Rising Stars: Meet Esther Olivares of San Dimas, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Olivares

Hi Esther, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It all started by my dad pushing me to do hair when I really wanted to be a lawyer. Who would think their dad would choose doing hair as a career then a lawyer for their child. I started beauty school when I was 16 with the ROP program they offered at school. Didn’t finish the program because I wanted to finish playing sports. I was still cutting my friends hair in the garage for $10. That’s how I was making money in HS. Once I graduated HS I made the attempt of trying out college but it wasn’t for me, my dad pushed me in finishing my hours to become licensed. I signed up for Marinello School of Beauty it was a 10 month program. The school was unfortunately terrible but I was thankful enough to have met Ms. Dee in school I have no idea what she saw in my 18yr old self but she would push me and make me work hard in school. Whenever she would see that I would get distracted by my peers she would call me and make me pick a magazine and recreate a style( updo) on my mannequin. Which thanks to her I’m really good at recreating pieces and styling hair. She also helped me train to pass my Stateboard exam on the first try. Which I am forever grateful for her. Once license I was looking around to work in a salon but I was terrified about working in one. How is a little kid going to be doing older woman’s hair. My insecurities got the best of me and never went into a salon, so I decided to take the freelancing route, I started doing runway hair and learned how to do makeup. I decided to go to makeup school to get better which eventually led me to do makeup for music videos by the time I was 24. Met my manager Robert Valentino and he would get me gigs. Then out of the blue Robert told me to learn how to cut men’s hair. I was like wait what? No way. In beauty school they gave me a full week to learn how to cut men’s hair. I was like theirs no way. He told me if I didn’t learn he wasn’t going to get me anymore gigs. I went looking for barber schools that had cross over program since I was a license cosmo. I decided not to enlist at a barber school due to me having to stay in school for 2-3 months full time and not be able to work. Thankfully the admin told me you’re already license go try out a Supercuts, I looked at her confused and she was like they pay for your schooling and pay you on top of that. I honestly didn’t see myself in a Supercuts but I had no other choice I started applying at got called back immediately at the Covina 1 location. I was 26 at the time when I interviewed and met Raquel, she loved me and hired me right away. I was trying to juggle working on set for makeup and working at Supercuts and I had to make the choice of choosing one since I had to be full time at Supercuts since it’s an “actual job” where you clock in n out. I made the decision to stay at Supercuts to see where barbering would take me having no idea I would even stick to it since all I knew now was makeup and woman’s hair. I was dedicated to learn how to cut men’s hair. During my time in Supercuts i took in everything in I could because I knew you could move up in the Supercuts ladder to one day hoping I can educate. They would often hold seminars on products, guest services and I loved the energy the educators had when having their seminar and I told myself I want to become a educator. I managed to stay at Supercuts for 2 years but decided I needed to leave when I noticed I wasn’t going anywhere. I thought to myself what’s next for Esther, like I thought to myself can I make it in a barbershop, I’m still learning how to cut men’s hair. I was like what’s the worse that can happen I come back since I knew the higher ups loved me. I was thinking on how you find a job in a barbershop, I jumped onto Craigslist I was a little hesitant only because they had made a movie about a Craigslist killer lol. I found a couple of barbershops and I got their addresses first to scope them out. I landed on the 1st shop in Azusa called Mjs one stop barbershop. I had a interview and I was honest with the owner that I was still learning how to cut men’s hair but I wanted to get better and do better, he hired me once I told him I was coming from a Supercuts, he knew we could produce numbers since we cut 20-30mins per client. I worked right next to the owner so he can train me and help me if I needed. When I wasn’t cutting hair I made sure to always keep my eye on him while working on his clients so I can advance my skills. Being a visual learner helped me a lot because I took in everything I could. I did very well at mjs barbershop that he was giving me management responsibilities but I wasn’t a manager. I would count the register and pay out the barbers every night when I worked and lock up the shop. I worked for about 10 months at the shop because I was noticing how long everyone had been working there and saw no aspirations to go bigger. I went on looking for another barbershop near by again I was going to have to start all over and rebuild my clientele since I wasn’t allowed to give out my contact number to clients since they were the shops clients. I managed to find my next barbershop in the city of Covina. The owner was looking for experienced barbers, I was like working at a barbershop for 10months sounds pretty experienced to me. I contacted Joe which was the owner and turned out to be my Nina’s son. No way did I get it easy there. I still had to interview plus I had to do a cut interview. My cut interview had to be a low fade, which those are hard if you’re not good at them. I was freaking out because