Today, women thrive on keeping their hands full and balancing things in their routines. From being work bosses and industry disruptors to managing motherhood and their passion, they are leading the industry with extraordinary rigour. We have perfect examples of such women who are blending shades of power and innovation in the beauty industry. Let's take a look at these pioneering women who are simply adding their natural valiance to create an extravagant industry.
Mariagrazia Moio
Dr. Mariagrazia Moio is an Italian doctor, a specialist in Plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, and a Ph.D. in “Innovative technologies in diseases of the skeleton, skin and oro-craniofacial district”. Dr. Moio had an international formation between Italy, Brazil, and the USA being alumn of some of the most renewed plastic surgeons in the world.
Dr. Moio has one of the largest case series in aesthetic surgery of the breast in Italy and she has been recognized as Key opinion leader by some of the most important manufacturers of breast implants in the world. She is an expert in the treatment of complex cases and congenital malformations and secondary reconstructions. Dr. Moio operates in the specialized field of reconstructive and aesthetic surgery through a modern approach, innovative and scientifically rigorous while allowing the patients to feel at the center of a process of change and improvement in their physical and mental health. The main purpose of this approach is to achieve the best results by offering the highest technical standards and security protocols. A large and continuous international experience accompanied by a strong push in search of excellence, an incessant interest in scientific issues, and a strong dynamic staff-led Dr. Moio to develop a vision of plastic surgery that integrates the best available treatment options to offer patients the best expertise available at present.
Rachel Burgin
Rachel Burgin is the Founder and director of Routes Hair Extensions. After many years specialising and educating hair extensions she launched a brand of hair extensions 5 years ago with just 1k, what began as a side hussle from an IKEA bag behind the sofa in her living room grew into a worldwide trusted brand in a matter of a few short years. The brand has not only achieved global success but during the pandemic Routes won several prestigious awards including hair extension retailer of the year 2021. Rachel now focuses on helping salons and independent stores to maximise second income streams with Routes super stockist program which boasts huge profit margins with extremely low investment, turning side hustles everywhere into valuable passive income without extra workload.
Cherokee Everett
Cherokee Everett is a Licensed Celebrity Master Cosmetologist that is disrupting the beauty industry with her creativity & talent. The Skills Cherokee possesses when she’s behind the chair, are beyond us! In her words, “To give clients beautiful up-to-date styles while still maintaining their edges & keeping their natural hair healthy! I love making weave an option for my clients, not a must-have! The smiles on their faces once I hand them the mirror are Priceless!” Rather it be natural hair, sew-ins, braids, wig installs, or quick weaves Beautifiedby_Cherokee’s got you covered! Her specialty is the before & after hair transformations.
With her luxurious virgin hair company, Beautii Bundles, where she is founder and CEO, she is set out to be the first millionaire of her family earning more than over 85k in her first year of business. Cherokee is the creator of “Illusion Extensions” which are individual lashes created to give off the look of lash extensions while cutting the time and cost in half. Along with that, she is also the creator of My Beautii strands handmade hair growth oil which has proved to be transformative for men and women.
Laurisa Dannoun
Founder of Injxu Cosmetics, Laurisa is a highly-skilled Registered Nurse, a member of the Australian College of Nursing & was voted Australia's favorite injector for 2020. She is also a clinical trainer for a leading pharmaceutical company training both doctors and nurses. Having worked alongside one of Sydney's most renowned dermatologists for several years, and having trained with internationally recognized plastic surgeons, Laurisa understands the importance of catering to her patients' needs while ensuring their safety.
She prefers to take a "natural look" approach to cosmetic injecting, has always had an eye for facial aesthetics. Laurisa assesses the entire face before providing recommendations to her clients. She believes this method best addresses her client’s concerns and achieves their desired results.
