Rising Stars: Meet Tony Nunez-Ibarra

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Nunez-Ibarra.

Hi Tony, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a child, I was influenced by my mom & grandmother who was a total glamour girl, she always had her nails glossy red, hair and makeup was always done. As a result, when I was about ten years old my grandma would need help perming her, sometimes color too and I would step in to help her. As I grew older, I started taking more interest in cosmetology and started to consider it as a career.

However at the time, I was very timid to be my truest self, I knew no one who was a hairstylist therefore I didn’t see how I would make a living. But I loved the glits and glamour and all that is pop culture. At age 18, I enrolled myself into cosmetology school, surprisingly it was second option I initially wanted to go to school for something in the medical field. After some thought and debate one of my good friends questioned me why are you doing that? You have a talent and you’re hiding it. That week I went behind my mom’s back and I took a bus to enroll into Marinello School of Beaut in Moreno Valley, CA. At the time, I did not know what I was doing and I was so scared committing myself financially to put myself thru school on my minimum wage job at McDonald’s, but I was determined, I knew what my calling was, & nothing was going to stop me. When I turned 22 years old, I got fired from my long time job McDonald’s & something switched in my head. I was tired of making insufficient amount of money that wasn’t fitting with my lifestyle anymore, life is expensive. I told myself, “Tony how do you expect to be where you wanna go if you’re not working towards it now”. That very day I went to a local salon in our McDonalds parking lot and I asked for a job booth renting, which is a huge risk, but with the very few clients I had I started working and lil by lil my clientele grew.

Within about 9mo-1yr I pushed myself to attend hair classes & hair conventions, as time passed my work got better my clientele grew, I was ready to move out, my worker and I were both hungry to grow and we got our very first Phenix Salon Suite in Riverside, CA. While I was there, I met my very first influencers @ann_ette69 & @Jen_ny69 and they starting booking me for photoshoots, once I got a taste of photoshoots on set type of work, wigs& I just about fell in love. It was then that I knew for a fact that’s what I wanted to, onset photoshoot type of work. As the years I passed, my influencer roster grew, until now. I now currently work with a lot of big named influencers focusing mainly in the beauty world, makeup campaigns. I also work with Chiquis Rivera on a tv show called Tengo Talento Mucho Talento. I stopped taking in salon clients back in June 2019 another leap of faith and I don’t regret it, I get to travel with my clients, I get to be on set, I get a behind the scenes glimpse of the tv, beauty, & YouTube world, I couldn’t be happier than where I’m at now.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
While in beauty school, I had some tough times I had no car to get around. I depended on public transportation and asking my friends for rides while carrying my whole school kit. I worked every night five days a week at McDonald’s. I took on as many extra hrs as I could to be able to pay for school in return, I had some nights I barely slept for school the next morning. As tiring as it may sound I was happy, I was happy to be in school doing something that I love. Once I completed beauty school, I couldn’t see myself in a salon. IT WASNT IN MY VISION. I didn’t enjoy color, even though I understood color very well I just couldn’t enjoy it, I couldn’t get into it. I just wanted to be a Hairstylist, a celebrity hairstylist, styling hair only. I spent three years of my career working odd jobs, McDonald’s, Sallys beauty supply, TJ Maxx, I always did hair on side though, my first love hair. Of course I overcame my fears of color and conquered color and grew the greater part of my clientele offering color services.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a hairstylist, I specialize in making women feel there BEST! I specialize in ONSET styling, wig work, and blending short hair into long Lucious locks. My most proudest moment was my very first award show with Chiquis Rivera in Dallas. I believe it was called Premio de la Radio which is an award show dedicated to Mexican artists (Spanish music) it was a 3hr show and I have to complete four very different hairstylists for live tv. It was intense I had no assistant.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can always follow me on Instagram @tonywonderhandsss like comment and share my work it cost nothing! I welcome anyone who loves my works to reach out, email me or my booking at agent, or if anyone ever wants to shoot me a message on Instagram or a text me, my info is always posted.

Contact Info:

• Email: tonywonderhandsss@gmail.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/tonywonderhandsss?igshid=2j9outf2z4vtl