As wind-fueled fires tore through the Los Angeles communities of Altadena and Pacific Palisades in January, many members of the beauty industry were left without homes—and the tools they needed for work. The industry responded immediately in a show of strength, as beauty professionals galvanized to perform considerable acts of kindness for those affected. This wasn’t thoughts-and-prayers as usual. Kits were rebuilt, housing was offered, and resilience became the thing. The result: new connections and a deeper sense of community among the people who deliver the Hollywood magic, aesthetic innovation and beach-waved beauty that can only come from LA.
The Kindness of Strangers (and a Shared Faith)
Kya Bilal & Moira Frazier
EMMA MCINTYRE/STAFF/GETTY IMAGES
“She doesn’t know me from a can of paint,” says freelance hairstylist Kya Bilal of fellow hairstylist and IATSE Local 706 member Moira Frazier. But when Bilal lost everything in the Eaton fire, Frazier, a hairstylist of 22 years who runs the hair department on Abbott Elementary, was one of the first people to send her money, along with wigs and products for her kit. “This has been the most devastating thing I’ve had to go through,” Bilal says. “I believe that God watches over me and I see Him in strangers. It’s such a blessing that there are good people like Moira on this earth who show us we can have each other’s backs; that there’s no competition—it’s all love. She is a sweet angel.”
Before the fires were even minimally contained, Frazier had called her union leaders to see whether other members were affected and how she could help. “I felt God giving me a little bit of nudge to help, and sometimes, when you listen to that voice, you can put a blessing into someone,” she says. “It’s about asking yourself, ‘What do you contribute to this industry and to your fellow hairstylist? What are you doing to help the next person?’ That’s how I was raised and who I am as a person.” Frazier says this perspective is key among creatives. “We have to stick together no matter what because hair and makeup artists shape and frame the beauty industry. We respect each other’s crafts; we’re supportive,” she says. Frazier worked with companies like Bonika Shears—and pulled products, wigs and tools from the beauty brand she founded, Ariom Pro by Fingaz Beauty—to create wig kits for Bilal and others who suddenly found themselves with nothing. She found the collaboration energizing. “Those types of gestures give me hope,” she says. “People are still generous; there’s still kindness in this world.”
Tools for Healing, From Derm to Dentist
Dr. Jon Marashi & Dr. Karyn Grossman
When Los Angeles cosmetic dentist Jon Marashi, DDS learned that his neighbors were rushing to the Palisades in order to evacuate essential items from their homes, he was in the middle of performing a veneer procedure on a patient, and stayed the course. By the time he had finished, it was no longer safe to return to his neighborhood. Then, just a few days after the fire had consumed Dr. Marashi’s home, he and his staff worked to evacuate patients’ teeth, porcelain veneers and other irreplaceables from his Brentwood office. The latter proved to be a fire drill, but the experience left Dr. Marashi depleted, to say the least. In the midst of such surreal chaos, he received a thoughtful package from a colleague that provided a sense of normalcy for his family of four: a generous quantity of Karyng skin-care products. “It’s not like I couldn’t afford face cleanser or night serum and all that stuff,” Dr. Marashi says. But restocking quality products is something that can get lost in the shuffle when there are so many other things to take care of. “Just having it show up, sent by someone who’s got you? It means a lot.”
That colleague—Karyng founder and Santa Monica, CA dermatologist Karyn Grossman, MD—has now supplied hundreds of people with skin care in the wake of the fires. The driver for dispensing skin care as a tool for healing? An indicator of recovery that Dr. Grossman learned about in medical school: taking care of oneself. “My skincare brand is pronounced ‘caring,’ and it’s about caring for people. We’ve offered to help people with skin care because when you’re running around dealing with FEMA and insurance, the basics of taking care of yourself—like washing your face and putting on sunscreen—can fall away,” she says. Dr. Grossman, like others in this story, recognizes that she’s one of many contributing to relief efforts, which “really goes to show that in spite of all the division we see, people really do care, and are here for one another.” she says. “I hope support for those affected continues after the initial experience of the tragedy starts to fade.” As for Dr. Grossman, she’s in it for the long haul.
A Colorist Connection From Miles Away
Jasmin Rodriguez & Carlos Rojas
Jasmin Rodriguez, a hair colorist five years into her career and lifelong Altadena resident, had best friends (also hairstylists) from whom to draw support and solace after she lost her family home in the Eaton fire. What’s more, the swift action of strangers within the beauty world set her up for continued success at work. “Because I rent a chair in a Pasadena salon, I provide my clients’ color products,” she says. Rodriguez was worried about the cost of resupplying these items, along with everything else she had lost. “Carlos Rojas [a hair colorist and Schwarzkopf ambassador] helped me and others by sending huge boxes of Schwarzkopf color and tools,” she says. “I’m so grateful to Carlos, my beauty community, my neighborhood community and my family community. It’s very uplifting and has definitely helped me through.” Rodriguez has also helped others affected by the fires by creating a monthly raffle of products and services, and has raised $1,000 for two recipients so far.
Rojas was time zones away in his home base of Dallas when he learned about the fires on social media. “There were so many well wishes [on social media], but I wanted to do something,” he says. After brainstorming on how to help from afar, an idea came to mind: Why not use the $6,000 in Schwarzkopf product that he had banked as part of his brand contract to provide three colorists in need (found on social media) with practical supplies: foils, combs, developer and bleach. “I think LA is blondes, Hollywood is blondes, and as colorists, blondes are what make us money. So if you don’t have product to make blondes, then I’m going to send you a box,” he says. “It all came about organically and honestly, and of course it makes you feel good to give people the ability to work.”
A Bonded Community Activates
Heather Cvar & Aviva Jansen Perea
Heather Cvar, a professional makeup artist, licensed aesthetician and founder of Cvaria Scents, happened to be organizing her makeup kit when she suddenly had to evacuate her Altadena home. In those panicked minutes, she threw about 20 percent of her kit into her car. “I left behind so much that I had built over 24 years in the industry,” she says. The minimal tools she needed as a makeup artist weren’t the half of it. “I had also built a fragrance library in my house that included irreplaceable items from Japan, books, vintage perfumes I used for reference, Cvaria fragrances and notes broken down into scent families,” she says. “What I do is ephemeral, but you still need the tools to do all of it.” Cvar’s Altadena home, and everything in it, was ultimately claimed by the Eaton fire. But as she navigated the blur of events, friends worked fast to set up a funding page and other forms of support. “Aviva Jansen Perea [who was in Italy at the time] gave us her home to stay in and moved so fast to call publicists to replace essentials. It gave us such a soft landing,” Cvar says. “She went out of her way. I felt very alive in her mind—so thought of and cared for.”
Jansen Perea, a celebrity hairstylist and founder of Day Rate Beauty, hasn’t worked much with Cvar, but their connection feels like kismet: they share a birthday and their best friends married one another. After five years of challenges among beauty professionals in LA (including COVID-19, and successive strikes), she says the industry was poised to take action in the face of the fires. “I think that’s why we’ve banded together so quickly,” Perea says. “It’s just like, ‘oh my God, we have to take care of each other.”’ She rallied Marie-Laure Fournier of Fournier PR + Consulting and Fiona Stiles of beauty retailer Reed Clarke to pull resources, along with Grishan Roof (@depotchopra on Instagram), who built immaculate replacement kits for affected makeup artists. “We all kind of knit this crisis moment together. I couldn’t have helped Heather if they hadn’t have helped me,” Perea says. Cvar feels the love. “It’s so touching, the way people have shown up for other artists,” she says. “It’s a very public kind of travesty, and you don’t realize how many people care.”
