Today we’d like to introduce you to Garesia Randle Warfield.
Garesia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have always loved doing hair since I was a young girl. My mother bought me all sorts of dolls to play with, and I loved to braid their hair. Every Saturday, I went with my mother to the salon for her weekly appointments and soaked up my love for beauty. Some of my fondest memories come from the days of arriving to the salon at 6 a.m., poring through the black-owned hair magazines and listening to the ladies talk and laugh. I may have been too young to listen to some of the discussions that took place there, but I realized it was a place for women to share their hearts while they cared for their hair.
Writing is just a natural gift that was nurtured by my mother and school teachers, who could tell I had an eye for the written word. As a kid, my dream job was to be a hair stylist and staff writer for Essence magazine. Truth be told, it still is something I would love to do. Yes, I am shooting my shot. LOL.
Photography is something I sort of picked up along the way. I was having trouble with photographers being professional, and I grew tired of trying to get someone else to see the vision I had for my hair business. So I picked up a camera and starting learning as much as I could about it. I’m so glad I did.
I took the long route to get to my full-time career of fusing all three together to become a visual/hair artist and writer. But here I am. I have such a great love and desire to be an agent of change in my community using these skills and platforms.
Since 2009, I also worked as a full-time teacher to help bring a greater sense of perspective to my dreams and grow my heart to serve. During these past 11 years, I have spent my time growing and working on my confidence and skillset, hyper focusing on my “lane” in this industry, and figuring out my purpose behind my passion. It has been one beautiful, wild ride.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road to get to where I am has been interesting and transforming but definitely not smooth. During my journey to get to full-time entrepreneurship, I have had to learn some hard lessons that forced me to put my pride to the side and grow simultaneously.
For one, I struggled with my confidence and believing fully in myself. I feel like I always had one foot out the door, in regards to my dreams, because I was afraid of the unknown. I also was afraid of rejection from my peers and others. The thought of, ” What if they don’t like what I do?” would always linger over me like a cloud.
In 2014, I tried to start my full-time entrepreneurship journey as a natural hair stylist. And I fell straight on my face. I didn’t have a real vision for my business, and I let talent lead the way. That was a recipe for disaster. Talent can never be more important than business acumen if you really want to be successful.
In just a year, I realized my business was financially suffering. I had to close down the salon space and go back to a full-time teaching position to readjust my goals and business strategies and take a hard look at my finances.
As I worked on building myself up to leave education again, I created a business plan and rebuilt my business. I rebranded and made sure to use my purpose as the foundation for my business.
A week before Covid-19 made waves in the U.S., I announced to my peers and clients that I would be going back into the salon and picking up my camera full-time. I had no idea COVID-19 would shut my industries down for two months. I was starting to doubt myself again. But all I could do is hear God ask, ” Will you trust me?”
In June 2020, I decided not to renew my teaching contract and took the leap to stick to the plan that I prayed about. And I have been so blessed in the process. Business is going well, and I am looking forward to expanding and scaling Canfidence and Quirks Beauty when the time is right. Learning to “own” my journey and embrace everything that comes with it has helped me to get out of my own way and inspire others to do the same.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Canfidence and Quirks Beauty – what should we know?
Canfidence & Quirks Beauty is quite an odd business name, so allow me to explain what it means. Canfidence is a play on the word confidence, but it is rooted in my belief that women and young girls CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens them (Philippians 4:13).
Confidence is a key component in finding your life purpose and being bold enough to pursue it. Quirks, as we all know, are our flaws, but more importantly, the qualities that make us unique and beautiful, simultaneously.
I am unique in that fact that I am a natural hair stylist, visual artist/photographer and a writer. I have worked all of these careers part-time and served as a full-time teacher for the past almost 11 years. Over this past decade, I have had conversations with various women and girls from different walks of life. The common denominator amongst them all is their need for more than a typical beauty service or a nice photo of themselves. Feeling beautiful helps with confidence, but it doesn’t make it stick. They need a place to be educated about their natural hair, feel accepted, and motivated to change for the better.
The Canfidence & Quirks Beauty movement is the marriage of helping women and girls conquer their beauty/character flaws and fears and pushing them forward into greatness. It’s beauty beneath the surface and beyond the service.
Through my blog, beauty, and photography business, I aim to tell authentic stories about black women and to educate/inspire them. My goal is to help change the narrative of the natural-haired woman and the misconceptions, misunderstandings about her crown. In a world where young natural girls and women aren’t necessarily embraced, my business serves to be a safe space. Laws are still being passed to ban discrimination of natural hair in schools and work place environments. That shows just how much growth society still needs in regards to marginalizing certain groups of people. I want to do my part to help change things. Canfidence & Quirks is a one-stop-shop for clients to feel beautiful and reflect on how they can keep passing the inspiration on to other women –the perfect domino effect.
I am a stylist who embraces, educates and elevates my clients. And I can take a great photo of them, too. I recently collaborated with a group of cosmetologists to create a book for other industry professionals. In the book , “Cosmo Chronicles,” we shared our experiences and industry gems with readers. It was amazing to be able to give back to other artists and women in such an impactful way.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My husband, Tony, is THE man. He is my biggest cheerleader. He listens to my ideas. He comes to help me with photo shoots on occasions and even assembles furniture for my salon. He even put down floors in my salon suite, without having prior experience. And the floors look amazing!!!!
I also have younger sisters and a close group of beautiful friends who share advice and help me with my business endeavors all of the time. They are travel buddies, guinea pigs, models and everything in between. I don’t want to forget anyone by calling individual names, but you know who you are.
My mother has instilled that “go getter” spirit in me. She’s the reason I never give up on my dreams. She challenges me and doesn’t give me any room for slack. I appreciate her.
My clients are amazing. They are definitely my tribe. Many of them came right back, even after my hiatus from my businesses. I am so thankful for them!
And last but not least, God! The vision HE has given me is amazing. I am so grateful that I was chosen to carry out my part in this world. I just want to do all that I was put here to do. The graveyard is rich because so many people died without giving back all that was put inside of them. I want to live my life and purpose out loud.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://canfidenceandquirks.com/
- Email: canfidenceandquirksbeauty@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canfidenceandquirksbeauty/
Image Credit:
Canfidence and Quirks Beauty
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