Industry Talks: Candace Cole

She has a natural understanding and passion for Short Hair to everything in between, a natural eye for all colour work and isn’t afraid to encourage a change being that of small or big. Candace has had the opportunity to travel with winning competitions that allowed her to travel internationally, where her love for living in Paris began having moved back in 2019.

Q. For those that don’t know you can you introduce yourself?

A.
Hi guys, My name is Candace. I’m here to talk to have a chat with you about my time in the hair industry, about my career, some highlights and fun stuff like that.

Q. How old were you when you started hairdressing and what attracted you to the industry?

A.
I was about 17 when I first started hairdressing. I went to Servilles Academy, from there I had some jobs here and there doing Salon work, but it wasn’t until I went to a Salon called Ryder that was my first Full time, intense job hairdressing. From there I grew and had great quality training, I had some great experiences, great opportunities, made some lifelong friends. From being at Ryder I was really lucky to win a competition for Goldwell, (which was a highlight of my career) from which I was chosen to represent the country and compete internationally on quite a global scale. Flights, accommodation was all paid for. And this was a real eye-opener into the creative side of hairdressing.

Q. What is a highlight of your career? Something you are proud of.

A.
I have been quite lucky along the way to work on some pretty cool projects, I worked on a few campaigns with my colleagues at Ryder for Black Magazine which is an Editorial Magazine. I have also been very grateful to work alongside one of the greats Brent Lawler, Google him he is very amazing and one on New Zealand’s own.

Q. What is the best advice you have ever received?

A.
Some great advice that was given to me is to just focus on all the great things and do them well. So it doesn’t mean that you have to be great at everything, you are going to be great at the things you really love to do. So for me, I enjoy doing short cuts and I really enjoy doing colours and I like having Versatility. I don’t like things being all the same. I guess that’s my creative side and I’m really lucky because where I am working at the moment is ‘Society’. It allows me to be independent in my work and gives me the space and the freedom to create some really great work.

Q. Who and what inspires you?

A.
I find a lot of my inspiration I guess the same as everybody, through Social media and through walking down the street, to your family member rocking a new haircut.

Q. What trends are you loving at the moment?

A.
A good quality in a trend is just somebody who can pull off and have the confidence to pull off anything. It can be from a short pixie haircut to long hair that’s just natural and virgin with no colour in it. I can also appreciate a gorgeous balayage, that is trending still. I would also love it if we brought back more of the copper colours, It is one of the most underrated colours ever. Not many people want to be a copper and I don’t know why.

Q. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be?

A.
The next thing for me I guess is I would love to go back overseas. I had just moved back from Paris just before lockdown where I was hairdressing. I loved it there and believe me when I say that everything is true. Their Fashion and their style, everything is really minimalistic and quite effortless. I would also really love to go and live in New York which I have tried a few times but it’s very difficult to get a US visa.

Q. Do you have any advice for anyone at the beginning of their career?

A.
This has been awesome, I hope I inspire someone, maybe just one person. I guess just take away with you that nothing is easy, no career is easy, no industry is easy. But if you love it and you love people, that’s what I love the most is I love people and I genuinely love making people feel super great about themselves. I think that’s probably the most powerful thing about my job that I love. Somebody could come in feeling really low and down or they may be experiencing some hardship, but once they leave feeling good and looking good, there is nothing that beats it for me. So you should get into Hairdressing if you love people.

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