Megan "Mo" Eccles
On July 22, 2013 Mo officially finished the Nail program at MATC, Lehi. She passed the written exam on August 5, and the practical on August 6. She took and passed her Cosmetology Practical on December 3rd and the written on January 29th. Now, Mo is a licensed Cosmetologist and Nail Tech and after working as a student instructor at Mountainland Applied Technology College, is now a licensed Cosmetolgy/Nail instructor. She is currently the lead nail instructor of MTECH (formerly MATC) as well as taking clients at her salon, and she loves what she does!
Behind the Nickname
Everyone always asks about the story behind my nickname, "Mo," and I am here to tell it! In seventh grade, I took a French class. In order to immerse us in the culture, my teacher assigned us all a french name. The name I was given was "Monique" which I loved! Megan is a very popular name in my generation, so it was fun to have something a little more unique. In my English class that year, there were five Megans. I was so sick of getting called, "Hey you" or "That Megan" or "Megan in the corner" that I told them to please just call me Monique. Throughout the year, it got shortened to "Mo" and it stuck! Now the majority of people I know call me "Mo" and I even had it printed on my High School diploma. My assigned french name so changed my life, I decided to call my business "Monique" as an homage to the teacher who gave me a unique identity and a name I could call my own.
My Story
I grew up loving art. I always had a goal to get my bachelors degree and teaching license so that I could teach in High School and be that cool, quirky, influential art teacher like the ones I had. When I got accepted to Southern Utah University, one of the top rated schools for teachers and art in Utah, I thought my dream was coming true! I loved my classes, made a ton of friends and learned SO much. But I did not get my teaching license... Instead, I met an amazing man who showed me so much happiness that I changed my goals and my degree path so that I could be closer to him. I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Art and one week later was married to my superhero, Tony Eccles.
I've always liked doing my own nails, hair and makeup. I even helped out friends by doing hair and makeup for dances and I cut and dyed hair in college in exchange for meals, but I thought that girls who did Cosmetology instead of college were just avoiding the hard work of getting a degree. I NEVER thought I would be doing nails and hair as a profession, but now that I am, I LOVE it! I had a job as a Marketing Coordinator for a time and it was... alright. I wasn't as happy doing that as I am now that I'm doing cosmetology. I'm so glad my life got "flipped, turned upside down" and that my goals and dreams changed. I get to be creative and use my artistic knowledge AND help people feel and look beautiful. It's been such a blessing to see clients leave my chair with a smile on their face, saying they love it and will be back. I love that my nail clients come back with stories of all the compliments they've received, excited for the next design.