Hairstylist Brad Mondo's Career Evolution and Big Break
Brad Mondo's Journey From Assistant Stylist to YouTube Stardom
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Hairstyling was in his blood. His father owned a salon called the Jesamondo Salon & Spa in town and his mother worked as a distributor for a hair-care line, which is how the two met. "I really was born at the salon," he says. "I learned everything I know about hair there." He began working there at just 15 years old and would practice on anyone or anything he could get his hands on — like the mannequin heads in the back break room.
Despite all this, Mondo didn't want to go into the family business. "I was a little bit hesitant about being a hairstylist at first," he says. "I wanted to get away and really achieve great things." But after becoming an assistant stylist for his dad, Mondo couldn't resist his love for it any longer. That's when he decided in his senior year of high school to go to cosmetology school instead of college and pursue hairstyling as a career. "I [was] like, 'Let's do this, but let's do it in a totally different way,'" he says. "Which was a great decision."
While Mondo was still figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, he began creating content on YouTube. "I would come home every day after school and just watch YouTube videos constantly," he says. "I thought it was so cool that you could make a living off [of] making content."
He posted a few videos while attending cosmetology school in Massachusetts but when he moved to New York City and started doing more salon and celebrity work, he put it aside. It wasn't until he quit his salon job and went freelance that he picked it up again.
At first, his posts didn't garner too much attention but then he decided to film a reaction video, which changed everything. "It was literally overnight," Mondo says. "I woke up and I was like, 'Oh my God. Why are there half a million views on this video?'"