I still had trouble getting rid of the 1st guide line. I thought to myself great I’m not getting this for sure. I had to fake it till I make it and sure enough I managed to get a chair at the shop. I was so happy because the shop was such a different vibe from my 1st shop. This shop had 12 chairs and all the barbers were so good. I was soo intimated by them. Clients kept walking in and out of the shop. My 1st day which was a Wednesday I managed to do 9 cuts. It was rare if I did that at the old shop. I knew I was at a good place. I managed to sit next to a barber that cut very well and I told him I wanted to get better and he just told me to watch him and to ask him questions when I needed. Which I took advantage of that. He helped me out a lot and I got better with my cuts and I was so much more confident with fading. I was so happy I was building clientele and I was doing very well for myself. When I started working at this shop it was the beginning of 2019. The whole year of 2019 was great that I thought to myself 2020 would be EVEN BETTER. 2020 started out good so I was excited for the rest of the year until COVID hit. Government officials had stated we weren’t inessential workers so we closed down for months. I was out of work and had no idea how long this was going to be cause everything was up in the air. Thankfully I didn’t stay out of work for too long. My dad had turned our single car garage into a private studio, I didn’t stay out of work for long. I was so busy at my house thankfully. I kept working that I was getting people from a 20 miles radius which was insane. My clients would refer their families to me and their families to their friends it was so insane. Everything was going great till summer of 2020 my family got hit with Covid I stopped working for about 6 weeks and unfortunately my dad didn’t make it. He passed away July 28th. It was honestly the worst time of my life because I had no idea what was going to happen because my whole family was out of work I was so scared to lose my house and not having anyone to run to anymore. I was lost. Thankfully they had started lifting restrictions, after my dad passed away I went to work 3 days later because I had to keep my household at float. I talked to the owner and I told them i was coming back they told me to take time off and I said no, I have to come back I need to work. The only thing I asked them was for them to tell the rest of the barbers not to treat me any differently and to not be weird with me since they knew I had lost my dad. I honestly don’t know how I did it. During that time everything was weird, like everything else was moving but I wasn’t. Every time I was at the shop I felt like I was missing something. Kinda like those dreams people have when they have no pants on and their making a speech in front of a crowd. Every time someone would come through the front door I was always waiting for my dad to come in since he would get cuts at the shop. During my breaks I would go to the break room and put my head down and quietly cry cause I never had the time to do it anywhere else and of course I couldn’t do it at home because I had to be dad now at home. I continued working and building clients again because I needed to make money. Now I had no idea where Esther was going now, was this it for me? Like what’s next. I honestly had no other moves to make I was so lost and unsure of what my next move was. That I decided to see one of the old barbers that use to work their and opened up his shop and I decided to ask him if I could work there, he knew everything that was going on in my life and said I could work there, but boy I had no idea I was going to have to start all over again. I had some clients follow me there some stayed behind in the shop. The shop was extremely slow since it was new and everyone was still scared to come out to the world, their was days where I sometimes wouldn’t even cut hair. Again I felt like what am I doing with my life, I’m not going to make it this way. I started taking color classes by stylists near by that offered them because I knew I always wanted to get better at coloring and I knew I would eventually be able to offer that in the shop. I continued working at the shop 12-15hours days 6 days a week thankfully it started to pick up. The owner would sometimes refer his clients to me when he was fully booked so that helped. My skills for cutting hair were getting better and better, I was finally starting to see the light to the tunnel. I started to use instagram to help market myself and sure enough it was helping. My schedule was having more clients throughout the week. I was starting to book out on the weekends which was great. 2021 was coming to an end I was hoping this momentum was not going to stop. 2022 started I was now a busier barber that the owner was now looking for another barber. I was getting really popular not only for my cuts but my exceptional customer service I had. Which I have no idea how i had it in me even after losing my dad. As time was passing I was asking myself what’s next for me because I was now busy so what’s my next move. As I asked myself that I started getting clients with longer hair asking me if i braided hair and I only knew how to French braid not do cornrows. That question was coming at me frequently. I decided to jump on instagram and find someone that was teaching how to cornrow hair. Thankfully I found Carolina aka Latina Braider on the gram and I contacted her for 1 on 1 and sure enough I went for it. Not thinking it was actually going to go anywhere. Took the lesson and came back to the shop and applied it. I had a new skill set for the shop. I started using instagram as well to