I Didn’t Choose Beauty—It Chose Me
My name is Karis Johnson, and my decision to enter the beauty industry was shaped by grief, responsibility, and love—not by trend, glamour, or surface-level beauty. I did not choose cosmetology because I wanted to make people look different. I chose it because I learned firsthand how much it matters to feel like yourself when everything else in life feels uncertain.
I have seen how illness and loss can quietly take things from a person long before anyone notices. Hair loss is often dismissed as cosmetic, but I know it is deeply emotional. It alters identity, confidence, and the way someone moves through the world. When a person is already fighting for their health, losing their hair can feel like losing the last piece of control they have over their own body. That understanding is what led me to pursue specialized training in hair-loss solutions, medical wigs, and cranial prostheses.
This work is personal to me. I am building my education around serving individuals facing cancer, alopecia, and other medical challenges because I believe no one should feel invisible during the hardest moments of their life. Creating medical wigs is not just a technical skill—it is an act of care. It requires listening, patience, and respect for someone’s story. Every piece represents trust, and I carry that responsibility seriously.
My goal is to create more than transformations—I want to create safety. I want my clients to sit in my chair knowing they will not be rushed, judged, or minimized. I want them to leave not just with hair, but with the confidence to show up to doctor appointments, family gatherings, and everyday life feeling like themselves again. For someone battling illness, that moment of recognition in the mirror can be powerful enough to restore hope.
I plan to make a positive impact on the world by building a purpose-driven beauty career that centers compassion, ethics, and accessibility. I want to raise the standard of care within the beauty industry by educating others on the emotional responsibility that comes with hair-loss services. This field requires more than talent it requires humanity.
Pursuing this education has not been easy, but it is necessary. I am committed to completing my training and continuing advanced education so I can serve my community with excellence. Scholarship support is not just financial assistance to me, it is an investment in a career dedicated to helping people reclaim dignity, confidence, and identity when they need it most.
Beauty, to me, is not about perfection. It is about restoration. It is about meeting people in their most vulnerable moments and giving them back something they thought was lost. That is the impact I will make through my career, and that is the responsibility I am choosing to carry forward.
My name is Kenya Amerson, I’m 17 years old ,and I attend Greene County High School as a Senior. I love to do hair. I been doing hair at my school for different occasions like prom and graduations.
I would love to be one of the winners of this scholarship because I would love to start my own salon to help people who has hair loss due to cancer and alopecia, and to accept younger kids and older adults into my salon.
When I see younger kids and older adults who get turned away because of their age or hair difficulties it makes me want to help them and that is what pushes me to want to start my own salon to help people with that.
In my 4 years of high school I have attended in a cosmetology class that has taught me the different aspects of doing hair and be sanitary in the lab. After I complete my years of the SkillsUSA organization I will have a scholarship for my dream college Shelton State Community College.
Also, My Cosmetology teacher has introduced me to the Bronner Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta,Georgia this year and it gave me an eye opener to see the different things that you can do with hair. While I was there I got to test out different hair products, skin products, and I even met some celebrities.
This year at my school I got to experience to have a day in the life as a makeup artist. I’ve done makeup for the students, teachers and even the principal for prom. The makeup turned out great for every client some even gave me tips.
In the beauty industry I would love to do hair and makeup for women, men and others . I want my salon to be sexuality free so that anyone can come in if it’s men, women and others. I want to learn more about hair and makeup as I continue in my future for my dream salon and career.
As I continue with my hair and makeup career, I feel that I would make a positive impact on the beauty industry and society with a new change to make people feel great with they sit in the chair and feel good about themself when they get out the chair and walk out with pride, happiness, and confidence in my future salon.
I wanted to start by saying how appreciative I am for this opportunity. My name is Savannah Brock and when I was first introduced to this scholarship, I wanted to learn more about Amber and her life. While doing this, I learned that she graduated from the same high school I attend now, Fayette County High School. I then realized that not only did we attend the same school, but that she graduated the same year I was born. These are not the only two things we have in common. We both share a love for cosmetology.
I have loved this ever since I can remember, but when I first started to realize the specifics of what I loved the most about it was my very first football game. I was a bored little five year old, who wanted to go home for the entire first and second quarter, that was until halftime. I sat and watched as the majorettes put on a show for the crowd and I realized how much I loved their big, curly, perfect hair and their flawless faces of makeup. I wanted to look like those girls. I wanted to be those girls. So from the time I was in second grade till this past football season, majorette has been my everything. I would practice everything it took to be one, including my hair and makeup.
The more I did my hair, the more I learned about how it worked and how I could manipulate it into doing something I was envisioning. A similar story goes for makeup, by learning what products worked well with my skin and different techniques to use when applying them. I spent hours of my time practicing on myself or even my friends who never left a sleepover without some leftover, brushed out curls in their hair, or slightly red eyes from makeup remover. By the time I was in sixth grade, I had decided that this was what I wanted to do. This was going to be my career. We grew up hearing “If you do something you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life.” This is my love. This is my career that will never make me work a day in my life, because I would do it for free if it means seeing a smile on someone's face after they see themselves.
I want to take the love and passion that I have for this and learn as much as I can about it, so I can better give my future clients exactly what they are looking for. I plan to go to the University Academy of Hair and Design in Tuscaloosa so I’m not too far away from home. Then I plan to work in a salon until I can acquire enough clients to eventually own my own business. After I get established my dream is to do weddings, proms, and pageants because that’s my absolute favorite part of this. To fix a girl's hair and makeup in a way that she never thought it could look, and so see her beautiful smile of approval.
