In the 5 years that I've lived in NYC, one friend that consistently amazes me in the realm of REAL talent would definitely have to be hairstylist David Lopez [that's him pictured above]. We met while working in retail hell and bonded over a pile of knit tops. Since then, he's been my go-to guy when it comes to all things hair...more specifically weave. He's like, the weave master and manages to take the most amazing photos of me [see below for Exhibit A]. But, he can also give you a blow out, highlights or a haircut. The beauty about David is that he can do ALL hair types. He's THE next big thing in the world of hair, so you may as well get to know him better.
Yes, this is really me. Ferocia. [I know, I gasped when I saw it, too!] Hair & photography by David Lopez.
Ferocia: Tell us about yourself.
David: Well, what do you want to know?
Ferocia: Give us the PG rated version [laughing].
David: Well, I guess my hair background. I've always been involved with hair. My first involvement was my sister's Barbie. She used to have a life size Barbie and my mom used to get her hair blown out so I wanted to try it on my sister's Barbie. I tried blowing her hair out.
Ferocia: [laughing]
David: But I didn't know that you can't blow dry plastic. So, I tried to blow dry her hair and of course it just, melted. It just made like big circles. I didn't even use the attachment [to the blow dryer]. I just held it there for a little while and then pulled it and it just made a big circle of melted, synthetic hair.
Ferocia: [dying laughing]
David: It was really funny.
Ferocia: That is a hot mess!
David: When I was 12, my mom was like you need to learn how to blow out my hair. She knew I really wanted to do it, so she let me try. She said just try it and do like you see it. So I started blowing out my mom's hair and then I started blowing out my sister's hair. I'm Puerto Rican, so we have like really tough hair. So, that started my whole obsession with "difficult hair types." I'd never really worked with caucasian hair until I was in high school when I started doing my friends' hair. At the time, funny enough, I had a girlfriend and I did her hair for prom.
Ferocia: Why is that funny?
David: Because I'm a huge homo. [sidenote: yes, ladies this cutie pie is gay as glitter; and boys, pipe down because he's got a boyfriend]
Ferocia: [dying laughing]
David: So, I did my girlfriends hair for prom and I started doing haircuts because I would watch my mom get her hair cut and I would just copy whatever I saw the hairstylist doing on my friends. I started reading books about hair cutting and trying to do the diagrams.
I never really thought I wanted to get into hair. I thought it just be something that I'd do for fun. But then I came to NY for acting school and acting really wasn't cutting it because it doesn't pay the bills. I was like I want to do hair, but I don't want to be in a salon. Then, I quickly realized that you can do hair for celebrities, music videos, television and magazines. I was like that's what I want to do.
I want to do hair for fashion, celebrities, music videos.
I would go and buy weave when I was 16 and then go into my room and try to replicate what I saw on the music videos. I would try to glue hair into my sister's head. Poor girl.
Ferocia: So your sister was kind of like your guinea pig.
David: My mom and my sister were definitely my guinea pigs. On my mom's 38th birthday, she decided she wanted to do something really crazy and said let's do something with my hair. I said, oh let me bleach it. So, I bleached it. Well, tried. It didn't really get past orange. She had a big head of orange hair and started crying and was like you have to fix this. So, our power went out because there a storm and I was like, oh shit. I drove through a Tennessee storm to Wal-Mart to buy a box of hair dye to dye it back brown.
Ferocia: Well, at least it was on your mom and not some celebrity.
David: That's why you start early. When you're 16 and not when you're 20.
Ferocia: So, what's your favorite food?
David: I love sweets. Chocolate cake. When it comes to actual food, I love macaroni and cheese. I'm a really big cheese person even though I know it's really bad for you. I love hamburgers. Like a good juicy hamburger I die over. Delicatessen in SoHo has one of the best burgers I've ever had in my entire life. It's not too big or small and so juicy. Literally when you bite into it the grease is just like pouring out of it, which I know sounds really disgusting but is actually really good.
Ferocia: No, I agree with it! Mmmmm...what's your favorite fragrance?
David: Right now? I'm actually really into the Brooks Brothers latest fragrance. It's so masculine and I love it. If I smelled this on another guy I'd be like so turned on.
That's usually how I pick my fragrances. Like if I smelled on someone else I'd get so turned on and then I'm like I'm buying it for myself. Because I'm sure someone else will smell that from me.
Ferocia: When you're not doing hair, what are you doing?
David: I'm involved with alot of other things. I do music. I play guitar and I love to write music and play. Just for fun. I taught myself last year. I played clarinet in high school.
Ferocia: OMG! Me too!
David: Shut up! I work a lot with Devachan Salon. We're writing a book called Curly Girl 2 which is the sequel to the last book called Curly Girl. I'm kind of a production assistant for that right now. Otherwise, I like to play with my mannequins at home and just try different things. Different colors, styles and extension types. I recently started doing a lot of the tape extensions so I really want to start doing that on clientele now.
Ferocia: What else would you like people to know about you?
David: I recently really got into the freelance world of hair and I started working with this company HRS [Hair Room Service] and it's run by my friend Michael who is an agency stylist. Basically what he did was to create a business where you bring the experience of the hair salon to someone's home. Our target is really a higher end clientele that's visiting NYC and don't really know where to get their hair done. It's a really cool thing because I love cutting hair and your get to do it on so many people and make so many great contacts throughout the entire world. You work on so many people from all over the world. I'm pretty sure I'm THIS close to getting signed to an agency. Which should be really exciting! I'm really blessed that my friends have really been the ones that have been able to help me. I like to see their successes, too.
Ferocia: When you met me all those years ago, did you really think that I'd be as fabulous as I am now?
David: [laughing] Of course I did! One of the first things you said to me was "I'm going to be an editor at Vogue one day" and I was like "Oh, ok" and then you went back to folding shirts.
Ferocia: [laughing] Like it was normal, right?!
David: You were like "I'm going to be an editor at Vogue. Excuse me while I go and get the SKU for this shirt."
You can always tell who's driven and who's really going to go far; especially if you live in NY. Definitely you see that drive in you and hopefully you saw it in me, too.
Ferocia: Um, yeah!
David: All those nights folding knits. And re-doing the jean wall.
Ferocia: [laughing] The jean wall! Mess. Burning, hot mess. But, seriously I think it's amazing how now I'm past actually being an editor at Vogue. I'm more like going to be a contributor and write articles for them. Living in NY you never know what's going to happen.
David: NY is a very transient city. You never know who's going to last and who's going to be here. I have so many friends that moved back to Ohio. NY is like one of those places where you just have to stick with it. If you don't have the passion for what you're going after it's not going to happen because it takes a lot out of you to be here. If you're not here for a reason then you shouldn't be here because it's just not worth it; which is why I think so many people end up leaving because they're not really passionate about what it is they want to do.
I'm starting a blog! No name for it yet, but I want it to be all about hair. I'm really excited about it.
Check out David's website [click here] and follow him on twitter (@deadbeatdavid). Word.
xo
Ferocia