Daily Inspiration: Meet Jeremiah Levin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremiah Levin.

Hi Jeremiah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Liverpool, England on July 10th. 1969. When I turned 3, my father was working for an American Oil Company and so the whole family moved to the Island of Malta. A small country island in the south central region of the Mediterranean Sea. Beautiful, untouched, and quaint with a rich history. We stayed in Malta for 2 years and then we headed back to England.

A few years later, we went on our next adventure and moved to Peru because of my father’s work, and called it home for a couple of years. This was in the late 70’s and at that time it was not a great place to live. The locals were trying to kidnap the foreign kids for ransom. As a result, we had to have bodyguards, which was fun for a kid, but not for a parent. A revolution between the army and the police broke out, bullets were flying everywhere. There was a temporary ceasefire from morning to sundown, so in the morning the shots would end until the sun went down, when they would start shooting the shit out of each other once again. When the revolution ended we got the hell out of dodge and never looked back.

As a child, I went through a lot of depression. At that time nobody knew how to deal with mental illness. People would say “You have such a good life.”, “Your life is so much better than others.”, and “Why are you complaining?” I hid the truth that I was being molested by a member of my extended family. Scared to tell my parents or brother as I was being threatened not to do so.

When I was 15 my cousin asked me if I would like to help out at his beauty salon. He was 23 at the time and I really looked up to him. I accepted his offer to work at the salon and immediately realised that I had found my passion. I graduated High School later that year and headed to college to pursue my Bachelor’s of Business. I worked part time at the salon while I attended college. In addition to working at the salon I did some modeling. The modeling mainly consisted of print work for magazines and commercials. I didn’t enjoy it so much and decided to focus on my career as a hairstylist. When I turned 18 I graduated from college and became a full time Hairstylist.

During my college years, my brother, who was 3 years older than me, was having drug problems. We tried everything we could think of to help him get off the drugs. We tried it all, sending him to rehab, family therapy, tough love… On Friday, September 13th, 1991 my brother took his own life. The summer before he took his life we were the closest we had ever been and we hung out all the time, we were real brothers and I didn’t see it coming at all and I was in complete shock. My world, and my parent’s worlds were torn apart. We were wrecked from the inside out, destroyed, and yet our spirits stayed strong. We eventually got to the point where my parents and I carried on life as my brother would have wanted us to.

For the next 5 years, I was busy building my career and working for a major record company in the position of Artistic Director for all of Europe, the youngest person to hold that position. My role was to style the music artists from head to toe, including hair, makeup, and clothes for magazines, TV interviews, and music videos. I traveled all throughout Europe, working with famous musicians. Some were a joy to work with and some had some huge egos that were hard to ignore. I managed 64 people across 8 teams, and by the time I was 21 I had earned everyone’s respect because of my talent and business acumen. I treated everyone “how they wanted to be treated”, not “how I wanted to be treated”. It was a lot of fun but draining at the same time. When I hit 26 my contract with the record company ended. I decided it was time to leave the gray skies of England and head to the USA. I ended up in Chicago, and stayed for over 4 years. After more than 4 years of the freezing cold windy winters and hot humid summers, I decided to head west until I couldn’t head west anymore. This time I landed in sunny San Diego, California, which has been my home for the past 21 years. After being in San Diego for 4 years I decided to open my own salon.

Back in England, my parents decided it was time to get divorced after 38 years of marriage. I persuaded my mother to move to California with me. She moved out to California and lived in San Diego happily for 3 years, until we got the news she had stage 1 breast cancer. We thought “it’s only stage 1. It will be a breeze. A little chemo and some radiation and she will be good as new.” We thought that until it spread to her brain, and then it spread to her back, and then to her brain again. At that point, we knew there was nothing else we could do for her. I took her back to England, first class of course, where she saw family and friends. Unfortunately, she ended up in the hospital with blood clots in her lungs. She really had the best treatment she ever had in England, and I couldn’t have thanked the nurses and doctors enough. Since I had my own salon in San Diego that I needed to get back to. I came back to San Diego and my mother came back a couple weeks later. My mother passed away not long after she returned to San Diego, on Saturday, August 25th, 2012.

