
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 22 Brow Artist to Beauty Entrepreneur: Christy Karach's Journey of Resilience and Empowerment
Ever wondered how a simple eyebrow transformation can lead to deeper human connections? Discover the inspiring journey of Christy Karach, the vibrant owner of Christy K Brows and Wax Lounge in Cresskill, New Jersey, as she shares over 24 years of esthetic expertise. Christy's passion for beauty and personal connection has been the cornerstone of her successful business. She recounts her bold transition from working in various spa environments to establishing her own venture, despite the uncertainties she faced. Her story is one of resilience, courage, and an unwavering commitment to empowering others through beauty.
Join us to explore Christy's innovative plans for the future, including an e-book on customer service in the beauty industry and a potential podcast. Learn about the unique atmosphere of Christy K Brows, where clients are treated to top-notch services like hydro facials and an uplifting environment. Tune in to be inspired by Christy's journey and her impact on enhancing beauty, confidence, and community connections.
Christy K. Brows and Wax Lounge
Christy Karach
135 County Rd
Cresskill, NJ 07626
(201) 408-0106
Christykbrows@gmail.com
christykbrows.com
Instagram @christybrows
TikTok @Christy.k.brows
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of our Good Neighbor Podcast. I am Doug Drohan. Thank you, bob, for the introduction. I think his name is Bob. I'm going to call him Bob. And yeah, I'm the owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group and I am thrilled to be joined today by Christy Karach of Christy K Brows and Wax Lounge, located in beautiful Cressill, new Jersey, just down the road from me. Christy, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Doug. I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great to see you. So, christy, you are. You know, aside from owning your own business, you've been a licensed esthetician for like 24 years and over the years, you've had some great accolades, like the recipient of the 2017, 18, 19 Best in Bergen Award for eyebrow shaping, bergen Mama's Best of Beauty for Best Waxing Salon. You're kind of like the New England Patriots, you know, just winning year after year after year, although I'm proud to see that they're in last place along with my New York Jets. But anyway, you know, just, I love to uncover, when I speak to entrepreneurs and business owners, what drives them. You know why they do what they do, how you got into this business, so why don't you share with us a little bit about Christy K Brows?
Speaker 3:Sure, Thank you. So something everyone or you should probably know is I am not the corporate type. Okay, I driven by human connection and always have been, and the older I've the more I've realized that and the more it's been extremely obvious for me. So the fact that I get to be one-on-one with people and connect really like hits my soul, and the eyebrow part is almost like this avenue for me to do that. It just so happens that I found this thing that I'm really, really good at that. I didn't know I was all those years ago and this kind of blossomed and I I have such joy. I get such joy out of transformation and seeing the difference in people's faces when they look at themselves when they leave. I've had the privilege of helping even young girls that are getting bullied because of a unibrow or a mustache.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Take care of that and see the transformation in them, just like we're sitting there crying. It's amazing. I'm just like we're sitting there crying. It's amazing what happened by something that's so simple and often overlooked or, you know, it's just not, it's not what you would think of, but that human connection and building trust and getting to know people I have the same clients for 18, 19 years it's truly very uplifting and fulfilling for me and hopefully for my clients as well.
Speaker 2:Very uplifting and fulfilling for me and hopefully for my clients as well.
Speaker 2:You know, it's funny, the underlying theme that I get from a lot of people, regardless of whether they're a realtor, a psychic, medium, doctor, is I think the people that I've had and how connecting really does kind of elevate you and your business and I also think it kind of validates what we do and I love to hear that because I hear it so often. You know, and it doesn't matter what you're doing, whether it's, you know, helping somebody in their appearance or others types of businesses it just seems that that ability to help people, to make them feel great about their experience working with you again, whether it's you're helping somebody who was being bullied or it's a realtor helping someone find their house, it's amazing and I love that. I love to hear that. Their house, you know it's amazing and I love that, I love to hear that. So you know you've had, I mean, for 24 years, what like, what was? Did you always own your own business or were you working for someone else? Or, like, when did you decide to go out on your own?
Speaker 3:I have had quite a journey. I am not your typical business person, insofar as I was not the one with the five-year plan or I never started out.
Speaker 3:I never really thought all the way down the road like I'm going to own my own business one day. I was just super happy doing what I loved in these other areas of employment. I've worked in a variety of environments in this aesthetics field and license that I fall under medical spas, blue mercury apothecary and spa, regular salons and spas. I worked in a scientific skincare center with doctors, plastic surgeons, and throughout the years, while I love that and learned so much, I was always constantly doing this like brow thing with it. I'm like I love this, it's. It's so obvious and instant the difference it makes and people are just so happy.
Speaker 3:So after I, let's see, it was in 2006 that I started in this area of Bergen County and my journey was I was work-stated place for seven years, then left, went to a medispa for two and a half years and that was kind of, you know, not the best energy for me. After that I went out on my own, going house to house for two and a half years and that grew such that I had to rent a room. And I took Englewood, which I loved, and it was just. I had this place, I like landed in this place and people were coming to me.
