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Elma Hadžifejzović: Travel as Inspiration for Creativity and Life

March 8, 2026

You are certain that Elma is a master of her craft, and if you know her, you know she is an even greater person. A brave woman, guided by her heart and love through all these years of entrepreneurial work, creates a more beautiful reality for herself, her clients, and all her employees. The founder and creative director of the beauty salon Ogledalce, she spoke about the importance of travel and the inspiration it brings to her work, which she simply loves and develops towards a goal that is constantly evolving.

Even those who love to work occasionally long for a break.

When you have worked for 25 years without interruption, apart from classic annual vacations, you want to treat yourself a little more and more often.

How important is travel to you, and is it one of your life’s ‘to-do’ lists?

Last year, I traveled like never before. Both for business and pleasure, I visited many cities and places I had only dreamed of until recently. It brings special satisfaction when you cross off one item after another from your life's 'bucket list'. When you arrive at a place you've seen in photographs and imagined walking down that very street, taking pictures in that exact spot – you realize that you are actually living what you once dreamed of. To live your dreams means to experience ultimate happiness. Perhaps for some, it's completely ordinary to be in a new place every month, but for me, it's a new dimension of living. I get to know myself in new circumstances and meet people and places that change me forever.

How rewarding, yet challenging, is it to provide consistent growth in faith, creativity, and excellent hairstyles for 25 years in your career?

Working in the beauty industry, for me, means creating trends and keeping pace with them, bringing them in a new and unique way. It takes a lot of creativity to maintain your course throughout the journey. Constant work and effort are necessary for progress. Creativity is a river that overwhelms me, but it is possible for it to dry up. To nurture the seeds from which my ideas grow, I strive to constantly seek inspiration. And it is precisely travel that triggers an avalanche of inspiration. On every corner, with every color, scent, and taste of the places I visit. Every picture in a gallery, every pebble on a riverbank, the afternoon shadow in the main city square, a sunset, or a simple greeting from locals. All of this weaves into me, and then emerges in the form of new hairstyles, colors, interior elements, relationships with clients and the team, and ultimately, with myself. Authentic people who touch me most when I travel make me deeply reflect on every step that led them to where they are. How many smiles, and how many tears and difficult moments, are woven into the deep wrinkles on their hardworking hands? My signature technique, 'Chiaroscuro,' is a name I found in art, and inspiration in people and their needs. I create highlights without highlights in hair, just as painters 18. of the 19th century created plays of light and shadow on canvases.

If you had to choose just one trip out of all of them – which would it be?

A particularly transformative experience for me was the journey of all journeys – going on the Hajj to Mecca and Medina. A pilgrimage for Muslims, a meeting place for all nations of the world, a place where I also met my spiritual ancestors. I felt how small we are as individuals, yet significant, because everyone has their role. This journey changed me on multiple levels and brought forth a new me.