Daily Inspiration: Meet Joey Nieves

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Nieves.

Hi Joey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story started many years ago in Puerto Rico. I was very creative and artistic, loved architecture , art, music & fashion, I guess those are the key elements that structured my career. I did considered myself very ahead of my time when I started in the mid 90’s , I was always looking for more, something like an alternative to the experiences on an island, even though I was raised in the US for a huge part of my childhood (east coast between NY & Connecticut) , I knew I needed more than what PR provided. I acquired much experience in my early years cutting hair in Puerto Rico and made the best of every opportunity given to me. After meeting a tv & music video director in my chair I got involved in the entertainment industry. This director became one of my close friends and I started going with him to scout locations for his shootings. I was patient enough to not push anything or force myself for him to hire me until it happened organically and just like that one day he asked me if I wanted to work on a music video, but not as a hairstylist but as a PA (production assistant) which is a cute word for “I was hired to carry stuff, clean everything, deliver water , food and everything in between, in other words I was the production errands boy, oh and I forgot to mention that I was being payed $100 per day, yeah, lovely. Anyway continuing my story , during that video shoot for a very famous salsa singer from PR an opportunity came along via that the hairdresser hired for the video was awful and I mean terrible, so bad that at one point the artist was frustrated inside his dressing room trying to fix the helmet head the stylist had given him, when I went to bring him his lunch I came across a scene of him arguing with the mirror, I dropped the food extremely fast and tried to bolt out of there but the artist was kind enough (maybe he felt sorry for me) and invited me to stay there with him and keep him company while he ate and also so I could eat my lunch there with air conditioner and not melt in the screeching Puertorican heat (we where filming in Old San Juan in the summer).
As I was trying to devour my lunch and finish quick he kept talking about not wanting to let the hairstylist outside touch his hair because his hair was very thick and it looked like a helmet so I went on to explain or kind of give him some advice on how to manipulate the thickness of his hair so he had more control, I explained step by step so he then asked why did I knew so much about hair? I told him what I did for a living and that because of that I was friends with the director of his music video, the next thing he did was to ask me directly to fix his hair for him, I got a bit nervous because the director as good as a friend he was I knew he would get upset at the fact that his PA touched the talent’s hair but the artist insisted so I proceeded to fix it and he loved it. I have to say that the director let me have it and told me that by contract I couldn’t do that but because the artist actually came on my defense and took responsibility for asking me it was ok in the end.

A few weeks later this artist record label called me and asked me if I wanted to cut his hair and style him for the cover of his upcoming album (back when people still made CD’s) , after that all I can say is that the rest was history, I did the album cover and the director started to hire me as the main hairdresser in all his music videos, I even learned how to do makeup so he would have the need to also recruit me and a makeup artist, I wanted to make sure I was able to do both. From there my career started to rise and many of the artist I was meeting at video shoots would hire me independently and many of them wanted my exclusivity, and for a while I did.
I started traveling outside the island and going on tours with them, everything seemed to be working out , I knew I was about to embark in an amazing long career, I just knew it.

The next few years after that where filled with travels, editorials, tours , music videos and everything in between, I even found some time to attend college at night to study psychology at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico in Cupey and during that period I fell in love and fell out of love (working too much got in the way).
I was during this period that I got really bored with the industry and even having such a successful and busy career it didn’t help. As my career peaked everything else was feeling like moving in slow motion but just in time the internet was booming and a little page called MySpace gave me another perspective on how to reach past the Caribbean Sea.
The Myspace connection brought me to Chicago and from there I took off !!
Moved to Miami, was hired by a marketing agency from NY to represent a major brand all over the US, this meant film festivals, fashion shows, pr campaigns , tv segments etc…
After the Miami period I decided to move to Los Angeles, given that at that time I was back and forth from Miami to LA, I decided that the best thing was to move permanently to the west coast.
In LA I started moving around getting to know the scene. I few years back when I was still in Miami I met a barber named Vince Garcia , he was the manager of a hair studio called Capsule , on Melrose Ave.
Vince reached out to me and asked me if I could do his wife’s hair, after doing her hair he asked me to join his team and that was the start of an amazing Journey here in Los Angeles.
After a few years at capsule we decided to go our own route and Grey matter was created.
Now 9 years later we have cemented our name in the industry around Los Angeles and beyond, working with recording artist being in charge of their image, being on the road touring with them, it’s just been an incredible ride. Is just incredible what consistency and passion can help you achieve. And I’m not done yet, after 28 years in the industry I feel like there’s much more to accomplish.
Right now i’m working non stop on our own perfume brand called The Grey Nose, it launched 8 years ago but every year it keeps improving and my main focus is to bring our niche perfume brand to streetwear culture.

Alright, 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?
There are always bumps in the road, but to be very honest and this is not a deflection of the question but I really focus on the positives and not those bumps. I’m really strong and capable of dismissing any setbacks , I don’t know exactly how to explain it but Im not the kind of person that easily gets offended or distracted by outside noise. People come to me and ask me frequently on how we have been able to sustain almost 10 years with the changing landscape of Los Angeles and I tell everyone they same thing , there’s always a solution. For real, I don’t know how I do most things during chaos but I always find a way, lets see what the next 10 years bring , I hope I can keep the streak going.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialized in Men’s grooming, personal care, image consulting. In the entertainment industry I work with celebrities , been doing it for over 20 years being in charge of glam department for many men artist in the music industry.
I don’t really like to talk too much about me, thats why completing these questions took me so long because I like for my work to do the talking. I did started in a era where instagram , Facebook or TikTok weren’t around so my growth was purely organic mainly relying on agents to book gigs for me and good ol school word of mouth, one artist will tell another and thats how it started , sometimes other colleagues will recommend me when they know they can’t do the job. I come from a very tight group of extremely talented hairdressers and barbers from Puerto Rico and this is how we do it, we really help each other out so many times an artist manager will call me and say “hi Joey such and such person gave me your info, would love for you to come and take care of our artist….etc” many times it starts like that.
One thing for sure, I take my work very very serious, my execution is flawless, my haircuts need to be precise and perfectly crafted, I like zero mistakes. My rates are at a premium price and I do NOT like to rush my work so each appointment I book is for 90 minutes.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Im a very quiet person, I like my alone time way too much, some people might think i’m extroverted and wild because of my fashion sense , the people I know or my tattoos but is totally the opposite. It comes as a surprise to many of my fellow Puertorican friends that I do NOT like salsa music at all, nada, not even one bit, I hate it. I like good things in life but I hate stupid luxury unnecessary things like Rolex watches, I think they are cheesy and just whack. I rather have a vintage watch with a beautiful leather band. My favorite music band ever is Radiohead. I hate conspiracy theories. I prefer winter to summer, I don’t like the beach, I prefer a snowy mountain 9 times out of 10. Im scared of heights and the Beatles are overrated.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greymatterla.com
• Instagram: @thecooljoey
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/grey-matter-los-angeles-2?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct
• Other: https://www.thegreynose.com