Life & Work with Fallon Scherzinger of Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Fallon Scherzinger.

Hi Fallon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It wasn’t until I turned 30 that I realized I’d live a much happier life if I finally pulled the trigger on starting a career in hairstyling. Being the only child of a single, immigrant mother, I’ve always been very motivated to work, and since I was legally allowed to (age 14 in California) I had been working any place that would hire me, very much in survival mode. This led to plenty of retail, food service and odd jobs, but I always wanted to do something more creative and have more of a career than a job, that I could continue to learn and grow in for the rest of my life. Something that also felt a bit more stable and something that I could be more in control of.
I’ve always wanted to do hair and was always a bit judgemental of it as well… which came from that song from Grease “Beauty School Drop Out” (I’m not joking!) Ridiculous, but young minds are so maleable, ha!
Finally when I turned 30, 16 years after entering the work force, I ran out of excuses to give myself and I signed up. Luckily at that point, I had worked at the same restaurant for 4 years and got along with management who was extremely accommodating with the schedule I needed. I’m not sure what I would have done without their support because the cosmetology course’s schedule was NOT flexible, and not earning money while I was in school was not an option. So I’m very grateful for that.
I don’t think I had a day off for 4 years, and I worked doubles most days. I took a job assisting a senior stylist after getting my cosmetology license while keeping my restaurant job at night, because I did well in school, but was fully aware that I still had a lot to learn.
Close to what was supposed to be the end of my assisting era, the pandemic hit. I had been taking my own clients during my 2 days off from assisting, and slowly began to build a clientele from there. Luckily after lockdown, the few clients I had, I retained.
My experience working in salons was short, and not a good one. I found, in my very personal experience, that the few places I had worked in were not places I felt I could thrive in. I did find a lot of inspiration from co workers who were insanely talented, but realized I could still seek out people to learn from as well as rent a salon suite and become an independent hair stylist.
So that’s what I did. At the beginning of 2022, I started renting a suite with 3 other suite-mates, and this year (2025) was the first year I could afford to be in my own suite.
I’ve also been very aware of how quickly things can change (mostly financially) and have had a few set backs throughout my journey so far, but luckily this year, at 39, was also the year I felt stable enough to finally quit my food service job, and I cannot express how happy and accomplished I feel. To focus on refining who I am as a stylist with no other distractions is amazing. I’m so happy. I love my job. And I’m so happy 30 year old me said f it, let’s go!!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not smooth at all! I was always scared that I was going to have a financial emergency while I was putting myself through cosmetology school. I was living paycheck to paycheck for years. I was working every day and I was exhausted, but I was lucky that while I was in school, that didn’t happen.
A year into assisting, I was actually offered a position officially working for what I thought was going to be my dream salon, which is where the senior stylist who I was assisting worked. For some reason, when I started to get everything in order, the offer was retracted. I’ll never know the full story of what happened there, or why they regretted asking me, but I do remember them being a bit gaslighty, saying I had misunderstood, despite there being weeks of conversation surrounding that topic. Seems like pretty typical corporate workplace behavior, so I kept assisting, but I was heartbroken, and my plans changed after that.
Then at the end of 2022 when I had begun sharing a salon suite, I finally felt like I was gaining a lot of momentum and I had an accident. This is a bit graphic and I apologize, but I severed a tendon in the index finger on my dominant hand. I had to have surgery immediately, and wasn’t allowed to move my hand (much less work) for months. My hand atrophied and then didn’t heal properly, and the whole time I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to do hair again. I had no idea what the outcome would be, and that was hands down (no pun intended) the most depressed I’ve ever been. Thankfully I’m able to work around my index finger being useless and turns out it doesn’t affect me professionally at all! Coming back was a slow process though, my hand wasn’t strong and I was very limited with what I could do, so I had to chase momentum a second time. Since full recovery was so long, I inevitably did lose some clients who couldn’t afford to wait for me to heal.
I’m still paying off the debt from my injury to this day, and I have a good chunk to go. Grateful my credit was good enough to have allowed me all those cards, and my boyfriend at the time helped me pay off what he could, and some friends donated and were able to pay for an MRI I needed, and my mother, who lives out of the country, pitched in with what she could as well, and mostly helped out with food I needed. So it definitely could have been a lot worse, and a lot of amazing people came through and I’m forever grateful for their support, but I’m going to have a huge celebration when I finally pay off my debt from that time. Soon. Soon.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I do hair cuts and hair color in Hollywood. I am a razor cutting specialist and love practical, effortless looks. I love hair’s natural texture, I will always try to convince you to get bangs, and try and make it as low maintenance as possible, however I do love the juxtaposition of bold, bright color, and color blocking (basically, color that looks unnatural!)
I’m most proud when people “feel like themselves” after I’m done. It’s a point of pride for me to really listen and try to execute carefully. I NEVER rush and really enjoy every moment of my appointments. I love refining, really carving out an ideal face frame or the zen that blow drying brings. And I think that’s exactly what sets me apart.. really enjoying every moment and taking my time with it. My clients’ hair feels like my little babies!
I’m also always open to hearing criticism and encourage my clients to be honest with me. I never want to be stagnant and no matter how good I get , I can always improve.
I’ve worked so many jobs that I don’t enjoy, so I’m incredibly grateful that I get to do this for a living and want to be the best I can be.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I feel like the biggest change is going to be more and more stylists going the independent route. I feel like, in a way, social media has shifted focus from the salon as a whole to the individual, and because many salons can’t or won’t pay their employees a livable wage, it makes sense that stylists are going to break free from that.
I really hope people do well financially and the economy improves… and soon, because getting your hair done is a luxury and all of us in the industry are very aware of that. I would really like everyone to thrive and be comfortable so we can all thrive together! It’s definitely worrisome when people aren’t doing well in general and of course for many reasons that are far more important, but also because our industry depends on it. So fingers crossed, everyone! Support local, shop local 😉

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fallonwithscissors
• Other: TikTok @fallonwithscissors

Image Credits
I took all images.