Originally working as a Dermal Therapist providing advanced skin and laser treatments, Laurisa’s passion for result-driven treatments pushed her to up-skill and delve into the world of non-surgical aesthetic medicine. After completing a Bachelor of Nursing, she trained alongside one of Sydney's most renowned dermatologists for many years. Priding herself on complete professionalism, safety, and patient care, Laurisa brings experience, passion, and above all patient care to the valued clients of Injxu Cosmetics. Laurisa has undertaken a wide array of internationally recognized training alongside some of the most recognized and acclaimed doctors and injectors in the cosmetic industry and is widely known for her lip filler techniques and transformations.
Michelle Jacobs
Michelle Jacobs is the founder of MiMi Minks LLC and MiMi Minks Hair Extensions! In2017, she found it difficult to break into the beauty industry because it was something she had never done before, but she was determined to do it because it was all she had. Battling depression, going through financial problems and trying to start a business was complicated but her sacrifices and hard work made her who she is today!
Since Covid, Michelle's business has picked up tremendously and she has been able to step out and create bigger opportunities! Her business has grown significantly thanks to social media, but nothing compares to her relaying her experience to others who are in a similar situation. She is currently a salon owner of MiMi Minks specializing in Cosmetic Esthetics with services like Lash extensions, Micro-shading brows (PMU ARTIST) and Lip fillers! She also teach courses for the same services that she offer! She has taught so many people and they became successful and started businesses as well! Right now she is in school for Instructor License for the state of Illinois! It took her 4 1/2 years to get where she is today and she is super proud to have accomplished so much!
Melissa Lopez
Helping and encouraging her customers to keep healthy beautiful hair is her number one priority. Melissa Lopez has been a hairstylist in the Austin area for over 12 years. She opened her own salon, “Hair by Melissa” in 2016 specializing in hair extensions, color, and hair care. Melissa has set the bar extremely high with all of her certifications in the hair realm. She has completed three high-end courses one being mermaid hair extensions that launched her hair extension career. In the second course, Melissa found herself in Arizona where she was introduced to the hand-tied method. Lastly, a challenging course on invisible bead extensions, allowed her to really dig deep into the technique of hand-tied hair extensions by offering an elite master program. She is one of only 12 elite stylists in the US.
Social media has been a big part in growing her business and it shows in her success. With new hair techniques making an appearance, Melissa strives to stay up to date with the latest hair color techniques, extensions, and cuts. She travels to other states to attend new hair care training sessions and absorbs what she has learned to use in her salon. This makes her very versatile which means she can accommodate her current clients and opens the door to welcome new clients.
Carlina Desax
Carlina Desax is the founder and creator of the high-end hair extensions brand Real Russian Hair. In 2010 the Swiss national and well-traveled entrepreneur had started the brand Extens-hair.com while she was living in South East Asia. Back then she was successfully responding to a need for hair extensions to be bought online by everyone. She sourced the raw material from Indian Temples and sent it to Chinese factories to be colored and conditioned in a finished quality product. On the strength of her success, she became interested in a niche market, the Russian hair extensions. That hair was supposed to be extremely rare and very expensive. Meanwhile, the Indian hair and the Russian hair don’t require a lot of processes to match all shades of blondes. These Goldilocks are collected raw on Caucasian young women under the age of 30. Carlina sourced the hair directly on Russian remote villages and once again, cuts off the middleman to provide online the best quality products at an affordable price.
Dr. Stine Ankerstjerne M.D.
Dr. Stine Ankerstjerne is a Norwegian medical doctor, together with her husband Dr.Andre Ankerstjerne she is the founder of the Norwegian skincare brand Dr.Ankerstjerne.
With Dr.Ankerstjerne Dr.Stine introduces advanced skincare that’s uncomplicated and easy to use. The skincare series was created as a reaction to time-consuming and complicated multi-step skincare programs. “With Dr.Ankerstjerne we are making advanced skincare user-friendly”. Based on their Scandinavian mindset the skincare series consists of a few high-quality products, each of which contains many active ingredients. This means that you can improve your skin with a minimum of skincare products.
