a real bee in my bonnet about how our industry is perceived. And and we have we have A and you know, God bless, I only wish and I love the hairdressers that support the the hairdresser or the the Hollywood community, but I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet the way that they portray hairdressers, and because they always make us look, let’s face it we can be, we have freedom, so we can be the people we want to be. But they always take this negative side of how we look to maked. And do and I’m sure you can do the same thing because I know that a betcha you make more money. And then a lot of the people that are out there that call themselves professionals. But here’s what the community report that came out. And it said, and I’m just glancing at the numbers here, because I’m not a numbers guy. So I got to write them down. And there’s this government skewed perception of what our industry makes. And the government just because of the analytics and the algorithms that they use, comparing us against full time carpenters, etc. When I

Lauren Moser-Samuels 26:01
was just about to say the problem with the government, and I’m in the middle of I’m about to take them on by myself if I have to. They’re not working at the number of hours worked per week. So I know as when my kids were young, I was working two days a week. So I was still making $30,000 working two days a week. Right? So if you do the math, and you say, Okay, well, what if she’s working? I was working 16 hours, 16 hours, right? So if you do the math?

Chris Baran 26:37
Well, that’s two and a half times what you actually did, if you did a 40 hour week worker workweek or 50 hours, that meant your $30,000 Was that your 30 $30,000 was actually $75,000 What you were

Lauren Moser-Samuels 26:51
earning and that certain that was three years out of school. Wow. See it?

Chris Baran 26:55
You know, and here’s what I got is what the what they were saying was community came up this report and it said that the we got this 27,000 At the say that we actually make, and that that actually, that actually hurts all of the amazing schools that we have in our country, because now they’re saying, Well, why would we pay somebody? Why would we give grants to somebody to go to an educational institute private one for profit, that says the only make they only make $27,000? A year? So I’m just gonna use a round number here. It’s not, it’s not the exact number, but just say why would we give somebody $20,000 Grant, when they’re only going to make that in one year, which is absolutely untrue and clean. The community reported here that the average hourly rate in America right now for hairdressers is $38.37, on the average. And if you did, what the average w two was, was $54,307. That’s when you take the bottom most and the top most, and you lump them all together. And they said that if you took the 24% of that, those people and you put and you looked at what their earnings were were $48,000 and added amount that amounted if you put it into a 40 hour workweek now this is saying I just want to be clear on this. Because it said that would amount to making $100,000 a year plus. But that meant that if you work those five days, you would make $100,000. But if you don’t want to, you know, whatever you’re working, it’s prorated, so you can start wondering.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 28:34
They’re not prorating it. So I mean, I could talk for three hours on this subject just because I’m in the financial aid office here. And I’m you know, doing, I’ve done every job in the school from except instructor. I haven’t done that. But um,

Chris Baran 28:51
that surprises me because you’re a hell of an educator. Listen, when

Lauren Moser-Samuels 28:55
we did this, I came from behind the chair and was the academy director of financial aid director. I was, I was the one man show in here trying to get all the background stuff done. So the thing so all of this is starting up. They’re trying to get rid of trade schools. And this is both parties, you know, of it when everyone’s like, Oh, well, this party because the other ones trying to what they’re both trying to get the weapons are trying to deregulate the Democrats are trying to gainful employment as out of the out of the mix. But the problem is the government is saying that trade schools, specifically cars and barber schools are predatory, because we’re charging so very much now we haven’t we’ve an 1800 of our program. And our tuition is 18,000 I’m sorry, but I can’t do it for less when the Department of Ed has all of these things that we have to I mean the Just the compliance part, you need so much that. So they say that we’re predatory, because our students are graduating. And the the debt from the loans is so great compared to what they’re making. But here’s the problem that I have. Now, if you look at a university, how many people are going to a four or six year university, getting a degree and making the same or double what their loans are? I can promise you, it’s hardly any. Our students are graduating and making that much per year if not double, if not triple, right, a couple years out. So I’m going to get a little conspiracy theory on you for one second conversation. If you look at college used to be affordable, right? And the government sat back and thought, well, how can we make money, right? Let’s do loans, hey, colleges, why don’t you charge more, if you charge more, we can loan them the money, and then make the interest on it. And you can make more money, and we can make more money. And so that started hiking these prices up for the universities, right. And they’re driving everybody to university because guess what, the government is not making as much on my students that only took 20,000 in loans, when they can make the interest on $150,000 loans, that somebody that’s going to schools or colleges is taking out. Another thing that I see is that they’re not teaching the students in the grade schools and middle schools, we’re getting students that can’t read. Yeah. So of course, our outcome rates are bad, because we can’t, we can push them through our program. But the state has a reckoning that they have to take the State Board test. Now, if I came out of high school, and I couldn’t read, I could fudge my way through university and get a degree and no one would know. But they can’t fudge through trade school. Right. So I feel like we’re getting it on both sides. Because one, they don’t want to change the way they’re doing all the kids dirty by not teaching them how to read, right? You’ve got so many that are slipping through the cracks. And B, they’re going to make so much more. If they force everybody into college, the university that’s going to charge so much instead of going to trade school. So if that is something that I’m so passionate about, I could we have students that have dropped out of like five universities getting free grant money to come to school. And I think you know, if you’ve dropped out of that many schools, like maybe you don’t get my tax money to pay for more. Right. So I think there’s a lot of change that needs to happen. And I think it’s important for all hairdressers to know, what is going on from a legislative position. I’m currently working with our state reps to lower our hours to lower the barrier for students to get through the program. 1800s long, yeah. So I’m working on them. And then hopefully, the department events stuff, I don’t know, you

