Artist Spotlight: Larisa Love

Larisa Love is crushingly busy. On the heels of her first trade show in more than a year (America’s Beauty Show, Chicago), she squeezes in two late-night Zooms held at the tail end of very long days behind the chair. All the while, she remains refreshingly effervescent. This mindset has served her well: She has amassed more than half a million Instagram followers who thumb through her feed for her arresting color creations, but stay for her comical videos and wide, welcoming smile.

The Rebel Within

It’s a mindset Love has worked hard to achieve. Religion ruled her childhood home in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her father, a Russian Pentecostal pastor, viewed creative expression as immoral. “Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to be very expressive; I couldn’t dress a certain way or wear makeup. I couldn’t listen to music or watch television. My father thought if I did, I would be living in a sinful world,” she says. But hair artistry beckoned Love. She taught herself to French-braid her Barbie at four years old—much to her mom’s disbelief. When her Liberty-spiked punk-rock brother left green hair dye sitting out, Love swiped it and ended up sporting shamrock locks in her fourth-grade school photos. It was becoming evident: The more her parents restricted her, the harder Love rebelled, which ultimately informed the drive she has today. “I think why I’ve gotten as far as I have is because my dad told me hair is just a hobby; it’s not a career. Him saying that was my biggest motivator, because not only did I want to prove I could make a career of being a hairstylist to myself—I wanted to prove it to him, too. I wanted him to know that hairdressing is a badass career, and you can make great money doing what you love,” Love shares, adding, “If you tell me not to do something, I will do it 100 times better than you could imagine.”

Humble Beginnings

Growing up deprived of outside creative stimulus—even when her family eventually won the visa lottery and relocated to America when she was six years old—forced Love to foster her own artistic world where she painted and sewed clothing, two art forms that would follow her into a thriving career. Yet, she couldn’t shake her connection with hair. “I didn’t have any other thought of what else I wanted to do besides hair,” she asserts.

Even so, Love moved out of the family home at age 17, and attended a semester and a half of college due to pressure from her parents—“I was following their rules,” she says. After a heated argument with her father, Love quit college and, that very same day, enrolled in beauty school. Her parents cut her off—but, as a tiny measure of good faith, her mother helped Love secure a loan behind her father’s back to attend Marinello School of Beauty. “I don’t think he knows [she did that] even to this day,” Love laughs, though the memory is painful. “It affected me a lot. Because I had to be so independent at such a young age … I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. “But when you get to that point, you don’t have a choice but to work your ass off, right?” To make ends meet, Love rented a room from a friend, worked as a waitress during the day and attended cosmetology school at night. “Those days will never be forgotten. That is what humbles me at all times because I remember where I came from, and always feel so much gratitude,” Love says.

The Wild West of Instagram

Love’s first foray into hair with the now defunct Marinello School of Beauty felt lackluster. Though she didn’t exactly know at the time, some of the teachings went against common hair knowledge. Rather than feel defeated, Love took a different tactic: empowerment. “I’m glad in a sense because I kind of created my own way of thinking about hair. I didn’t have set-in-stone rules that held me back from thinking differently,” she says. “I’m basically self-taught when it comes to all of my techniques. I broke a lot of rules learning techniques and placement, and I still break a lot of rules.”

Post-graduation, Love hit the salon circuit. First up: just sweeping and cleaning. The second: assisting with blow-dries and base retouches—but she wasn’t learning anything. Third and final: a full-fledged stylist with no real clientele—just scarce walk-ins. So, Love decided to go it alone—exactly at the same time a little social media platform called Instagram was taking shape.

“Like everyone else, I didn’t initially use Instagram for hair promotion; I used it for the filters,” she laughs. But when Love took the risk of turning away from the typical salon path, she saw potential in Instagram. It was 2012; she started posting photos of haircolor, updos and cuts that progressed into dramatic befores and afters as she became more prolific. At the time, Instagram was the “Wild West”—the idea of an “influencer” only a twinkle in the platform’s eye. But other hairdressers, like Guy Tang, were learning to leverage Instagram’s visual medium around the same time—and no algorithm interfered to stop their rise. Love joined their ranks, gaining around 2,000 new followers a day and eventually converting some of them into clients in her small indoor/outdoor patio setup.