My depression was getting worse. The psychiatrist, therapist, and medication didn’t work for me any longer. I was then officially diagnosed with Bipolar and Chronic PTSD . I didn’t know what that meant, but I was still depressed and ended up taking an overdose. Luckily I survived. I was sent to an inpatient hospital for 72 hours, where I learned a lot about mental illness and living with bipolar. It also helped me with my Psychiatrist, I learnt that working out and eating health makes your body work more in sync. I love going to the gym, it’s a great distraction from my issues and problems, plus I look really good in a Speedo at the beach.

Therapist. I was prescribed medication to treat my bipolar and it was a breath of fresh air. I was ready to take on the world and I felt amazing. To help with my depression I took up acrylic painting, it helps me focus and relaxes my mind. I am pretty good at it if I do say so myself. I call my style Picasso cubism with a twist.

I converted to Judaism, legally changed my name, and closed my own salon down. I resented having my own salon because I felt it made me leave my mother in England when I wanted to stay with her. It was time to focus on myself and self love was needed and I joined another salon as a contractor, where I wouldn’t have the burden of being the owner.

I never spoke about my bipolar diagnosis to others. I was ashamed of the stigma I felt I had by being labeled “bipolar”. One of my clients referred to someone as being bipolar in a negative way. I told her I have bipolar and she didn’t believe me. That was when I realized “to remove a stigma you have to talk about it”. I wanted to show people that you can live a normal life when you surround yourself with people that love and support you. I have a youtube page that talks about my life with bipolar, https://www.youtube.com/worldofjeremiah. This is something I am passionate about, helping others by showing that you can live a happy “normal” life while living with a mental illness. I also got involved in an amazing organization called American Foundation For Suicide Prevention https://afsp.org. They do amazing work in education to help people with suicidal ideas to reach out for help. I am constantly working on my mental health, by helping to educate others.

In addition to the art of styling hair, I really enjoy being a hairstylist because I get to help others by being a sounding board, and just being present for them. It’s nice to be able to be there for people as others have been there for me.

I met Koji Kuninaga when he began working at the salon I was at in Coronado. He decided to buy the salon and because we hit it off really well he asked me to be his manager at the salon. The salon was being remodeled and he needed another set of eyes and ears to help manage the daily operations of running a salon along and managing the contractors. We both had the same love for Architecture, Modernism, and Retro. Our philosophies, vision, and drive complemented each other. Our ideas matched with the love of Art, Beauty, and growth, it was a great match. We would
text ideas, pictures, designs. We are a great team together while building another team of staff that works well with each other. If your team is happy, a happy team makes work more enjoyable. Clients feel that it’s a win-win for everyone. We completed the remodel and really made an amazing, hip, and happening salon for people to work in and be proud of, creating an environment that clients can enjoy. On May 17, 2018 I got married to Ken, my amazing supportive husband. Ken, my two therapy dogs, and 4-month-old puppy help keep me level, even when I don’t feel like I am. This is my main purpose in life, my family.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Most of my struggles are in my story. I moved around different countries to live, My brother committed suicide, I am gay, Molested as a child, Depression, Bipolar, Chronic PTSD, Mother dying of cancer, Name change, Educating other about mental health, Working at a major record company for all of Europe by doing hair, and clothes styling, Moving to Chicago on my own at 26, then moving to San Diego on my own 4 years later. Owning a salon. Getting married, Changing salons. My own YouTube channel covering Mental Illness. My suicide attempt.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a hairstylist which also means a therapist, a listening board and making people feel so much better about themselves. I’m an educator in Mental Health, bringing a voice to the hidden people, shamed by mental illness.

I’m bringing out my own hair product line. I also do interior design. I’m a painter of art.

My work as a hairstylist has opened many doors that I never thought I would open, It gives me a chance to give back to others. Bring joy to other people and try and make the world a little less hectic or scary. Just being able to help one person makes my journey worthwhile.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the beauty business, it is pulling itself out of Covid and moving forward. More and more people are getting comfortable about sitting in a hair salon while getting their hair done. Fashions and styles is needing a big change and start to take some risks. Its tired of being safe and give more glamour to people’s lives. Mental Health side, more needs to be done, better leadership, communications, compassion, empathy is still lacking to deal with these major topics, let’s remove the stigma that people throw around when not understanding what they are talking about.

Contact Info:

• Email: JeremiahJLevin@gmail.com
• Website: JeremiahLevinHairstyling.com
• Instagram: jeremiahjlevin
• Facebook: jeremiahjlevin
• Youtube: worldofjeremiah

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