Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Fucci.
Hi Nicole, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been doing hair from a very young age, I grew up with my mom being a hairdresser and owning her own salon before me and my sister were born. I was constantly doing new things with my own hair and doing friends and family’s makeup for parties and events.
When it was time for me to graduate high school my parents both suggested that I go to cosmetology school, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do, I wanted to do my own thing and not the same thing that my mom had done. I had been very into fashion and thought that I wanted to be a fashion designer, so I had applied to FIT in New York, as I was living in Connecticut at the time, and was accepted. But when I realized the price that housing was going to be, and realized that there was no way I could commute from Connecticut to New York every day for classes I decided to focus instead on the merchandising side of fashion and found a school within Connecticut for me to go to.
I took two years of fashion merchandising before realizing that that was not what I wanted to be doing. I ended up graduating with an associated degree and went to work at Toys R Us. I thought that that was where my future was going to be, I had worked my way from a seasonal, Christmas, employee up to a department supervisor with keys. I was in the process of working my way to an assistant manager when the company filed for bankruptcy and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I ended up applying for a job at Ulta and worked there as a cashier for a year before I moved down to Florida.
When I moved to Florida I was very ready for a brand new start and finally getting things in line for what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and then Covid hit. I ended up leaving my job at Ulta, which I had transferred down here with and worked a couple of merchandising vendor jobs throughout the Highlands County area, but I was very lost. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I definitely knew that I did not want to be stuck in retail for the rest of my life.
Towards the end of Covid two of my friends came down to Florida to pick me up and bring me back to Connecticut to visit for a week, while up there and hanging out one night we were all talking about what we would want to go back to school for. One of my friends commented that he always wanted to go to school for barbering and my other friends mentioned that she had wanted to go to school nails. I came up with a crazy idea that it would be cool if we all went to cosmetology school at the same time and then open an “everything” salon together. As soon as I got home from that trip I started looking up cosmetology schools near me and by the end of that week I was enrolled in one.
Starting cosmetology school was the best thing I ever did, I loved every single second of it. I was definitely scared in the beginning but I have learned that this is what I should have done a long time ago. After graduating from cosmetology school I went to work at Ulta in the salon there. I believe it was the best starting point for me, as being in a town where I was brand new and didn’t know anyone, it gave me the opportunity to meet new people and have people organically find me just by walking in the store and having a conversation with them. It also gave me the opportunity to save all of my tips and create a fund to help myself open my own salon which I did this past February.
In February of 2025 I decided that it was time to move on from Ulta and open my own salon. It was a dream I had from the day I started cosmetology school but also something that I didn’t ever think was going to be possible. I had consistently been looking at places for lease around Sebring but everything seemed way out of my price range, until I found the location I am at now. It was the perfect size for me to start my own salon and be able to work towards something bigger in the future. It took a little bit of work to get it looking like it does right now and I had a lot of help from my parents with painting and building items to go in the salon. I have one other stylist with me at the moment renting a chair from me, Macy, who I met from working at Ulta and has become a great friend of mine. My clients have all followed me from Ulta which I don’t think I could ever thank them enough for.
I am so excited to see what the future holds for me and The Beauty Bar Salon.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. After moving down here in November of 2019 Covid hit not too soon after and money got really tight for a little while. I had to figure out how to work things around to make living and deciding to go back to school for cosmetology work. So, at the time I was going to cosmetology school full time while also working two full time jobs, but it made everything work out in the end.
During my time working at Ulta I forced myself to be very strict with my money usage, knowing that I eventually wanted to open my own salon, I knew that I needed to save as much money as I possibly could. I started taking all of my tips and saving them in a jar. I also thought that it would make great content on social media so I decided to record myself putting the money in the jar every day and may a montage video and post it to TikTok and it blew up. I ended up doing that for the entirety of my time working at Ulta and it helped immensely.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have always been a very creative person, for high school back in Connecticut I went to an arts magnet high school where we had to pick and art major and study that for all four years. You choose between creative writing, dance, band, theater, choir or visual arts. I chose to study visual arts for my four years, and it is what started me wanting to have a career in fashion design. I believe my creative side helps me a lot when it comes to doing hair and being able to picture how something will look on a client’s head before we even get started. My art background also helped me a lot when it came to color theory for dying hair, knowing what colors to use where and when. I think that knowledge sets me apart from other stylists.
When it comes to hair, I do a lot of different things from cutting, to styling to dying hair. I love everything about doing hair, I don’t think there is something that I have found yet that I don’t like doing. But my favorite service to do is anything that has to do with coloring the hair. Whether that be highlighting, all over colors or just a simple root touch up. I love transforming someone’s look. It gives me such joy when someone leaves the salon, and you can just see their smile beaming as the walk out and knowing that you were the one to do that for them.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
When I moved to Florida it was a huge culture shock for me. I grew up in a pretty large and populated area where the main way to get around were only highways and traffic packed streets. I love the laid back and quietness of Sebring and Highlands County. I love how pretty much everyone knows everyone and if you don’t you will very soon get that way.
There does feel like a little bit of a downside to being so small of an area and that is just the exposure to other areas I feel like lacks a little bit, but then again social media does help with bridging that.
Pricing:
- Haircuts – $45
- Root Touch Ups – $60
- Full Highlights – $150
- All Over Color – $80
- Blowouts – $45
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thebeautybarsalonfl.glossgenius.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicole_fucci_hair/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-beauty-bar-salon-sebring
