Daily Inspiration: Meet Ro Jiyuu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ro Jiyuu

Hi Ro, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
It starts at the end. I was 27 years old and packing all that I owned into my 2007 Suzuki Forenza. My marriage of four years was coming to a close and I was anxious to get out of the little town, back to my previous life before it all. I would come to admire that small place in the south east of central Illinois in the coming years, though I did not know it yet.
My car was being shipped back to my home town and I was taking a flight there the next morning. I was afraid to drive across the country on my own and I had little to no money for hotels and gas. I remember of, “what comes?” and “what do I do now?”, as I sat in the tiny little airport somewhere outside of Illinois. I didn’t know at the time that it was the first of many live altering events that would lead me to where I am today. Had I known I known I probably wouldn’t have cried so much in the airport bathroom. Or maybe I still would have, that tracks for me.
I stayed with my best friend at the time of nearly 15 years. I lived in her spare bedroom on a pile of blankets on the floor for the first few months while I looked for jobs. I had been working in nursing homes as kitchen staff up to that point. My last job in Arcola Il I had only worked for about 3 months before quitting but they had given me a glowing recommendation, not to mention the kitchen staff all wrote and signed a card from the manager that I believe I still have in a bag somewhere mixed with a million other papers. Needless to say, I didn’t have any trouble finding a job in that same line of work once I got back to North Carolina. I worked in two nursing homes at the time and It didn’t take long being back for all those old feelings I had ran from some years prior to resurface. I felt like I had failed to launch and ended up back at the start of the race, tail between my legs ready to face the onset of, “what happened” from the people I grew up around. These people had become so foreign to me now that It all felt like too much.
I spoke to a friend/partner, whatever we were, and convinced him to let me come live with him in Tampa. He traveled for work and lived abroad for years at a time so having someone take care of the house in the mean time ended up being a mutually beneficial solution for us both.
The understanding was that I would attend cosmetology school and find a job and pick up the pieces of what felt like a shattered life and hopefully begin again.
My time in Florida was so instrumental in finding out who I was. I went to school and made friends, real friends. I was on a rocky horror picture show shadow cast for about a year, I fell in love for the first time and felt loved and seen for the first time as well. Coming out as trans was what ended my sad sham of a marriage in the first place so I was determined to live as authentically and outloud as I could here.
I began therapy and shortly after I began HRT (hormone replacement therapy). I found a support group and was able to be in community with other people like myself for the first time. We would go out after most meetings and have drinks or get food and discuss further that nights meeting. We would often end up in a little bar up the street in Ybor city called “The Dirty Shame”, throwing darts and drinking and talking about our lives, making furniture plans outside the meet ups that we would never follow through on. Except we did all go to pride one year together, that was awesome. I meet one of my best friends in that group, we still talk to this day.
I finished school and started working in Ybor city in my first salon. I had walked by that salon in the months leading up to beginning school so it was a bit serendipitous that I would eventually work in said salon nearly 2 years later. I was following my dream.
That dream didn’t last long. I was fired 6 months into working as an apprentice. And after being called a few choice names by the owner and left with his final words on the matter, “I just don’t want to work with somebody like you”, I walked out of that salon with whatever small amount of dignity i had left and sat in my car and angry cried.
I cried a lot. I stayed home for nearly a month before applying anywhere else. Eventually I got a job working in a corporate chain salon in Tampa. I honestly thought it would be the death of whatever career I thought I could have had and I remember feeling embarrassed telling people where I worked. Was this it? Was this all I could hope for now that my big chance to be in a prominent salon with 10 year veteran stylists, taking classes and potentially going oversees to work with other industry professionals had come crashing to the ground? It sure felt like it.
I met Dee, the salon manager at the time, in the main lobby and we walked over the ice cream store next to the salon and sat at the table outside to chat. Dee would go on to become the person who introduced to cutting short hair cuts and helped me grow as a professional and find the confidence to do what it is I do now. I still to this day attribute all that I know to that first year of working along side her. (Thank you Dee.)
I would work at this salon for the next 3 year until the country shut down and everything went into a pseudo limbo for a bit while we all battled over hand sanitizer and toilet paper of all things.
Long story long, 2020 saw about a million changes all spiral into a vortex of strangeness that led me to leave Florida for good. 2020 saw the death by suicide of a partner and friend, the beginning of a relationship and the end of a long standing agreement between friends and leaving the comfort of a place I had started to call my home.
