You have to create little pockets of joy in your life to take care of yourself.
Self-care is the non-negotiable. That's the thing that you have to do. And beauty is the thing that can be the benefit of the self-care. Beauty is not the point. Beauty is just a cute side-effect from self-care.
I love changing hair color. I love doing hair shape. I love the social aspect of salons. I love clients, and because of doing hair, I've heard so many life stories.
I want people to fall in love with themselves and to be really proud and full of joy for the space they take up. If someone else appreciates the space you take up, then that's icing on the cake.
I had to fight, a lot of years, to be really proud of the person I see in the mirror and really love this person.
Whenever anyone says I've taught them things by me being myself, I'm always like, 'Really? I just thought that was like, Wednesday for me. I was just wearing a kilt and a sleeveless top in a Rotary Club, it wasn't that big of a deal.'
I always wanted to play with people's hair. I was really into 'The Golden Girls' and how big their hair was. I always had Barbies and Ken dolls, whose hair I wanted to play with and was always styling. I was very lucky - I never had to wonder what I was passionate about. I've always known that I'm really, really passionate about grooming.
Loneliness is, like, when you wish someone else was there, and solitude is when you enjoy being alone. I don't always wanna be alone, but I definitely like pockets of solitude to recharge and come back to myself. I think that's so important for everyone.
When you're willing to be vulnerable, you can surprise yourself at how strong you can be.
Gorgeous exfoliants are expensive.
To me, self-care isn't really shallow. Showing up for yourself, putting on a little moisturizer, can inspire so many different parts of your life.
Be able to see people's humanity. I think the way that you do that and see people for more than their surface value is, say, you're reading something in the news: the gender pay gap, or gay adoption, anything that involves a group of people being marginalized.
If you have body hair, I'm like, 'Have your body hair. Have it sticking up the top of your shirt.' I'm really about body positivity and self-love.
When I'm having a song-in-the-shower moment, I go to 'The Blessed Unrest' by Sara Bareilles.
From the extreme political polarization that is everywhere - there's so much suffering going on - so many people are really thirsty to feel good about something.
Coming from a town of 30,000 people on the Mississippi River, having 'Queer Eye' in 2003 through 2007 when I was in high school was really important.
I think that I'm, like, an introverted extrovert. At the end of the day, when I get done doing hair at the salon or shooting a day of 'Queer Eye' or whatever, I definitely want to come home and, like, order pasta and sit with my cat or just one person or no people.
In states where there's one really big city, a lot of outlying counties and smaller towns really don't have very many resources.
I'm always learning new things about myself.
I grew up in a town of 30,000 people, and 'Queer Eye' was a beacon of light.
