Meet Amanda Stawarz | Hair Stylist and Dreadlock Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Stawarz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I think that the most important factor behind my brand and success would be staying educated and constantly trying new things. I love learning and trying out new techniques and products. Staying educated is so important in my industry. It also keeps my job interesting and new which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I got into the hair industry because I wanted to do bright colored, creative hair, and finding a Salon with that kind of clientele surprisingly wasn’t easy back then. I got my cosmetology license in 2008, and it took a few years after that to find a salon that felt “right”. In 2014 I started working at Electric Chair Salon in Ocean Beach. The salons I was working at before then I felt I had no room for creativity. I was doing a lot of the same hair colors and styles every day, I started to get bored. When I started working at Electric Chair, I immediately was flooded with clients ready for a change and ready for me to have creative freedom. As much fun as I was having with color I still wanted to do more and that’s when I started learning how to do dreadlocks. From there I started messing around with Instagram and started getting more clients the more and posted and my business quickly grew. Within a year my books were always full and i felt like I was finally where I wanted to be. I’ve learned so much in the time I’ve been doing hair. I doubted myself a lot, compared myself to other stylists and as stressful and scary as it’s been sometimes, I wouldn’t change a thing. If it’s not hard, you’re not growing.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well I love food, and I love beer. There’s a spot I just tried recently for brunch called Breakfast and Bubbles. Great food and really pretty cocktails. Then Id have a beer at Fall Brewing in North Park. There’s a pizza/burger spot next door called The Friendly. Definitely grab a burger there. After that I need to walk off all the food so go down to Seaport Village and people watch. Then for dinner I’d go to my favorite spot called Red House Pizza, on Adams Ave. For dessert, head down the street to Stella Jeans Ice cream, and good night.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There was a salon in Ocean Beach called The Electric Chair that I worked at a few years ago. I had wanted to work there since I was a kid and made it happen eventually. The owner was a man named Paul Bolton. He stands out as someone who contributed to my success because he was always pushing me. He helped me create my brand in a lot of ways and I still call him whenever I need business advice. A brand that really stands out as far as my success is a dreadlock hair care brand called Dollylocks. They educated me and taught me so much not just about dreadlocks, but about hair in general. Without those two I don’t think I’d be where I am today.

Website: meanmaneshairlab.com

Instagram: @mean.manes

Image Credits
@honey.fire.bliss took the photo of me working on dreadlocks