Chris Baran 33:28
know, here’s a couple of memories and things. And I think that there’s, I love what you said about the way this is going my first point or two points I want to bring out there number one is when if you think of unit unit, getting a university education now I’m not saying anything bad about it, we need people that are in that academic area. And but in our society to make our society work, you need academics, and you need trays. Now, if if everybody goes to and this is just absolutely, it’s a silly analogy, but I want you to just take it for what it’s worth. If everybody goes to university, and everybody comes just about law, or anything is about doctors, then what about who’s going to do all the stuff that needs to get done? Like building your house like doing your hair, like getting all the plumbing done, like servicing your car, taking you up and going and helping you on your vacations by doing your travel, arranging. The whole point is our system is based on a community that that serves one another so you can’t have just one and not the other. That’s number one. Number two is and this is the part that I feel is is I’m gonna get on a soapbox again. Is the reason why that $27,000 number there and I think you know this as well as I do is hairdressers have to stop cheating on their taxes. You know the reason reason why you’re in that boat is, if you if you if you’re pocketing your money, and I mean, let’s face it, I, there isn’t a time in my life when I went, you know, wouldn’t that be nice just so I could take that and maybe just have a day off. But you still have to go on your own ethics, and you got to say, look at, if I’m just cheating on my taxes all the time, then I downgrade my whole industry, because every time I do it, and I’m not blaming booth rent, I’m just saying it’s easier to do if you’re the only one looking at your books. And I know,

Lauren Moser-Samuels 35:35
I just want to add that in addition to that you’re really downgrading your life because you’re hiding money. So then, you know, you’re claiming less money or paying less taxes, and that feels good, right? But if you’re not paying into the country that you live in, right, then we lose the ability to provide for all citizens, right? So there’s that and I, you know, I don’t love the way our government spends our tax money. Everyone has their own opinions on that. But it’s an important part of being a part of society. In addition to that, you can’t grow if you can’t get credit. So if you want to buy a house, if you need to buy a car, if so even the booth renters, let’s say you’re a booth renter, and you think no one’s looking, I’m gonna just pocket pocket pocket. But then you want to grow and you want to open your own shop, or you want to grow your own personal business investing classes, whatever, you can’t even get credit to do that, because you’ve been telling everybody that you’re not making any money. So then you don’t look successful. On the flip side of that. I’ve seen so many businesses, hide cash, and then want to sell their business. Yeah. And it’s not worth it. And there. I have, I’ve been just putting it over here, though. And the you know, the accountants are like, right, but you can’t lie and say that it’s that right. So yeah, and

