Since they were little girls, Cristina Shiferaw and Amy Laing always knew they would be working with hair. “I cut people’s hair with — ugh! Don’t do this at home! — kitchen scissors, in the kitchen. A lot of my friends were recipients of my haircuts, " says Cristina, sitting in the back room of Ponytails and Horseshoes, a hair salon that she co-owns with Amy, whose own wavy, ginger locks led her to her career.
“I think, for me, I was 12. I was scouted by a hair stylist to model, and I actually found the hair part more interesting. The behind-the-scenes and the makeup and the hair and the photography, I really gravitated more to,” says Amy. Later on in life, Amy trained in theatre, where hair and make-up were required skills, but eventually she returned to her first passion.
Cristina and Amy met 10 years ago, working at a now-defunct salon on the south side. That’s where the first glimmers of a place of their own was born five-and-a-half years ago.
“I said to Amy, ‘if the opportunity comes, we gotta do something.’ And it did! It just travelled in that direction," says Christina. Amy was fully on board and she knew that they would make a great team.
Amy is the logical side, taking care of the administration stuff. Cristina is the emotion, working to create a calm, welcoming atmosphere in the chic, minimalist space. The two of them, imagining their ideal salon, had a few core values in mind: respect for the stylists' visions and continuous training.
“I think, as an owner, one can get lost in the daily routine of running a business and forgetting the fact that the business is as important as your stylists,” says Cristina. “If you invest in those people, you invest in the business.”
“Everyone agrees on what we stand for and we talk about it. It’s very open, which is very nice because this could be a very jealous industry. So you leave your ego at the door; we’re here to learn and we’re still learning and growing.”
