We recently connected with Pearl Acevedo and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pearl, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Oh Definitely! I started off in retail and I met great people along the way but I wish I had the courage to just pursue my hair career full time from the beginning. I let fear hold me back which delayed my creative growth. I feel so motivated now and even more passionate now as Im full time that at times I feel like I wasted so much time and unfortunately time is one thing you don’t get back.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Im a Los Angeles Hair Artist based in Baldwin Park. I actually help my sister manage our own salon LUX House Of Beauty. In many people’s eyes we are co-owners but I truly and honestly feel that I’m more of a manager and artist as she has done a tremendous job running the business as I caved into insecurity, burn out and fear. I’ve been licensed for about 15 years but been a behind the chair artist for 12 years as I started part time and getting to know the hair industry.
I specialize in Hispanic/ Latina hair which to many is the most challenging. But myself being Hispanic I wanted to strive in an area that others would turn away from and that I can personally relate to. That is something that I’m extremely proud of. I’ve had guests in my chair that have been turned away from other artists because their hair is too thick or too dark so when a guest shows extreme gratitude for not only allowing them to get their hair done with ease but giving them the result they’ve been wanting, truly gives me so much joy!
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social Media has played such an active role on how I grew my clientele and became known as an artist. And I’m honestly still learning on how to utilize social media for presence and growth. When I was starting as a hair artist I was relying heavily on walk ins and it was not providing me the income and experience I needed. Which is why I always kept another job to be safe. But when I made the decision to start posting on Instagram my before and afters, I not only started seeing my following grow but I started receiving DMs about hair inquiries and bookings. My art started to get recognized. I can now say that about 80% of my guests have been from Instagram and the other 20% has been from referrals. That’s huge! So now I make sure my presence whether it’s hair or simply my day to day activities, is active. I do take social media breaks from time to time cause it does take a lot from me to even at times post myself even though nobody believes me lol (a lot of my friends and clients say I’m a natural when I post a video or something about myself but I’m way to self conscious). But I do know that most of my following is because they love my art and they love seeing who is behind the art. If I posted only hair every single time I think it would be non authentic. Which is why my name is pearlloveshair because there’s more to just doing hair there’s a true love behind it so they need to see who is behind it which is me! It’s a connection honestly. So if I could give advice to someone who is starting out is to not take social media for granted. To be active and be authentic. Something I have to remind myself constantly.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding, wow there’s so many. One of them is building a career off of my art. I’ve met people in the hair industry that did it for the money and now have completely shifted to doing something completely different. Why? Because they didn’t love it. They weren’t passionate about it. I have been able to follow my passion and do something I love and I make a living off of it. To me that’s super rewarding cause I go to work happy and seeing my guests makes me happy. Seeing the other artists makes me happy. Not many people can say that about their jobs. Not many people have the opportunity to follow their passion and earn a living from it. I’m not going to say it’s easy or has been easy cause oh boy has there been many struggles and challenges but one thing I can say is that my love for doing hair has not died down and I work hard to not let it. Another reward is working alongside my sister. People always say don’t mix business with family. And like other siblings we have our ups and downs but we have been able to push through certain challenges and we have a great time being together and learning together. I think she gets sick of me more than I do lol but at the end of the day I want her dreams to come true and she wants the same for me and that is such a rewarding feeling. And finally, it’s rewarding to be able to build connections with my clients. When they tell me that they are so happy to see me and that I always deliver the results they want, it’s such a high that I can’t explain. I never get tired of expressing my gratitude to my wonderful guests. Because without them there would be no pearlloveshair. I’ve been able to laugh with them, cry with them, and simply just be there for them in more ways than just doing their hair and to me that is so meaningful that I don’t want it to go away.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.luxhouseofbeauty.com
- Instagram: Pearlloveshair
- Other: TikTok: pearlloveshair