Chris Baran 37:03
I love what you said there because I want to be clear to anybody that is in the independent industry. And other people listening to this, because it’s a hot topic is that we’re not saying that all people that are in other independent cheat on taxes, we’re not saying that every, every salon owner is doing it all ethically I saying it’s a thing that can run rampant in our industry, and for kudos for all of you out there who are doing it properly and ethically. But just remember that there’s repercussions to everything when you do and you’re not paying your taxes properly. You know, I know groups out there that when they join they save them they make it part of their code is pay your taxes because they know how that doesn’t reflect on our company. This episode is sponsored by the salon associate accelerator from trainers playbook.com. Are you struggling with the time and cost of associate training? Do you feel like your salon is running you will get your associates on the floor, all with 90% Less time from you. So you can get back to building your business. Get them world class design, finishing color and client care skills they’ll use every day for the rest of their career. While you focus on realizing your vision. Go to trainers playbook.com and get the salon associate accelerator and now back to the show. Well, listen, we I think we got heavy enough on that other one and I not that I want to lighten up but I do want to go on to another thing simply because I heard people say you say that your your full time, full time admissions, running all sorts of things in the school etc. And I don’t want to take away from the fact of the amazing hairdresser that you are. And and I know that there’s this you were five times now ha winner finalist. I know just in this what was this just this last year you took home a trifecta right at the MIT at the Midwest, Midwest competitions were you what was it? I think I heard texture, Master stylist of the year, hairdresser, hairstylist of the year, etc. So I want to I want first of all, I know because this is the most current and you’ve been involved in the salon but I don’t I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you. I think if anybody that’s involved into into competition, they go give me one and I’m happy. You mean give me one award. I can walk away feeling like I’ve been validated feeling good. But you took home a trifecta for God’s sake. How did that I want I want I want to take you back to that moment. And maybe wherever that felt in there To walk us through the process of what it was like, and what was going on in your head? Well, while that was happening,

Lauren Moser-Samuels 40:08
honestly, I’ll be a little vulnerable for a second, I had really stepped away from hair. In general, when we did the school, it was learning what I had to learn to get this place going. I don’t think it I could even put into words, the amount and at the speed that I had to get it all down, right? There’s no room for error when you’re dealing with Department of Ed, and audits every year, right? So it wasn’t like, Oh, I’m learning this new thing. And I’ll make mistakes. And it’s fine. You know, we’re, we’re running this branch for Larry Curtis of Taylor Andrews, right. So we have a branding agreement with them. And so he’s using our brand, but we’re, we’re in charge of this campaign, like we are running it. And you know, you never want to let your friends your mentors or your people down. And so I take that so seriously, when somebody trusts me with something that I do what I needed to do, so I lost myself, in financial aid accounting students, like, I’m not an organized person, like, I’m like, your typical crazy hairdresser with like, the messy wild station and four people going at one time, like, that’s truly who I am. So when you stick me behind a desk and go, everything has to be organized and filed, and everything has to be documented and tracked. And, I mean, it was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. And then COVID happened. So not only was I trying to learn financial aid, I’m trying to save our company, because we still have hair lab as a company, right. And then there’s the school that were running this branch for some, you know, there was just so much riding on getting the loans and all that stuff. So that became my focus. So I definitely was in a very dark place for for a long time, because I wasn’t even doing here. I was doing everything about hair. So Roderick really pushed me to enter the competition. And I’m like, I don’t even I can’t even think about it. Like I don’t even know. What’s the point. You know, I just I was just, you know, you get me in a dark place. You’re like, who cares? And he, I was out, he entered me. You know, he like forced me to do it. Which you know, it’s a really delicate process. Because yes, we do everything together. We love each other. We’re always we work together, we live together, but we’re very independent people. Very independent people. And like, we don’t ride to work together. Right? Like I can’t I’m not being on his schedule. As I say I wait for no man. So if I’m done working and you’re not done working, it’s we’re gonna fight so. Yeah. So he entered me and I literally went into it with just like, not feeling good about anything. So I had no speech. Like nothing like I literally was like, I’m just here because he fucking me. You know, I was just, it was bad. And then, and I just really was like, I’m not gonna win. And I’m just here. Nobody wants to see me. I’m like, washed up, whatever. And then I won those three and I I didn’t even How do you even address that in a speech? Other than just like, I’m shocked. I you know, it felt really good. And I think I needed it. And not from like a show off. See, I don’t need awards. I’m not I’m not one of those people. You were talking about your wife. She like stands in the background and doesn’t you know, like, that’s me. Like, I’m like, Oh, it’s just like, I’m like the workhorse like I’m back here just getting stuff done. So the accolades mean a lot, but not in the showy sense that I think it it comes off. For me, it was just like, I think I just needed that to remember, like, who I was. Yeah. So I guess, you know, it’s, uh, I don’t think anyone really expects that because I don’t really put any anything out there. In general, but yeah, I mean, I think for me, it was it felt good. Because it felt normal again, right. Like, being around people that were excited and you know, it’s hard to be and I’ve said this always not I always always it’s, it’s, you never want to be the smartest one in the room. Right? And in the school setting and in this setting, and being the one that had to like figure all this stuff out the financial all that, right? You know, you get to a place where I’m like, where Who do I lean on? Right? I, you know, so it got really hard. So I think in that moment, it was just great to be around other people that are great. And that my wasn’t the smartest, I may be the award winner, but I’m not the smartest one in this room when we were at that award show. So it was, it felt good just to be around our people.

