I Didn’t Choose the Moxie Life, the Moxie Life Chose Me: the early years

MOXIE SEE MOXIE DO

Travel

CATEGORY /

Mar 27

WRITTEN /

09. WEDDING

08. TRAVEL

07. MOXIE: THE LIFE

06. MAKEUP

05. INSPIRATION

04. HOLIDAYS

03. HEALTH & WELLNESS

02. HAIR

01. BEAUTY

the categories

studio salon services

on location services

JOIN THE email LIST

Moxie See Moxie Do is a blog devoted to empowering and encouraging, inspiring and influencing our followers through content-rich posts highlighting beauty, lifestyle, travel, and any other subjects that motivate Moxinistas to be their own kind of beautiful!

RACHEL

FOUNDER /

Moxie:

  1. vigor; pep  2.boldness; nerve  3.the ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage  4.skill; know how

I’ve always been a Moxie girl. Just ask my family. My particular Moxie style started to shine through at a very young age. Once, when I was three, I refused to go to church or even leave the tiny closet where I was hiding when I realized that my red Mary Janes no longer fit.  I couldn’t very well be expected to go to church WITHOUT my red Mary Janes now could I?!

At four I had already realized that a girl should never leave the house without being properly coiffed so I required somebody, ANYBODY, to style my unruly hair before we went anywhere.  My favorite style at the time was pigtails with braids but I’d settle for a side pony with a braid or a simple french braid if we were pressed for time. 

At eight I discovered the thrill of a trip to the beauty salon. Watching all the stylists and nail techs practice their skills was magical.  Everyone was smiling and laughing and I knew that nothing bad could ever happen at the salon.

When I was ten I decided I was old enough for manicures at a real salon but as a chronic nail-biter I knew that if I didn’t break this habit I would never experience the nirvana that came from having a professional manicurist  file, buff, and polish my petite nails. My Moxie and I made this miracle happen and I was able to stop biting my nails…at least long enough to grow them to manicure length! After my first manicure with a REAL nail tech I knew I could never live without this necessity again.

But the greatest lesson I learned from this incident is that even a 10-year old girl can do anything she puts her mind to. This would serve me well in my future Moxie endeavors.

When I was 11, I was ready to start wearing makeup even though my mother was not. So we argued and negotiated, like many moms and 11-year old girls do.  Her idea was for me to wait until my older sister started wearing makeup. I’m sure she thought this was very clever since my older sister was somewhat of a tomboy and probably wouldn’t want to start wearing makeup at any point in the near future.  But I saw through this ruse and declared to my mom that my sister “will never wear makeup until you open her casket at her funeral!” I wished my sister a long life and certainly wasn’t willing to wait that long to try mascara and lipstick!

So mom offered me another deal.  If I would wait to wear makeup then I could have highlights in my hair. This sounded reasonable to me and I agreed. All that was left was to determine what kind of highlights would be best for an 11-year old girl. At that time in the early 90’s there were two women that represented beauty to me and I knew exactly what would be best for this 11-year old girl.  I explained to my mom that I would only agree to this deal if I could have highlights just like Pamela Anderson and Dolly Parton.

I think it was at this point that my mom realized I might be a little high maintenance. This was only the beginning of a life of knowing my own mind, what I wanted out of this life, and having the Moxie to go out and get it….

Rachel Cole/Author
Celeste Greenlee/Editor

xx
Rachel

  1. Barb Yezierski says:

    Love this story and love my favorite hairdresser, Rachel!

Leave a Reply to Moxie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *