Jewelry's Lee Ji-hyun leaves hair salon job to be closer to her two children

Lee Ji-hyun, a former member of the K-pop group Jewelry, is leaving her current hair salon and moving to a new one near her home so she can better care for her children.

Lee shared the news Tuesday in a lengthy post on her Instagram, writing that she had decided to go public with a worry she had long kept to herself.

She said she would be leaving her position as a designer and marketing director at a hair salon near Gwacheon Government Complex Station.

"If it were just up to me, I had adjusted well enough and wanted to keep working," she said, "but there is never a calm day with the kids and their big and small problems." She said the demands of parenting had driven her decision to leave.

A single mother raising her children on her own, Lee wrote: "How was I supposed to know? I'm a first-time mom. They're always getting hurt, taking turns being sick." She added that her children had been spending too much time alone and were increasingly eating delivery food.

She particularly mentioned an incident in which her daughter fell and was injured badly enough to need four stitches, saying her heart broke knowing her daughter had to go to the hospital alone.

"I work this hard for my kids, but what is the point of it all if I can't be there for them when they need me?" she wrote, and went on to say that there had been many days when she felt as though the sky was falling. "There is no one who can take a mother's place," she added.

At her new workplace, Lee plans to take on only modeling work. "I'm moving to a place that is literally a five-minute walk from home, so I can be on standby for my kids whenever they need me," she said.

Meanwhile, Lee went through two divorces, in 2016 and 2020, and is currently raising a son and a daughter. She began pursuing a national hairdressing license in November 2023 and, after eight attempts, passed the exam and has since worked as a hair designer.