We were lucky to catch up with Mikey Giovanni recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mikey , appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

All through high school I knew I wanted to do hair. I got good grades during high school enough so to get into great colleges. My friends, classmates, teachers and even my parents doubted me in being able to make a living off doing hair. I always knew I’d be fine but never thought Id be doing this well. I went to hair school and immediately after finishing moved to Beverly Hills California to assist a colorist I worked with her for 2 years and after that started taking my own clients. I’ve been doing hair for 10 years now I am based in Beverly Hills and I currently travel to Dallas, jackson hole and Nashville doing clients. I proved everyone wrong and live a very nice lifestyle and am able to travel and enjoy my life comfortably from the business I created for myself.

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?

During high school the reality show laguna beach, and the hills were very popular. I remembered always being so fascinated with Southern California but LA more so. I loved it! all the glamour, the fast paced lifestyle and rush of the city. Growing up my mom ended up moving me and my sister to the country after my parents separated. Not only did I live in country but on a dairy farm and I remember thinking to myself I can’t wait to leave all of this and move to LA after high school, I would watch the hills and just be so obsessed with all the fun places they went and the celebrity lifestyle they had. I particularly loved the scenes of the girls always having their hair colored or extensions done. I thought to myself “ I want to do that as my job”. It didn’t come as a surprise to me that I enjoyed watching those parts of the shows because I was always coloring my hair from the age of 12 from having highlights at Supercuts done on me to going to the salon with my mom and having my hair done and then immediately the next day going to Sally’s beauty and buying at home bleach cause it wasn’t blonde enough or I wanted more. My mom wanted to kill me after she spent 80$ to have my hair professionally done and then I would end up just making it different days later. So during high school especially my junior and senior year I got great grades but always told my teachers and parents grades don’t matter to hair schools and all of this busy work was pointless. Teachers, classmates and even my parents always discouraged hair school and said at least go to junior college and get a degree first. Most people in my town even other hair stylists discouraged people getting their cosmetology license because it wouldn’t pay the bills or wouldn’t pay enough. It was really discouraging and honestly tough to keep the glimmer of hope I had for myself. It felt like no one believed in me. But one thing about myself is I love to prove people wrong. Senior year was coming to an end and my parents told me I wasn’t going to LA they wouldn’t pay for it or for me to move to LA when there was a hair school down the street from us. I was so disappointed and just wanted to get out of my small town not only because I wanted the glamorous lifestyle and to follow and pursue my dreams but because I was gay man living in a small farm town where I was constantly bullied my entire life. By the end of senior year I had convinced my mom to let me to San Francisco since it was close to home and they had one the best hair schools. I moved at the age of 18 to San Francisco by myself and went to Paul Mitchell hair school SFIEC to be exact. Truly this one of the top hair schools you can go to I was thrilled and so excited to just live in a big city and be doing what I dreamed of. For 11 months I went to school full time. Towards the end of school my mom told me that If I wanted to move to LA still after finishing she would help me. I graduated hair school and had my date set for my state board test 2 weeks after I graduated. the week after I graduated I went with my mom to LA to visit all the salons I wanted to work at ( all of the ones I saw on the hills) I went into about 5 salons that day and I remember getting a lot of No’s and come back after you are licensed. It was the end of the day and we were driving back through Beverly Hills and we passed by a salon Jonathan and George. My mom said, “ what about this one, do you want to go in” I said “ well it’s not on my list.” She looked at me and said go in, you never know! She waited in the car and I walked out after handing the manager my resume. I was walking back to the car when this guy who was sitting in the window ledge outside said “ hey what are doing here” I said looking for a job as an assistant. He says sit down I’m interviewing you. I sat down and about 5 minutes later he was waking me to my moms car and wanted to meet her. He looked at me and said I’m hiring him! Go back get your license and call me when you pass. That was one of the most exciting days of my life. I went back took my test, passed of course the first time and called him. He said to me on the phone that day you have a week to get here or I’ll give someone else the job. To make a long story short I moved that week slept on a couch of a guy I had never met, it was supposed to be very temporary and ended up living with him for 6 months while I worked as an assistant. 6 months went by and the guy I was working for was let go of the salon I was working at, but there was a colorist who I always admired how busy she was and how hard working she was. She was bi coastal and traveled doing hair in NYC and LA and SF. Her current assistant was getting ready to go on his own doing his own clients and she was looking for a new one. At our salon holiday party I had went up to her telling her I wanted the job, she told me no I was to new and not experienced enough. So I did what always do and didn’t take that answer, I said let me work for you for free the next couple days and please give me a shot. The first day I worked for her went smoothe and at the end of the day she said I have the job. THIS WAS TRULY MY DREAM JOB. I was so excited to work with her and learn from her, she was a celebrity colorist, she was in magazines and even had her own product line. I worked with her for 2 years traveling, learning my craft, and working my butt off. I truly believe she is the one responsible for giving me the work ethic I have today. It was finally time for me to go on my own. My boss at the time decided to open her own salon and I went with her and had my own chair at her salon. I finally did it, I finally was working in Beverly Hills and living the life I wanted so bad. That was about 8 years ago. I never thought I’d be where I am today. Since then I have built and extremely successful business for myself, I work in Dallas Texas, Jackson hole Wyoming , and Nashville taking clients. I specialize in hair extensions and hair color. My clients range from celebrities, to high profile producers and some of the top influencers.I couldn’t be more proud of the business I built, there were tons of sacrifices, late nights, no’s and discouraging moments but I persevered and never stopped until I created a successful business for myself. I am able to travel, enjoy life and save for my future with this career. Something I always knew was possible but not many did or believed I could. I hope my story inspires others to do whatever they set their heart on and to never give up especially when it gets hard because the reward of working hard and persevering is so worth it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During Covid. My career is all clients and dealing with people face to face. I was so scared about not being able to see my clients or how I was going to earn income. I eventually started making color kits and selling them to clients and doing FaceTime calls teaching them how to mix hair color and to apply it. I eventually moved to Dallas Texas for 2 years while things were closed in California and built clients in Texas because salons were open there.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Moving to Dallas during Covid, I didn’t know anyone and moved to another state completely alone. I was starting from scratch building a whole new clientele. I started in a single salon suite that was about 200 square feet. I was meeting clients through a hair stylist in the building who only cut hair. I teamed up with her and did all her clients color, eventually those clients told other clients and I grew the most successful beautiful clientele possible in Dallas. I now moved back to LA and continue to do my clients in Dallas every 5 weeks.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @coloredbyacowboy
• Facebook: Michael Giovanni