Today we’d like to introduce you to Audrianna Westphal.
Audrianna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up in Pearland, TX. My mother was a hairstylist and my father was a police officer, turned insurance salesman. I have three sisters, Jessica, Jaymie, and Rachel. Growing up, I absolutely loved all things hair and beauty. I started doing makeup and hair while my sisters and I did dance competitions. My mom would be busy doing my little sister, and so I would try to help out and do my own. In middle school, I started to do competitive cheer, and my mom was always with my sisters at dance competitions and my dad would come with me to cheer. I had to learn how to do my hair and makeup with that.
After middle school, I started to do my friend’s makeup and hair in class during high school. I decided my junior year of high school I wanted to be a cosmetologist to do makeup professionally. My parents and I however, decided I should go to college first to pursue a degree. I decided to go to ACU (Abilene Christian University) in Abilene, TX. My freshman year, I quickly became the go to girl for all my friends when they needed their hair and makeup done for dates, parties, night outs, and dances. I absolutely fell in love with the process. During my sophomore year in Abilene, I decided that I was not going to continue pursuing a career in Elementary Education, but I was going to go to Paul Mitchell the School in Houston, TX.
After ten months at PMTSH, I graduated and started my first job at Ulta in Richmond, TX. I quickly realized that I was not too keen on the corporate setting, and wanted to work for a local business. I made it my goal to stop at every salon I passed on i10 from my apartment to downtown Houston. The first place I stopped was a salon called J. Dall hair salon. When I went in, I actually saw a friend from cosmetology school who was apprenticing there at the time and decided to apply. I had a few interviews and was quickly hired as a front desk receptionist until after the holiday season. In January of 2017, I started as an apprentice. I apprenticed under 3 of the senior stylist. Their names are Gabe Elliot, Lauren Dazey, and Monica Figueroa. I apprenticed for around six months at the salon under the three senior stylists and occasionally the owner Justin Dall.
In June of 2017, I officially became a stylist. I have now been a stylist for 2 1/2 years on the floor and am still learning so much every day. Not only did I learn so much during my apprenticeship with the senior stylist, but all the other stylist at J. Dall as well. Any time I have ever needed help or I have had a question I can turn to any of my fellow stylists to learn. I am so thankful that the salon has such a positive environment where we are all friends and can bounce ideas off each other with no judgment. I am where I am today because not only did my family, husband, friends, and coworkers believe in me, but because they have invested so much into me and my business.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. Growing up, I was always quite a bit larger then my classmates. I was always told I had such a pretty face, and I would be so pretty if I had just lost weight. It took a huge toll on me mentally and physically. My sophomore year, I ended up going to wellsprings (fat camp) and lost 50 lbs. Real world settled in after that and I quickly gained it all back. By my senior year of high school, I weighed a whopping 330 lb, almost 100 lbs more then I did when I went to fat camp. I worked my butt off to try to lose weight but nothing would work. I ended up having weight loss surgery December 27, 2012. Since then, I have lost over 100 lbs and kept it off. I went from just being a “pretty face” to actually feeling pretty.
Going to college, I knew I wanted to be a makeup artist, but I knew going to college was something my parents really wanted me to do. I decided to try to pursue a career in nursing. After my first semester, I knew nursing was not something I wanted to do, so I switched to elementary education. I knew I loved kids, and I figured I could work in a school during the school year, and then work at a makeup counter, or hair salon during the weekends and summers to make sure I was doing something I was passionate about. I decided during my sophomore year that I was not happy and wanted to come home and go to cosmetology school. I thought my parents were going to be upset/angry at me, but they were so understanding and supportive. My mom went to look at schools with me, and my dad helped me pick out my first apartment.
Right after I became a stylist in June of 2017, my husband Josh proposed. We bought a house and nine days later, Harvey flooded it and my in laws house. Josh, my husband, was at work. He works for a water company and they had all hands on deck in another part of Houston that was flooding meanwhile, my mother in law, aunt, her kids, my stepson, my two dogs and I were all evacuated via boat from my in laws house in Lakes on Eldridge. My brother in law and his wife, John and Sarah, allowed all of us to stay at their house until we could figure out what to do. We were not only new homeowners but planning a wedding as well. We had moved into our home for the most part, and everything that was in our house was completely ruined. We had to move the few things Josh and I had left into my apartment for 1 month, and then move into the second story of his parents flooded home so we could fix our home. Josh and I slept on an air mattress with our two dogs for around three months until we could get a box spring and mattress out of storage. My husband worked for eight months on our house, along with his brother, dad, and grandpa to fix it for us to be able to move in. We moved in when we only had our bedroom and bathroom done and a bedroom door in April of 2018.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with J Dall Hair Salon – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I am a hairstylist/makeup artist for J. Dall Hair Salon. I specialize in blonding, extensions, and makeup applications. I am a babe master certified extension specialist in Tape-ins, I-tip, Flat Tip, Fusion, and Hand Tied Wefts. I am most proud of the environment that the salon has. I know that if I need help or I have a question, I can walk up to any other stylist and they are more then willing to help me. We work as a team, and I am so thankful for that. I think that is also what sets us apart. We are not competitive with one another, and that leads us to be able to trust one another. I know if I can not take a client due to being out of the salon or fully booked, I can count on any stylist in the salon to take care of the client and treat them as well as they treat their own clients.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the city because of the environment. You can find whatever you are wanting in different parts. If you like to be in the center of the hustle and bustle you can go downtown. If you are a sports fan you can always go to a Rockets, Texans, Astros, or Dynamos game. If you want to relax by the water you have a plethora of lakes to choose from, or you can head to Galveston or Kemah boardwalk! You have such a variety of things you can do with your time in Houston. The thing I like least about our city is the traffic and construction!
Pricing:
- Single process color – $90 and up
- Highlights – $130 and up
- Haircuts – $65 and up
- extensions $150 and up based on consultation
- consultations – $0
- balayage – $130 and up
Contact Info:
- Address: 7951 Katy Freeway Suite F Houston, TX 77024
- Website: https://www.jdallhairsalon.com/audrey-westphal
- Phone: 713-316-9555
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audrianna_mae_hair/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hairbyaudriannamae/?eid=ARDtByguWRUeUIUXDaGdV-FIsoml721AB82iRc6-wVZDGpew9lHC1FRze3BSbTzZqby782a0_m7QBTbs
Image Credit:
Jessica Pledger Photography, Chris Wineinger photography
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