Emily Wilson

Hair Like A Boss

“These cards show that you’re either going back for education or moving towards further education, just an overall encouragement towards more education,” the tarot card reader explained to Tetreault as he engaged in a “freaky yet great” reading for the first time.

Prior to the tarot card reading, Tetreault had assisted a class to teach hair techniques in New York City. After seeing his friends and mentors he was assisting teach the classes, he realized the lack of information that's actually provided in the hairstyling industry. While an idea sparked in his mind to start his own classes, the tarot card reader solidified this idea.

Along with the startup of hair styling classes, Dan Tetreault, a Feeding Hills, MA native whose better known as “hair like a boss,” has also been working vigorously as a hair colorist at his own salon in West Springfield, MA, and on Mane Emergency, his app that will be released within the next few weeks.

Tetreault started taking hair more seriously after graduating from the Isenberg school of business at Umass Amherst six years ago. His inspiration came from many places, including influence from his idols, Vidal Sassoon and Linh Phan. Recently Tetreault had the opportunity to travel and study under Linh Phan, A fellow salon owner and CEO with over 309 thousand followers on Instagram. Additionally, Tetreault is going to New York City in mid December to shadow and work under stylist Jean Pierre. Tetreault himself has 27.8 thousand followers on Instagram and his popularity is only growing as the quality of his work increases.

Tetreault lives by the notion that “the number one thing in success, true success, is true freedom,” and it's clear that he lives by this statement after he explained, “I live in a perfect area where my family is and where I comfortably live, financially, and I can do whatever I want. People always say what's your next thing but what else could I ask for? At this point I can leave whenever I want, I can come and go, I don't have to worry about anything.” When people ask him why he doesn’t expand his salon or hire other people to style hair in his salon, he keeps it simple by light-heartedly answering “more money more problems, more people more problems.”

True success to his definition is something Tetreault has achieved, and is only expanding through his upcoming app, classes he’s teaching, and a continuation of perfecting new hair techniques to please and intrigue his clients. Although Tetreault’s success has been recently expanding, things haven’t always been easy. He has worked various jobs since the age of thirteen including: being a busboy, working in construction, retail, and at a T-mobile. Constantly working a variety of jobs surely founded Tetreault’s now vigorous work ethic.

Out of college Tetreault had his heart set on opening a retro barber shop attached to a tattoo parlor. This dream came crumbling down when he discovered health laws against having tattooing and hair styling in the same facility; thus he realized the shop could never be what he envisioned. This didn’t stop Tetreault’s drive, instead he just realized he’d have to put it into something else. “Then I saw connections through a lot of what’s called ‘street wear’ now, so I was going to open up a store called Unite that two people run in New York City and they were going to let me open one in Northampton,” Tetreault shared. Although this idea was enticing, Tetreault still explored his options. After remembering learning that the beauty industry was one of three industries that survived in the Great Depression, he considered sticking to that industry because for him “doing hair never came from a place of being scared to not make money.”After talking to salon workers and a woman who did his sisters hair, being a womens hair stylist became more enticing and Tetreault moved to his current house and started styling hair. “I got in a house and opened up a shop and it was just like a salon, you didn’t know it was a house until you had to use the bathroom, then you had to walk through my kitchen,” Tetreault giggled. Everything he really built came out of this place.

Tetreault considers himself to be one of the first artists to do ombre and balayage, two popular hair techniques, so it’s clear he has had a constant motion of creativity, including in his upcoming app. Tetreault’s app, Mane Emergency, is a hair stylist app that is expected to drop within the next few weeks. Features of the app currently include a snapchat map, a groupon type feature, a stylist locator, and a scheduling app. The app includes two sides, one for the hair stylist and one for the client.

The client, who pays no fee to use the app, is able to provide information like their name and number to easier keep in touch with their stylist, and six photos which consist of three current hair pictures, and three hair goal pictures. The pictures allow stylists to have a better consultation-which Tetreault sees as the most overlooked thing; with a more in-depth consultation, stylists can then get a better idea of what they’re working with, and what the final product could and/or should look like. Along with a profile, other features like the stylist locator and map feature allow clients to gain a wider range of options. Tetreault explains this further by stating that, “if you're new to the area you might have no idea what’s going on, you'd be able to see who's doing what within a 24 hour period and then you expand it from 25 miles to 50 miles, to 100 miles, etc. A lot of my clients travel here so if a girl didn't see anyone in her area that she wanted, she could up her miles and basically explore more.”

On the other side, stylists-who would pay ten dollars per month to use the app-are able to create their own profile as well, with their basic information and two photo posts per day. Though both stylists and clients can post pictures, Tetreault emphasizes that the app is not supposed to be Instagram, and is for business purposes only. With that, a feature that the stylists will possess will be a space for a hyperlink to their Instagram, for clients who want to see more of their work. Stylist can also post deals or sales they may be having.

