Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Coffin.
Hi Kim, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My dream of becoming a hair designer began at the age of nine. Yes, most kids that say what they want to be changes from day to day or hour to hour. However, I made this proclamation and never deviated. I received my cosmetology license in 1985 and moved to Winter Park. I became an assistant at one of the top salons in the Orlando area. The salon was big into education and competition and so was I. I took every class, came in on days off to watch and train, and I entered at least 1-2 hair competitions every year.
In 1994, I won the most prestigious award for the state of Florida, the Florida Cup. Once I won that award, the next level of competition was the United States Team, which competed in the hair olympics. After interviewing my clientele, I realized that none of them knew we had an olympic team. Hence, I decided to choose another path in our industry; I chose to get into education and platform work. I went to work with a start up company called Pro Design. One of the main chemists from Redken and one of their top platform artists were the founders. Although I was an educator and artist for the company, I acquired an abundance of knowledge. After 4.5 years, I grew tired of the long weekends after long work weeks at the salon. I realized that I did not enjoy traveling all the time, even though it was on the company’s dime and it was all over the U.S. So I retired from education and focused on my business and my hobbies. I was into doing fitness contests; the contests that you run an Army Ranger type obstacle course and then also get critiqued by judges on your physique. I was also into mountain biking. I had been on my own, renting a chair and running my own business since 1992.
After becoming disillusioned with the way the salons that I worked in were being ran, I decided to open my own salon. So in 2002, I opened my first salon. It was a small space that had four chairs. I worked alone, with just an assistant, for the first four years. After four years, I trained an assistant and put her in a chair, and then another, and so on. During that time, I was married and became a mother of two. Then, as other salons closed or their renters became disgruntled, I was asked for space in my salon and didn’t have it. My life became crazy with being a full on mother and business owner. I now had staff that looked to me for a paycheck and ways build their clientele. We did charity events, open houses, and networking events. I also went and trained as well, continuing to learn new techniques. I trained with one of the top colorists in the U.S. in NYC. Her name is Beth Minardi, a Winter Park native! I then went to train with the director of color for the U.S., Patrick Mcivor, in Pennsylvania. He took me to Cutler Salon in NYC to shadow while he did some meetings with the president of Loreal. He asked me if I wanted to shadow or meet the president; I chose to learn! While shadowing at Cutler, their artistic director asked me about my work.
After telling them all that I have done, they offered me to join them at Fashion Week in Miami. This was a surprising invite, and of course I accepted the invite! Once I proved myself at Miami Fashion Week, I was invited every year to work in September and February in New York for the event. Rodney Cutler, whom I worked for, is an accomplished celebrity artist, salon owner, and educator. It was an honor working with him. Fashion Week gave me a chance have time away and to do something different from everyday looks; the looks were mostly editorial, a big change from everyday consumer styles. Once the recession hit, the shows got slimmer. My girls were also getting bigger and it was becoming difficult to leave in September with school and sports getting in full swing. In the midst of the recession in 2012, I felt that we were busting at the seams in the tiny spot in Maitland, so I took a leap of faith and we moved our salon to Winter Park. We also changed the name from Xsalonce Hair Studio to Catwalk Hair Design.
The inspiration to change the salon name was purely out of my experience from working Fashion Week. (We also needed a salon name that was easy to spell for web search.) The salon was over double the size of my first salon and I was blessed to get it staffed right away. With a handy friend, the two of us would work on updating and making things for the salon on my days off behind the chair and at night after work. I was determined to not finance anything, nor could I. We even built five of the stations! It was a rough time, especially because my family was in Lake Mary, which put me on I-4 for long periods of time. Once we got settled into our new space, I took on a new hobby; photography! After talking to Rodney Cutler about how he always has new photos of models on his social media and the walls of his salon, I learned that I need to have a photographer on staff. I made that person me! I hired a great photography teacher to come to my salon and teach me how to shoot head shots on models. She taught me how to shoot, what to buy, how to set it up and tear it down. I soon was in business shooting our own looks! One year, we decided to do a Halloween shoot. We used models to do a Tim Burton themed look; it was a lot of fun and let us be creative in a different way; much like Fashion Week did for me. It was a great team building thing to do as well.