Chris Baran 45:37
Yeah. And I think to the point, I think sometimes, I don’t want to take anything away from awards. And I’m just going to give a humble opinion, because what I’m about to say is just an opinion, it’s not out there. It’s not it’s only my opinion. But I think that we live in a society, that where if you’re good at something, that they move you up the chain faster. And if you don’t, well, then you don’t and, and in, you’re in a different bracket than a lot of people, you and I, the people that were at those awards, you’re you’re in a different bracket of people, because you’re there’s no getting away from it, you’re you may say you’re not the smartest, but you’re a leader. And they expect leaders to be there. And, and if anything, the way I look at it, is I’m validating me, to me, you know, I because like I’m like you, I don’t write, I don’t write a speech. And if I always I have, if I write a speech, I’m automatically jinxing the process. And I’ve

Lauren Moser-Samuels 46:49
never had speech never. But usually, even if I’m not writing a speech, I have an idea. Yeah, that time I know.

Chris Baran 46:57
But I think that is what it is, is when you’re in it, when you’re in an elite society, Hollywood does it, everybody else does it. You know, everybody does great work, everybody does great hair, everybody makes great images. And Hollywood makes great movies. But at the end of the game, sometimes we feel that for marketing purposes, you’ve got to get in there and show your worth. And if you in marketing wise, it’s people do it in salon Salon of the year, a restaurant of the year, etcetera, etcetera, Barber of the ear, nail salon of the year, you know, missa, et cetera. We’ve got to think about the marketing that happens for your brand that you have of a business and even your own brand, if that is your business. And so, I mean, I take my hat off to anybody you included, who enters an award, because the peer pressure, no, that’s not the right word. The fact of you know, we all know of wizard brain, you know, that makes decision lizard brain that says, Oh, you’re not going to do that, because somebody might judge me. But the reality is, is that’s what you do, every time you put your business out there, that’s what you do, when you come into an award. And you it’s not, you’re gonna You ain’t gonna win every time. I always call myself the Susan Lucci of the no ha, because I can come come second or third, many times more than I win. But the reality is, is it takes a special person to have your work judged by your peers, and be put at a pinnacle of top first, second, third, or cetera. So I think that from a mark, my word of encouragement to be would be if anybody that’s out there just to do it, because you’ll push your creativity, even if you don’t win. What What’s your what would you say to people out there that are either afraid of doing it or are thinking about doing it?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 48:45
So when I I had been behind the chair for a while I was just needing to have more of a creative outlet. I started to work with local photographers and models. And you know, they have the Model Mayhem sites. I don’t even know if that’s still also out of the loop right now. But I would work with teams locally. And when I was new to it, I kind of just showed up and would just do whatever they want, right and following everyone else’s creative direction and whatever. It did a bunch of things. For me though, it got me fast, because everyone’s staring at you. Right, but we got the studio for one hour. What do you do? You know, you’re like, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m new. So that got me really fast. But it got me working with a team of creatives that maybe I didn’t know, right, I didn’t. These weren’t people I’ve worked with in a salon. They were random strangers that I met on these like photography, networking sites, so it was great experience and doing some you know, you never know what you’re doing. It’s like wild Mad Max. matching cars and a junk you know it really weird creative, you know, you get those like weird moments. But that was my first days of shooting. And that was when I started to develop my eye for composition and what things look like and how to set things up and how to work with these people, right how to work with a photographer and a makeup artist and I’m not running the show, right? So it was truly a team effort in that sense, because it was like, here’s our concept, you do your job, you do your job, you do your job. And so that prepped me for not Hana. Roderick also made me enter NA, I was such a fan of na hot like I would wait for the finalists to come out. And I would watch it because I was like, oh, everyone is so amazing. You know, and Roderick and I started dating and he paid for my first na shoot for my Christmas present. Like We’d only been dating six months. I’m like, This guy’s crazy.

