Maria Jr

I attribute my success to my natural talents with hair. Things that I do come natural, and people tell me I have a good eye with hair color and everything I do with hair just comes natural. I think that's part of my success, that my talents are there and I know what they are, and I feel I can do that very easy. Also, I'm a people's person. I love talking to people and listening to what they have to say, especially when they're dealing with problems or dealing with diseases or whatever it is. I like to listen to people because if I can be some kind of support for somebody, that feels natural to help. I think that's part of it, and that's why my clients love me and I love them. We kind of have a true friendship and relationship.

The best advice I ever received was from one of my instructors in my first class at cosmetology school. She told not just me but everybody: if you don't like sacrifices, if you don't like doing hair, like taking trainings and doing all these sacrifices and working hard, because it's not gonna be easy, you're gonna be doing a lot of practices, being on your feet all day long for many hours, if you don't want to do all that, just do not start your training. Do not take, don't be a hairstylist. Go do something else. I was young, in my early 20s, and I thought, you know what, I'm gonna do this because I love doing hair. I've been doing my friends since I was a little girl. That advice really stuck with me because it made me realize that if you don't love what you do and the sacrifices that come with it, you won't succeed in this field.

First, they have to love doing what they're gonna do. If they love hair, that's the first sign. If you're just getting into the field just to try to make money or to have whatever, that's not gonna work. You have to love helping others and doing hair, like making somebody feel good about themselves, about their hair. If they start feeling like that since the beginning, that's a sign that that's for you. When you start doing all the trainings, if you enjoy them, that's great. If you don't enjoy them, just leave and go somewhere else where you're gonna love what you're gonna do, because this field is not easy. You work very hard, and you do trainings after training because new things and new products come, and you have to keep on top of all that. If you don't love it, you're not gonna enjoy it. You're gonna be miserable because you have to stand all day long, you have to be working with not just your hands but also listening to clients at the same time and trying to make them feel good, advise them about their hair, know what you're talking about with each product, show them how to do it. There's a lot of things that you have to be doing at the same time if you want to be good at it.

The biggest challenge is financial, especially when you're starting. Usually when you start doing hair, it's challenging because you don't have a base clientele and you don't know how much money you're gonna be making. Every single day is different. Some days you can do few clients, some days you can do nothing, some days you can do more, so it's very unstable the first probably few years, let's say 3 to 5 years. After that, if you've been hanging there for 3 to 5 years, you made it. If you don't make those 3 to 5 years, most likely it's better for you to just move on and do something else, because that means they don't like you as a hairstylist. You have to give yourself 3 to 5 years. If you're building, if you have a decent amount of clients and they keep coming to you, that's a good sign. That means you're growing and you can be a great hairstylist. Otherwise, you just need to move out of the hairstyling business because most likely it's not gonna change much.

First, respect to others is very important, especially if you're working with a team. You have to have respect. And also, honesty is very important. I went through a very hard time with people stealing from me. Unfortunately, there are people that are not very honest and they don't have good values. I see that a lot in the hairstyling industry, especially with tools and color. I didn't understand that, and I left my scissors and everything on top of my station, and then when I come back, they were gone. Someone took them. So to me, honesty and respect in a place you work is very important to have. You need people that have good values, people that understand that you have to respect others, not just with stuff but with whatever they are, whatever they believe, not to be judgmental or gossiping. I always talk about it in my book. Gossiping is not for a professional hairstylist. Gossiping is for somebody that doesn't care about hairstyling because they're not helping the environment, they're not helping their clients, not helping others, so that's not part of hairstyling. And that's not respecting your career as a professional hairstylist. Also, being clean and having good hygiene are important. Those things are common sense to me, but some people don't have that. When you're training somebody or when you want an employee or you want to work with somebody, you have to know who they are and how they think, their values, if they believe in family, if they believe in respect, if they believe in God. You have to learn all these things to know who you're dealing with.