Meet Rebecca Velez

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rebecca Velez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I really found myself and my purpose in life when I was 29 turning 30. It was a transition in my life that I didn’t really see coming but it needed to happen one way or another. I was at a high end NYC salon for 5 years that was starting to become really draining. I was always big on having a job that I loved to do because I saw how my parents worked these 9-5 jobs and always came home miserable with always something negative to say , I never wanted to be like that or live my life like that. I thought at this job this is what I was supposed to do. I was hardworking and loyal and I just wanted to move up and be successful so bad. When I worked at the salon my mentor there introduced me to the freelancing world of the hair industry. I loved being on set and doing editorial. I saw how my mentor carried himself and was his own boss I saw how so fricking talented he was and saw how he worked and watching him in the zone creating hair looks, it was so inspiring to me and I wanted that so desperately to have that for myself. Its hard to freelance and work at a salon because the salon really tied up my schedule but I learned quickly I wanted to do more freelance then be in a salon I was just torn. Even though with all my efforts it wasn’t enough at the salon and it started to take my passion away. It turned into trying to prove everyone wrong then enjoying what I love to do. I think my boss saw what was going on with me and I ended up sitting down with her and had a great talk both agreeing to leave would be the best option for me. It was a bittersweet moment but leaving that building a weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt like I could breathe for alittle. I was still hurt and felt defeated by this however but knew I had to figure something out quick I was out of a job and had to think what would be my next step I already planned a trip to California where I was going to take a Vidal Sassoon class and try to find work out there because one of my ideas was to move out to LA and be bicoastal. When I got to LA I had a few days before my class to find work look around the area see the opportunity out there for me and just did a lot of thinking and soul searching. I remember going to Santa Monica pier and just looking out at the ocean and the mountains. And I just sat there crying thinking about my life and everything going on at the time personally and professionally and thinking to myself what’s next? Where do I go from here? How am I going to do this? I knew I couldn’t keep going on being angry and hurt. I knew I needed to pick myself up and take this giant leap of faith and stop being so scared. That 2 day class was a great class and helped build my confidence back up. If it wasn’t for that class, the talk with my boss, and most importantly instea dog dwelling letting go of all my hurt and anxieties, I gave it all to god when I got off that plane and returned to New York I knew what I had to do. It was time to lean into all the hurt defeat and take back my passion. And that’s exactly what I did. When I got off that plane the emails came in for opportunity, and it was not time to go for it and never look back. And I’m so happy that I did.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Well my name is Rebecca Velez and I am a hairstylist based in NYC. I come from a suburb on Long Island where people don’t really get out. It’s simple suburbia which is fine for some people but I always knew I wanted more out of my life. I always felt different and made to feel different by my family and peers. I was an only child of a really nasty divorce between my parents. A mixed kid half Latina half white growing up in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood. As an only child I didn’t have many friends but I had a colorful imagination, being by myself a lot I remember drawing and creating stories and getting lost in the fantasy I would come up with. Getting into my adolescence I was bullied a lot. Never really had a set group of friends still my style and my music was always questioned and judged. . I was into all sorts of different things from tv to pop culture my music the clothes I would wear and looks I would come up with had my strict grandmother clenching her pearls asking my mom what was wrong with me. My creativity grew more as I got older with my rebellion As a teen I was like a rebel without a cause. I didn’t go to school most of the time didn’t listen to authorities. Got in all sorts of trouble. I was definitely a question mark to a lot of people. They didn’t know what to do with me or even “where to place me” in suburban society. But I don’t think I was ever ment to be boxed in and I spent years of my life fighting back from what everyone else’s opinions of me or what I should be doing with my life. I will say the one thing about me is I was always a fighter and I always fought for what I wanted or if something was unjust no matter the consequences. Even with feeling misplaced all my life. I sort of always knew I wanted to do something to give back or express myself creatively. Since a kid I was really into pop culture and the fashion magazines, when I went to the doctors in the waiting room I always remember going for the Vogue or the Harper’s when the magazines where big chunky magazines even taking them home with me. the images and the clothing the hair and makeup always intrigued me and I always wanted to figure out a way I could be behind the scenes. in high school when we got to 11th grade we had the opportunity to go to a trade school half the day and regular school the other half the day. I always knew I wanted to do something with hair so I choose to go to hair school but then not regular school so they kicked me out until I graduated. After graduating high school in 2011 I went to Paul Mitchell academy to get my license I lasted 3 months until I dropped out to try the college route/ working route which still didn’t work out for me or satisfy me. 2 years later enrolled back into beauty school which I finally finished and passed my test and was licensed in 2013. From then I was jumping around assisting at all sorts of hair salons on Long Island. The thing is about beauty school and Long Island hair is 1 beauty school doesn’t teach you about being on set and freelance they in bread it in you that you have to work your way up and make it in a salon or you won’t make it at all doing hair, and on Long Island the training out there really isn’t great. You stay at a salon doing the usual assistant tasks like sweeping hair doing shampoos, folding towels, etc. having classes once in a while if that, hoping the salon as a-whole likes you enough to promote you to jr stylist and willing to advertise you to build clientele, on Long Island having a hair salon partially on every block didn’t help either and made it harder to succeed in this where I found myself jumping to multiple places trying to find my spot. When I finally found my spot it was great I became a keratin specialist and my books were quickly filling up. Even with the great money I was making I still wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t until an unfortunate business learning experience I finally decided to leave Long Island and venture into NYC where I found myself at one of the top prestigious hair salons on fifth Avenue where I humbled myself to an assistant position and work my way up all over again. It is at the salon where the game totally changed for me. The way that they trained was hands-on and so much better. It taught me how to multitask. It taught me how to execute hair quick and efficiently and I met my my mentor who took me under his wing and showed me the hair industry in a different light. We started to travel together doing high-end clients and celebrity and working on set for clothing brands and fashion magazines even doing New York Fashion Week regularly. Little did I know this was going to lead me to pursuing everything the little girl in my has ever dreamed of and more. Beckin beauty is not just my brand it’s real it’s raw it’s unapologetically me. It’s my determination it’s my resilience it’s my strength of me coming into my own as an artist despite any of the challenges and set backs life has thrown at me. Its putting my art my expression into the world and creating that escapism some people need that helped get by the day-to-day struggles of the world.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1 The strength that god has put in me. There are a lot of times in my life where I don’t even know how I did it, how I got myself out of certain situations by myself with the little that I had and I just feel that God has bestowed this force in me this fire in me this to push back and fight back against the odds that were ever against me.

