Today we’d like to introduce you to Cici Andersen.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Cici. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
In 2003 I was struggling to keep my job at the army-navy surplus store where I worked and needed to find more cash to pay my way through community college. I was standing in line at a Quiznos and mentioned to my friend that I might want to try my hand at hairdressing. The guy in front of us just happened to work at a hair salon. He told me they were hiring, and I should come in and fill out an application.

I did, and I didn’t hear from them for weeks. I had literally moved on from the idea to the point that I had left the country! Plus, college just wasn’t working out for me. I remember calling my mother from a payphone (we still used those then) to let her know my “big plan” to serve coffee and work under the table in France until I figured my life out. She told me someone from a hair salon had called to offered me a job. I knew in my gut I had to go home and take the gig. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and couldn’t sleep that night from excitement. I came back to the States, and suddenly, I was working part-time as an apprentice while finishing what would be my last semester at college. I quit and started at a proper hair school (Graham Webb Academy of Hair in Virginia) full time and took an opportunity as an apprentice at a high-end salon in DC. Six years later, I found myself working on a creative team and becoming an educator for a chain salon in Baltimore, MD.

The first time I saw my work on a billboard was magical. It was assurance I was on the right path.

I moved to LA a year after that. Since then, I’ve gotten to work on television shows, webseries, advertisements, and been published in several magazines. It’s a dream come true.