Today we’d like to introduce you to Star Geyia.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Angeyia but I’m known to my family, friends, and clients as “Star”. I was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, and moved to Memphis Tennessee when I was three years old.
As a child growing up in Memphis, I always had a passion for all things beauty and art. From playing dress-up to creating live-action versions of my favorite princess movies to finding me on the playground styling my classmates’ hair, making things beautiful became my calling.
My own natural curiosity fostered unmatched confidence within; so much so that family members had begun calling me “Movie Star” anytime I walked, pranced, or would strut into any room. It was my aunt who said, I wasn’t just a pretty little girl, but one who was going to be someone important one day.
With the support of my family, I went on to enter beauty pageants, sing in choirs, and perform in local theatres where my passion for beauty and art grew stronger.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road wasn’t always smooth sailing. Before I knew it was possible to turn passion and creativity into a business, I struggled with doubts in the fear of failure. At the time, I had yet to see my goals fully realized and being done on a large scale. My family and my extended community did what they could to raise me. I am thankful for all the love, attention, and devotion they put into my upbringing.
I just realized at an early age that I didn’t have many examples of people who looked like me with dreams just as big as my own. As I got older, I began to struggle with the fear that in order to be successful, I would have to go into a field that I wasn’t passionate about. Subsequently, I enrolled in college to study communications art. To pay for my books and earn extra cash, I began doing extensions for only $25 around campus.
I would get so many students in my dorm room that I realized I could make a living doing something that I actually love. Shortly after realizing my own capabilities, I made the decision to leave my university. I enrolled in cosmetology school and finally gave myself permission to dream, which led me to the top of my class and eventually happy making my own success on my terms.
As a new mother, I have developed a soft spot for my clients with children. Now more than ever, I understand that it’s important with such responsibility to take care of ourselves. There are days when we may not have the strength to put on clothes or makeup or do our hair.
When you’re coming to see me, the goal is to make you feel and know that you can conquer the world.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a 26-year-old hair artist who specializes in natural enhancements for all women.
My services at Star Leroux Salon Studio include sew-ins, custom glueless wigs, glueless quick weaves, micro-link extensions, and tape-in extensions. My passion for beauty is at the forefront of my artistry allows me the opportunity to pride myself on a customer experience that makes the everyday professional feel like a star.
You may ask, “what sets me apart from others?” From the time my clients walk in for their day of beauty, educating my clients on their hair is a top priority. The beauty industry is an art form and hair care is no stranger to telling a story about someone’s personality, accentuating a person’s features, and ultimately making someone feel good about their hair.
To the average person going to a salon might just be about a cut and color, but I like to look at my clients differently. I see my Star Leroux clients as a cut above the rest, each appointment being about instilling in them the principles of hair care and maintenance as a luxury, self-care necessity that allows them to perfect their beautiful crown. This hair care experience becomes a partnership involving me studying a client’s face structure, skin tone, personality, and lifestyle in order to create the perfect look.
For my clients I require them to be receptive to the information I am able to provide, trust and creative control, and an understanding that everything from my very own wig and hair extension line, to my line of vegan hair growth products, and everything in between is about providing a quality and custom hair experience. I see people from all walks of life and I know what it is like to get caught up in the day-to-day and life in general.
I want to help each person that comes into my salon to look and feel more confident than before they arrived.
We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking?
After going out on my own and honing my skills in the city of Atlanta, it was important for me to get back to my roots. I moved back home to Memphis last summer to open the Star Leroux salon studio in the Germantown, Collierville area. It was a huge risk moving back to Memphis and starting from ground zero. I had my doubts and I was afraid that when I opened my doors I wouldn’t see as many clients.
Even with me having clients in Memphis before moving to Atlanta, I didn’t expect to have clients when moving back. With a little faith and taking a chance to bet on me, I was able to open my salon doors. Since that first day, I’ve seen some familiar faces happy to see me, built up a new clientele, and established relationships with my professional peers who have come to admire my work.
This decision to transition and grow has become one of the best decisions I’ve made both personally and professionally and has shown me why you should take risks. I’m so thankful for my family, my friends, my peers, and most importantly my clients who continue to show their support. It has given me the room to believe in myself and go after all these big, scary, yet exciting dreams.
Who inspired you the most?
My inspiration behind the work that I do has been strongly influenced by my mother. My mother is an amazing woman who was the first person in her family to graduate from college with her three small children at the time cheering her on. My mother has always embodied true strength and hustle. My mother is a woman of faith and leads by example. I am thankful to call her my mom, as she was the first person to believe in me and invested in me as a child so that I had every opportunity to discover my talents that became my passion in this life. Her love and devotion to fostering that love in me provided me with the confidence to know that anything is possible with hard work and believing in yourself. Another source of inspiration for me is my son’s father. We were together for over nine years and as my high school sweetheart to seeing the woman I’ve become, I’m thankful to have had him challenge me to think differently, cheer me on as I go, and walk beside me as we grew together. It hasn’t always been easy for us but being able to have someone to acquire new knowledge for everyday and be a mirror to the things I needed to work on in myself I am forever grateful. It truly takes a village to get to where you want to be and with these two amazing people in my life I’ve been able to look within and see the strength, beauty and courage that I always possessed in order to grow and make my dreams a reality.
Contact Info:
- Email: Starleroux@gmail.com
- Website: Starleroux.com
- Instagram: @Starleroux_
- Facebook: Star Leroux
Image Credits
@directedbyskin2
