Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Abraham Bayron. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Abraham , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is an extension of a long time mentor and friend in the industry, John Turnage owner of Paul Mitchell the School San Antonio. “To create technically strong professionals that have been given the skill sets to be successful in the beauty industry”. What the general public doesn’t realize is that in our Cosmetology school career, the only training students need by The Department of Education standard is to be trained on how to pass their state board exams, and have recently reduced the education hours needed throughout the nation. In reality being a hairdresser is much more complex than sanitation and how to properly wrap a perm. As an educator and salon suite owner, every moment I spend with a student or guest (client) I see as a coaching opportunity. From how to have a powerful consultation, to identifying guests needs, managing expectations and identifying guest challenges so we can offer solutions custom to their situations. Just how social media influencers say “everything is content” I believe that there are coaching opportunities in everything we do behind the chair- myself included and I’m blessed to have the right people in my corner that always challenge me to grow as well.

Abraham , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My introduction to the beauty industry came from a friendship that developed when I was working as a Teller at a Credit Union. At this point in my life (I was about 18) I was unsure of what I would do with my future. I assumed that I would grow within the company I was working for at the time since that seemed like the logical thing to do but had no passion for the banking industry. However, through this friendship I met Lourdes Colon and at the time she was the Owner/Operator of Hair Express in Milwaukee, WI. She was the first hairdresser and self employed person I’d ever met and I admired how successful she was with her business but often much more impressed with how she made all of her clients feel when they were in her chair. Lourdes became like family to me so I spend a lot of my downtime in her salon where a day of work there seemed to be like a great time connecting with people, so she unknowingly sparked my interest in being a part of the industry. I knew that I wanted to make people feel as good about themselves just like she did day in and day out. Being that I knew little to nothing about the artistry of hair, I looked into the best schools to get the best training possible and landed with Paul Mitchell the School in San Antonio, TX. I began my education the summer of 2008 and being 24 at the time seeing people my age graduating college I felt I had to work twice as hard to “catch up” with those around me so I studied and practiced the craft as much and as often as possible. My time at the Paul Mitchell school really empowered me and gave me the confidence I needed with the craft which is where I fell in love with Education. As soon as I graduated, I was working in my first salon and decided to continue my education and become a licensed Operator Instructor thus my educator carrer was born. I’ve been employed with the Paul Mitchell School since 2010 and ventured into Salon Suite ownership of The Primary Color Lab in 2019. I chose that name (The Primary Color Lab) because of my time as a Color trainer for Paul Mitchell Advanced Education where I was part of a team that trained Paul Mitchell educators across the nation best practices on how to teach their students. When the pandemic hit my business thankfully survived, and continues to grow to this day. My goal in the next year or so will be to have a brick and mortar where I can not only continue to provide my guests with great service but to continue to mentor the future of this industry. I strongly believe that a great educator has their hands on the heartbeat of the industry and trends so I feel that being behind the chair allows me to provide just that with the hairdressers around me as well as being a mentor for our Future Professionals and our Guests alike.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There’s an old saying that goes something like “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans”. I mention this because in 2010 as a brand new educator my plan was to live out the rest of my days teaching in a Paul Mitchell School, and I even had the dream of opening one at one point. As an educator, I had the pleasure to work in different areas starting as a Texture specialist, where we taught Permanent Waves and Relaxers, Upstyles, Blowdry and Finishing techniques etc. Then the need to teach the artistry of Makeup arose, I said yes and again the need for a Color and Cutting became a need and I was happy to do those as well. Thankfully that molded me into a well rounded educator so after several years I became the Education Leader where my responsibility was to primarily train the team of educators and assist them with any of their needs. As I continued to grow within the company, I started feeling like something was missing but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was because on paper my career was thriving. This is when I had to reflect and take a look at the direction of my career and had the realization that the more I advanced in the education realm, the opportunities to live in the actual craft of teaching and actually doing hair became less and less frequent. This is where the birth of The Primary Color Lab came about as I just wanted to have my hands in hair and be a trainer. The two things that keep my cup full.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In an ever changing world, consistency can be a foe or a friend. As we all learned in one way or another after living through the pandemic that change is sometimes needed. Some businesses were considered essential and continued with little to no interruption, some businesses such as education had to venture to newer online platforms, other businesses like salons were closed for various lengths of times which in Texas was roughly 7 weeks. At this point I knew that business behind the chair couldn’t continue as per usual because so much had changed so quickly. I started by eliminating double booking in my suite in order for my guests to feel more comfortable coming in for their services (with a small service price increase), a lot of people might see this as counterproductive as a hairdresser, but it meant that everyone in my suite knew that I cared about their wellbeing in those times of uncertainty. I also kept an eye on high demand days and noticed the drastic drop of the need of Saturday appointments. Makes sense when typical weekend events/activities aren’t happening as much so I did what most hairdressers deem as a career limiting move and took Saturdays off the table. With that however, I added more weekday opportunities as well as later appointment availability to allow for those that work the time they would need to come afterwards. I’m happy to announce that its been a win-win for the guests and myself because work/life balance is restored.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.vagaro.com/theprimarycolorlab
• Instagram: Thebaldhairdresser_