Chris Baran 50:58
Or at least he went crazy. So I

Lauren Moser-Samuels 51:03
mean, it took a while for me to go. He’s great. Right? It was creepy, crazy. Whatever. So he really believed in me, I didn’t you know, I’m like, no, no, that now has not for me. I just I just really appreciate watching the talent. You know, I really appreciate watching everybody. And he’s like, what’d you do this? And I’m like, No, I don’t do that though. Like I do other stuff with these other random people. And he’s like, Well, I have a photographer that lives here that I really liked. Just come down. And we shot and I got nominated that first time that first shoot. So I want to

Chris Baran 51:42
be there for a second because I love where this is going. I want to know how you felt. What was the difference and the switch that happened to you. When all of a sudden you are in the finals? What what was that? Like? What? Was there anything that shifted in your brain?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 52:00
Everything shifted in my brain. It was like one of those like, Oh, I didn’t even know that can happen. Right? Like, little old me. I’m not sponsored by anybody. I’m not nobody paid for my I mean, Roderick paid for my stuff. But nobody’s looking at him as moneybags over there that he’s not Aveda or anything like that. But he believed in me, even when I you know, didn’t and then I took that so seriously, I was like, Oh my God, who paid for this? Like, I gotta What if I? What if I can’t do it? And it was like a nightmare of a day like my girl showed up. I booked her the blonde headed for whatever look I was doing showed up with dark brown hair. Oh, that’s hard to do a corrective color. Before I even started my what I mean, it was a nightmare. So when I got nominated. I don’t know what to think. But from then on every year that I I competed. I was not competing against anyone but myself. Yes. Every year, the only thing I wanted was to walk away from the shoots feeling good about it. Feeling like I did a good job dealing like I did better than the year before. So for me the nomination wasn’t anything other than it’s possible. Yeah. You know, I just never looked at not how like it was for me. I’m like, no, no, this for the other people and Rodricks. Like, you’re insane. What do you mean, like you’re doing this work? You’re already doing it. You’re just not submitting? You know? So I think for me, that nomination more than anything was that it’s possible that from then on, the only person I was worried about competing with this takes a lot of hurts. Right? Like, if you, I’m not going to. So I’m competing with me, it’s fine. It’s all good. But

Chris Baran 54:03
I take my hat off to you on that one. Because I think that’s really what it’s got to be about is, is where are you at? And here’s one thing I’ve always said to people look at, do what you like. Because if you don’t like it, when you’re done, and other people don’t like it and judge it poorly, then you’ve got nothing. But so that’s when people say well, what are the judges want? I think that’s one of the worst questions ever ask is What do the judges want? Don’t think about what the judges want. Think about what you want. What do you want to do? What expresses you what, at the end of the game? If you don’t get if you don’t, you don’t even get a mention in it. Do you still like to work? Can you hang it on the wall or somebody’s going to publish your

Lauren Moser-Samuels 54:45
branding? There’s been years I’ve been nominated and they’ve been some of my favorite collections to where you’re like how did this not get nominated? But in those moments, I’m like okay with it because even seeing what got nominated over remind I’m like, Well, I still like mine better. But again, when you’re competing with yourself, you’re not mad about it. And I, you know, it was funny the NA that I the first night I won. We walked away from that shoe. And I was hysterical. I was like, that was the worst shoot I’ve ever done in my entire life and the photographer’s like, What are you talking about? I don’t think you understand. Like, once I put it in edit, I think you’re really gonna like it. I’m like, No, I mean, my model didn’t show up. The photographer hated the location. And we ended up shooting in a parking structure for 13 hours. My kids were there. I mean, it was, it was the most chaotic day. And I just, from an energy standpoint, felt really awful. And we want it. So like, the work was great, though. Like, when we got the finished work. I was like, oh, hell, yeah, that’s amazing. Okay, I see what you did there. But it was the chaos, but I also live in today. So I don’t know and

Chris Baran 56:00
think about it this way, I, you know, I always believe that the universe throws something at you. And if you can’t solve it, you’re gonna get stuck there the rest of your life. But if they can throw all the crap at you, and you can solve it and come away, then even even if you didn’t get even if you said, look at the end of it, and I didn’t get the win, and I didn’t get a finalist, but I do love the shots, it’s still a win. Now you can still keep moving forward. But if it’s like, I’m gonna take my football and I’m gonna go home, that then you get stuck there for the rest of your life. So I just want to jump because we have we have more in common than you think. Because when I looked at your work, and I don’t remember the year, but you did that collection, where you had knitted hair in it. And I want to know what that came from.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 56:52
That you know, that one never went anywhere. And I was really It had like a crocheted piece of hair in the middle. And that is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite favorite shots that I’ve ever done. And literally no one liked it. Like, I watch it

Chris Baran 57:08
no one. Don’t say no, no, I loved it.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 57:10
But never went anywhere. With those that was one of those moments that I was like, but here’s the thing, I learned how to crochet. I really liked the outcome of the photo. I love that model that I worked with. She’s an amazing human. So like spending the day with her was great. And I feel like I didn’t know how to crochet when I had that idea. So I had to first learn, learn how to crochet and then I had to learn how to do it with hair, which Yeah, I couldn’t do it again. And I don’t think it would take me hours. But you know, I was really proud of that. Because I really had to push myself to learn all those new things and make it look good. So I’m glad you did.

