Week #3: Beauty From the Outside In With Dan Burda

By: Isabella Lin, ACMS Intern

It’s Week #3 of Self Care Summer! This week: an eye-opening interview with hairstylist Dan Burda from Studio Raw Elite to explore the value of outward beauty on our inner selves. 

What is the TRUE and WHOLE VALUE of a good haircut? Read the interview below:

1.Isabella: Why did you choose to be a cosmetologist as a career path? 

Dan: This career allows me to unleash my creative side without “corporate” hold backs or limitations. As a child, I was told I’m school that I spoke too much, always doodled on my test, and became “chummy” with the teachers… it was obvious from that early year of my life what my calling should have been, lol, but I embarked upon it at the age of 26.

2. Isabella: What does self care look like to you?

 Dan: Self care & Mental Health are CLOSELY related. It’s more than a haircut, or a fresh new color. Seeing yourself in the mirror does affect the way we feel. It’s about providing YOURSELF the moment to be taken care of for a change in life, we often times feel guilty taking time to ourselves, but it’s important that we all make time to do it.

 3. Isabella: How can your profession connect to people’s self esteem/self care?

 Dan: We are often referred to as therapists, with touch comes trust. A stylist-client relationship can grow into a friendship, and in a good friendship it’s about PICKING ONE ANOTHER UP and cheerleading one another through many of life’s ups and downs.

4. Isabella: What is the value of a good haircut?

Dan: What price do you put on looking at yourself in the mirror and loving what you see?

5. Isabella: Piece of advice?

Dan: Yes. Word hard. Love freely…Create purpose! Don’t follow the standard script, create your own in life. 

 You make it a better world!

Dan Burda

Thanks so much to Dan and the entire Studio Raw Elite staff for doing what they do!