Debbie Wilds: Shear Wildness (Goochland, VA)

Meet Debbie Wilds, owner of Shear Wildness

Check out these topics:

Building a community and relationships

• If you were waiting...everybody would just talk. It was like a little community meeting place. (20:53)
• When you come here...I want you to meet your neighbors, I want you to feel comfortable and I want you to have fun. (21:20)
• It's just like a real culture of care. (23:28)
• Not every hairdresser is a great hairdresser. But they still have people in their chair. And that's because they've made a connection with that person. This business is about making a connection with people. (25:18)
• I tried to be compassionate, maybe more of a friend than just just somebody that standing behind the chair cutting your hair. (49:00)
• You have to have trust...and you cannot break that bond. I can say no to the picture that they bring me off Pinterest and say, "That's not gonna work for you," you know, or whatever. So we do that. We're real honest. (1:10:37)

Losing a client

• It hurt me when people left and went someplace else. But I realized now, as I've grown, you know, maybe we just didn't make the connection...(25:39)
• Find out why they disappeared...if it's something that we have done wrong, that's a learning point. That's something that we can turn around. (49:25)

Work as a calling

• I feel like that's my gift. That and I know that God has sent people here to just sit in my chair one time just to hear a word of encouragement. (24:01)
• I had to...just realize that this is this is who I am. I have been given a purpose. (39:38)
• I feel like maybe I might have been born to do this. (14:53)

COVID

• We had to get a storage unit and we pull everything out of here... We had to come back in and make sure that everything was six foot apart...you couldn't get the screens, you couldn't get the PPE...(44:56)
• Because I feel like we're losing that human connection. And, and I think that COVID has brought out the fact that we need it. (51:02)

Hairstyle Evolution

• It was just the beginning of men infiltrating the women's salons..." (52:13)
• And then the 80s...You couldn't get big enough hair. You just permed over top of perm...Oh, the 80s your hair could not be shiny cuz it was dead. (54:46)
• And then you know, we kind of went through where they started to get sleeker and...you had...the real sharp cuts and very precision cutting. (55:14)
• I've been through the mullet. Oh my goodness, the mullet. (55:29)

Passing on the Torch

• I feel like it's probably going to be like a death to me, you know, something that I'm going to have to work through. (59:59)

Biz Advice

• You have to know that it's not a 9 to 5. Having a business is 24-7. It does not go away at all...That probably has been one of the hardest things on my family." (41:25)
• You have to be able to think outside the box. And you have to be able to deal with people that think outside the box and think differently than you. (43:56)

Misc Good Stuff

• I went to high school and the first day that I got there when it was time to go home I missed my bus. And I was like, oh Lord, I don't even know my address. (3:35)
• My first year I had to take a I had to go get my chest X ray to make sure that the lacquer that I was using, which is hairspray, but it had it was I mean, truly, it had lacquer in it. (53:13)
• If you are stuck on an island, grab your lipstick. (1:04:21)
• We were going to do Lamaze, which, let me tell you people, just get the shot.  (1:05:50)
• I wouldn't take a chicken with me. That is for daggone sure. (1:07:59)