Meet Jasmine Blackbear | Indigenous hair stylist from Oak Cliff

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

Hi Jasmine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Growing up no one ever discussed vocational schooling or things like “GAP years” or even just simply joining the work force as an option after graduating high school. I know choosing my career field would definitely be a risk taker ! Even my family had always discussed me going to college for something like Business or engineering, you know ? Those kind of jobs. I almost had no support from them when I had mentioned that I would be signing up for cosmetology school, people always view going to beauty school as a short cut kind of career choice. What most people don’t know about me is that while in high school I was actually a hair model for a few shows! Growing up I was predominately poor and I just knew if I had choice , I would not be poor as an adult. So I was quite the hustler in my teenage years, I started working as soon as I turned 14, and one of my side hustles was modeling. First time I’ve ever modeled for a hair show was for this brand named “Pravana”, it was specifically for hair color transformation so I basically got paid to just sit and let people watch the hair stylist change my whole look! All the hair artist looked like they were having the best time of their life, everyone seemed to really enjoy their job. I did a few more gigs after that, but when I reached a point in high school where I actually had to decided on college or beauty school, I chose beauty school. The hair artists at shows seemed so creative and the whole thing seemed like there was so much opportunity to be creative while also having a decent job. To this day I will never regret my decision in choosing this career, I’ve been pretty successful for my age and how long I’ve been out of high school. I didn’t have many people to look up to for this career field but I hope someone can look at me and be inspired just like how I was all those times being a hair shows watching the hairstylist.

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 feel like I wouldn’t be as successful as I am today if I didn’t have on ounce of confidence. People cycle in and out your life, sometimes you wont have someone cheering you on and that’s ok. At the end of the day, you have yourself so that means you better get comfortable with yourself and figure out your strengths and weaknesses. You will always have yourself to cheer you on.

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?
Sundays on Jefferson in Oak Cliff. Every Sunday they have a low rider car show in the Jefferson strip. It’s one of the last things I remember in my childhood that’s part of old Oak Cliff. In that particular area there’s also Bishop Arts and other surrounding shopping areas to attend. A lot of small businesses that have amazing foods and products !

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to thank everyone who has been patient with me and has shown me the slightest bit of support. Getting into this industry there was a lot of doubt, I couldn’t see how much talent I had like everyone else.

Instagram: Stylesbyblackbear

Image Credits
Dalia Guadalupe