Photos by Richard Lovrich
Over the last five years, Jordan Glindmyer has seen her Instagram follower count bloom to over 50,000 thanks to her posts on hair styling and coloring. She’s seen her power as a social media influencer in the world of hair care grow to the point where she is sponsored by hair care companies and travels the world to give product demonstrations.
All of this happened because of a complete revaluation of her life goals. Glindmyer graduated from Russell Sage with a degree in criminal justice. She thought she wanted to be a district attorney. “I realized it wasn’t for me but I was so close to graduating I just finished it out.” She tended bar for a bit and tried to figure out what exactly she wanted to do. She ended up going to Paul Mitchell Salon in Schenectady and from there was an early adopter of Instagram seeing it as a cheap and easy way to reach local clients. She figured she’d reach the young demographic her colorful hair designs would appeal to. It worked, but she also developed an international following.
As long as things go as planned there will be another metamorphosis occurring in Glindmyer’s life on April 1. That’s the date she’s scheduled to move into an artist’s space shes dubbed The Creative Collective, that is currently being renovated by Redburn Development.
She’ll be managing a space with five booths she plans to rent out to other hair stylists and visual artists. It will provide her a chance to return to a time when she was first starting out doing personal, intimate hair sessions in a storefront window rather than managing her Scotia salon, where she now employs up to 12 stylists at a time.
“There are no salon suites in this part of the country and where you allow stylists to run their own booths without having any other employees,” says Glindmyer. “Essentially I’m going to step back and not have to run this business with so many employees and instead sort of be a landlord.”
Glindmyer pursued the change after being informed that her landlord would be selling her building. “I wasn’t in a position to purchase it but this was more of the original dream.”
A number of her current stylists will be coming over to Schenectady’s Lafayette Street location but Glindmyer also hopes to host a diverse group of artists.
Rent will be gauged weekly and include heat, hot water, electricity, and trash removal. Booth rental prices have yet to be set.
For Glindmyer, who is a Schenectady native, the recent surge in artists and creative spaces in her home city—including the Electric City Barn and the Clinton Street Mercantile—is heartening.
“We’re finally seeing this influx of artists into downtown Schenectady and it’s great to have these spaces that aren’t necessarily competing but instead complement each other.”