After that year, we decided to do ourselves for Halloween each year. We dress up in August, shoot the looks, then decorate the salon for Halloween. We take all of our pretty photos down and replace with the staff all dressed up in that year’s theme. The clients love it and so we do too! After Halloween, we take the photos down and replace them with models that I photograph. I have since learned how to shoot outside and with different lighting. It has become a hobby that will last a lifetime, as well as help market my salon. In 2015, I got separated from my husband and moved the girls and me closer to the salon. We found a little house to rent on Little Lake Fairview in College Park. I was pretty much a single mom all along, but now I was really on my own, with a 10 and 12 year old, having them 100% of the time. That was a rough time for me. In 2015, I moved, filed for divorce, and went thru losing my dad, all while running my household and salon. I still managed to make it to Fashion Week in February each year until 2018. The girls just got too busy and needed me more and more. The shows also got even slimmer after Mercedes Benz stopped sponsoring the event as well, so it just wasn’t as exciting.
In May of 2019, my landlord informed me that she had to sell the house I was renting. I was under pressure to find a place before school started again in August. My daughters, 16 and 14 at the time, wanted to move to Mount Dora. We love it there, but I love Winter Park too. So now I commute to the salon. So here we are now, in 2020. I am so thankful to be one of the salons that was able to stay afloat. Not only did we have to close during shut downs, but I also had to take off the entire month of September for an unplanned surgery. I have an amazing staff that kept things going while I was out, I even managed to get the Halloween photos edited and ordered while I was recovering! Catwalk Hair Design is a special place. I still am so passionate about hair after 35 years and I believe the environment of the salon shows that. I have always made coming to work in the salon a place and time for escape from the not-so-fun parts of life. I tell my staff to leave their life outside and make their work day about their guests they serve. If we do that, we forget our woes, and we make someone who might be in a worse spot than us happy! I still also enjoy training up new designers and watching their business take off. I have been told that I am the longest running salon by a female owner in the area. I don’t know if that is a fact, but I know I will be doing this many more years for sure!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I had to fire several people. That was tough at first, but now I am a pro at it. I want the salon to be a place of solace and focused on our guests. If the people that I hire or lease to cannot abide by this policy, as well as the other policies that I have in place, then I ask them to leave. I never seek to get involved in conflict, so I do not enjoy this part of owning a business. I am sure that not many do. It is also difficult having the weight of the world on me, knowing that I am responsible for everything and everyone at the salon and at home. They all look to me for meeting their needs. I never get a break from being a parent and a business owner. I also have begun another business. It is a business that will help Central Florida salons, spas, tattoo studios, barbershops, and nail/lash studios staff their businesses, as well as it will connect people looking for work in these places to them. It has been a struggle getting the work done to get this off the ground, but it is coming together slowly but surely!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work New York Fashion Week with Cutler salons in NYC. I also have taken on photography; I love doing shoots on our models for our salon and social media pages. I also still enjoy hair designing; I love color, cutting men and women, and styling too! I love teaching my newer staff and assistants. It is fun to watch them blossom into successful designers. That is what makes me most proud; watching someone new to hair design take off!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My parents bought this big house when I was five. It was on a lot of acreage with a vegetable garden, barn, horses, and chickens. It also had a basement and a huge pool with a slide and diving board. I lived outside all the time. I had a pet pony and rooster. I still dream about that house and my pets all the time.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.catwalkhd.com
- Instagram: @catwalkhd
- Facebook: Catwalk Hair Design
- Twitter: @CatwalkHD
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTrThbeAkfHacUUtG6iwN8Q?view_as=subscriber
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/catwalk-hair-design-winter-park
- Other: www.pinterest.com/catwalkhd
Image Credits
Photos by Kim Coffin
