From giving talks at her dad's firm at the age of nine to seeing over 60 clients a week at 20-years-old, meet the Wakefield businesswoman behind Beauty by Hol

Holly created Beauty by Hol four years ago and has built up a massive client list, seeing over 60 women a week for their lashes, brows and skin needs.

She provides women with lash extensions, lash lifts, brow waxing and laminations, microblading, facials, dermaplaning, and more in her salon at the back of My Luna Boutique in the city’s Bull Ring.

Holly was featured in the Wakefield Express at just nine-years-old, when she went to work for her dad, an accountant, during the summer holidays in 2012 to earn some extra pocket money.

For the first two years, the young entrepreneur balanced studying for her A-levels and working in Greggs around her burgeoning business.

Holly said: “I went on some lash courses in November and December in 2019 after chatting to some girls at a party about it. At first, I hated it! The girl next to me on the course was already so good at doing lashes and I felt a bit disheartened.

"I had a month or so to practise, and I still wasn’t in love with it. And then lockdown hit. At the time, I was working at Greggs and studying Law, English and Business at college, as I was planning on becoming a solicitor.

"My dad kept on encouraging me to go on to uni to study law and he told me not to waste my potential.

“But I told him, I just want to do beauty. I then wanted to prove everyone wrong, even the people at Greggs who had told me not to risk losing a steady income for doing false lashes.”

Holly, who is now 20, used the Covd-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 to practise her craft as well as push her business on social media, so much so that she had a waiting list for when she reopened after restrictions eased.

She has continued to add more beauty treatments to her offerings and has recently been certified in microdermabrasion, which is a non-invasive facial procedure that is said to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, acne scars, hyperpigmentation, and more.

The young businesswoman added: “It was chaos when lockdown ended, I would wake up and revise on the bus, do a full day at college, come home and work on some clients and then do my homework in bed, and doing it all again.

"And I would do a full shift at Greggs on Tuesday and the weekend, seeing clients before and after my shift.

"I was falling asleep at every chance I could get but I had no choice because I really wanted to do well. I got busier and busier, introducing more treatments, and I’ve recently received my licence from the council to do microblading.

"Because I’ve been doing this for so long, people trust me to do these more longer lasting procedures. I love the responsibility. I’ve always had this drive to prove myself. I’ve always wanted to make my mum and dad proud.

"I love coming into the salon knowing I’ve built all of this by myself.”

To book in with Holly, visit her Instagram page @beautybyhol_.