market that I was now braiding hair, I was getting more and more into instagram to build up my clientele not only for fades but for braids as well. As I was using social media to get new clients I was looking at other barbershops content and I was like I gotta step up my game now if I’m going to be braiding my pictures and videos need to come out fire. Jumped on Amazon and started buying lights to help for my pictures. I started to see a new direction for myself. I didn’t want to be just a barber I wanted to create art. I was studying barber influencer videos and imagery that they were posting on instagram. I was looking up inspo pictures of everything so I can get better at my work and what I posted on the gram. All I wanted to do was create dope hair and see where it would go, I wanted to bring in color into the shop but I was very limited since I only had the restroom sink to rinse hair. I was starting to see obstacles at the shop I was in, and it was slowing me down on the momentum I had with the vision of creating art with my work. One thing I’ve learned about myself is I don’t like to be limited on the things I want to do especially when it’s for work. It was unfortunate that the owner wasn’t understanding my vision, he just wanted to keep it a traditional chop shop barbershop. I wanted all of us to elevate and do more than just haircuts and beards. Men deserve to get pampered to you know lol. I would ask for certain upgrades for the shop and I was getting turned down. All I was trying to do was make the shop better so we all can grow and become better. So once I knew nothing was going to change at the shop I knew I had to leave. I felt like I was getting held back. What was Esther’s next move, I had no idea what it was going to be. Also not having my dad around to guide me was even harder. I knew if I would of told him what was going on he would of told me let’s go open you up a shop and all my problems would go away. That option was gone. I was thinking over and over about the next move and I thought to myself all the surrounding shops are not the vibe I want to be in. I’m either going to be miserable if I move or stay miserable if I don’t find a new place . I decided to take a drive one day to see if maybe I could find a new shop I honestly do not know how I ended up going to what was going to be my future home. I ended up going to a Phenix Salon Suites nearby. The front door was locked and it had a number to contact the leasing department. I called I left a message and the landlord txt me the following day and told me their was no rooms available until September, we were in April 2022. I was like I can’t wait that long I’m ready to leave. I had to stay working at the shop things were off I was starting to be unhappy due to being limited on my services I wanted to offer. Then one day in June Sally the landlord from Phenix Salon Suites txted me letting me know their was a room available in the next coming weeks. I couldn’t believe it. She asked me when I wanted to check it out and I scheduled it immediately. It was June 23rd to be exact that I went into the facility to check out the room that was going to be vacant and it was so nice. Everyone has their private rooms it was well lit. Smelled nice. Everyone was kept to themselves I was already in love with the place. I went into the room that was going to be vacant and it turned out to be so small for my liking. I knew I was not going to fit in here since I would cater to families we would be squished. I asked Sally if their was a bigger room available and was like actually this premium size room would be available at the end of July. She told me to think about it and gave me the details about proceeding forward. After she told me to think about it I was getting scared, I was thinking maybe this isn’t for me. I was more scared to fail not make it especially since my dad wasn’t around. I called my mom she was a little scared, called my close friends and said to do it. That they knew I can do it without a doubt. Which thankfully made me feel better. I decided to talk to the owner about my move, because at the end of the day I was grateful for him helping me get better at cutting hair. I broke the news to him he was not happy about the news. He stayed quiet and in his thoughts and I asked him what he thought about it and he told me honestly Esther I don’t think you’re ready to make this move on your own. You still need to grow and still have a lot to learn. I was honestly stunned and shocked he told me that because how much I thought I had grown and especially not quitting after losing my dad. I was the highest producing barber at the shop. I was 3 barbers in 1. I honestly didn’t know what to do at this point because I thought he had my best interest so I was thinking about everything. What happens if I fails what happens if this happens. All the what ifs came coming to my head. The following day he told me he would give me a raise and I was like no, it’s either booth rent or I’m out. Because if I was booth rent I can bring any services that I would want. But thankfully he declined on the booth rent. I knew what I had to do, I txted Sally and I told her I wanted to room. Sent over deposit and signed the leasing forms in the next few days. Now that I had paid my deposit I had to start filling out paperwork through the city get licensing from the state. While I was busy doing that and working at the shop, my amazing mother was getting my studio ready for me. I would buy what I needed and she would paint and clean and install few of the things in there. If it wasn’t for my mom I don’t know how I would of got this studio up and running. As I continued on grinding was getting nervous