Day 296: Amy Gibson
“One, I’ll always thank God for everybody that comes to me because it makes me realize how small my life is. My little things that I may think are mountains, it can always become so minimal when I see somebody else’s challenge. And the other thing is, it reminds me every time of why I’m here and why I do this work. Every single time a woman comes in the door, I am confirmed in the work that I do.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Amy, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you introduce yourself?
Amy Gibson: Sure. I’m Amy Gibson, and I am CEO and Founder of www.createdhair.com and salons.
Toni: Okay. Well, Amy, thanks for being here today. When you think of inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Amy: Well, it’s my intention to inspire women who are living with hair loss from chemotherapy and medical-related hair loss around the world. This has been my intention since I’ve been a child because I’ve dealt with hair loss since 13-1/2 and have felt all the ramifications and the loss and the fear and the anger, and most of all the confusion, because it’s not something that we ever are taught in school or really learn about unless a family member or friend is stricken with a condition, and we then experience it. I inspire to change the way women feel about themselves when they’re losing or have lost their hair.
Toni: How does that happen, Amy? What do you do for these women in the work that you do? Can you give me an example of that inspiration that occurs?
Amy: Well, when a woman comes to me, whether it’s in person or via phone or email, she is either dealing with alopecia and realizing she has some hair loss, or she’s about to go to chemotherapy, and she knows that in addition to facing her own mortality and having to reach, I think, deeper than most women have to reach for – I think women that have to face their mortality are the most fascinating women and they’re my heroes – you know, now they’re also going to face losing the one thing that they feel is their crown and glory, is their femininity, their sensuality.
What I try to first make them realize is that number one, for them, for the women who are going through chemotherapy, most of the time it’s temporary. Mine won’t come back, my hair, but theirs will. This is a time when … although this is very traumatic, what I try to do is change their perception. Change their perception of the situation because then of course you change your reality, and the environment around them changes. So what I try to do is help them understand that number one, this is temporary; number two, this is a time you can be anybody you want to be! Come on, let’s play! You want to be a diva, let’s do it! If you want to look exactly like yourself, it’s not a problem.
I’ll help you do that. It will be discreet. No one will ever, ever know that you’re wearing a wig. If you want to be someone else, if you want to have the hair you’ve always wanted, I’ll help you do that. But the most important thing, I’ll make you something that really makes you feel incredible.
But the most important thing is that moment of when you have taken her hair down to a buzz, because you need to shave the hair off when you’re losing your hair. Because when your own perspiration mats with your own hair and the hair that’s falling off, it can tend to be in a ball and pull, so it’s important to really buzz your head very close to the scalp when you start losing your hair. Plus, it removes all the emotional, traumatic feelings that happen in seeing your hair on the pillowcase and in the shower. It’s just an easier way to move through it.
My whole intention is to help a woman move through it as quickly as possible and as successfully as possible. And so, what I try to do is … you know, our stylists buzz your hair really quickly or at least have their stylist do it, and in that moment, I believe that if you have the tools at your fingertips to help you through that moment, then that traumatic feeling is far lessened. It’s lessened so much more than if you didn’t have them available, if you’re putting on a wig that doesn’t look like you.
But if you have something that looks like you when you look in the mirror and it feels like you, the you that you know, then that transformation that takes place is in a much more positive way and is far greater to experience than something that can be as devastating. So for me, I try to take them through that moment – which is sometimes literally a moment – in a much more joyful way and turn the trauma into joy instead of into horror for them.
Toni: What happens after you provide those options to someone, and the option of not only are they … if it’s an illness, they’re fighting for their life, or it’s a disease or whatever they’re facing … what happens when they get through that moment? Do you believe that you also help them explore their potential in other areas?
Amy: Well, I think that much of how a woman conducts her life first comes from … well, people in general … come from the inside first. And if you feel whole and if you feel complete as a woman, I truly believe you can conquer the world. You know, my mom always said to me that women are amazing. We’re multifaceted. We can move mountains with our minds, and I believe that. I believe that what we think we create, and if your mind is in the right place, you can create healing. You can create success. You can create manifestation in ways that you never thought you could.
So in terms of inspiring of what other ways that they change their lives … I’ll give you a perfect example. There was a woman who came to me about 35-40 pounds overweight, maybe even … about 40 pounds overweight. Young, 30 years old. Her hair was thinning. It was curly. You could see straight through to her scalp, and she was very unattractive that way. She came to me only for a personal consultation at my studio here in Los Angeles. She said “I really want you to be honest with me. What would you do with me? This hair?”
I said “Well, first of all, it’s not working for me. There’s something that’s going wrong with you that is preventing you from being at your absolute optimum. So what is that about?” And it turns into really more of a psychology session because you try to get to the bottom of what’s preventing a woman either from wanting to be her best and look her best, or you have to get through that moment for me to show you options and to be open.
I said to her “Well, you know, most women are off half a hue in their color. And the highlight of your color really should be the inside of your eyes.” That’s why people who have yellow in their eyes, no matter what color hair they are, it looks great with golden highlights. It will look great with certain blonde highlights. But yet they’re not blonde, and they don’t have to be blonde. But a highlight will look really good in there. And they go “Wow, I never thought of that.”