A Quick Study

Over the next six months, Love honed her craft, teaching herself as best she could. She discovered a natural knack for placement, but formulation was elusive. “Formulation was a lot of trial and error,” she admits. With her friends, family and a small number of new clients as models, Love tested every single color line imaginable that SalonCentric carried. “It was a lot of hoping and praying,” she confesses. Her advice for discovering which color lines suits you: Find a mentor whose work you admire. “They can tell you why they like a line and how they use it. Even though it’s their personal opinion, if they’re creating beautiful hair, they’re probably doing something right,” Love advises. “I so wish I had [a mentor] in the beginning because I feel like I would have learned much quicker and not had to go through so much trial and error,” she continues, noting that Passion Squared podcaster and fellow stylist Nina Kovner became a cherished advisor to her later in Love’s career. “Nina’s there for me whenever I have salon life issues to this day,” she says.

Never Say Never

As Love gained more clients, she began to question the professionalism of her makeshift salon. She moved her operation to a suite at Salon Republic and within three months was booked solid. “Best decision I ever made. Because, once I did that move, then I became a true professional,” Love asserts.

As her IG presence grew, so did her IRL clientele. She outgrew her Salon Republic suite within two years and moved into the Ubungalows by Butterfly Loft Salon & Spa in Encino, California. After three years in that location, she found herself so overbooked that some clients would wait one to two years for a Love-painted haircolor design. At that point, Love knew opening her own salon made sense—and, in 2017, she did just that with Larisa Love Salon in Studio City, California.

Around the same time, Love’s IG presence started attracting the attention of brands. CosmoProf came knocking, onboarding Love as its first brand ambassador in 2016. “CosmoProf first invited me to come to one of its shows and do a meet-and-greet—I didn’t even know that kind of thing existed,” she laughs. The success of this first outing opened Love’s eyes to a whole other side of hairdressing, but she wasn’t 100-percent sure she truly understood what being a brand ambassador entailed. “I didn’t know that meant I’d be platform teaching. That brand ambassador position kind of threw me out onto the big main stages!” she exclaims.

Even though Love promoted her creations on IG, she never envisioned herself as an educator. “I used to say I never want to teach because I’m self-taught,” Love admits. She felt uneasy sharing too much of her secret sauce; her techniques garnered her stunning success—so why give them away? But teaching a small class at The Butterfly Loft changed her mind in an instant. “I was asked to teach my ‘bowl-yage’ technique, and the students acted like they had won the lottery. It was such a good feeling to open up people to new ways to create. I just fell in love with teaching because, in that moment, I saw how in need the hair industry is of good education,” she says. Any unease melted away. “You know, you can give all the ingredients to a chef, but no two chefs’ dishes will ever be the same. And for me, I see there’s no competition with anyone. I want to uplift everyone,” Love says.

So when Love hit those main stages for CosmoProf, her confidence in her ability to teach and her love of education only grew. “I feel like because I was so naive and such a baby at that point in my career, I wasn’t afraid,” Love admits. “I feel like that experience is what developed me into the educator and artist that I am today.”

Not a Sales Pitch

This fearlessness—as well as an innate talent for color placement and her penchant for working off-kilter shades into natural-feeling creations—drew the eyes of Joico. Having worked with Love through CosmoProf, Joico executives liked what Love brought to the table and offered her the position of brand ambassador in 2018, which she still holds today. “Joico really does listen to the artists; they really do consider my feedback,” Love says, citing a time when the brand sought to remove yellow from the haircolor lineup—and Love fought to keep it in. (They listened.) She meets regularly with the brand, discussing what might be missing and what can be improved upon. Joico also gives Love full control over techniques used, as long as Love plays with the tones the brand seeks to market. That synergy eventually led to the Love Aura collection, Love’s own Joico collection of colors (think: periwinkle and mauve) in which she was given full creative control over formulating the tones and naming them. “Honestly, the brand team and their products are incredible. I know it all sounds like a sales pitch, but it’s so true. It’s important to me to be authentic at all times and never sell my soul to align with or promote anything I don’t truly believe in,” she says.

No Regrets

As Love traveled and worked as a brand ambassador, she had a new salon and large staff to manage. “It was always my dream goal to open a salon. I felt like I was ready for it. I knew the business aspect of it from having suites and running my own business for years,” Love says. But, reality quickly sunk in. The salon suffered a culture problem; staff tension plagued the salon floor. “I feel like I didn’t fully pick the right people; they didn’t connect. You know, one person can affect the whole energy,” she reflects, noting that personality is as important as talent when hiring staff.

