Meet Sarah Buckley | Hairstylist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Buckley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
A few years ago my mentor and I started doing community outreach offering free haircuts to those down on their luck. We’re fortunate to have a skill that can be performed so easily yet have such an impact on ones life. Most people just want to be heard. As hairstylists this is a huge part of our job.

We’ve done haircut pop ups all over the city from Venice to DTLA but most recently shifted our focus to MacArthur Park where we set up once a month. We have our regulars there now,
I love seeing them each month. I realize we’re not changing the world but its something we can offer that as an immediate impact.

I heard this quote recently, “learn from the best, make it your own, return it to your community” it really stuck with me. I firmly believe one will never be happy unless we give back and giving back to our community is the only way I see society moving forward.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I started cutting hair at 19 years old, I was in fashion school at the time, this ended up being my career path for 15+ years but almost every weekend I would be cutting the heads of many friends, I had no idea what I was doing but found it so fulfilling.
At around 30 years old I finally found an amazing hairstylist who understood my thick curly hair, I would pay close attention to his every snip and he opened my eyes to seeing hairdressing as a true art form.
Around this time I became more and more interested in wanting to pursue hairdressing as a new career, this was terrifying, I was in my mid-thirties, had a baby, no money and lived in a one bedroom apartment in East Hollywood. I don’t really know what the push was but after some deliberation I enrolled in barber school, I commuted to the deep valley five days a week, 10 days in I walked out in tears because it was a boys club and they treated me like shit.
I pulled myself together and drove directly to Toni & Guy knowing full well I could never afford a school of that caliber, as soon as I walked in I knew Toni & Guy was the school for me. I enrolled on the spot, managed to get some financial aid and made payments on the balance.

Career changing was the single best decision of my life, though it was one hell of a difficult path, for the year I was in school I spent 30 hours a week there and worked a high stress job 30 hours a week, upon graduation I realized it would take time to build a clientele so I kept my other job part time for 4 years.

Almost 6 years in I’m finally in a position to be doing hair full time and I couldn’t be happier.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’d start with a hike up to the observatory, stop at Trails Cafe on the way down and get a coffee with their house-made almond milk. From there we’d head downtown, park in the jewelry district and walk all over DTLA. Catch the show at my favorite gallery These Days, head up to the roof of the Ace Hotel, maybe have a swim. Walk over to Grand Central Market, get Ramenhood for dinner, cross over to Angels Flight and take that up, walk back down to the car passing Disney Concert Hall. Then we’d head over to Stories Books and Cafe to shop and drink, walk down to Echo Park Lake and ride the swan boats…though this isn’t too much for my day it may be for others so this is basically a week worth of entertainment!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mentor of the past several years, Julio Romano.

Instagram: @_hair_ah_

Image Credits
Justin Williams @nappinginpoverty Steph Holt @stephholt