Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Atkins.
Hi Nicole, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started working the front desk for my in laws at their hair salon. I decided to go to cosmetology school to pursue a career in hair. I soon realized I had no passion in hair, but I did have a passion for the industry I just needed to find my place. I landed my first lash job at amazing lash at the end of 2016. That’s when I realized my love for lashing and I wanted to learn everything about it. I worked at a few lash salons until September 2019 where I decided to open my own studio in Pflugerville. I took a big jump only having about 10 clients but I quickly filled my books within the first month by spending any free time I had marketing and putting myself out there in the community.
Unfortunately 6 months after opening COVID hit and i had to close shop indefinitely. It was a really hard time as a business owner but I came back even stronger opening a bigger location in round rock and hired my first employee in 2021. Once again I marketed any free time I had and filled her books in a month. It was going great until later in 2021 found out not only myself, but my only employee were both pregnant due at the same time (fun fact our babies were born on the same day).
Since we would both be on maternity leave I had to hire MORE employees to take over for us. From there it just kind of snowballed into a bigger team and moving to an even bigger location in 2024. I also had another baby in 2025 and have been juggling motherhood and being a business owner
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not at all. COVID was hard, my rent and mortgage were still due while I wasn’t making an income. I’ve dealt with terrible neighbors impacting my business where I had to break out of my lease (at my pflugerville location) and insane rent increases which led me to relocate to my current location. Juggling motherhood while leading a team is very difficult and impossible to equally balance. I constantly deal with burnout. Having employees and children that all constantly rely on you is definitely not for everyone. You deal with the ups and downs of the economy and if you are not able to adapt, your business will not survive. Constantly changing your strategy can be exhausting but absolutely necessary to staying successful
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Whiplashed Beauty Bar?
Whiplashed is known for quality work, which we all take pride in. Specifically the health of your natural lashes. I have trained every stylist no matter their experience level, to make sure their work follows my standards. I’m very selective of who joins the team, creating a cohesive and positive environment. I love my team, and they all love working together. I feel like that is really important and clients can feel that energy
We were also awarded 2024 best lash studio in round rock and runner up in 2025. I am constantly continuing to learn, attending conferences and trainings and trying out the newest products on the market to give our clients the best there is to offer. Not only do we constantly learn the newest techniques and products, but we really deep dive into the specifics so we aren’t just offering the newest thing (such as Korean lash lifts) but we are specialists in it.
I feel what sets us apart as well is our love for the art of lashes. We aren’t just applying lashes, we are hand making everything in our sets from our fans, to how big or thin of spikes we are using to create any of our custom sets. Every set is custom and we offer every option you can think of. From multiple shades of brown, every color of the rainbow, and over 10 different curl options.
We are also an inclusive salon and invite everyone to come visit us!
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I also forgot to mention I offer trainings to other lash artists. I am a PLA (Paris lash academy) powered trainer. I offer classes for just learning how to do lashes, learning volume fans and lash lifts/korean lifts.
I also won the award for best salon design at lashcon
Pricing:
- Half sets start at $85
- Full sets start at $100
- Korean lifts start at $95
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.whiplashedbeautybar.com
- Instagram: Whiplashed.atx
- Other: Tik tok- whiplashedatx
