“Tell us about the very first moment you realized that you wanted a career in hair artistry. Was it your first haircut on a doll, an experiment with a friend’s hair, or something else?”
That first sparkle goes back way into early eighties, when I was a teenager.
I grew up in Orange County, in Anaheim.
When I was 13, I was into music and art.
Growing up, I did not spend too much time with my mom and dad because they were very busy working. They were both bankers in Los Angeles and had to always look professional head to toe. Their hair had to be perfect too!
So, on those days that my mom had to do her hair, I accompanied her to her hairdresser who was her close friend named Danny. He had a hair salon in Huntington Beach.
I loved going to Danny’s salon. The entire place and all receptionists and stylists always looked very modern and cool.
Each time we went there, he would show me the shirts that he painted using silk screening technique; also, he showed me the pictures of scenes that he created using Barbi dolls. He would make their hair and set them up like a poster.
Because I, too, did a lot of art myself like paintings, casts, and relief sculptures, I was impressed by his creativity and artistic talents.
One day, Danny cut my hair the same style as Duran Duran guitarist John Taylor. It was awesome.
Danny was quite famous among some celebrities for his unique modern style and new techniques that he invented.
One of his clients was Stacy Q, a singer, and a pop star.
Danny implemented a new way to do her extensions, “crimping” it with a curling iron that looked kind of like a zigzag. Nobody had seen such technic done before.
Unfortunately, Stacy Q ended her singing career shortly after Danny died, he was like a brother to her.
I started looking to possibly going into a cosmetology school.
Luckily, there was one nearby my high school in Anaheim. I dreamed of being Danny’s assistant, but shortly after I started the cosmetology school, Danny had passed away. I was about 15 at that time.