Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erickson Arrunategui. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Erickson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I think it takes drive and resilience to be successful. You have to want it bad enough but also be willing to put in the work. The most successful people in the world had many doors close in their face, and failed many times.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Erickson I am a celebrity hairstylist. I was raised in queens New York.
From as long as I can remember I was always drawn to hair. As a kid I loved any toy or doll that had hair. I would sneak into my older sister’s room to take dolls from her doll house to style, once my parents realized I started asking for my own dolls for Christmas. I remember falling in love with Bratz dolls cause they had big heads with 3 times the hair as Barbie. Once I got my first Bratz doll you couldn’t get a pair of scissors or blowdryer out of my hands.
When my younger sisters were born we would play dress up and i would replicate the styles I practiced on their hair and put outfits together, do their makeup. And then have a full photoshoot in the living room. I didn’t realize it then, but I was foreshadowing what my future would look like. Eventually my older sisters and mom started asking me to style their hair, and before I knew it I was 13 styling all of my families hair for the holidays or any family event.
When I was 19 I went to beauty school, and I remember being so nervous and shy. I thought maybe my family just said I was good at hair to be supportive, but it was the first time I would really do hair in front of professionals and strangers. Before then it was something I did at home for fun. But now it felt more real. To my surprise I had the same response from instructors and classmates. Everyone would ask me to style their hair on fridays when we had free time. And eventually I started making connections with other stylist who were working in the industry. Up till this point hair was a hobby, I didn’t know it could be a career, but after leaving beauty school I started getting asked to work small shoots and fashion shows. Then I got asked to work on a Beyoncé music video. Pop music and pop artist were always so inspiring to me so this blew my mind. To be on set of a music video and with Beyoncé was something I could’ve only dreamed of. I freelanced for about a year but wanted more education so started looking into working at a salon.
I worked at a salon for about two years, but it was not the healthiest environment. My boss and his old assistant were so toxic and made me question if this was the right career for me. I didn’t want to quit cause at that time I thought that’s just how the industry was, and I wasn’t a quitter. But I eventually built up the strength to leave. I ended up interviewing at bumble and bumble salon. When deciding to leave my previous salon, I remembered what one of my instructors said to me during a cutting class one day, she asked who taught me how to cut hair, and when I hesitantly said “I did” she looked shocked , but said I would be perfect for bumble and bumble. She said my cutting style matched their aesthetic. I decided I had to interview there and I got the job! Once I found the right salon for me I think things started to fall into place. I started assisting, and taking classes. I was like a sponge, soaking up everything all the senior stylist told me.
I began assisting for fashion week, and eventually got promoted to a junior stylist. I was building pretty fast, and started cutting a lot of beauty editors hair and influencers from New York. I didn’t realize at the time but they were all writing about me in their blogs or magazines. It was also around the time when Instagram was really taking off, so they would share photos of my cuts and before I knew it I had clients coming in asking for my haircuts. It felt surreal. I decided to start using Instagram to show all my work, I bought a camera, and would have full photo shoots in the salon after each haircut. I also started assisting a lot more and networking.
As I was building a name in the salon, I was building my portfolio on Instagram.
Eventually I started getting request from agencies, and was about to take my career to the next level when the pandemic happened. Everything shut down and I really didn’t know what was going to happen. I had all these goals that I was working towards but couldn’t leave my house. When things opened up I started doing test shoots. I messaged every photographer I wanted to work with and offered to work for free. I also jumped back in to assisting, and before I knew it my work was being featured in magazines.
When things started to pick up and New York started to have events again, I went right back to working fashion week and got invited to a party for Instagram from one of my favorite clients. At the party she introduced me to all the photographers and makeup artist and hairstylist. One of the makeup artist I was so excited to meet that day Katie Jane Hughes asked me to style her hair for some social stuff. We were both craving a creative day and just wanted to play with hair and makeup, the day came and she asked if I was free for a client before our shoot, it was for the supermodel Ashley Graham. I’ve assisted on jobs with Ashley before but it was the first time I would be working with her as a lead artist. I started working with her and the rest is history.
I think what sets me apart from others is how personal what I do is to me, for some it could be just Hair, but hair is my whole life. And getting to create is my therapy. It’s what makes me feel whole.
Im most proud of how far I’ve come, as a kid a could’ve only dreamed of doing what I’m doing now. I didnt have any examples or role models to look at. So to have achieved all I have and found a way to get to this point still makes me emotional.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of what I do is how you make people feel, hair is so personal. I also love getting to create with other artist/creatives. Getting to collaborate with my clients, stylist, makeup artist, creative directors is so special. My favorite feeling in the world is the moment it all comes together.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
For me social media was a way to express my creativity. I started building organically. I would just share my work and what I loved. But I remember when i realized how important it was to my business I decided to be super consistent with it. I started giving myself goals for the week. Like I would say I need to post at least 3 times this week, and eventually it became once a day. With social media I think the two most important things are authenticity and consistency
Contact Info:
