Meet Michele Pasco of Alopecia Hair Solutions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Pasco.

Michele, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. In junior high, I went to visit a beauty school on a field trip and that’s when I told myself ‘that’s what I want to do… I want to make people feel beautiful’. A couple of years later, I became a student at Davea, a vocational program through high school that offered beauty school. Hence, the start of my career at Mario Tricoci when I was a junior in high school. I graduated both high school and the training program at Mario’s when I was 17. I remember my boss suggesting to me that I might want to tell clients that I was a little older than 17! For almost 15 years, I worked hard at Mario’s to move up the ladder and fine tune my craft/ professional skills, managing and educating color departments for over a decade across the Chicagoland area and at a few out of state locations. Then it was on to Dallas and Columbus, where I started a small boutique salon of my own.

In my mid 30’s I became a mother of two little cuties and took a little time off. BUT I mentally couldn’t take too much time off… I was going bat crazy cleaning up stomped on Cheerios all day! While trying to find the right salon to work at, I stumbled upon working with women with hair loss. Working to help women find something that made them feel whole again from hair loss, was like nothing else I had ever done before in my professional life. I think what sold me was having a client tell, “I feel like I’m looking at myself again in the mirror… thank you” with a big hug or seeing a teenager go from being self conscious, to getting sassy talking to their self in the mirror and snapping a selfie!!

All it took was me helping one client find a hair loss solution and I immediately wanted to help others. I started training and taking hair loss classes with several of the top hair loss companies across the country and abroad in Italy. This really helped me become more knowledgeable about the different types of hair loss potential clients may suffer from, as well as hair loss solutions available to make them “WHOLE” again. The more people I helped, the more passionate I became about doing all that I could to help even more people with hair loss, which eventually lead me to start Alopecia Hair Solutions. Typically people will call a job “work” but I don’t feel like I work, I help people.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

I feel like everything that has happened so far in my career has somehow helped to prepare me for what I do today. I realize that there will always be some struggles… we all have something! I just don’t ever want to feel like I’m too old to learn something new, whether it’s in my personal life and/or professionally.

Please tell us about Alopecia Hair Solutions.

I started Alopecia Hair Solutions so that I can specialize in helping anyone that struggles with the IMPACT of hair loss. Often times people dealing with hair loss are either physically sick from chemotherapy or they might be emotionally in a tough spot. We found that going to them helped to make the process easier. I mean who wants to travel when you aren’t feeling that well… Right. Beginning with a Private Consultation in the Privacy of their own home, working to find the right solution that fits his or her lifestyle. Some clients may need a full wig due to total hair loss; some might just need a little help on the top of their head with a little hair piece topper, while others might just be happy with a simple hat or scarf. Whatever it might be, we are there to help make them feel good about themselves AND REGAIN THAT SENSE OF SELF AND CONFIDENCE THAT HAIR LOSS SO OFTEN STRIPS AWAY.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?

I think it all began at the tender age of six, playing “salon” and styling my cousin’s hair. While playing, my cousin convinced me that she could use a little more than a wash and dry, so we decided it would be a good idea to give her a new “DO” as well! I the proceeded to sneak a pair of my mom’s scissors and I cut her hair bangs!! Our moms were HORRIFIED! WE, Of course, denied ANY WRONG doing, even though it was pretty obvious what we had done! Years later, my mom and I were rearranging my bedroom and we found the hair I had cut, hiding behind my dresser!! She’s the sister I never had and the guinea pig I always needed… and surprisingly I still do her hair to this day!

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