Chris Baran 57:59
And I think we have to had a meeting of minds cycle psychically on that one. Because I went through a similar experience where I just I wanted to knit something, and I didn’t know how to knit. And I’m just gonna say like, and so I had to learn how to do it like you. I went down, bought the stuff. And I said, I have no idea what to do. And they suggested what I do. And he said, Well, what are you going to do with Are you going to make? And I said well, it’s not I’m not going to use yarn, I’m going to knit hair. And this and here’s, here’s the words that the people at the store gave me. Oh, that’s creepy. So I wanted to I never did, but I wanted to take the collection back into them and show them you know, if you know how to Crochet and knit of what you can do with it. So but you know, where I want to spin that to the people listening and watching right now is that never forget that a different medium of something. Nobody ever thought that somebody would just when everybody was doing roller sets that somebody would say, hey, nobody’s just cutting hair architecturally. What do well let’s try that one out and you’re always gonna meet I think it was Albert Einstein that that said and I’m gonna mess it up but he said that mediocre people are no a great people are met with violent opposition from mediocre minds. And the people that have the ability to think differently and think I hit the expression outside the box. But you have to think differently than what’s been thought at the time. And, and you thought of that and I just take your hat off to you because now you see lots of people are doing it. So I

Lauren Moser-Samuels 59:33
know it was funny because it didn’t get nominated. And then the next year like half the collections had crocheted hair. And I did slow turn it Roderick like I was already there and and nobody liked it. But I do think it’s important to keep those creative juices flowing. And sometimes you do have to get a little weird with it. Like, like I told you I you know went through I’m still I think going through my little dark period where I just I’m sort of losing myself in some of the administrative part of running this business. And I don’t know how to get it back, right, because it, you’ve got to find that spark, which you can’t just make happen, or else I would have done made it happen. So I signed up for a pottery class that starts in January. And in working with texture, I’ve always compared it to sculpting because it’s a three dimensional thing that you’re working in, and it lives in projection. So usually, when I’m working with curls, I’m sculpting them and molding them and, you know, creating looks. And so it’s very similar to working with clay and how you mold it and tweak it and whatever. So I’m trying different things just to get those juices flowing. And just to get that, that off the wall out of the box thinking going, like maybe I can come up with, you know, what’s next for me. Just trying different stuff.

Chris Baran 1:01:03
Yeah. And I think you have to have something that pulls you out of where you’re at. I mean, because God bless you. I mean, we’re i I so admire, what you’re doing is you’re, you’re like, there’s abstract thinkers and linear thinkers. And, and I think, I think that you’re, you’re obviously an abstract thinker that had to think learn to think linear. And, and but I think that the you got to watch. And I love the fact that you’re going to take pottery, simply because you’ve got to have an outlet for that abstract thinker to be creative. And I think that that’s going to be an a spark for you. And we share something there as well. Because I’ve always said when I when I can’t produce, I have to have things that will make me my therapy, sitting down and braiding hair for hours on ends when I’m watching TV. That’s therapy. For me. It’s better than Oh, yeah,

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:02:01
I did go ahead to learn Brady, because braids became popular, and I didn’t know how to do that. So I’d sit with the mannequin in my lap and I cornrow while I watch