She also felt like an absentee owner. “Pre-COVID, I was traveling for education a ton, and I was away from the salon more than I was in it. It’s hard to foster a good culture when the main person isn’t there to maintain it,” Love admits. She realized she desired less unnecessary stress; she didn’t want to be phoning the salon from a trade show floor to check in. “Sometimes you need to focus on one thing at a time,” Love stresses, and at that point in her heart she knew her focus was overwhelmingly the art, rather than the commerce. She shuttered the salon after three years, and sought a smaller space for a boutique concept where Love would have a tight team of co-artists, flexible hours and the ability to travel and teach as needed. “I don’t regret opening Larisa Love Salon. But would I ever do it again? Absolutely not,” she says firmly.

What About the Artist?

When she opened her new spot, also named Larisa Love Salon and also in Studio City, COVID hit. “We were immediately shut down. I didn’t work for 10 months. It was insane,” she says. The downtime opened Love’s eyes. “It definitely showed me how crazy ‘go-go-go’ my life was. I realized that, as artists, we’re always told to focus more on the client experience. But what about the artists’ experience?” she asks. “I’m getting burnt out and I don’t have time to sit and breathe. And this impacts the clients’ experience because they can sense that you’re in a rush or you’re all over the place.” Love made a decision: Book less clients and increase the overall salon experience, adding a drink bar menu and a styling menu. “Now that I see less clients, I can really give each person in my chair much more attention. That feels good,” she enthuses.

What’s Next: The Creator

The pandemic not only forced Love to slow down, but also to redirect her self-labeled “psycho mind” to other projects. She added jewelry and clothing to her thriving salon apron line under her Love What You Do by Larisa Love collection and, most recently, masterminded her newest venture, The Creator. The book will act as a mentor of sorts, housing some of Love’s favorite techniques; critical information for haircolor; head sheets to show zones and placement; areas to scribble notes; and, most importantly to Love, blank head sheets for users to create their own techniques. “I want students to incorporate what I taught into their own versions. We’re all figuring it out as we go, right?” she asks. Love hopes The Creator will inspire the colorist community to break rules and unleash their creativity. “As colorists, when we do come up with something that we truly created rather than just copying a technique, we feel even more like true artists,” Love says. “I want to encourage that freedom of expression.”

Feed Reality

Love says she lucked into her Instagram following because she was an early adopter of the platform—but of course it took hard work. Now, with an algorithm that aims to displease, her plan of action is sustainability over growth. Here, Love talks about the reality of IG.

Respond with Love

“Cyberbullying is real. It deeply affected me mentally in the beginning because I wasn’t used to it. Every negative comment tore me apart—even when there were 100 great comments. With time, I realized that it has nothing to do with me; it’s within others. Almost always I will respond with love—and, typically, the trolls don’t respond back.”

Be Real

“It’s all about being authentic and organic, and not making everything so picture-perfect. I often talk about how my day went in my Stories. The more relatable you are, the more others connect with you. People are over seeing a feed filled with just beautiful hair. They want to know who is behind the art.”

Manage Expectations

“Show an honest representation of your work—no filters, just editing that clarifies, like de-saturating a background. Then, when clients come in showing you IG photos, stick your consultation. As a general rule I under-promise and—hopefully—overdeliver.”

Enlist Help

“I try to engage with followers as much as possible—but it’s hard. I recently hired my salon assistant and, when she’s not helping me behind the chair, she aids with my social media by responding to people in my voice and creating video content. She’s a hairdresser, so she understands how to shoot step-by-steps for stylists; I don’t have to fix her work like I would with someone outside of the industry. This has really helped me to go home and relax instead of feeling like I have to be on my phone for an extra five hours to create content.”

Videos, Videos, Videos

“People love videos. You can be really creative with your befores and afters, but also just create funny, real sh*t, too.”

Team Effort

“My co-artists and I have a shared folder in our Notes app that we update with ideas. If we see a cute TikTok video, we log it and come up with ways to make it into a hairdresser video.”

Emilynn Rose

At time of print, approximately 557K stylists and hair aficionados follow Love on Instagram @larisadoll.

Love’s mood board for her fall/winter 2021 apron drop.

Love features her hair creations on her IG page.

The prototype of Love’s The Creator—an expanded version is on the horizon.