5 Salon Must-Haves and More From Kat Summers

When it comes to bold hair, vivids and creative placement, Kat Collett (@katkolors) is a name that is always part of the conversation.

Whether it is varying tones of the same hue, rich brunettes or the amazing ways she showcases the rainbow, her hair color creations can certainly be seen as works of art...because they are. Collett has loved art since she was a child growing up in Kansas and feels that her art (in hair color) is her conversation with the world, but she is so much more than an artist. Beauty Launchpad sat down with Collett to see what drives her inspiration, how she got started in education and how she is a forever student with a Midwestern heart of gold.

Beauty Launchpad (BLP): How did you get started in the salon industry?

Kat Summers (KS): This all started for me by a complete shift of truly trusting my intuition. I decided three days before I was enrolled in cosmetology school that I wanted to do hair. Someone very close to me had just recently passed, and it left 19 year old me in a place of facing the reality of mortality and truly doing what would make my heart sing. So, I dropped out of pre-med courses at community college and enrolled in beauty school. This happened when I was sitting at a doctor’s appointment wondering “if I could do anything right now, what would it be?” I always enjoyed art and loved chemistry, and every hairstylist I knew or had seen looked badass and like they were having a good time. Ha ha.

When I called the Paul Mitchell the School of Overland Park, they answered the phone “It’s a great day at Paul Mitchell the School, this is Rachel.” I was instantly smiling. I booked a tour three days later. The minute I walked through the doors of the school and felt the energy, I turned to my partner at the time and said, “I don’t know what it is about this place, but I NEED to go here.”

BLP: What is your inspiration process like and how do you get inspiration for your creations?

KS: My creative process really begins with first meeting my client or model, understanding first and foremost what their goals and limitations are. Once I have an understanding of their comfort zone, I will insert my recommendations. It may be outside of their comfort zone, whether that means cutting the hair shorter for the health of the hair, adding in a different color or making a look more lived-in for their maintenance.

Once I have an understand on all of that, I then go in and formulate my entire creation with those limitations, which is always a really fun challenge for me. I enjoy having full creative freedom when it comes to fashion colors and getting to play with no limitations; but there is a lot of beauty in working around someone's lifestyle and understanding what might be best for them.

My inspiration with fashion colors is typically drawn from nature, whether it’s the different textures, the combination of colors in butterfly wings or the contrast of a green plant in a rusted red planter pot. There are many things that I look at such as textiles and the way that their colors play with one another; which allows me to see ways that we can place color that my brain might not naturally be drawn to beforehand. I’ve always loved and appreciated how art inspires art and where that can take every artist as we elevate each other and draw inspiration, even if that art is from nature itself.

BLP: Tell us about your journey in the industry? What led you here? "The advice I would give to someone just entering the industry would be to always keep learning. Always keep your heart open to understanding that there’s many different ways to approach one thing, whether that be artistically or in business or finance. There’s always something you can learn."Courtesy of Kat Summers

KS: In cosmetology school, I went for the Dean’s List, where I was required to do many different tasks including getting my honors in cutting, color and texture. It required me to go to an event called Caper, which is an event backstage for Paul Mitchell Future Professionals. When I went, I ended up networking with numerous different platform artists with Paul Mitchell and ended up getting an opportunity to shadow a salon in Houston, Texas. That is where a lot of my career catapulted into a different direction than I thought would be possible for me growing up in Kansas. When I went for Dean’s List and got honors in cutting, color and texture, it really set me with a sturdy foundation on understanding the chemistry of how hair color works, what’s happening when we cut the hair and learning different shapes. This knowledge has carried through with me, even now.

After working at that salon in Houston for about two and half years, I actually took about a year off from hair while I was going through a lot of personal exploration and working very in depth on my personal life.

When I moved back to Kansas City, I reignited that spark of missing hair for that full year and jumped full force back into it. I rented a suite and started building my own business. I started working with a few local artists on teaching classes. One of my reps from the beauty supply store came in to my suite one day and asked me if I was ever interested in educating. I definitely shied away from it at first but was excited thinking that it could be a possibility. As we discussed it a little bit deeper, I realized that I really did have a true passion for uplifting and educating others in our industry. This is where my education journey began, and I started putting myself out there, volunteering at many different hair shows and connecting with numerous different companies. No matter what that meant, I wanted them to remember my drive and dedication. One of my mentors in the industry shared this quote, “If your job is to sweep hair, you better be the best damn hair sweeper there ever was.” So, never take any task as too small of a task, and always show up. I continued to do this for the next couple of years and began working with some of the biggest names in the industry, one of them being Pulp Riot. I became one of their lead educators. I would fly out to to LA to film their training videos and even travelled internationally with them getting to work at different hair shows around the world.