Two more features that are available for stylists include push notifications and hair color formulas-a feature that no other app out has. After a client follows a stylist on the app they’ll be informed that they’ll get notifications from the stylist. The notifications include alerts of cancellations through an M.E (Mane Emergency) notification, and a text message. This feature allows stylist to easier fill cancellation spots, and clients to be able to have the opportunity to snag a last-minute appointment that they may have not otherwise been able to get.

The ability to buy and sell hair color formulas is a huge aspect of the app as well. Stylists are able to create albums-for example a blonde album and a brunette album-where you can look at the pictures in the album and buy the exact formula, what it was, and what was required of it, that the hair artist used. Tetreault justifies the significance of this feature in the fact that stylists often ask each other what formula they used but are only given vague explanations when many factors; including the client's hair level, color processing time, and what developer they used, are involved. Tetreault describes these vague interactions as: “It's like asking, how'd you get that car to move? ‘I put tires on it.’” The price of a formula is three dollars, which isn’t money that Tetreault is making-unless of course someone is buying a formula from him. Tetreault is comfortable with the money he has and confident in the money his app will bring in, so he doesn’t feel the need to take more from people. He truly believes in “providing a platform for everybody to make money.”

It’s clear that Tetreault cares about the people around him, especially his clients. Nicole Spiller, a client of Tetreault’s, recommends him to people including all of her friends who also get their hair done by him because of how great her hair always comes out. Spiller has 65.2 thousand Instagram followers and recently participated in season 6 of MTV’s dating show “Are You The One?.” Her popularity further promotes Tetreault’s brand, for instance when she posts a selfie on Instagram and tags @Hairlikeaboss in it. Spiller says the thing that sets Tetreault apart from other stylists is that “he’s truly an artist when it comes to hair and he wants to see the vision when you tell him what your hair goals are, which is something you definitely can’t say about most hair stylists.”

One of Tetreault’s instagram followers, Kate Garbacik-a fellow Massachusetts native-has yet to have her hair dyed, but has heard of Tetreault and his work. She heard of him through social media and friends who get their hair done by him. Garbacik, a potential client, shared that “based on his pictures he seems to have the experience so I would definitely trust him to do my hair.”

The presence of social media makes a clear impact on his clientele. Tetreault’s brand, “Hairlikeaboss,” is a clever name derived from a selfie that a client sent Tetreault after getting her hair done by him, that has become his well-known brand. “When you force yourself to brand yourself, you force yourself to get better,” he emphasizes after pointing out the tattoo of his logo he got “before he was popping.”

Tetreault’s use of slogans as hashtags are seen attached to pictures of women whose hair he styles. These hashtags include #thatbossbitchlife and #welcometothatbossbitchlife. He uses these hashtags, along with his boujee vibe displayed at his salon, which is adorned with black and gold colors, fur, and Louis Vuitton, to appeal to young adults and millenials who are immersed in the trending, sassy attitudes and appearances that match this look.

In addition, the creative names he uses for different types of hair colors he creates also add to his unique brand. Different custom hair colors are named things such as, “baby blonde,” “honey blonde,” “local celebrity,” and “dusty rose.” While Tetreault often works on creating beautiful blonde hair, he also does all other colors including the trendy white and gray hair, and even vibrant colors like pink and purple hair. Tetreault most-definitely does not lack in creativity.

The innovative @Hairlikeaboss confidently carries himself in a way that’s especially cool, calm, and collected, yet his quirkiness is still clear; a personality that allows him to easily form connections with his clients. Often sporting clubmaster glasses, a black t-shirt, leather jacket, and his tousled blonde hair peeking out of a beanie or snapback, Tetreault exhibits an edgy, hipster vibe. Talking to Tetreault is like speaking to that old-soul, good-hearted, teacher who uses metaphors to describe his every situation.

In regards to the classes Tetreault has recently begun teaching, he clarifies the importance of acquiring a more detailed explanation and tutorial through classes, by explaining that styling with only a basis of knowledge is similar to “just doing something and not knowing if you needed the hammer to do it or the sledgehammer to do it. They're both hammers, but they’re required at two completely different times.” His reasons for teaching these classes don't solely lie in a tarot card readers hands, but also have to do with the lack of information provided to amateur stylists. He points out how often people simply teach hair styling the way they do it, but don’t tell you why. This is an issue because the abundance of techniques that are essential to obtaining impressive hair results, are a stylists tools.

Tetreault had learned techniques from one of his idols, Linh Pan, while on a hair cruise, and these techniques are still applied to his current work. One night over light conversation and a cocktail, Pan described to Tetreault his recent conflict dealing with “haters” and hate from local stylists. “YOU get hated on?!” Tetreault replied in disbelief.

This is when Tetreault truly realized no matter what level you are at or how much success you gain, there will always be people against you. He keeps this idea in the back of his mind and solely recognizes the 95% of people who are supporting him, versus the 5% who aren’t. With his skill set, confident attitude, rising popularity, and innovative ideas, Dan Tetreault may be the next guy who someone is saying to “YOU get hated on?!”

(A piece of classwork assigned by Professor Peter Rand at Boston University)