Meet Ava Shire

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ava Shire.

Hi Ava, 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?
This is how it seems to go after I’ve mulled over it all a minute. Growing up in a household of artists and surrounded by creativity and freedom of expression through both sides of my family while also allowing room for my own ways; my greatest gift in life. My exposure to art was not to be avoided. First contact with hair, 13, all girls catholic middle school summertime. Freedom of hair! My mom drove us to the beauty supply which was also a barber and salon. They let us buy bleach and my uncle’s store sold punky colors and manic panic. I did rainbow tips, highlights with caps and tones, my own hair in vivid colorful stripes. Which led me to my second hair career forming influence. My dad’s friend Teddy from high school. Born and raised third-generation Echo Park native is an important thing for my family and my story. We love our area and neighborhood and have met good kindred friends here. My formative experience with hair, and not just hair but fabulous hair, was Teddy Antolin. RIP. He was not only too much, he was the most. Ultimate high-end. Celebrity stylist to the fullest. We had Teddy Monday dinners for years and he would see me doing my friend’s hair. He suggested I do hair.

Shortly after went to a psychic guide. My parents were worried and not familiar with my pubescent and wild ways. This gal told me a few very real things and then that I would be a receptionist. I knew immediately she was a hack. The next day my mom took me to get my haircut and my hairstylist who I had also known through my family, my uncle, from when he was a rock n roller and owned a shop she worked at. She became a hairstylist. She needed a receptionist at her new salon. So now you see there were two things leading me to do hair. I got a receptionist position there and shortly after went to cosmetology school studied under one of Teddy’s mentors who was now a teacher in cosmetology school. I then assisted at many a Beverly Hills salon and two years later thought I hate this shit. It’s vapid and gross. I moved to the country in Texas and ran 10 acres for a year all the while realizing it’s not the hair it’s the area I was trying to do hair in, no offense to it. I moved back and ended up doing hair at the very salon that I was a receptionist before hair school. I stayed there almost six years before deciding to open my own creative space. I like that I can fix things expedited without having to ask. Haaa

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?
Well, isn’t it the bumps that make us tough, interesting, and experts? Interesting, like an onion. If it’s too easy and smooth and perfect, we may think we want it or it’s right, but then it doesn’t;t drive us. I like to think it’s not obstacles more challenges or just building character seems good. If it’s easy and smooth it’s not a great story and it’s a bore. It’s short and smooth like a wrinkle-less brain. That being said, it’s always riding waves and then there’s tsunamis like covid 19 and the taxation on small salon’s survival. Largest challenge thus far has been valuing the lives of my salon and mine as well as our financial survival and emotional welfare during a pandemic. We were and still are recouping from over half a year closed. The PPP was a joke and so on and here we are tough and chugging along. Creative personalities all under one roof a will to the end of time be a dooz of course. Last and big-time one is forgetting that it’s my life and so I’m the one making the challenge or obstacle so I’m the one that can jump that shit.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Nature is big for me. Reinvesting in my own small world replanting and working on yards. I’ve been into landscaping ND gardening since I was a small child. More recently, a floral graffiti art painter and live floral art arrangements kind of gal. We sell them at the salon and they are art but alive and you can help in growing them or keep the art if it dies. I’ve tied the two in and I believe they also connect with hair and painting as well. It’s all color and structure and shape. There’s chemistry in everything as well of course, but I attribute my knowledge of color which I use in all my work to my parents and growing up immersed in color. I love wash and wear hair. Cutting the hair to the best shape the client can recreate with ease and low effort while really representing their creative side. I also love vivid color and can produce a nice clean bob. Hair is the only thing we have when we have nothing else on to represent our style and personality. Accessory. I have a nice little space run by myself and two lovely ladies. I am also a ceramist and I make fancy shit and solid gold shit. We have a lovely creative atelier full of wonderful stylists doing a range of hair fully immersed in my art and hobby. I’m grateful it doesn’t drive them nuts.

How do you think about happiness?
There’s so many things, it’s a funny one because it’s asking for a very long list. Spending time outside creating with my 4.5 years old. Being able to walk to work and work amongst my family and fellow kindred spirits. A client who feels better after they leave be it hair or in emotion. A brand new idea working. A mural I painted last year and everyone walking by said it made them feel happy. New life thriving. Finishing a painting and I like it. Selling a giant fancy shit. Yeah.

Contact Info:

• Email: neighborhoodsalon@gmail.com
• Website: neighborhoodsalon.net
• Instagram: neighborhoodsalon / avashireava

Image Credits:
Jennifer Murray