My passion my ambition my love for life. Being able to do something I love to do and finally be able to call my own shots and run my life is the best most freeing feeling ever. The most authentic I ever felt.

Lastly Being open and humble. Never getting a big head, remaining open to learn from others accept help and grow my skills. I feel I’ve really been honest and true to myself and values. I take pride in the integrity I have. You won’t ever see me trying to be something I’m not.

The best advice I can give someone is don’t let anyone box you in and stay true to who you are. There have been so many times in my life where I let other people‘s opinions and words get the best of me and stop me from what I wanted to do or how I felt about myself. I got to a point where I was tired of feeling the way that I did and realized how other people‘s opinions were more about them and less about me.

The best decision I ever made in my life was giving it to god. Only one person could judge me and that one person for me in the man upstairs. God sure took the lead and I stopped worrying about things and people‘s opinions of me and going with the flow of life God wanted for me, which helped me build my confidence and my self-esteem tremendously. No matter what situation you’re in you can always conquer it and live to your full potential. Just never give up on yourself

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I think my biggest area of growth and improvement in the past 12 months has been to really hon in on myself isolate myself away BS or spaces that didn’t feed me anymore where I can really dive in deep and get to where I wanna be in my life. When this happens friends start to disappear. A lot of friends and relationships that I thought were good for me weren’t and they were dragging me down and I think what I really grown on is to stop people pleasing. When I started doing more for me on my own the opportunity and the success followed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.beckinbeauty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beckinbeautyxo_/profilecard/?igsh=bjEzZzZiN3pydHl1

Image Credits

Pictures from iPhone

2 pictures by Kieran Bammannn

French shoot photographer Aristide Hiegel