Speaker 3:But, that grew so much that I had to find a larger place and it was still small, but it was larger than the one room and it kind of grew from there. And I landed here in Cresco. I have a couple of employees, but I've always followed my instinct with it and if it felt right I kind of did it. But I will say, when I walked out and went on my own there was such an element of fear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure what the hell are you doing? But it was the best you just got to like. Sometimes you have to like lean into that, into that fear and unknown. And just for great things come from that, and that's kind of how it worked for me. And here I am.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was 2016?.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:When I actually became official yeah, yeah, that you know that is a um, that risk that you take uh, there was a lot of fear involved and I think a lot of entrepreneurs have said if they could describe being a business owner in one word, they'd say rollercoaster. It's one, one way to describe it. But I think if you um, you understand there's going to be challenges, that life is hard, but you overcome it by just continually working at it and have a desire to learn and grow. The great thing about being a business owner is that you have the freedom to fail but learn from it and just be better for it. But it hasn't always been, I guess, an upward trajectory. So, but you know it hasn't always been, I guess, an upward trajectory. And you do mention on your website about some health issues last year. If you want to talk about that, we don't have to, yeah.
Speaker 3:So what happened in September of 2023? September 2023 was a life-changing month for me. I had a craniotomy, I had brain surgery. They found I had grow it hardly was supposed to grow throughout the course of my life and I could just have this normal life and they would just monitor the size of it. And fast forward to one of those appointments where I was getting the MRI to monitor the size and they found out it grew too fast and it was in a place where, if we left it there eventually and it was unknown at what time this would happen I would lose my mobility on the left side of my body, my left arm, left leg and I couldn't do that. I'm active. I'm running up the staircase, you know, with all my stuff, I'm biking whatever just quality of life, so a family decision of, of course.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I had this, this brain surgery, and it proved to be the most challenging time of my entire life by far, and that's okay, because from that extreme challenge and often the lows were extremely low, extreme challenge and often the lows were extremely low the most beautiful realizations and insight came and I had four months off of work, which I thought was going to be six weeks initially and kind of impossible.
Speaker 3:But during those four months and beyond, even coming back to work, you know I learned so much about myself as a human being, business owner, um, how I wanted to show up in my life and the person I wanted to be, and for sure, what's important.
Speaker 3:You know I wasn't on death's door, but you know anything could go wrong when they're sure open up your skull yeah so of that moment of oh boy, you know, is this, this could be, you know, something very dark, or, but I was in great hands and it really was such a growth thing for me like I can't even put it into words how that has profoundly changed my life for the better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, that's amazing yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so. So here I am and having new insight into my business and what's important, and different directions that I'm looking forward to going in, while staying in compliance, so it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2:So yeah, speaking of that and going in different directions, I noticed you offer classes. Now, right, you're a training course. So yeah, what is that and how did that come about?
Speaker 3:So before my surgery, before I knew I had to have the surgery, but knowing that I had this lovely tumor in my head, I started working on digital course creation. I had this pull to help new estheticians or new eyebrow artists, and I thought I would have this video done before. Whoa was I wrong? So I ended up finishing it just a couple months ago.
Speaker 3:But I have this passion now like, yes, I see my clients and I get such fulfillment from that. But there's new estheticians out there that if they had the information straight out of school that I have now, 25 years later you know they, I could help them fast track their career. You know, because I'm all about like there's enough to go around. You know it's all a mindset thing. You know we're not. I'm all about like there's enough to go around, right, it's all a mindset thing. You know we're not in competition with one another, unless you truly think you are, but there's so many freaking eyebrows around yeah, right, yeah oh yeah, if you do the, if you do the math, there's a million people in bergen county.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, times two, uh, but maybe, maybe you take most men out of the equation. I mean, I don't know, yeah, you probably have a few, but uh, so it's like over a half a million, over a million eyebrows just in burton county.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I just want to add that angle and that you know, hone it to my business and just helping new aspiring brow brow artists with information and techniques. I've learned way past school. I'm talking about stuff you don't learn in school. It's all on the job stuff, it's all experience. So I want to give them all that good juicy insight and help them become pros in less than 10 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you said there are other things you're doing as well, that you've grown from a business perspective. So what are those things that you've expanded on?
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm working on an e-book.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Right now there's a couple of things. One of them is customer service in the beauty industry, because I'm a huge service person and human connection person and I know what works and what doesn't after the career I've had. I love to share that information with people in the industry. I'm also writing about my whole experience with my brain surgery and all of that, the insight that's come from that. But that's earlier. That's ages Cause I wrote a lot while I was out, but it's very scattered.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah, and you have a blog and a and a podcast too. Hoping on the podcast hopefully okay, all right, maybe this is a start but ideas ruin um yeah, and a blog we're trying to.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to stay sort of current, but there's a lot of stuff going on so sometimes I well I I have.
Speaker 2:I have a good um platform for you to start with your blogs.
