Today we’d like to introduce you to Darcio Fao.
Darcio, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have had a strong passion for hair and styling ever since I was a child. Being that several people in my family are hair dressers, I was naturally exposed to the profession from a very young age. Both my grandfather and my mother are known and established hairdressers in Brazil. In that sense, I was surrounded by eager clients, hair salons, and hairstyling throughout my childhood. In fact, at the age of 14, I started my first official job at my mother’s hair studio, working as a hairdresser. As it turned out, I was starting to show a natural talent for hair and styling and during this time, my main responsibility was to help create custom-tailored wigs especially made for clients with terminal illnesses. Being able to help clients transform their look and being able to witness a constant sense of happiness and joy brought forth by my job made me more passionate about it and I decided to turn hairstyling into a lifetime career.
At the age of 21, I opened my own hair salon. The decision to open my own hair salon was the result of 14 years of hard and persistent work in the Hair Styling business. I started in a space of 52 square feet with 2 employees and worked my way up to a space of 1700 square feet and around 50 employees. In my country Brazil, I earned a reputation as the “King of Blonde Hair”, since, although I consider myself to be an all-around professional when it comes to hair coloring, blonde coloring tends to be my specialty.
Throughout the years, I have acquired a lot of knowledge because I am naturally very curious and eager to learn new things. I have attended some of the biggest hair fairs, e.g., Tony Guy, Vidal Sassoon, Longueras and so on. During the last 5 years of living in Brazil, I had the great honor to be part of the select group of master hairdressers with its main headquarters located in Paris called INTERCOIFFURE MONDIAL.
In 2015, my family and I decided to embark on a new adventure, so we moved to Los Angeles. I felt that it was time for me to explore new horizons, get to know new cultures, new ways of thinking and working. Basically, I felt that it was time to introduce the American hair stylist market to Darcio Couffer’s hair knowledge and professionalism.
Moving to a completely new country, learning the language and establishing a clientele has been a challenge, however, I am proud to say that we have come a long way since 2015. Today, I can certainly say that I am living the American Dream.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge is to be far from my family and close friends to learn another idiom still a big obstacle.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
To live California dream doing what I love the most – HAIR.
Pricing:
- Highlights 150 to 290
- Cut 80 with blow-dry incluíded
Contact Info:
- Address: 1333 2nd street #100 studio 5 Santa Monica, CA
- Phone: 424-354-7907
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @darciocoiffeur
- Facebook: Darcio Nowitski fao
- Yelp: Darcio coiffeur
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