Today we’d like to introduce you to Yohei Nozaki
Hi Yohei, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and was always interested in fashion and craftsmanship. And above all, I was interested in people from a young age. What are people thinking and feeling now? That’s what I was always thinking about when I was young. I spent my days playing baseball until college, but after graduating, I came to America in search of another challenge. I chose America because I was interested in a place with many different races, cultures, and religions, unlike Japan. I ended up becoming a hairdresser, which allowed me to learn about fashion and craftsmanship, which I’ve been interested in since I was young, and to interact with many different people and learn about their thoughts. I think that all of that was concentrated in my work as a hairdresser. I’ve been working as a hairdresser for nearly 20 years, and I’m always conscious of not just making people look pretty, but also how to understand their inner selves and make them shine from the inside. My customers are quite diverse in age, gender, and race, and in order to understand what they want and make them shine from the inside, I have to be interested in and make an effort to learn about many things on a daily basis. Doing things like this over and over helps me grow as a person every day, and I believe that this is what leads to me gaining the trust of my clients.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When I first started, I was a little confused by the language barrier and cultural differences. The job of a hairdresser is to give shape to an abstract image that suits the client, so it took time to understand the client’s preferences and sensibilities in order to give shape to the image they had in mind. Also, the pandemic has been a challenging time recently. There is nothing I can do about this on my own, so I have accepted reality and always tried to be positive about what I should do now for the future.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a hairdresser/salon owner.
I don’t specialize in any particular service, but I basically offer almost all of them. Thankfully, the number of customers has increased, so I sometimes can’t offer services that require a lot of time for one person. This is the image of a hairdresser I aim to be, and I would be very happy if my customers like it, but I offer a style that suits each customer. However, when I say style, I don’t just mean designing the hair, but understanding the customer’s personality and lifestyle, and making them shine with confidence from the inside. This overlaps with what made me want to become a hairdresser, but I make an effort to understand each person’s country and cultural background, propose a style that suits them, and create it together with the client. I think that the accumulation of such things will result in a style that is unique to me and the client. As a hairdresser, it is of course important to improve your skills, but I also believe that hairdressers are expected to grow as people as well.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I like about this city is the diversity of people and the fact that most of the people here are very easygoing. This kind of atmosphere makes it easy to communicate with others. There’s nothing I particularly dislike about the city, but if I had to say something, I think it could be better if they were sometimes a bit more adventurous with fashion.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yohei_nozaki/
Image Credits
Instagram @yoheynozaki
