Liz Stricker
Owner and Creative Director
A self-described art school dropout raised on mac and cheese and Steel Magnolias, Liz Stricker discovered her love of hair the old fashioned way: through candy.
Her earliest memories are of tagging along to her Nana’s weekly hair appointment, where grey hair become magically blonde and curls spring forth from rigid rollers. Afterwards, hair perfectly coiffed, her Nana would take her to the candy store. “To me, that was the most perfect day,” she says. “I associated a hair salon with comfort, safety, and a treat.” Years later, enjoying a bourgeoning career as a makeup artist in NYC, Stricker heard the siren call of the salon beckoning her home, and returned home to the Connecticut shoreline to attend hair school.
Her Nana was her first client.
Stricker went on to study celebrity hair colorist Beth Minardi, Ted Gibsons "New York Fashion Week", and most recently, Oribe academy in NYC. Stricker worked to complete certifications in Redken color, Brazilian Blowout, Oribe mastery cutting certifications, and countless other specialty programs. After ten years working as an in-demand hair stylist in Key West she saw an opportunity to bring a new kind of salon to the island, one that specialized in artful color application and technically challenging cuts and extensions, but also felt as comfortable and special as those weekly hair appointments with her Nana. And thus: Avenue Salon was born.
Avenue is the first and only Oribe exclusive salon in the Florida keys. “Only the absolute best for our clients.” She prides herself on keeping up with the newest trends and techniques by traveling to hair shows and demos across the country, but knows the most important skill a stylist can have is the ability to intuit the needs of her clients. A beach bum at heart, she specializes in multidimensional sun-kissed blonde colorwork, and in applying luxurious, hair extensions that would make a Kardashian or Hadid jealous.
After the birth of her second child, and experiencing postpartum hair loss, Liz has been focusing primarily on hair extensions. “ It’s always been a passion of mine it’s fun to transform. It became personal when I lost a ton of hair. Extensions became a necessity. Having my confidence back meant I could perform my job better, and feeling like myself again helped me be better mother, honestly.”
When she’s not in the salon performing extreme, transformative, extension and color services, she loves spending time with her wonderful husband and business partner, Josh, and her two kids. The Stricker family are proud to be a part of the “autism society of the keys” after their son was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder, And try to take the kids to Disney a few times a year.
“Other than all that, I enjoy British tv, organizing craft supplies that I’ll never use, and sneaking in diy projects on our extreme fixer upper of a house we bought 2 years ago.”