Chris Baran 1:02:09
TV. So here’s the have you observed, I want to find out where was some of the if there was an educator that like word in the education Spark, because you’ve been out, you’ve been out you’ve done education, etc. What was the what was the spark that I always want to find out that from making the decision to get into hair, and then become very successful at hair? But then there’s that tweak in there that says, I want to give back share? What was the what was the in for you in that one? How did that happen?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:02:49
Um, for me, I was always kind of involved in like younger stylists, in whatever shop I was working in, or, or when I had my salon with the partners, we all kind of took turns, mentoring and coaching and we would invite the local beauty school students to come down and hang out with us and shadows and stuff like that. So I think that was always kind of just part of the way that I was trained in the industry. I think being at a team based Aveda salon for my apprenticeship, working as a team and all helping each other out and helping each other learn. It wasn’t, it wasn’t even taught it was expected. You know, it was just, this is our culture. And this is what we do. So you better help the next person next to you, right. So for me, that just was kind of innate in in the way that I was like raised in the industry. I never really thought about doing shows or anything like that. I mean, for no reason. Just my I had a lot going on. And I it just never crossed my mind. But when I started dating Roderick, he was doing that for amaz. And we were getting long distance. So he was in South Carolina. And I was in Michigan, and we quickly realized that this long distance relationship was gonna get really expensive. And so I started teaching with him, and then it’s like a write off and you can travel to each other. And it’s a business expense instead of a personal one. And then we started if, if I’m meeting there, I might as well be teaching at home, right, so we started just throwing my name in. And I started getting booked classes. So it was um, it was slow in terms of getting me there, right? Like, there was just like a class here, a class there. But then it was like every major trade show and a bunch of salons and a bunch of schools and you know, so it’s kind of like, I dipped my toe in and then it worked out and then I just got kept going. I think, with anything in life, if you do whatever is right in front of you,

the best that you can, the next thing will be right behind it, right. And so

I think whatever it is, you know, it could be teaching, it could be building a clientele, it could be shooting, it could be whatever. But as long as you’re giving it your all, and having ethics behind it, right, that you walk into it ready to work on time, you know, do what’s expected, I think those opportunities are just going to start snowballing. Because it’s not everyone doesn’t do, I’ll just leave it on.

Chris Baran 1:05:42
If you had, and this is one I want to kind of, you know, hold on, I always thought this and you know, when you have, I don’t know if every channel does it. But the morning show that I watch every morning, they always have these things on, if you had to write a note to yourself, and I know this isn’t fair, because that person has like weeks or whatever to write this, this incredible note to yourself that if you’re talking to your adolescent self about what’s going to happen to you and where you go, and blah, blah, blah. And I realize it’s not a fair question. But if you had the top line, some things that you would talk to Lauren as your 16 year old self, knowing where you are now and knowing what some of the pitfalls were, and knowing how you how you got through them. What would you what would you say to that 16 year old Lauren.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:06:41
So I know this might sound weird, but I don’t regret ever. I am a very forward looking person. And so I generally never look back and regret because like all of those things kind of lead you to where you are and who you are. I think the biggest thing I you know, my mom was never really big on me doing hair. And so it was a point of contention for quite some years. Until that first now her show that she went to and was like, Oh, you, you’re actually doing this, you know, it was kind of a switch in an opinion. Um, my only advice to myself would be to not let that get to me as much as I did. You know, it’s hard to push through. Sometimes when you have somebody in your ear that’s like, not supportive. And I really noticed the difference when I started dating Roderick, and watching how quickly my career catapulted when I had somebody that believed in me. So not only did he have connection, you know, we both had connections separately. And so bringing those together obviously helped. But I don’t think that was it, I think it was that I had somebody that truly believed in not just me as a person, but me as a talent and as a business person, and as a hairstylist, and educator, all of these things that. So I guess the biggest thing is that, in order to reach your full potential, you really truly need people that add to you. And only that add to you, in your ear and in your life. Because it is such a big difference when you are surrounded by people that are cheering you on and holding you up, then people that are telling you that you’re making mistakes, right. So I think my only advice to me would be to be careful of who I allowed to get inside my head. That’s pretty cool. I mean, I’ve done a lot of really dumb, so don’t get it twisted. I just don’t regret those things. I embrace those. Hi,

Chris Baran 1:09:06
my name is Chris, and I’m part of the society. So

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:09:12
running. Bob, do you regret them? Because you think about those mistakes? And you’re like, Well, if I wouldn’t have made that mistake, then I you know, wouldn’t have gotten this whatever opportunity or whatever. Yeah,

Chris Baran 1:09:23
no, it’s very true. I mean, let’s face it, mistakes are made every day. And I think that they that if we didn’t make mistakes, we wouldn’t be who we are. So and then you

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:09:33
wouldn’t learn. I don’t know how many times if somebody told you something, and you’re like, hey, yeah, versus you do it and you screw it up. And then you you really remember that right? Yeah. So I think those mistakes lead to like long lasting intelligence. That’s,

