What Inspires Tressa Yanchuk?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about who my inspo is recently and it doesn’t come down to one individual person, but a whole collective of people! Moms. Working moms, stay at home moms, single moms, any female that grew a human being inside of them, birthed them, and now is raising them as best as they can.

This appreciation comes with the fact that I became a mother for the first time last year to my beautiful little boy, Lazlo. The moment I had him, my appreciation for my own mother, and any mom I knew grew exponentially! 

Renovating and opening a salon while I was 6 months pregnant, training my coworkers up until the moment I went into labour, and being back in the salon part time when he was around 6 weeks old was, as you can imagine, insanely tough. We are so lucky to live in a time where, as a woman, we are encouraged to have ambition and drive in our chosen careers. 

Business women who manage to raise children and families, whilst never halting their careers or taking maternity leave is so inspiring for me. Some hairdressers that inspire me for these reasons are, Beckymhair, ChristinaKreitel, JosieVilay, Glamiris, LizHaven, my partner Kirstin, and Emily Ciardiello! (foilmefoils_emilyciardiello )

Every one of these women still put their heart and soul into their career, salon, staff and clients, all while raising their children. Finding the balance is exceptionally hard, and probably impossible to do perfectly, but we’re all doing the best that we can. 

Not only do working moms inspire me, but also women do decide to halt their career to focus on their families. I don’t think stay at home moms get enough credit. My mom sacrificed her career when she had a tonne of momentum in the banking world, to raise my brother at I for 9 years at home. 9 years! Stay at home moms have an insane amount of strength (and patience lol), and deserve all the praise in the world. Staying at home with a baby all day is tough!

The whole COVID-19 crisis is an exceptionally challenging time for salon owners (an stylists). Without clientele coming in, and government mandated closures for an undetermined amount of time, the future of our businesses are unclear. One silver lining however, is the time we are spending with our kids. Some of us new moms are taking a ‘forced' maternity leave, and although I am scared for my business, I am grateful for all the time I get to spend with my son. Some moms are trying to run a business from home, AND have become homeschool teachers for their kids! (Good luck Emily haha).

Being a mom is hard on so many levels, both physically and mentally, but it is soooo rewarding. I just stare at him every day like, “how on earth did I create this little human?!” Does that ever go away? I’ll have to ask my mom haha. It’s given me more drive to succeed and show my son that women can do, and be whatever they want!