Speaker 2:I'm very Neighbors Magazine. Thank you, yeah, and I'm looking forward to your once your little feature comes out in a couple of weeks in Neighbors Magazine. So that came out really nice, yeah. So I mean I tell somebody. I mean, you know, there are probably some listeners to the show. It's about learning from other entrepreneurs, but also with eyebrows, um, you know, when I get my hair cut every once in a while, the stylist will trim my eyebrows a little bit, you know, because they grow kind of nasty not nasty, but they're getting bushy yeah but, um, do you like reshape, like people's to give them a whole different look?
Speaker 2:Like when, when, when someone comes in, aside from having like a unibrow, like what is it that do they do? They change their eyebrows depending on the season or the events, like the holidays, the parties, like how, how does that like? How often would somebody come in to see you?
Speaker 3:So everyone is a little bit different because some much more hairy than other people, some hardly have any um their hair so light you don't see it. Some it's grown in a week. So it varies, uh, client to client. But basically what I do, some people come in and it's more of a maintenance. They've got this gorgeous shape, nice and and lifted beautiful arches and some people and it and it's just a hot mess and I kind of love that because it's like total brow creation.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:It just opens up their whole face, their eyes, and it's almost like they had an eye lift, but they didn't, you know and it changes everything. It's beautiful. Yeah, something very small is very, very powerful in many ways.
Speaker 2:So Frida Kahlo comes in to meet you. What could you have done with Frida Kahlo?
Speaker 3:Right up, the middle Right, take it right up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, although that's kind of her signature now, so you wouldn't want to mess with that Her kind of unibrow. But yeah, yeah, that's great. Now, I mean, there's other things that you offer in your office too. Right, you're starting to do. I mean, you have waxing and now you're doing .
Speaker 3:Yes, we have. We've been actually, but they're really becoming very, very popular. Now We've got this amazing hydra facial machine which is like a facial times 100. It's extremely exfoliating and hydrating and it's using this computer and these special hand pieces and tips on these hand pieces, where you're removing dead skin, you're extracting the skin, you're driving product into the skin, you're massaging, you have LED light. They're really so anti-inflammatory and it's wonderful, hydrating, glowing skin. So loving that addition and that's going very well and I guess it's all complimentary.
Speaker 3:It's all about beauty and feeling good about yourself and, yes, for sure, confidence, yeah just to leave feeling so good about themselves and remember how they felt leaving my place and what they got done. That's super important to me.
Speaker 2:That's great. So what is there like if somebody listening to this could take one piece away like why should I go to Christy K Browse and what do you think separates your practice from others?
Speaker 3:I for sure. I think it's the atmosphere. I mean, definitely you're going to get crazy amazing eyebrows here and the services are going to be incredible, but the people here are very special and I've worked very hard to create a positive energy environment and to keep it that way. Like a love bubble. It's my little safe space.
Speaker 3:so there is an element of acceptance and authenticity and trust here that I don't know is everywhere in the beauty industry. It's also not intimidating at all. We've created a very warm, inviting atmosphere and that's very different than walking into like a chain place, for instance, or maybe another business where you know there's three people, four people, talking about you as you walk in at the reception desk.
Speaker 2:There's nothing like that here, because that can be very intimidating, especially for someone low on self-esteem and and our job is literally to help boost that, you know so yeah, and your studios or your lounge is very welcoming and it's very um, you know it's uh private and and um as well, you know your color palettes and everything has a warm and inviting uh and personal feel to it when you walk in. So I could see how that's definitely different than maybe a place that's part of a med spa very antiseptic or, like you said, part of a franchise. I definitely see the value in that, uh, in terms of wanting to feel welcome and and you know, uh it's wellness you know,
Speaker 2:so yeah, that's great, that's great. So I, um, you know it's, uh, I think I I don't know. I have one question, because I don't know what's the difference between threading and um and shaping. Because I see, if I google which I just did, you know, I you know brow salon near me, I got threads and I got shaping and the lash lounge and things like that. So what, what is threading? Do you? And do you do that?
Speaker 3:we do not do. Threading is a very um, specialized skill where, and I don't, I don't not know how to do it, so I'm not going to explain it well, but I will say that almost the thread wraps around the hair and they just kind of pull it out, almost like looping the thread around the hair ouch and it has its place for sure.
Speaker 3:Um, it is. You can shape during threading and you can shape during waxing. So it's all about what you prefer threading threading once and it hurt so much my eyes but I mean it works for someone accutane or certain medications where they can't get waxed. It's a great alternative, but it's very specialized skill versus you know what we do. Both of them work. We just we're the waxers here wax and tweezers.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So if there was any advice you could give to a new entrepreneur whether it's someone in your industry or just any type of industry and they're starting out or they're thinking of starting out Is there any advice you'd give anyone now that you've done it yourself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think what I would say looking back, pay attention to how situations make you feel and if something that you really want scares you, it's probably because you care about it so much and you should probably lean into it, because all of the good stuff really is kind of on the other side of pushing through that fear. You know, follow your intuition, yeah, and um, continue doing what you love and being authentic. Those are my big, big you know takeaways, I guess. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Well, christy, thank you so much for for joining us. I really enjoy seeing you, even if it's over Zoom, so to speak. So bear with me. We're just going to say goodbye to our audience, and I'll be with you in a few seconds.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Doug.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergencom, that's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.