Beauty Meets Business After Failing

My name is Reagan Zemgulis, and I had the pleasure of interning at The Color Room, a high-end hair salon in Rittenhouse, Philadelphia. I spent the 2023 Summer and Fall period with the company working in-salon on their bridal marketing, social media, and ambassador program. I am currently a senior graduating in the Spring 2024. My focus in Klein College has been Brand Strategy and Research.

Working at my first internship in marketing/ advertising, I never would have dreamed of being in a gorgeous hair salon. In the spur of the moment, I came across this new hair salon where they were looking for someone to create their bridal strategy and program from the ground. I created a media plan after my interview and the rest is history. I researched media trends, bridal trends, and how to appeal to a niche market of brides in Rittenhouse while also at the second location, the suburbs of Washington Township, New Jersey. Market research allowed me to work with the owner as we created a web page on The Knot, a contact page on the website, and hired freelance hair and makeup artists to represent the brand as a team. This has taught me an immense amount of real-world experience through interviewing, writing up contracts, and being able to work with clients firsthand.

Many stylists work at the hair salon, each specializing in different techniques and customers. Jimmy does blowouts, Jay does everything from funky hair color to wedding up-dos to the perfect curl while Borica cuts hair perfectly. While working with this amazing team, I was inspired by an artist that I worked with daily. Jay is one of the most amazing, hard-working, and fearless co-workers I have ever met. Jay keeps up with everything even as she’s been doing and teaching hair for over 20 years. She has the most positive attitude and looks at each day wondering what she can learn from it. She is ambitious and the most driven person, and artist I’ve ever met. Being around such great leaders showed me that when you love what you do, it’s not work.

The advice I would give to others looking for their first internship would be to never give up looking! During my Spring 2023 Semester, I was applying but also dreading getting an internship while also not getting an internship. I felt pressure from my parents and even other students who were accepting big-time internships. Personally, I felt set back and behind. I applied to this one internship near Spring Garden, I looked up their website and it kind of felt off, they didn’t have much material and it seemed a little weird. I went through the in-depth interview process, and I was selected! How fun? Until it wasn’t, my gut felt weird as it was a pyramid scam that I fell for after my first day at the job. The moral of the story is that scary things happen as one tries to enter the workforce, it’s a big and busy world. My advice is to never give up, as the biggest thing might be around the corner, trust your gut!