Meet Monica Ramirez

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Ramirez.

Monica, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started at Carlton Salon where I worked as an assistant to a stylist named Virginia Apuzzo who quickly became my mentor. She was fast, passionate, and dedicated to her clients. Because of her, I fell in love with the hair industry. After seven months of assisting, I got promoted to start with my own clientele. From there, I went on to do hair in many other salons in the Pasadena area but I had always dreamed of owning my own salon. However, as life went on I kept getting detoured or had to put my dream on hold.

Finally, after 22 years, the opportunity presented itself and with the support of family and friends Bravado Salon was created. Opening Bravado felt like such a huge accomplishment but unfortunately, this last year, with the pandemic, we were very close to closing our doors permanently. Luckily with the support of my friend and business partner Selene Hernandez, we were able to adapt our business to the COVID model of doing business. We became a mobile crew to see clients at their homes and thankfully our clients have been so amazing to us.

They have been supporting us tremendously through these rough times. We are extremely grateful to all the people that have made our dream stay alive.

My slogan is that “if I think I’ve learned it all, I should think of retiring. But a hairstylist never stops learning”.

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?
It most definitely was not a smooth road. As soon as I was able to have a clientele of my own, I struggled immediately. There were days where I felt like quitting because I only did one client or no clients in a full 8 hour day. It took me three years to build a clientele sustainable enough for me to live off of. However, I owe my whole career to those years where I felt like quitting and finding another career. I learned so much about my profession and myself during those years. Another struggle I had to go through was when my husband lost his job due to the 2008 housing crisis. I had to work long days and hardly had a day off in order to support my family. However, the housing crisis didn’t only make me the sole breadwinner for my family, it also caused me to lose 1/3 of my clientele. After losing a big chunk of my clientele it took me another several years to build my clientele back up. Covid has also been a struggle since there was so much back and forth with our industry. We almost had to close our doors because we didn’t have enough house calls to pay our rent. Looking back at all these struggles though, the road I’ve had to take to where I am now has definitely been worth it. I thank mostly my family and friends but without our clients, our salon would not exist. I have so much gratitude for my clients for allowing me to live out my dream.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a hair designer. I specialize in color and styling. I’m known for highlighting techniques and color design. What sets me apart from others is that I do what I do out of love to hair not for how much I would charge. I rather let a client walk away without getting their hair done than getting bad reputation. My clients are my walking portfolio and business card.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I hate to give advice to people. This industry is not a one size fits all. I would probably just say love what you do and do it with passion, dedication and integrity. Everything else would follow!

Pricing:

• Haircuts $75
• Color starts at $80 & up
• Highlights $120 & up
• Balayage $180 & up
• Extensions $180 & up

Contact Info:

• Email: Info@bravadosalon.com
• Website: bravadosalon.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/bravadosalon?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bravadosalon/