Meet Selena Yang | Hairstylist & Speech Therapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Selena Yang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Selena, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
As a newer hairstylist, many things i do can sometimes feel like a risk in terms of getting the result I want. Because I don’t have as much experience, oftentimes I find myself trying new color formulations based on theory and not hard personal experience. Sometimes I’ll try cutting a style differently. It can always be risky to try something new, but I’ll never grow as an artist or stylist if I’m only doing the same thing over and over again and not challenging myself, pushing the envelope. These little risks over time make me a better stylist.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a hairstylist that specializes in color. I’m relatively new in the industry as I’ve changed careers only 2-3 years ago. Currently I’m still perfecting my craft and making it my own, but what sets me apart from others is my undying hunger to grow as an artist/hairstylist.

Since as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a hairstylist. I cut my Barbie’s hair just like most girls did, but I would also collect shampoo ads from magazines and tape them all over my room. I cut my friends’ hair in middle school, high school, college, all the way to now as a professional. But I did go the college route instead because it was simply what I was raised to believe was the best way to have a successful future. As an Asian American with strict parents, I was expected to go to college and get a “good job.” So I did.

I went to grad school and got my masters to be a speech language pathologist aka speech therapist. Ive practiced for almost 9 years now but it was not easy. My first 4 years I worked in public schools. Then I worked PRN at a hospital (which i currently still have this job so 5 years). Then I worked at a skilled nursing facility for a year and at one point I had about a year of unemployment trying to get a full time job working with adults. (This was a hard time.. it was between 2019-2020. Covid happened in the middle of it.)

I tried multiple settings because I got burnt out working with kids in schools and I wondered only after my first year if I could be a speech therapist for the rest of my life. 3 years in working for public schools, I entertained the idea of going to cosmetology school. I actually applied but backed out literally a day before orientation because I didn’t think I could juggle working full time, going to night school 4/5 days a week and getting home at almost midnight, just to do more work at home since working in school required some work I needed to do at home too. But after I did that I couldn’t stop thinking about beauty school.

However I also didn’t want to give up my degree so soon.. after all I worked hard and studied hard to get where I was. And what would my parents think of me? Would I let them down by choosing this unconventional path? To give up my degrees and pursue something that may or may not work? And what even measures whether a career works? So that’s why I tried working in different settings (hospital, skilled nursing, schools, Teletherapy). Maybe if I found the population I liked working with, then I could be satisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I was passionate about speech therapy at one point. I loved the field and it was so rewarding in so many ways. But it also sucked the life out of me and the burn out was rough my first year.

After trying out several work settings, I was still unsatisfied so I seriously reconsidered going to beauty school. But this time I would have to go balls in and quit my full time job so I can finish beauty school quickly and start working as a stylist asap. I finally pulled the plug and did it and of course my mom wasn’t happy. But I was always a rebel child. Probably selfish in that sense but I couldn’t keep working a job/s I felt no desire or fulfillment for.

Fast forward to near the end of school, I reached out to Diana, who was my stylist already, if she was hiring for an assistant. I needed to have something lined up after I graduated, otherwise this would’ve been for nothing. Initially she said no because she didn’t hire students, but then a while later she reached back out for an interview. The rest is history And now here I am! A senior stylist at her new salon that she just opened a year ago!

The only thing I regret is not doing this earlier. I understand completely why I did what I did, but sometimes I feel so late in the game. Many people go into hairstyling straight after high school so their young bodies can handle the long hours standing on their feet, arms raised, necks and backs bent. But my adjustment even during beauty school was hard on my body. Now I can finally say I’m used to it, even if there’s some new pain somewhere in my body on a weekly basis. I’m just grateful to have an able body to do what I love for a living!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Man what a simple yet hard question. It depends on where they’re coming from. If they’ve never been to Texas and want to experience something very Texan, then I’d take them to the Fort Worth stockyards, go to Joe t’s, and the rodeo at the coliseum. Then go two stepping at cowboys red river, brunch at ida Claire in Addison, the rustic in uptown for “the biggest bar” apparently.

If they’re from Texas but another city, then I’d take them to Carrollton to eat all the good Korean food, Plano/Richardson for Chinese/taiwanese, garland/richardson for Vietnamese.

If they want to be a tourist, then take them downtown and see where john f Kennedy was assassinated, see the reunion tower, drive down the Margaret hunt bridge and get a meal at the Trinity groves area. Explore different neighborhoods/areas: bishop arts, lower Greenville, deep ellum, white rock, Addison, west pano, shops at legacy, the star in Frisco, etc.

The list can go on forever and this was all off the top of my head. There’s also king sauna and world springs.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are many people I want to recognize like my fiance, family, friends, and my teachers from cosmetology school. But the one that deserves the most recognition would be my mentor, Diana Dao. She was actually my hairstylist many years ago when I was a full time speech therapist. I used to ask her about school and pick her brain about choosing this career path. She encouraged me to go to school and fast forward a few years later, here I am working as a stylist at her salon after going through her training program!

Instagram: Selenacstyles

Image Credits
Team photos and portraits by Linh Hoang. IG: shotsbylinh
Hair photos by me