After I started educating, I slowly started to realize that I wanted to be around other artists and not just in a suite by myself. I made the decision to go back into a booth rental salon. I loved being surrounded by creatives again and eventually became inspired to open my own salon 5 years ago in the heart of the Crossroads of Kansas City called With Love Salon. Here I was able to curate and invite artists to grow with me, as the main set of the salon was to help do many outreach programs and give back to the local community. In the last 5 years, I have truly grown independently not only as a human but as an artist. I have had many ups but definitely more downs to really build a sturdy foundation on understanding my part in the industry and the impact the it can have on people lives by sharing education and love. Now, I educate for many companies as well as being full time behind the chair continuing to grow in my craft. I currently work with Schwarzkopf as a digital ambassador, Olaplex as an advocate and I’m an educator with Hanzo, Gamma + and Stylecraft. One of my favorite things to do is education with my team at the salon.

BLP: What do you consider your specialty and why?

KS: I would definitely have to say my specialty is color as a whole. I definitely focus on fashion colors and color corrections. Fashion colors for me have always been just a whole other canvas for creating. I have always loved painting and drawing, whether that was on nails or on paper. When I get to play with fashion colors, it’s the same thing to me but on a human canvas. You have to understand different tones, what can play with each other and push a typical “color rule” and what colors can and can’t go together. You get to take all of that, mix it up and turn it into your own creative interpretation.

Every time I look at a head of hair when I am creating with fashion colors, the possibilities are limitless. I get to play with different placements and techniques and get wild with it. As far as color corrections, I have always enjoyed these types of services despite how my body might feel at the end of them, especially with clients with a ton of hair. I really do love a good color correction; it challenges my brain with formulation and application and it takes everything that I learned over the course of my career, all applied on one head. It’s like a good brain scratch, and it’s so satisfying at the end to see how far you can take someone’s hair and transform how they feel about themselves through a color correction.

BLP: What advice would you give stylists just entering the industry?

KC: The advice I would give to someone just entering the industry would be to always keep learning. Always keep your heart open to understanding that there’s many different ways to approach one thing, whether that be artistically or in business or finance. There’s always something you can learn.

Another thing to add would be to have boundaries and to respect yourself when you get into a creative mode. It’s pretty easy to get lost, especially with creation and needing to apply that in the medium of social media. Have boundaries on how much time you give to your work and set downtime to check in with yourself. Also, be able to have a separation in a sense from your art, where you can quiet your mind and not constantly be thinking. I feel like the pot calling the kettle black when I say this because this is something that, 12 years into my career, I am really just now fully understanding and learning. It’s never too late, and that’s why it’s definitely something I’d recommend to someone just starting out in the industry.

BLP: If you could go back in your journey and do anything over again, would you? "Every time I look at a head of hair when I am creating with fashion colors, the possibilities are limitless. I get to play with different placements and techniques and get wild with it."Courtesy of Kat Summers

KS: Honestly no. I recently have reflected upon this and realized that every step of my journey, even the moments that I felt I was “wasting time” or felt unnecessary, were very vital parts of the journey for me to learn something. I might reflect back and realize how I should have changed something and really felt it or grown from it. Or, I may learn patience and peace in those moments that I felt, at times, were almost a nuisance of time or wishing I could have changed something.

If I were to change anything, it would be only how I have cared for myself throughout the years and cared for my mind and body and spirit. At times, I wish I had started that journey earlier, but being where I’m at now and understanding the steps it took to get here, I don’t think that if I did it sooner I would be where I am at now.

BLP: What challenges have you encountered in the salon industry over the years?

KS: I would have to say some of the biggest challenges that I’ve encountered over the years would have to be the multitude of many different energies, and honestly strong egos, of people colliding. I needed to understand how I need to set many different boundaries to be able to stay true to who I am in relationships. These probably have been the biggest hurdles that I’ve had to overcome and grow through because my mentality for years has always been to be a people pleaser. I felt like me standing my ground was in ways hurting other people, but what I didn’t realize was how much I was hurting myself by giving into my true needs and desires to make everyone else happy, whether that’s in a salon setting or with partnerships in the industry.