We decided to move to Colorado because my new partner worked remote and I had family here that I had wanted to spend some time with and get to know. So we packed up the car full of all our stuff and moved across the county to my now home state of Colorado, Denver specifically.
Although said partner and I are no longer together, I am grateful to that situation for having led me to where I sit today. I found the Salon that I work out of. Ive built a community full of queer and non queer folks who uplift and affirm me and to whom I am eternally grateful to. I work alongside fantastic stylists who vary from having worked in the industry for 20 plus years to people just starting out and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have learned and am still learning to be a good listener and an even better stylist through the years and the space I share now continues to inspire that mentality daily. Im not sure what’s on the horizon for me (I mighty have a clue or two) but I wouldn’t trade these years for anything. And to my clients and friends who have stuck by me through the years, through moves and breakups both for myself and for them. All the times we laughed and the times we cried and all the in between, I want to say thank you, you’ve saved me in ways you will never know.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I cannot imagine a smooth, wrinkle free story. What would hat even look like? I count my blessings (however one quantifies fortune). I know it could have been much worse for me had I not been raised with the tenacity and gumption of the incredible women I was fortunate enough to be brought up by. Ive been knocked down more times than even i care to admit, Im sure. In my life ive been homeless and sleeping on a park bench and I’ve been assaulted, I’ve been spat on by someone who didn’t like my presence, I’ve been arrested, divorced, lost a partner to suicide, dumped more times than i care to admit and been to a lot of therapy. So, no the road has not been smooth but its been a good one. One i would travel all over again if given the chance.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So Ive been a hairstylist for about 7 years now. I have been as lot of different hair stylists along the way. I started out at the basics of hair, I did a lot of long layers and simple trims. I learned how to do short hair once i got into my first long term gig and Ive practiced that ever since. But more recently tides have turned and once i got into my now salon I’ve learned a lot more. I did short hair and that was great to start out. But while working along side an incredible stylist (@crybaby.cuts) I learned to do new types of cuts like, mullets and shags and more curly hair. I have visually hair myself and that just clicked for me. I was surprised to learn that I love taking care of curly hair since my own hair had been the catalyst for so many people to book with me in the first place. So now I still do short hair cuts but Im making the shift to doing more curls in the future. I love all types of hair and I love being able to create something special for people when they come to see me. The queer community has given me so much and Im just grateful that I can provide something affirming for them as well. I am most proud of the community of friends that I have build around doing hair. The times we spend together creating and chatting and sometimes in silence, Ive heard about their lives and they about mine and we’ve connected over shared experiences and cried over loss and celebrated the good.
I think what sets me apart from others is my love and my honesty. I refuse to upsell and sugar coat to my clients to get them to come back and i think in doing so I have created a space where people feel cared for. That tough love gets people. I teach my clients how to talk about their hair in ways other stylists have not. I tell then what im doing it and why, so they can watch and learn from me. I always say “it’s unrealistic to think you’ll come to me forever, thats a big word, so I want you to know how to tell the next stylist how you’ve had your hair done before and what you liked so they can hopefully create something similar for you”. I want my clients to be apart of their haircut so they know it’s exactly what they want.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have leaned along the way is, Almost nothing works out the way you planned it to and everything comes to you in the time frame in which you are ready to receive it. If had a dollar for every situation I planned methodically only to have 2% of it actually pan out, I’d be rolling in money. I say that not to tell others not to plan or to manage time but to let go of the things that dont work out and focus on what did and what you learned from what didn’t work. Everything is a lesson and everything helps no matter how sideways it went.
Whoever heard it before but “ if I had gotten what I thought I wanted when I thought I wanted it, HA!”
Just let yourself breathe and be in whatever moment you are in. The future will work itself out. Thats not to say dont set yourself up for the things you want but sometimes life has other plans for you. Don’t be afraid to just go with the flow for a bit.

Pricing:

• Short cuts are 50$
• medium cuts are 55$
• Long cuts are 65-75$ (Depending on length)
• Wash and style always included.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ro-donielle.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curlyhairllc?igsh=MXBiZXZkbjl2N2Nidw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Image Credits
Photos of me done by Cole Fandale, @cpf.visuals, all others photos taken by me.