photo Alyssa Quiles

Aliana Nunez is a senior who has a talent to do others hair while maintaining school work.

Aliana Nunez is a senior who works at Class Actz Cutsz Barbershop in Staten Island as a hair technician, specializing in braiding. As this is her last year of high school, she is finalizing her thoughts on what she may want to do in life, one of them being a hair technician. She agreed to go more in depth on how she juggles these responsibilities and where this job can take her later in life.

This interview has been edited and condensed

How long have you been working as a hair technician?

In the shop, it’s been about 4 months. But I’ve been braiding since 2021.

How are you able to manage school and your job at the same time?

Honestly, I don’t, but I feel like that’s a thing. I have to go ahead and manage it anyways. So that’s like the really good part about it is, braiding helps me like be able to process my school days and then, I can think about everything I have to do in that moment. Then once I get home, I just go ahead and turn my braiding brain off and then, turn my school brain on.

How many hours do you work per week?

I feel like for usual styles, I’d be with at least one client for five to six hours roughly. And I try to be in my shop at least four days a week. But it’s usually two [days] cause of school.

What is the most interesting thing about your job?

I love braiding, don’t get me wrong, but I work in a barbershop. So seeing the completely different environment of the hair community, like females and different from males. They come in and they have really like social conversations about, sometimes it’ll be the funniest things or it’s really social that you could engage [in]. I just like meeting people and hearing the things they have to talk about.

What is your least favorite thing about your job?

I have to pay rent.

What made you want to take this as a job?

Before it even became my job, I’ve always been so fascinated by doing my hair. I used to color my hair a lot when I was younger too. [Also] I would even do my own braids. ’cause I’m like, you know what? It helps me save money. Then as I started going on, people told me, you know, this would be a really good trade. And I’m like, okay it sounds nice. I like doing hair and then I get to spend time with girls while I’m doing it. Then, as I got older, I learned that I get to pretty much make my own business. So I could take it even further than just a hobby, but I could turn it into my own business or my own, like a self-made career in a way. So I feel like that’s what it was. It’s like an art and a hobby for me. But I also can get benefits from it.

Would you want to pursue this career further into your adult life and have it as your profession?

Yes. I feel like sometimes paths change, but looking at it now, I feel like, in the end, generally I wanna open a salon. As of now, I’m thinking about going to school for cosmetology and then hopefully building my way towards a salon with a lot of different things like lash techs and just a bunch of girls my age. So I definitely wanna make it, I wanna take it further but then paths change. But I feel confident with hair.