Hairstylist to Homesteader – My Journey To Homesteading

I never thought my life would end up like this. My journey to homesteading was not something I expected.

Where It Began

I had a really amazing, typical 1980’s/1990’s upbringing. I grew up in a Christian home with my parents and my sister. As I entered my teen years, I loved all things “city life”…shopping, make up, fashion, you name it! I was terrified of bugs and never had any real desire to be out in nature.

I knew at the young age of 13 that I wanted to be a hairstylist when I grew up, and that’s exactly what I became. After high school, I pursued hair styling, got my licence and started my career. I LOVED it. I was always changing my hair, and I genuinely enjoyed building relationships with my clients. My career took off, and after 7 years of working in a high end salon I decided to rent a space to run my own business. A few years after that, I moved my salon into my home. My career was working well for me and my family, and it was allowing me to work flexible hours and still be around my kids.

The Ignorance

But I never really stopped to think about all the chemicals I was in contact with every single day. Between the bleach, colour, developers, even hairsprays and other styling products I was breathing in, I was surrounded by a pretty heavy toxic load. Still, I didn’t think about it. It wasn’t even on my radar. To me, health was mainly wrapped up in what I weighed. Sure, I knew there were diseases that were very serious, but again, I never connected my lifestyle to those things. And for me, eating healthy was just a way to not gain weight. I didn’t know much more than that, and didn’t really think about how the foods we eat and the environment we live in can affect our health.

Until one event changed my life.

The “C” Word

My journey to homesteading started in July of 2020, when my mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer. I was completely shaken! My mom has always been a huge part of my life, and the thought of losing her was crippling. The doctors recommended she go through 6 months of chemotherapy, but that just didn’t sit well with us as a family. This dove us head first into research about conventional and non-conventional cancer treatment options.

During this time, I was speaking with a client of mine, (more like bawling my eyes out about my mother, while attempting to do her foils), and she told me about someone named Chris Wark, who healed his cancer NATURALLY with FOOD! I was blown away. How can you heal your body with food? (Look this guy up…his story is amazing!)

The Research

I shared this information with my family and our research took off. I started learning about our food systems, and how most of what we were eating was making us sick. My eyes were opened and I started to analyze my own lifestyle – not just what I was eating, but my environment as well. I started to really think, for the first time, about how I wanted to live – not just for myself, but for my family.

After a lot of prayer, research, and appointments with conventional and non-conventional cancer specialists, my mother decided NOT to do chemo and to try to heal her body naturally. She found an incredible Naturopathic Oncologist who developed a protocol which included eating entirely plant based for a period of time. I too switched to plant based eating, because all this research had me intrigued. My journey to homesteading really took off from this point.

The Journey

I ate mostly plant based for a few months, started buying organic everything (if we could afford it), and quickly realized that it would make more sense to try and grow some of what I was buying.

So, in the spring I planted my very first garden. I had no idea what I was doing! I was googling things like ‘what’s the difference between soil and compost’ and ‘how to plant a seed’. Seriously, I knew nothing. But I managed to have some beginners luck and actually grew some things!

That was it. There was no turning back.

Next step was chickens (obviously…ha). 8 laying hens to be exact. I remember driving home with them in my back seat, terrified that they were going to come flying out of the boxes and squawking like crazy as if begging to be sent back to the farmer who knew what he was doing.

My husband, who had ZERO experience building things, built the coop with the help of his friend. We definitely over complicated the design, but….we did it! Once we off loaded the chickens into their new home, in my mind, we became homesteaders. Our journey to homesteading was in full swing!

>>>Read Also: How To Raise Backyard Chickens: A Beginner’s Guide

The Disconnect

As I learned how to garden and care for our egg layers, I quickly started feeling like my new found passions didn’t line up with my hair styling career. I became more and more aware of all the chemicals I was in contact with. The desires of my heart were changing. Big time.

During all of this, after much prayer and consideration, we decided to pull our oldest child from school and start our homeschool journey. There were many factors that went into making that decision, and we do not believe that you have to homeschool in order to homestead. But for our family, it was the right thing.

If you have been considering homeschooling, you will enjoy this post on What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Homeschooling.

For the next year or so, my journey to homesteading included learning as much as I could about the homesteading life. About taking back some control and being more of a producer rather than a consumer. I learned skills like baking bread, making kombucha, and took an online canning course. Countless hours have been spent researching and watching videos on gardening and raising animals for meat. I dove into the homeschool life, and every day as my desire to homestead grew stronger, I grew more and more disconnected from my hairstyling career. It was becoming clear that, that part of me had served me well over the years but it was no longer who I was.

But who was I?

The Choice

My husband and I started talking about how we could live this lifestyle but still pay our bills. At the time, we lived in a big house on the outskirts of the city, and we needed 2 incomes to afford living there. If I was going to step back from my 17 year career of hairstyling in order to homestead, we had to make some big decisions.

So we did!

We sold our house and moved to the country to pursue our homesteading life. Choosing to go from two incomes down to one wasn’t easy, but it has definitely been worth it! Since moving, we have been working hard to establish the systems and skills we need to grow. We put in a large garden and orchard, have been learning a bunch of DIY skills, and have started our new life.

Our Journey To Homesteading

We’re still nowhere near where I want us to be…we have dreams of raising our own meat, expanding our orchard, and much more!

I believe our journey to homesteading is still ongoing. But, we’re way further ahead than we were 3 years ago when my mother got her cancer diagnosis.

Sometimes it’s the scary, hard moments in life that send us down paths we never imagined. My mom found healing for her health through nature – 3 years now cancer free – and I found a connection with a world I never knew I needed. A world of dirty little feet, the smell of bread baking in the oven, gardens, chickens, and most of all living and learning TOGETHER.

I’m so thankful God placed us here, and that He planted these seeds in my heart. Just as I plant seeds in the garden and watch the plants grow and produce fruit, He has planted us here. And I can’t wait to see how we grow!

Together. As a family. On our journey. On our homestead.

Blessings!

~Maryann