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Triple threat.
Kristie Streicher, the middle of the beauty industry trio known as The Streicher Sisters, has been trying to convince her clients to lean in to a fuller brow since 2001. It’s a more natural approach to beauty favored by all three, who co-own STRIIIKE Salon in Los Angeles, focusing on their individual strengths and talents, while managing the challenge of working alongside siblings. (Which includes therapy sessions.)
Ashley is the hair guru. Kristie, the eyebrow genius. And Jenn, the mom and makeup maven.
All three got their start young. Jenn manned the Estee Lauder counter straight out of high school in Northern California. Kristie began selling cosmetics at a Clinique Counter “pretty much straight out of high school,” where she enjoyed engaging with women, educating them on skincare and makeup. It was this experience that inspired her to become an esthetician, officially making it her career choice. Ashley, who says she “will forever be the ‘little sister,’ skipped the counter and hopped on a flight to NYC instead, where her older sisters were living and launching their careers.
While working with Warren Tricomi, Kristie received a “Best Of” award for eyebrows by New York Magazine. She went from an average of five clients per day to 35. “I made it my duty,” she says, “to break the habit and trend of the over-contrived, over-waxed eyebrow style.”
This non-industry approach is in part shaped by their youth. “I grew up in a very small town that is very opposite of LA or any big city for that matter,” shares Ashley. “I did not grow up thinking that people were beautiful or not; I’m so happy for this. I have always known that everyone has beauty… god that sounds so cheesy but it’s really true. I think that everyone has features and attributes that really work for them, sometimes it’s just finding them and accentuating them.”
“I think we are all the same on a basic, human level,” says Kristie. “We tend to compare ourselves to one another or think that someone else has it better than us, when really, we all are struggling with one thing or another.” There's no need to compete with other women, sisters included.
Kristie is wearing Keds' Kickstart Mono.
Jenn has her own beauty routine nailed down to five minutes and rocks her grays. Which we see as both a polite middle finger to beauty standards and a big hug to women everywhere that says beauty can be anything and you don’t need to cover up what others perceive as flaws. “What angers me the most,” says the makeup artist, “is that grey hair on a man is ‘handsome and distinguishable’ but on women it makes them look ‘old.’ I think that is just shit! We just never see women with their natural color. I also think sitting in a salon for hours at a time every six weeks is shit too!” She didn’t grow up with makeup, despite her chosen career, and believes it’s helped her approach of focusing on accentuating her clients' natural beauty. “I think we have just grown accustom of feeling like we are not ‘put together’ without a full face of makeup,” she adds, but notes women like Alicia Keys and Gwyneth Paltrow who are going barefaced and deepening the convo.
All three see industry standards changing, but Kristie says that “People have different ideas on what looks beautiful,” mentioning that she sees it “almost like religious or political beliefs,” with “one not more right than the other.” Whether it’s a natural look or a heavily-contoured faced, Kristie thinks “both focuses will become more extreme.” Her focus now is to “bring back the uni-brow!”
Jenn is the only sister with a child, and because the STRIIIKE also serves as a creative space (where they host wine tastings with Helen Johannessen of helen's), she says “Fuck yes,” balancing it all is “always a challenge.” She swears by her ZIIP and done in a flash beauty routine. Kristie, who with sister Ashley witnesses the firsthand battle of being mom and business woman, says it’s surprising how everything always works out. “There’s never a ‘good’ time to start a family” and while she’s “acutely aware that it’s a major game changer,” she believes everything falls into place as it should be. This approach matches her favorite life advice: “This too shall pass.”
What’s not passing is their success. With their individual focuses and STRIIIKE, it’s funny to know that dear old dad told his bunch to not go into business together. Kristie, Jenn, and Ashley are proof that sometimes sisters know best.
Styling provided by Reservoir LA. Hair and makeup provided by Glamsquad. Photography courtesy of Light Lab and Woodnote Photography.