BLP: Where do you see the salon industry headed?

KS: Right now with the constant education available at our fingertips, whether that be from online subscription or different social media platforms, I have seen such a growth within the industry in the last few years compared to years prior. It has elevated many artists to up their craft and be able to charge where they are actually profiting in services and having it make sense for their livelihoods. I see a lot of beauty for our industry in the coming future, so long as people continue to remain humble and understand that it’s still a constant journey and there’s still much more to learn. I see the industry just being even more well respected across the world for what we do and the art that goes into every part of how we create. It’s not just slapping the color on the head and calling it a day. I see our prices increasing and even more creativity coming from artists continuing to push other artists to grow and inspire each other daily.

I have really enjoyed over the last couple of years seeing how much creativity people have put into outlets, such as creating on social media platforms, in their video editing and their posts. I definitely see a lot of people going back to the basics of simplicity of like taking pictures for Instagram versus creating tons of different video content, because a lot of people I can tell are exhausted from the amount of creation it takes to keep up on social media.

BLP: What are your best tips for success in the salon industry?

KS: In order to have sustainable success, you have to learn and be on a continuous journey of balancing your mind, body and spirit through everything that you do, especially when you’re pouring yourself out creatively, which is a very vulnerable place to be. Setting those boundaries within the industry will help you be able to just check in with yourself more often and know your intentions whenever doing something.

Another tip for success in the salon industry would be staying true to your own intentions and decisions that you make and knowing why you make them. It’s going to be impossible to please every single person, whether that be all the stylists that work in the salon or your clients. You’re going to have to make some decisions that are going to make some people unhappy. At the end of the day, you have to really know why you’re making choices and make hard calls. Sitting with your own voice through that is the most important, versus having numerous different opinions to check in with. So, at the end of the day, you are either going to understand why it worked in your favor to help everybody grow or you’re going to grow yourself and learn through. It really is impossible to know how to do all of this from the beginning, so having mentors in the industry is great to reach out to you in reference when you get in a pickle or a bind. At the end of the day, definitely just make decisions where your heart is at and do it with the best intentions in mind.

BLP: What are some color trends you see happening right now?

KS: Color wise, I see a big shift into more lived in natural and darker colors, such as brunettes and coppers. Cowboy copper is the name of one of them. For these really expensive brunettes, it’s definitely a trend I’ve been getting on board with, with quite a few of my natural brunettes who have been blonding for quite some years. How I’ve personally been handling it is instead of just taking my clients solid brown, I’ve been doing more of a reverse balayage into their natural blonde hair with some low lights pulled all the way through to the end, so the hair takes on more of a brunette vibe versus feeling like it has all the blonde tips. This will give them a lot of richness and dimension, while still being within the trend of the brunette. It also gives them more movement than just going to one solid color. It will still require some type of maintenance, which is great for the artist and the salon industry as a whole, but it’s gonna be a lot less than they are used to with their blonde.

Kat’s 5 Salon Must-Haves

1. Energy: I genuinely love getting to go to work every day and have a safe space to create and be around people who inspire me. That is something that I will never take for granted. One of those people is one of my best friends, but most importantly, my sister and our salon director. She plays a crucial role in my day-to-day life not only at the salon but at home as well.
2. Ecoheads: I love Ecoheads at our shampoo bowls. It’s very important to me to be mindful of the footprint that I’m leaving on our planet and what I’m doing in part to take care of how I show up with the waste that I create. Ecoheads saves water most importantly, but it also gives a good pressure and it filters the water to protect the hair and skin.
3. Green Circle Recycling Boxes: This allows us to recycle 95% of the salon services that we offer our clients. Taking the things such as remaining lighter inside of foil and turning that into renewable energy or the hair clippings for my haircut to be used towards oil spills. I love knowing that the waste that is created through a color service, which is quite a bit, is not going into landfills and causing more harm on the planet.
4. Bentley Jo: Our salon dog, Bentley Jo, is definitely the mascot of the salon. He’s our salon potato. He makes everybody happy just by him moping and moseying around the salon.
5. Good Lighting: We have beautiful, natural lighting coming in from numerous windows throughout the salon. I know I’m teasing this with you guys in this interview, but I’m gonna have some exciting things happen and changing in the next year that is going to make this even better!