Live Fast, Dye Young: Business and Beauty in Jackson Heights
by Akanksha Kapur and Genevieve Sipes
With the roaring sounds of hair dryers, loud music, and chatter filling the air of Pilatos Hair Salon and Boutique, one man manages to remain calm, collected, and focused on the scorching Tuesday afternoon.
“Just give me two minutes,” says Jaime Hernandez looking up from carefully dying a young woman’s long hair.
Hernandez, 52, originally from Colombia, owns the salon and spa in the strikingly diverse neighborhood of Jackson Heights, New York.
For a man in his 50’s, he doesn’t look a day over 40, with his long hair dyed a trendy gray color and pulled back into a bun, with a face clear of wrinkles.
Hernandez has been running his salon, which offers services such as hair extensions, hair dye, haircuts for men and women, as well as manicures and pedicures, for upwards of 32 years. He hires multiple male employees, who continuously leave customers feeling happy with their appearance.
“Beauty is like art,” Hernandez, said as he looked outside the window of his salon. A smile slowly grew onto his face. “It’s like painting and the face is the canvas.”
Prior to immigrating to the United States, Hernandez worked with his grandmother and mother in their beauty salons in Colombia.
When living in Colombia, being a male beautician was challenging. Gender roles in Colombia are closely followed, and it was unacceptable for a man to be working in a beauty salon. He said people assumed he was gay because he was a man working in a feminine industry.
“It doesn’t matter what other people think, I’m doing what I love,” Hernandez said.
When his mother moved to the United States, he decided to follow her.
She opened a beauty salon in Jackson Heights in 1984, and he started working in her shop when he was 16. He took over in 1996.
Hernandez chose to start his business in Jackson Heights specifically because it has such a large and diverse population. His latest salon is located on 80th Street and Northern Boulevard, between Leños Bar and Restaurant and Bazaar New York Clothing Store. He has a clientele from Latin America and Europe, and occasionally he has customers who come from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and other states across the United States for his services.
“I like to see the smiles on their faces when they see their new hair,” Hernandez said.
In Jackson Heights, Hernandez is popular with the community, and has not faced any forms of racism.
“Colombian women try to strive for perfection when it comes to beauty,” Hernandez said.
In Colombia, he explained, cultural beauty standards are heavily influenced by European beauty standards, include having long hair and full lips while still looking natural.
“Beauty trends are heavily set by the media, as well as celebrities,” said Hernandez.
He is against the use of photoshop to alter the reality of what a model genuinely looks like in order to portray beauty standards such as tiny waists, thick eyebrows, full lips, long hair, and clear pale skin, which are almost impossible to achieve naturally.
“Photoshop and the media only show one type of beauty, there are many types of beauty with different sizes, skin color, and gender,” Hernandez reflects.
“Beauty knows no limits.”
