 "Photo: Jeremy Burnett")
Not three blocks from Wesleyan, the Internationally Renowned Beauty Academy bustles with activity.
Babies cry while receiving their first haircut as a dozen cosmetology students try to hone their craft. The phone never stops ringing at the IRBA.
Linda McSwaim, senior business administration major, orchestrates the IRBA’s commotion with an enormous smile on her face. McSwaim, 52, is the academy’s director of 11 years as well as a teacher, student, wife, mother and entrepreneur.
“This is my life,” McSwaim said. “I love education, but I also love beauty and doing hair.”
The screaming children don’t bother McSwaim. She enjoys them because she knows they’ll come back at ease. A veteran cosmetologist of 22 years, McSwaim returned to school to learn how to excel as a business owner.
“I kind of put the cart before the horse,” she said. “If I had went through college first, I would be more organized, which is why I’m taking management classes.”
She had real-world experience, but she said her business theory was lacking. About eight years ago, she made her first million dollars—only to turn around and lose two million.
“I didn’t know how to run my business properly,” she said. “The theory and the practicum go hand-in-hand. Now I know why I need a certified personal accountant.”
While McSwaim aims to receive her degree by December, her journey at Wesleyan began decades ago.
She first enrolled at Wesleyan in 1980 while also working for the Star-Telegram. A lucrative promotion to customer service supervisor after only six weeks lured her away from her studies.
“That’s the thing that ruins some people,” she said. “When you get a job and you see the little money, you don’t realize you can make bigger money if you have a college education.”
The money from McSwaim’s position led her to get an apartment, buy a new car and eventually withdraw from Wesleyan and follow her childhood dream—cosmetology school.
“I’ve had every Barbie there is,” she said. “I’ve cut, curled, braided, weaved [their hair]—everything.”
McSwaim said she would also style her pets’ hair as a child and sometimes steal her mom’s Nice and Easy black dye to use on her dolls.
While all grown up and in cosmetology school, McSwaim got married.
“She’s the same as when I met her,” said Sam McSwaim, Linda’s husband of 25 years. “She’s very outgoing and loves helping people out. She extends herself more than most people would.”
Sharing a kindred entrepreneurial spirit, they ventured across the country after marrying, working various positions until settling in Fort Worth and eventually taking helm of the IRBA.
“A lot of people talk but Linda will get out and do it,” Sam McSwain said. “You never know what tomorrow brings. A lot of people will procrastinate and that’s what holds them back in life.”
The IRBA was ranked best beauty school in Texas two years in a row at the Texas International Hair & Trade Convention. Over the last 10 years, it has graduated more than 700 students.
“I’m giving students a chance to exhale and be self-employed or work anywhere they want,” McSwaim said.
Some students have gone to clear six figures six months after graduating, McSwaim said. Potential students are required to have a GED or high school diploma to enroll, and McSwaim hopes some of her students will follow her example and pursue a college degree.
Robert Rasco, executive director of the nonprofit organization CherryWood House, studied and worked with McSwaim while they both attended Tarrant County College.
“She has had a lasting impression on my life and will have on many single parents who will probably never know her name,” he said. “Linda is truly a community leader.”
CherryWood House strives to help single parents in every way possible, Rasco said. McSwaim offered 20 free haircuts to give out to volunteers who help with an upcoming benefit concert May 14.
McSwaim’s daughter, Andrea, plans to follow in her mother’s footsteps and open her own salons and enroll at Texas Christian University. Andrea can attest to her mother’s work ethic and self-sufficiency.
“I’m 23, and I can’t tell you the last time she worked for someone else,” she said. “Sometimes, I don’t see her. She’ll get up at 6 or 7 and work until 3 or 4.”
Although struggles have arisen, Andrea McSwaim said her mother always manages to get things done.
“She’s not a cry baby,” she said. “She’ll do pretty much anything to meet her goals.”
Be the first to comment on this article!