Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Park.
Hi Emily, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Hi, my name is Emily also known as Hairbyemilypark. I am originally from South Korea and move to the U.S. back in 2012. My hair career started right after I graduated from high school in 2018. I never thought I would end up doing hair, also I was planning on going to college and studying chemistry. I turned 19 (years old) a little after I graduated from high school and I never deeply thought about what I wanted to do in my life and what my passion was. Not knowing what I’m good at, I was going through such a hard time with my future plans and I felt like a loser.
One day, my stepdad came home, he told me he got a free haircut from a student at the salon and he was telling me about the apprenticeship program. He knew I was struggling with my decisions on what I wanted to do. He asked me “What do you think of doing hair?” My answer was “I don’t know.” Both my mom and stepdad started talking about my hair career for the next few days, and they told me that they see my passion for beauty. Back in high school I always liked doing my hair and makeup, trying to be creative and coming up with new styles. I guess my parents knew I have a huge passion for beauty. After talking to my parents about my future, I started thinking “what do I really like..” and I realized that I love doing makeup, I like to dress up, and style myself to look pretty. So I gave myself about a week to think about doing hair. At that time I got a really good opportunity to start training at Salon 808 if I decided to do hair and I didn’t want to lose my opportunity to try something new. I finally made up my mind to take this opportunity and give it a shot whether I like it or not.
When I started working as an assistant through an apprenticeship program at the salon, I fell in love with the hair industry and I wanted to pursue this career. The first couple of years of training weren’t easy, working in customer service was not always fun and there were times when I wanted to give up but I push through it because I had an amazing and supportive mentor. I called my mentor Aunty Janice. Janice was the one who took me as her assistant and taught me how to cut and all the basic hair stuff you learn in school. The apprenticeship program was basically a hair school but instead of going to school I was working as an assistant and learning at the salon. I knew I had to study harder and find a way to learn because learning in the salon is not like learning in hair school step by step on every other thing. After I finished my program and got my Cosmetology License, I got a great opportunity to start working at Dada Salon as a Junior stylist. If I’m being honest, I was terrified to begin my career. I felt like I wasn’t ready to start taking clients. But I remembered what Janice told me when I graduated. She told me “You are so talented and you are going to do great at the new salon. Be creative and follow your dream.” I feel like if I didn’t have such a good mentor and the support she gave me, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So I started my career at Dada salon back in 2021. Dada salon is Located in Oahu, Hawaii and it is a big Salon/Spa. I was so nervous and felt pressured to work in the beginning because there were so many great and talented stylists (Over 30 Stylists) that it was very overwhelming. But actually, I took that as an opportunity to learn from these stylists with different specialties. I started working with 2-3 clients a week, and my biggest fear was “How can I build my clientele if I’m just starting my career?” I wanted to build my clientele so I went to the salon every day even though I didn’t have a client so that I have a chance to have walk-ins. First few weeks I didn’t have many clients, but I keep going to the salon and standing by for walk-ins, I started getting more clients. And at some point, I felt like I needed some more experience with cutting and coloring. So I started asking my coworkers if I can watch them or help them when I’m free so that I can learn from them. I knew I had to practice more and build my experience to get better so I started working for my coworker Kysa who specializes in color. I wanted to be good at color just like her and wanted to learn more about color and how to formulate colors better. I assisted her 1-2 days a week on my off days to learn her techniques and understand how color works. Definitely working at Dada salon with great stylists helped me to improve, and motivated me and open to being creative. I loved working at Dada salon but at some point, I wanted to move out of the small island. Hawaii was where I started doing hair but I wanted to move to a bigger place, with more opportunities to learn. After 7 months of working at Dada salon, I decided to move to Utah to start fresh. I was sad to leave all the clientele I built and scared to start all over again but I knew I can do it. The biggest thing that I could say that made me successful with my career and get to where I am today is my time, my effort to learn and educate myself to practice to get better every day. If I was lazy and didn’t stand by at the salon for walk-ins if I didn’t sacrifice my free time/ off days to learn from other stylists and if I didn’t put effort to practice to get better, I wouldn’t be as successful as today.
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?
Some of the struggles and challenges at the beginning of my career were that I didn’t really know how to formulate colors and how to create beautiful balayage looks. My mentor didn’t do much of those things when I was training so I had to learn myself how to do balayage and create certain looks. Another struggle that I had to face at the beginning of my career is that I didn’t have much experience in doing men’s hair and using clippers was so new to me. I watched lots of barber videos and tried to learn how to fade and cut men’s hair better but for some reason, I didn’t feel much passion or enjoy doing men’s hair. The biggest struggles that I still face up to these days is doubting myself, mental stress, and losing my confidence. And I struggle with these issues with having the wrong clientele. These issues definitely affect my work and my mentality and I’m still learning and practicing to avoid these issues!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in Colors (For Women) such as Blondes, Creative/Fashion colors and some brunettes. I am known as a color specialist and balayage specialist. I absolutely love creating custom colors for my clients and creating certain looks. I could say I’m also known for a hair transformation, I love to give completely different looks for before and after especially new clients who have never done anything to their hair before. I’m most proud of my techniques and the effort that I put into each client of mine to customer their looks and I think that’s what sets me apart from other stylists. I don’t take a ton of clients a day, and I normally take in between 1-5 clients depending on what projects I work on. I always take my time to give the best quality of color and custom looks to every client of mine. Most of the time, my clients sit in my chair for 4-5 hours up to 7-8 hours. I never rush my work, and I explain to my clients before the service how long it will take, what they expect to end up with, and what could possibly happen if they have a difficult hair type or hair canvas to start with, step by step of my plans for their custom colors and last what home care/hair care they will need to keep the colors nicely and information of follow up and touch up services and why. My clients always appreciate me for taking my time and putting effort to do a lot of work to give them beautiful colors and I think that’s one of the biggest things that sets me apart and something that I do differently from others because most of my clients tell me “I never had this kind of experience from any other salons” When I hear something like that I feel so good because I really care about each one of my clients and I want to give them the best experience and quality of work. My work is all about quality. Another thing that I do for my clients is that I give them my professional option to try something new or try different looks that I think it would suit them better. Not every client brings their inspiration pictures based on their hair type and the same base color. This means sometimes certain looks won’t match their hair type, and skin tone and will be hard to achieve. When I said my work is all about the quality, I want to give my clients the looks that suit them the best and still very healthy condition quality hair and that is why I share my professional vision and opinion with my clients during consultations to help them to get most beautiful custom colors for their looks.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
The one thing that I learned during the Covid-19 crisis was how important it is to have a normal life. It was so hard not able to socialize with people, not able to work, and not able to live a normal life like before Covid-19 happened. It taught me a lesson once again that I should be thankful, grateful, and appreciate more of the little things that we do daily basis and enjoy every little thing I get to do in my life because we never know what’s going to happen to us or to the world.
Pricing:
- $280-350 starting price for balayage (blonde or brunette) for first 3-4 hours including Trim
- $350-365 starting price for balayage on Asian hair for the first 3-4 hours including Trim
- $330-350 starting price for vivid fashion color for first 3-4 hours including trim
- $400-550 for anything long hair and pass 5-6 hours of service Including Trim
- $550-685 for anything past 7-8 hours of service Including Trim
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Hairbyemilypark
Image Credits
Personal photos by Emily Park