All products are vegan and do not contain parabens or microplastics and all are produced in Scandinavia. Dr.Ankerstjerne started as a dream - after 5 years of research, product development, laboratory testing, and clinical studies, they launched in autumn of 2018. In 2019 they focused on their home country Norway, in 2020 they launched in all of Scandinavia, and in 2021 they have launched in Europa and are ready to take Dr.Ankerstjerne abroad.
Jayde Tonna Whitelaw
MUM-PRENEUR, a Woman who sets up & runs her own business in addition to caring for her young children. Jayde, 30 years old from Sydney Australia, mother of 2 and stepmother to 3 (Nate 10months, Ace 2.5 years, Mary-Jane 7 years, Toby 11 years, and Jake 13 years) owns and operates two very successful businesses which she built up from scratch. A hair salon High Maintenance Hair, specializing in color correction, hair extensions & event styling, and a body sculpting clinic, Shape Of You Body Sculpting and Aesthetics specializing in fat reduction, treating cellulite, tightening, and toning as well as offering cosmetic injections and diet and exercise plans. With 15 years of experience in the hair & beauty industry, Jayde has a wealth of knowledge in all areas and she is absolutely killing it! She tells us “My secret to success is PASSION, really caring for all the guests who enter the salon and/or clinic and ultimately the desire to set up my kids for life”.
Julie Weiss Schwartz and Kathryn Weinberger
Julie Weiss Schwartz and Kathryn Weinberger, beauty industry veterans and Founders of Beauty Releaf, are revolutionizing the industry with their makeup and skincare formulas. Combining over twenty-plus years, they were well acquainted with the lack of luxury and effective products in the Clean and CBD space. With collective industry knowledge and experience, they hit the ground running to develop solutions for healthy glowing skin.
Known for their trailblazing movements about "skin minimalism" and "less is more", the brand has successfully created a new wave of confidence among their customers. These two passionate disruptors scour the globe to sustainably source the most revolutionary ingredients to infuse and work synergistically with Full spectrum CBD.
Redefining expectations, Beauty Releaf products multi-task and address multiple issues. The company was founded on the principles of preventing and reducing inflammation of the skin, simplifying beauty routines that make a significant improvement to the health and appearance of the skin. It is beauty simplified.
Laura Clark
As someone who used to be envious of girls with long curly hair, Laura was the first girl in her high school to wear hair extensions. When she first went to the salon to get extensions she was awestruck with the fusions of hair extensions blended perfectly. That moment gave her the confidence she was seeking all along and she has been wearing hair extensions ever since.
Later when she got pregnant, Laura has little time to care for her hair and made it a habit to put her hair in a bun frequently. However, she was committed to finding the right solution that will help her to manage her hair without wasting any time. After deep research, she finally found out about ponytail extensions, and ever since her hair was always fabulous.
This personal journey inspired the foundation of Just Bought It and she made it her mission to help other women deal with the issue efficiently so that their personal situations will not come in a way of them wanting to look good. She also introduced a line of extensions that was inclusive to everybody so that everybody could have the confidence of good hair.
Rachel Yancey
Rachel Yancey is the founder and creator of Bold City Hair™️ and Bold City Hair Edu. As a successful hairstylist and trained hair extension artist, she found a need to offer more than just one method of installing hair extensions for her guests. With an infinite number of possibilities, every guest could have something that not only made them feel good but also fit their lifestyle. Rachel has trained with many companies and artists over her 13 (and counting) year career to perfect her craft, and works on different guests daily in an array of different methods, as every guest is different. Rachel always has something else brewing so stay tuned in because she will be announcing the news soon.
Through the years she has seen a need for educating other stylists on the art of installing hair extensions and has gone on to teach for her own company boldcityhair_edu as well as other top companies such as SILX Global™️and FNLonglocks.
