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SEARCHIt's no easy thing to move across country, start a new position, and to feed your creativity, but this artist is staying open to new opportunities and directions as she continues to evolve.
Sarajane Maples, surrounded by a few of the media mentions and some of the editorial coverage her work has received.
In 2018, I attended a Los Angeles event to celebrate hair artistry and hairstylist Sarajane Maples (@blushandmane) as she received the prize for the winning photo collection in the Pravana "Show Us Your Vivids" competition. Since then, I have continued to watch Sarajane and her tribe of fellow creatives collaborate on collections and beautiful work. And she has continued to win, taking the 2019 North American Hairstyling Award (NAHA) in Styling and Finishing.
Sarajane Maples holds her NAHA trophy at the 2019 awards.
Recently, I saw on social media that Maples had made a major move across the country, from Florida to New York, and is building a new chapter with Ulta Beauty and bringing big creative goals with her. It made me want to know more.
This Modern Day Geisha by Sarajane Maples: "I am always inspired by Asian art because I feel like it's so beautiful, so colorful, and so vivid, and I thought it was perfect for this contest. I wanted the model to resemble a geisha but a modern-day version of one. As if she were a geisha in the year 3000, what would that look like? I visualized no eyes showing, very militaristic, but still resembling the classic geisha form."
At MODERN, we preach the many possibilities, and career paths open to beauty professionals. Seeing Maples make this dramatic life shift led to an interview with her in which she said that a new position doesn’t mean leaving behind the career she has built; it means finding a setting where more of it can come together: education, time behind the chair, creative opportunities, and a little more security.
At the time of our conversation, she was two months into learning a new business, supporting stylists across Nassau County locations as an Ulta Beauty Service District Educator, and finding her footing in a new community.
As an Ulta Beauty Service District Educator, every day is different for Maples. But the throughline, she says, is that she wants to support, she wants to help stylists succeed.
And while the practical considerations of moving from working for herself to working for a larger entity like Ulta Beauty mattered--health insurance, retirement savings, etc.--the move was also about getting closer to the creative editorial work she wants to pursue and to an area--New York--where so much of it happens.
“To have an opportunity to move to a city that I’ve always been drawn to, to still have the chance to educate, to still get the chance to do hair behind the chair, and to possibly make a difference in a company, that all really excites me,” she says.
STYLING & FINISHING: NAHA 201
Sarajane Maples
Hair: Sarjane Maples
Photographer: Daryna Barykina
Makeup: Chloe McInerney
STYLING & FINISHING: NAHA 201
Sarajane Maples
Other possibilities that excite her include working more closely with Ulta Beauty’s artistic teams, event work at major trade shows, and opportunities to bring her skills to other locations.
While Maples learns the corporate side of the business, she is leaning on what she already knows: hair, education, and how to help another stylist. That might mean helping someone navigate a color challenge or explaining a new lightener. “I think having someone like me in this role gives them a nice soft landing between corporate and the stylist,” she says.
She sees an opportunity to help stylists and leaders better understand one another. Having spent years behind the chair, she understands the independence and creativity that stylists bring to work—and the adjustment that can come with operating inside a larger organization.
For Maples, that starts with being approachable: someone who can listen, meet a stylist where they are, and help them move forward.
Maples has evolved her skillset over the years, learning to shoot her own collections in addition to styling them.
What attracted me to this next chapter:
The chance to have something more well-rounded. After working for myself for 16 years, benefits and retirement planning were considerations, but so were the opportunities to educate, do hair, and make a difference.
How I’m finding my footing:
I'm making sure that I show up fully as myself, fully willing to learn, while being open and vulnerable to everybody I’m meeting. Everything is new and this is how I'm moving forward.
What I bring to a new environment:
I might not know the ins and outs of Ulta Beauty, but what I do know is hair. I can help by being present and sharing what I know while I learn the business.
My approach to supporting stylists:
I’m a stylist, too. I get it. I want to be someone they can talk to, while also helping them understand what is expected of them.
A perk of my new home:
I’m in the city in an hour. I take a train to Penn Station and I’m in New York. The train is a mile from my house.
The part I’m still figuring out:
Building a creative community is still on the list as I settle into the job and my new surroundings.
What keeps me moving forward:
It’s so hard sometimes, but even with the challenges of the transition, I just know it’s going to be worth it.
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