Chris Baran 1:09:50
I could go on to a whole nother hour on that one about how we’re how our society perceives mistakes when that’s the only way we learn but that’s for that’ll be for another time. I have another conversation, I want to I’m just going to jump in and I want to this is our rapid fire segment and and again just out of throw it I got about series of questions here and I just want you to think about, you know where where they are just some stuff that comes right up on top of your head. Okay, so what turns you

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:10:19
on? Why are my wins my well remember,

Chris Baran 1:10:22
they’re just your answers so they’re always the right ones. So what turns you on in the creative process?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:10:33
Working with new techniques and new media so every time I shoot I try to learn what

Chris Baran 1:10:41
what stifles a creative creative process for you. Being high being the thing in your life thing and not not in your thing in life in general that you dislike the most life and the things that you love in life the most.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:11:11
My favorite of it

Chris Baran 1:11:14
most difficult time in your life.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:11:18
Right now, things

Chris Baran 1:11:19
that you dislike most about our industry um the excuses and what is it you like the most about our industry?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:11:37
The power we have to change people’s lives.

Chris Baran 1:11:41
Proudest moment your life

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:11:46
I have so many I have so many. I’m probably winning, winning the awards would probably be the proud of, well, one of the proudest there’s too many.

Chris Baran 1:11:59
And we’re not we’re not taking anything away from any of those other ones is the one that comes into your brain right now. Probably that one because we’ve been talking a lot about it but the key is the person or living person that you admire the most something that people don’t know about you

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:12:27
do we come back to that one? That’s hard. I feel like I’m like a wide open book. I gotta think about that one for as I get the

Chris Baran 1:12:33
person that you wish you could meet um a person I wish I could live in your dead

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:12:51
I really would love to meet Barack Obama.

Chris Baran 1:12:54
Oh, nice. a month off. Where would you go? What would you do?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:13:03
I would go back to Japan and travel around that. That country visiting that country brings me so much peace.

Chris Baran 1:13:13
So I agree. Maybe just your greatest fear

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:13:23
loving the people I love the most down. Favorite

Chris Baran 1:13:26
curse word. favorite comfort food. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:13:39
The pressure I put on myself to be perfect. With all of my work your most

Chris Baran 1:13:45
treasured personal possession.

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:13:52
My wedding ring,

Chris Baran 1:13:55
if you could is something in history. It’s something in the industry that you haven’t done. But you want to

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:14:09
now, I’ve literally done everything in the industry, I think that I currently want to and that could change. Okay,

Chris Baran 1:14:15
now I know that you said that you’d never do anything over again, simply because that’s who you are. However, if you could have one do over in your life. What would it be?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:14:30
My first minute. You the number of times I gotta do over. I wouldn’t want to do that over.

Chris Baran 1:14:38
Okay, tomorrow you couldn’t do hair, anything involved with hair? What would you do?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:14:49
I’d probably become a therapist just because it just makes sense. Okay, if you had

Chris Baran 1:14:54
one wish for industry, what would it be?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:15:02
I wish that everybody going into it understood what their job is actually, about. And in terms of serving people, and the power that we we have, but I think that’s, that’s underrated and it’s misunderstood.

Chris Baran 1:15:27
Lauren, how if somebody I mean, it’d be remiss if I didn’t say that when people are going, oh my god, this is amazing woman. And they want to get a hold of you to book you talk to find out where you’re going, et cetera. How do people get a hold of you?

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:15:44
Um, the easiest way would be our email. But I also can give you our social media. What’s what is that? So the email is hair lab, Detroit at Gmail, super simple. And then my Instagram is Lauren. l AU, r e n. M. Moser. So two M’s, m m o s e r. And then my Facebook is actually Lauren Samuels, just because I like to keep everyone

Chris Baran 1:16:16
below Lauren, you didn’t confuse me at all you I think you inspired me and many other people that are out there. But Lauren, I just want to say thank you. It was a pleasure having on you at you know we haven’t had a chance to talk, meet, carry on a conversation and find out about each other. Until now even I’ve always known about you I’ve always known who you were. But I just feel blessed that I’ve had this this time to meet you and and take you on as a new acquaintance or friend so I just want to say thank you for being on headcase says

Lauren Moser-Samuels 1:16:54
thank you. I’m happy to be here. And I’m we can always do this again. I had fun. So love it. Okay.

Chris Baran 1:17:02
So, again, I know you gave up your time and your energy, especially with everything you’re doing. So I just want to say thank you. It was a pleasure to have you on here. Thank you