Lets start from the beginning
My Journey
Hello!! For those of you new here I'm Alanna I live in beautiful Burleigh QLD With my hubby Mitch & our 2 kids Skyla & Fletch.
This Campbelltown girl most definitely did not have dreams of starting her own business, yet i started working for myself at 23 growing a very successful hairdressing & braiding biz to accidently start an online biz, so how did we end up here..... Well lets start from the beginning
My family moved from NSW to Canberra then settling in Queensland at 14. When i was in my first year of high school i was scalped by a laith in woodwork (that's a whole new blog!) I failed most my subjects in year 12, because well i hated school i was there for the socialising & this busy brain just doesn't suit conventional schooling.
Despite facing labels such as "too loud," "annoying," "boring," "talkative," "ADD," and struggling in school, I've always chosen to rise above the negativity and stay driven towards my goals. Believe me, when you're passionate about what you do, anything is possible!
Choosing hairdressing was an ironic twist considering i lost a lot of my hair, & my plain jane style, I wouldn't say i ever loved hairdressing i just didn't know what else to do. From year 10 i chose hairdressing because i didn't want a office job & i love a chat, but i stayed on till year 12 because i hadn't found 'my people' yet & thank goodness i did because we are still friends today & work together what a dream!!
Cut a long story short i only did hairdressing for 5 years in the salon, i had a fabulous boss who valued my hard work over pushing sales. She sold the salon and the transition to mobile hairdressing for 17 years came after overcoming workplace bullying.
With hairdressing comes massive hours, nights & weekends, I went back to work when Skyla was 2 weeks old, bringing her with me ( & prob why she was the easiest child ) Then when i had Fletch he was a lot more hard work i needed more time off & i cut my hours right back.
I always loved braiding, hated up styles but was always trying new braids on clients, in 2016 i brought holidays braids into the business, & i also had a small online store called Little Poppet Shop were i sold kids gift boxes & all sorts of kids accessories.
I found a passion for the colourful braids but was absolutely smashed every school holidays, my back & hands were cooked by the end of the first week, by 2022 i had, had blood clots in my legs a couple of times ( requiring me to inject myself with blood thinners twice a day for 6 weeks ) I had IBS really bad & had mega anxiety, migraines which I've always had, & i had to make the call to only work from home & i turned into quite the home body, but with more time in my home & looking after myself the anxiety lessened & i healed myself of other issues i was having.
Then........In early 2022 due to soooo many reasons for my own health & to solve my daughters whinging i was trying to find an alternative to the holiday braids, something quicker for me to put in & something that's not just for the holidays, I had been making my own version for party's & i found something else overseas but the quality was so bad, so i sought out to find amazing quality hair & design them how i wanted them, I started selling them to my braiding clients & had them hanging up in my home salon.
When one day a client said to me ( Thank you Ange forever grateful!!!!! ) "Why don't you sell these online"
"because I'm a hairdresser" there just a side hustle, after a bit of googling & a pep talk, we realised we couldn't find anything similar online in Australia. So this is how Poppet Locks was born.
Stay tuned for the next blog i will take you through the early stages of growing Poppet Locks its been a wild ride but I now love love love my job.
Until then, remember: it's never too late to pursue what you love, no matter where your journey begins xx