Carol Apperson has a relationship with her canvas.

“The hair industry needs more artists,” asserts Carol Apperson, a hairstylist at Lockstar, a hair design studio In Five Points.

Carol moved to Jacksonville in 1999 from New Orleans, and went to the University of North Florida for Fine Arts. “I want to make hair interesting and fun. It’s an accessory,” she says.

Someday Carol would love to have her own shop and make the industrial space come alive with the painting she does on the side. “Hair that stands out moves me like a painting,” says Carol. “Clients are like my canvas. I look at them and I can feel their style. I try to push them a little bit. Everyone has a barrier.”

Carol has never had to advertise because she gets so many of her clients by referral. “I tell them, ‘you’re wearing my art,’” she says. “I can’t imagine my life without art in it. I think I would be boring. It’s such a release.”