LYNCHBURG, Va. — Hair stylist Michelle Ramsey describes herself and her brand as “colorful, wholesome and accepting.”
But her life wasn’t always that way.
Growing up, Ramsey said, she was often told she was too much. She was told to sit down, quiet down, to control herself and be still so she could fit into a box of what she was supposed to act like.
“And I tried for a really long time. I even did at the beginning of my career try so hard to become the blonding specialist because that’s what I thought that people wanted from me, because that’s what they requested of me. And it wasn’t until I reached 25 years old, I realized it doesn’t matter what I do, because it’s not going to make these other people happy. So I decided that I needed to start living for myself instead of living for the ideas of other people. And I figured that if I remained true to myself, then the rest would come,” she said.
Through this acceptance of herself, Ramsey wants others to know they deserve to live their full authentic selves, regardless of whether it means offending other people.
“The amount of growth that I have seen in four years for me as a person ... I am not the same person I was. My brand is not the same. My lifestyle is not the same. Nothing about me is the same,” she said.
Michelle Marie Hair Salon can easily be identified from the street by the large pair of yellow scissors in the front yard and rainbow flag hanging from the porch.
The first thing clients will most likely see when they first walk into Ramsey’s salon, which doubles as her family home, is Indy, a dachshund beagle mix. They’ll see a large coffee bar on the right and look to the ceiling and see a rainbow ribbon chandelier that Ramsey and her husband used as a centerpiece at their wedding this past spring.
Ramsey, 28, grew up in Campbell County and attended Heritage High School, graduating in 2012. She also attended cosmetology school through the vocational tech school there when she was 16. But cosmetology wasn’t her first choice as a career.
“My first choice was actually for elementary education and the class was full. So my second choice was cosmetology and they put me in there,” she said. “Sixteen-year-old me thought that I would use cosmetology as a way to pay for college and get my degree in elementary education. And I still wanted to be able to help children. I just didn’t realize that I was going to love hair so much and I just fell in love with it and it took me all of five minutes, once I got my toes wet, to decide.”
What she fell in love with was the instant gratification — the opportunity to create something people love.
“It’s like art. I love that people love my art and view it as art form,” she said.
She found her niche was giving people vivid, rainbow colors in their hair, which she is now known for.
“You don’t see it a lot, especially around here,” Ramsey said. “There are people that specialize in blondes, there are a lot of people that can do brunettes and redheads but there are not many stylists here that actually can do what I do.”
Maureen Byrd has been a client of Ramsey’s for four years and frequently changes the color of her hair. In fact, she’s changed it four times in this year.
She continues not only to come back to Ramsey but also routinely passes out her business cards to patients at Centra’s Pearson Cancer Center where Byrd works.
“I deal with a lot of cancer patients, and I like to change my hair color for them, and when they ask me if I do it myself, I’m like, ‘No, it’d be a hot mess; I have a stylist who does it,’” she said.
Byrd said she has found some hair stylists to be close-minded, so she enjoys that Ramsey is the opposite.
“A lot of traditional salons have either seasoned stylists that are set in their ways and they’re not really willing to be open-minded to other cultures, other sexualities, other religions, whatever. Michelle was one of those people that is like, ‘OK, I’m not going to judge you. This is a judgment-free place.’ And that’s why I keep coming here is because she knows what she’s doing. And we can have some of the most off-the-wall conversations that most normal people would think we belong in a mental hospital,” she said.
Ramsey said people in this community are becoming more open-minded and accepting, though.
“When we first moved here when I was 9 years old, Lynchburg was a very conservative town, but within the last three years it has really taken off in the more progressive mindset,” she said. “You’re getting a lot of people that are moving in from out of state, especially from up north. But with that, is bringing this creativity and these open concepts and it’s really allowing us as artists to kind of demonstrate that we can do all of these wonderful things.”
It’s a goal of Ramsey’s to make sure that all people fit in and she’s happy to be a part of that change.
“I think I felt unaccepted as a stylist in the industry,” she said. “There are a lot of businesses and companies that were more structured and a little bit more stiff and by the book. You’re dressed in all black and you have to have this pristine perspective on professionalism. And while I am a professional, I don’t consider myself in the definition of professionalism. I consider myself real.”
She said she doesn’t want people coming into her salon thinking they have to put on their best face. She says she wants them instead to come in on the hardest day of their life and be able to cry in the chair while she cries with them.
“Then they get to leave feeling like they got to release all of that emotion and they can leave it here. They don’t have to take it with them,” she said.
Ramsey’s son, her husband, her husband’s daughter and their nephew all live in the circa 1911 home which she says is a symbol of growth and rebirth.
“Our family is very open-minded, very accepting of every flaw,” she said. “I never want to turn somebody away because they’ve made a mistake because I’ve made mistakes too. I’m well aware of myself to know that I’ve definitely made mistakes, but I don’t agree that it should be hung over somebody’s head.”
Not on purpose, her salon has become well-known in the LBGTQ community and she does hair for the transgender community as well.
“So our home has become that starting line for a lot of people changing,” she said.
She’s had a lot of people find her on the Strands for Trans website, a registry of trans-friendly barbershops and hair salons, and she has served clients from Petersburg, Richmond and Charlottesville.
“I didn’t intentionally go out and be like, ‘I’m going to represent Hill City Pride. I’m going to represent moms for special-needs children,’ I just have a very loud personality. So it’s very easy for me to talk to people,” she said.
She’s also become known as a safe place for clients either with disabilities or who have children with disabilities.
Ramsey’s son, who is 4, has autism spectrum disorder and she wants to make sure that no matter where he goes in the world, he has a voice.
“He doesn’t really have one right now, but it doesn’t mean that he won’t get one and I want to make sure that he gets treated for the exact wonderful little human that he is and not be cast aside,” she said. “I don’t want him to be looked over, essentially because he deserves care and friends and love and like acceptance for exactly who he is.”
She welcomes all people to come in, lets their children play or color in the salon and will feed them snacks if they’re hungry. She says she wants clients to feel like they’re walking into their best friend’s house and can walk into the kitchen and dig around in the fridge.
“I’m a big fan of the statement of it takes a village to raise children and nobody should be by themselves,” she said. “I don’t feel like you have to do it by yourself. So if you bring your kids here, I’m gonna look out for them. So if you tell me that you’re struggling with groceries, I’m going to feed your kids while they’re here. It would never occur to me to do anything otherwise.”
