0:00  
Hello, everyone, my name is Alex Pavlov. I'm from Montreal, Canada and I'm a stylist at Glassbox barber shop now in Toronto. I've been here for the last three years and, and I'm on a journey now to become the best. As a job I'd say I was cutting hair since I was 18 years old. I'm 22 now, but I was also cutting when I was 16. And I was I was cutting my friend's hair, my own hair, I was always very passionate about hair. I actually was yeah, I was working on Zara. But besides that, I was I was mainly focused in playing hockey, and I was getting paid doing that as well. Cutting hair. Cutting hair.  Yeah, it's crazy, because it's two completely different industries as well. But there's a lot of factors that I put in within those two. There's a lot of things people don't realize, but there's a lot of things he could apply with both. 

0:52  
Cutting hair? 

0:52  
And it's crazy,you say that's a very like obsessed, I was hundred 100% obsessed with both. Like I remember my father built the ice rink in my backyard, and I'll be waking up at like 6am before going to high school and playing and shooting the puck. And then go back, finish school and then do the same thing. And then the same thing with cutting hair like I will be working until two, 3am on mannequin dolls just kind of cutting my cutting the hair and just just working at it and perfecting my techniques. I drop hockey completely from, from more literally from going to hockey everyday to completely not going once and then picked up a new thing and does the diet every day. Those baby steps started with my own hair. I was never satisfied with my own hair, I would always go to the barber shop come out of the barber shop and not not be happy with the haircut. I was I was satisfied, but it wasn't necessarily happy with it. I felt like there was a lot more that could have been done and I didn't know if it was my fault for having the hair I had or it was just the stylist not being able to create something that I wanted. Hair I would always Google with my hair texture, different styles that I could that I could apply to my own hair, products. There was a lot of things I knew about my own hair or the industry itself, but nothing close to what I know now. Yeah, that's actually a very good question. If there is a moment I could actually 100% say that this moment, right here was the moment that literally turned my life completely. I was cutting hair at 18. So I went to school, I went to an international beauty school. I did a program for three months, a barber program graduated and was passionate about it. I started cleaning at a barber shop at a Cuban barber shop did a lot of fades a lot of clipper work, but nothing with scissors. I did a somewhat scissors but it wasn't nothing like I know now. From there I actually worked for six months and within that six months, I found out these group of guys, and their called Menspire, and I follow these guys on Instagram. And every time I would look on their Instagram videos and pictures that they would post I would literally be so fascinated to the point where I would tell the owner of the shop that I was working out like, how is this possible? I want to cut exactly like these people. Problem was these people were in London, England and at that point, it was just a thought in my mind that I wanted to be like them. Now at this point, I'm still working for them, but I'm feel like within the industry that I'm in, I'm stale. I'm just being in the same spot. I'm not getting any better. And I feel like I want it to get better because I kept looking at these guys and they just kept putting out better, better and better work. So then I emailed them. I was like, hey, I'm looking to come to a class in London, England. I was just I was just an idea of how much it costs. After the email they replied right away. They're like, but why don't we talk on WhatsApp. At this point their Instagram wasn't that big, they had about 10,000 followers. And it was just that I was just so fascinated with their work and I just want to learn from them. So I got I got their Whatsapp and I started talking to the owner, which his name was Josh Lamonica. And he's like, we have a class going and, and it's a one week program and it starts in a month. Ah man, I wanted to be there so badly that I went and got a credit card from the bank and asked them if they could if I could put it all on the credit card. Crazy. 

1:01  
Didn't work?

4:04  
It did. So at this point, right, I told my family that I'm leaving, and they don't believe me. And I booked the flight and I booked the accommodations and I tell them I'm leaving in a week and they still don't believe me. A week, the day of passes by and I'm like I'm leaving. They still don't believe me. I grab a Uber to get to the what's it called to get to the airport. At this point, they call me they're like you're actually leaving, aren't you? I'm like yes, I'm gone in like two hours. So I get to London, England. I'm 18 years old. So at this point, I kid you not, the second I went and sat at the salon and watched him cut hair I was fucking blown away. It's crazy because we all know that social media sometimes can be fake in a sense that what you see on social media might not necessarily be the exact same thing in real life. But these guys are the complete opposite. I've watched a video recently, and it talked about this. It's like, people are like successful people, set goals for themselves for every five years right? Truth is, it's very good to set yourself goals for five years. But the truth is, life works in so many crazy and it moves so fast that who's to say where life will take you in five years. And the one goal I've had, for the last, I'd say, four to five months is make sure that the next day is a better day. I think that's the one goal I think I always always keep in mind is that I'm trying to be better every day, I'm trying to be better than the last day. You know what I mean? Being disciplined everyday, me being more disciplined, being more attentive. Being more maybe maybe doing something, maybe it's if it's not necessarily cutting wise, building that relationship with my clients. To be honest, if there is a goal, there's one goal, I want to be the best in the world. That's the truth of it. And it sounds so cliche and stuff, but I truly like I I thrive for perfection. I want this industry to go with me. I took initiative I've never done I've always lived with my family. So and you know what, that opens so many doors that I felt free after doing that, and it was so fulfilling. I truly believe then I was the only option I had to take in life in and out that option was to take that class. There needs to be a guideline in your life. And what that what I mean by guideline is that you need to find, and I truly mean this from my heart, you need to find something that you really like doing. Once you find that passion, become the best at it. And it's naturally going to be something you want to be good at, because it's something you love doing anyways. So it doesn't matter what route you take in life. You could be, you could be plumbing. You could be you could be taking the trash out, but whatever it is, if you love it be the best at it. Because I believe success doesn't necessarily measure with material things or money. I think sometimes for myself, at least I measure success with happiness, so happy. And I work 10 to 10 every day, six days a week. 

7:17  
Where can I find you? 

7:19  
Glassbox barbershop baby. 

7:21  
And what's your Instagram for us? 

7:22  
My Instagram is Alexi Michael, please follow me.