and excited about this new journey, like who would of thought I’d open up a private suite especially having a huge loss in their life. Getting the studio ready took a little longer than expected cause drilling bolts into the walls were not our forte so we had to ask family friends but we would have to wait when they were free. I was waiting for my studio to be ready I was letting all my clients know about the big move. while I was waiting my crazy self decided to jump into my 1st ever braiding competition, I had a few months in and didn’t even know what I was getting myself in. It was my first expo ever I met people made friends and competed for the 1st time, unfortunately I didn’t place but it was definitely a learning experience for me. Now that motivated me to better myself in braids. Kept practicing and even met braids by Jay to help me better my skills which he definitely did. He made me a little faster and my braids more perfect. After all this waiting around for my studio it was now November 2022 and I moved into my private little studio. When it was my 1st day walking through the hallways I felt like Elle Woods from legally blonde when she walking into Harvard, working there was great all my clients loved it, they thought it was so fancy, they loved the privacy of it as well my set up. Everything was perfect. At the end of the day I would crunch up my numbers to see how much I did and I was so impressed with myself after being told that I wasn’t ready to make the move, I was so surpassed it. I was making more then ever and now being able to incorporate my other services it was helping my income. Like I can’t believe I almost took his word for a second. Now that I had my own space I was able to create more content have studio lights in my studio. I was able to make my content so much better. I was still working my 6 days a week 12-15hr days in my studio and Now that I was happy again and being able to do what I wanted in my creative space I starting attending more classes for color to get inspired by other artist. Started going to expos to meet people. I started building my brand online which I definitely need help on. I decided to seek mentorships programs to help me move faster and help me achieve the things I wanted faster. I couldn’t believe everything I was doing for myself to be where I’m at now. I’ve traveled for expos to network because it’s really true what they say it’s not what you know it’s who you know. I’ve made barber friends across the country, I’ve flown out to San Jose for a braiding competition. I’ve gotten sponsored by supply companies and been sent care packages from them. I had been offer to educate at schools even job offers to become an instructor. This life that I’m getting to live is truly amazing. I’ve found prestige competitions that didn’t even think existed. I just knew making this move was going to open a different world for me. I’ve still been working like crazy and I’ve had to slow down just a bit due to my body forcing me to now grieve the death of my father but even though I have all these emotions that were built up I’ve been able to express myself in my work, in the art that I’m creating in my little room. I’ve worked a 18hr day to create some dope content which I am so happy about. Because of these long work hours and dedication I had at getting better each step of the way I am now nominated for 2 awards this year 2024 by 2 different shows. One being top 10 for “best color transformation” for Americas Live awards at the Rise of Hair. The 2nd one i made “Top 100” Intricate Braids and Twists for Behind the Chair “One Shot Awards”. First time entering for both award shows and to get nominated like someone pinch me I’m dreaming. I will definitely be attending the awards shows so I’ll be flying out to St.Peterburg FL and to Dallas TX and of course it would happen when it’s my back to school rush, but I honestly wouldn’t change it for the world. Honestly if it wasn’t for my dad forcing me to do hair I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. So daddy thank you for forcing me to be a beautician who knows if I would of made it out to be a lawyer.

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?
No it hasn’t been a smooth ride in this journey. I’ve had to start over several times when building clientele. Moved different shops to find happiness and to be able to shine how I am meant to. Being limited on offering services.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Barber/Braider/ Colorist

I specialize in fading hair, creative long cuts for men.

I also specialize in intricate braids, where I create some of the coolest unique designs

I specialize in creative color, buzz cut art

I’m currently getting known more for my braids, for how clean and neat they and how creative I can get with them. Not having many braiders around the area I work in has helped a lot for me to gain clientele.

I’m honestly proud of everything I do specialize because it hasn’t come easy and everything I’ve been thrown at I’ve been able to crush and give out exceptional work.

What sets me apart from other artist would be my creativeness, perfectionism and especially my
personality. I love my work looking top tier when showing the clients

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
One of the greatest podcast that has helped me A LOT. Is called “we get it your dad died” it’s about entrepreneurs having huge losses in their life and because of those losses they used their emotions to built multi million dollar companies

Contact Info:

• Website: http://cutitoutesther.booksy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cutitout_esther/

Image Credits
All images were taken by me