Tania DIMITROVA
Tania DIMITROVA is the French Hair Extensions Expert and an active member of the famous Haute Coiffure Française, the most prestigious artistic organization in the world. She’s the founder and creator of Hair Glam salons in France dedicated to hair extensions and associated services. She supports many show business celebrities by offering a unique personal hair extension method. A know-how built step by step, which allows her to be well known and recognized by Parisian high society.
She has created Giambertone France to introduce the Italian hair extensions brand In France and French-speaking countries. She has developed the micro ring method in collaboration with Giambertone Italy and thanks to this method, she landed big contracts for the brand.
She’s also a consultant and trainer for big organizations such as Jean-Louis David Group by developing hair extension services through their 1000 salons or LVMH group who called upon her skills by creating the “Extensions bar” for Sephora. She’s now ready to launch her own high-end Russian hair extensions brand in the USA and Europe and develop her organic hair care products line.
Shonda Sharee
Shonda Sharee is the creator and head beauty in charge of Boujee Hair Salon in Wilmington, DE. She has been a hard-working and skillful hairstylist for over 15 years but has dedicated the last 5 years to solely focusing on hair extensions. Her love of hair and for her clientele inspired her goal to help women with hair loss through a safe and subtle manner that allowed them to feel confident and fabulous. This motivated her specialization in the microbead braidless method of installing hair extensions. She also aspires to help fellow hairstylists who love extensions become more confident and successful in their business working with their dream clients. Currently, she is working and expanding the Boujee Hair brand on multiple fronts, including doing just that, curating an educational platform, both virtually and in-person, teaching her expertise on microbead and I-tip methods for those eager to learn. Additionally going the extra mile to expand the Boujee Hair empire by selling her Boujee Hair Luxury extension line featuring luxury textured hand-tied & I-tip wefts.
Diana Jenner
Diana Jenner is the founder of Orchids Retreat Beauty and Wellness Clinic. As a successful entrepreneur, business coach, and beauty therapist with over 20 years of experience in the industry, Diana identified a need to create a venue that offers a multifaceted service of professional skills. Throughout lockdown Diana was able to thoroughly assess people's wellness and being needs, thus evolving her business by offering treatments for pain relief and mental wellbeing, and worked closely with chiropractors and osteopaths to help relieve pain and improve the client’s overall wellbeing. This inspired her to set up a high street clinic to offer a variety of alternative medicine, skincare treatments, beauty and wellbeing therapeutics, all under one roof in a tranquil environment designed to calm the senses.
Orchids Retreat Beauty and Wellbeing Clinic launch on 25 June 2021 in Lymington, Hampshire, England. Clients will be able to select from a wide range of treatments including advanced Dermalogica facials, sports massage, and medical pedicures. Diana designed a signature facial that combines a chemical peel and mesotherapy to give the skin a Youth Boost, this treatment was recognized in the BABTAC (British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology) and CIBTAC (Confederation of International Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology) Innovator of the Year awards.
Vanessa Kiritsis
Vanessa Kiritsis is a leading skin professional and cosmetic artist in Australia. Vanessa has distinguished herself as a genuine and passionate advocate for skin improvement and natural-looking eyebrows. Vanessa’s purity and dedication has seen herself realise an extremely loyal client following, including various high-profile clientele. Having owned independent beauty salons and operationally managed some of Australia’s largest day spa chains, completed a bachelor of business management, and elected as a member of key beauty and business associations and representitives. Although, her story has not come straight forward. Having fallen ill mid last year, right before Covid 19 closures, Vanessa used this passage to rewrite her next move. It is through natural progression, that Vanessa Kiritsis is ready for the next big chapter. Having proudly supported primarily a female client base, while advocating women’s health and prevention awareness, Vanessa has discovered a greater need in the market to specifically cater for women and their evolving needs. Vanessa is currently working on the development of a new beauty brand aiming to restore a women’s empowerment and feelings of nourishment, through a collection of mindfully curated and specifically considered beauty tools. Here is a small taste for what is around the corner, so keep a watch for something fresh and exciting to hit the Australian beauty markets next year!
