A school counselor once told Susan Perdue that she “could never be a hairstylist” because she is deaf. “Everybody comes in for a hair color and talks, and you wouldn’t be able to do it,” she remembered her counselor saying. But the now wife and mother of two decided to follow her dream anyway. Today, she is the salon manager of the Great Clips on Freedom Parkway in Cumming, working as the sole deaf leader for a company employing more than 40,000 stylists across the United States.