So what I try to first do is find out what’s preventing you. If it’s the fear of the illness, let’s get through that for the moment. If it’s the fear of your hair, let’s get through that. And then we can move through transformation. We can move through that moment, which is phenomenal. Absolutely the most phenomenal moment. That’s why I do what I do.
Toni: And I can only imagine the sense of satisfaction that occurs – what a powerful moment, whether that moment is truly a moment or if it is a process. It is … the way that it’s been described as that transformational moment is very powerful as an image. Amy, what inspires you?
Amy: What inspires me? A child’s laughter; that inspires me. Fresh ideas. I think the transformation that we’re talking about that takes place when I’m working with a woman. That magical moment I just told you about that happens when she looks in the mirror and she goes “Yes, that’s me! That’s who I am, that’s me, that’s the way I was – I’m me again!” Experiencing her feelings of joy. You can’t imagine what goes on in her face in that moment of feeling joy.
That joy is what takes me through the tireless hours I do this work, you know? And some of the time I’m so tired. I work 17-18 hours a day, and yet sometimes I’ll have an issue come up of my own, and yet a woman will walk in, and I’ll feel what she’s going through, and we’ll go through this moment together, and we’ll get her to the other side of this, and she’ll leave and two things will go on with me.
One, I’ll always thank God for everybody that comes to me because it makes me realize how small my life is. My little things that I may think are mountains, it can always become so minimal when I see somebody else’s challenge. And the other thing is, it reminds me every time of why I’m here and why I do this work. Every single time a woman comes in the door, I am confirmed in the work that I do.
Toni: A lot of people struggle with their sense of purpose, and that has become pretty prevalent in the Get Inspired! Project. It’s a theme that has been coming up over and over again, and it sounds to me as though your purpose is revealed in each one of those magical moments.
Amy: Oh, absolutely. That’s what I meant with my intention. My intention is my purpose. When I talked about my intention in the beginning, my intention is to be here to do this for women. I know it, I feel it. I know I’m in the right place. I’m in alignment. And every time, whether it be a child that’s four years old that I have to say okay – like a little girl that came in recently who … she was so cute, but dealing with Hodgkin’s at a young age, and I said to her “Okay, listen, I need to measure your head for a minute.” She goes “No.” I said, “No, really, Belinda, I need to measure your head.” She goes “No.” I said “Okay.”
I always have ice cream in the freezer for them, and I said “All right, listen. How about some incredible chocolate Haagen Dazs ice cream?” And she looks at me and she goes “How many scoops?” I think she’s actually five now, and I thought, five years old, okay … but that moment, and then she was totally available for me to put a little tape around her head, and the laughter that came from her because all of a sudden it was fun what we were doing, and I let her measure it for me and what is this … and just that little moment, even with a child is why I’m here, and I know it.
It’s my intention to take women from feeling … this is a trite statement, it’s been used, but truly, I really feel this. I take women from feeling like a victim and being absolutely victorious in a matter of minutes, and those minutes are the reason why I’m here.
Toni: So how do you continue to explore your own potential, Amy, so you can continue to do this phenomenal work?
Amy: Well, I push myself to do things that are outside my comfort zone, number one. I continually do that. The minute I find myself comfortable, the minute I start getting bored, I try to keep pushing myself to find different things to do. It’s one of the reasons why when I created the first women’s swim wig, it came from 17 years of not being able to swim, and I said “How am I going to do this?” And I pushed myself out of my comfort zone of just wearing a bathing cap. The same thing goes with the eyelashes I’m creating, the things I’m doing for women and the wigs … it’s with what I see needed in the marketplace for women and then I get comfortable with what’s available and I go “No, no, no, I’ve got to do something different.”
But even out of my own personal comfort zone, whether it be doing Weight Watchers right now, which I’m doing, because I’ve been comfortable at a weight which I’m not comfortable in, but yet I’ve been comfortable in it, you know what I’m saying? I got used to it, and decided “Okay, I’m going to finally push myself out of my zone to go do Weight Watchers.” I’ve always had a weight issue, so you know, doing things out of my comfort zone to try to attack that is a big thing for me.
My mom always brought me up with the ideas of you know what, just go for it, because the only thing that can happen is that they’ll say no. Or guess what, you’ll fail, but at least you’ll know that you’ve really succeeded … at least you know if you have succeeded, terrific. But if you fail, at least you’ll know that you had the guts to try.
Toni: What a great message for your mother to leave, and what a great message for you to leave others in this interview, and what an awesome, awesome service that you are providing women, and there’s so many life lessons in this interview, that it could go on for so long. There really are – we’ve just scratched the surface here, and I can’t thank you enough, Amy, for joining this Project, but also for the service that you’re providing to others so that they can live the life that they want to live. So thank you so very much for being part of this Project today.
Amy: Toni, I’m grateful for what you’re doing. I think what you’re doing is going to touch and inspire so many more people than I first realized when you first came to me, and I am so honored to be part of this, and I can’t wait to read everybody else’s!
Toni: Well thank you, Amy. It’s been a pleasure.
Amy: Thank you.
Toni: Take care of yourself.
Amy: You too.
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For more information about Amy Gibson: www.createdhair.com, www.amyspresence.com
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