Amanda Yahyai
Amanda is a respected Clinical Esthetics Specialist in the field of anti-aging and facial rejuvenation, with more than 10 years of experience serving as a “subject matter expert” and trusted resource in a medical setting. Amanda has made cosmetic and anti-aging procedures the focus of her career since 2008, performing a wide range of treatments (including some of the most cutting-edge procedures on the market), all according to the highest medical standards established by the industry. She has garnered a reputation as an innovator who deftly balances cosmetic rejuvenation with inner health and wellness in order to deliver beautiful, natural-looking results that help her patients to look and feel great. Throughout her career, Amanda has focused and trained in the newest and most advanced esthetic methods, often becoming one of the first adopters of innovative trends, while striving to provide the highest quality of care.
Kimberly Simpson
Kimberly Simpson or Kimtastic is the owner of Kimtastic and founder of Kimtastic Brands inc. she is a dedicated hairstylist and educator with more than 30 years of experience. Having honed her craft in hair extensions, hair coloring and hair cutting. Kimtastic is also a celebrated business and hair educator. Kimtastic is creating waves in the hair industry with her passion for making people feel confident in who they are. Kimtastic believes that sexual orientation and identity inclusion are an integral part of the success of her businesses. That pride extends beyond June to include every guest in her studio everyday year round.
Kimtastic, doesn't follow the one-size-fits-all strategy, as she is a firm believer in the philosophy that every individual has their own style and needs to express that.
With her impregnable commitment, she is not afraid to go above and beyond in serving her guests with dignity in the best way possible. While the world was reopening in the wake of Covid-19, Kim volunteered her services to guests in need that may have fallen on some financial struggles. Although Kim is seen as an industry leader, she is constantly updating her skill set with new information and techniques to advance her skills and build her business. Kim stays in tune with the latest trends in order to stay current for her guests, class attendees and whatever the future may throw her way. She’s Kimtastic.
Carmen Kitts
Carmen Kitts started in medicine at 19 years old. She has worked her way up from a nursing assistant to surgical tech and eventually earning a degree at Penn State University. Becoming a Registered Nurse. While working as a surgical tech for 8 years at Hershey Medical Center, Carmen earned her Registered Nurse degree in 2008. Her life has been spent pouring her time into those around her. While taking care of critical patients in the operating room and emergency medicine, Carmen realized that she could make a very positive impact on patients in a place where everyone would leave happy. With a “no cookie-cutter approach, Mrs. Kitts started her private aesthetic practice in 2011 and began boosting confidence in her patients one face at a time. GLO Skin Care’s expert staff prides themselves in leading their team in the industry and more importantly, the desire to lead their community. Mrs. Kitts is very proud to announce their plan to grow into more advanced technologies and expanding their brand into other parts of Pennsylvania.
Kate Michlic
Kate Michlic is a qualified Paramedic, Phlebotomist and trained in aesthetic medicine, Founder at Plasma Med, and a leader disrupting the industry through her 'no nonsense' outlook towards life. Kate's entrepreneurial spirit is redefining the perceptions about conventional beauty standards of the industry. She believes 'Beauty means feeling comfortable in your skin and embracing your imperfections.’ Her philanthropic work aims to create affordable products that are carefully examined for giving toned, fresh and good-looking skin to countless people. When you look at her early path, Michlic started with just two followers and expanded her footprints by growing her followers in no time. Known for winning Irish Hair & Beauty Awards, New Beauty Salon of the Year 2019, and celebrated as a finalist of Irish Beauty Industry Awards 2009, Kate is on her journey to create a difference in the beauty industry and thrives on building relationships with her clients and saving lives of as many people as she can from cancer.
Final Thoughts
Across the globe, powerful women are smashing the glass ceiling with innovation and creativity. While they are pushing their boundaries every day, their works strive to create a new breed of female entrepreneurs and their journey some lasting motivation. Lastly, thanks to SunShy for throwing light on these influential names of the industry.