Today we’d like to introduce you to Luis Rivera.
Hi Luis, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story really begins in Puerto Rico, where I was born and raised. From an early age, life taught me resilience, determination, and the importance of making the most of every opportunity. Interestingly, the beauty industry was not where I originally thought my career would take me. I earned a degree in Biomedical Science with minors in Psychology and Education, thinking my future would follow a completely different path.
But creativity had always been a part of me, and eventually I decided to take a chance on something I genuinely loved.
After moving to Florida, I attended Paul Mitchell The School Orlando and earned my cosmetology license. What started as a new career quickly became my passion and, ultimately, my purpose. I realized that doing hair and makeup was about so much more than making someone look beautiful. It was about connection, confidence, transformation, and creating a space where people could feel seen and celebrated.
I eventually took another leap of faith and opened **Stylus by Luis Rivera**, my salon suite in the Orlando area. Fourteen years later, I am incredibly proud to still be behind the chair and running my own business. Building a business for that long has taught me that success isn’t created overnight. It comes from consistency, relationships, continuing to evolve, and showing up even during the seasons when things are difficult.
Education also became a major part of my journey. My background in education unexpectedly came full circle when I became an educator and platform artist with **John Paul Mitchell Systems**. For more than a decade, I’ve had the opportunity to travel, teach, work alongside incredible artists, and share my knowledge with beauty professionals and future professionals. Teaching has become one of the most rewarding parts of my career because I get to help other artists discover their confidence and understand that our industry can provide so many different paths to success.
Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to work on pageants, photoshoots, television appearances, editorial projects, weddings, and collaborations with incredible talent, including Madison Anderson Berríos. I’ve also had opportunities to educate at major beauty events and represent a brand that has been such an important part of my professional journey.
Orlando has embraced me and my artistry in ways I never could have imagined. Being recognized by the community, including being named **Orlando Weekly’s Best Makeup Artist**, has been especially meaningful because those recognitions come from the people who have watched me build my career, trusted me with their hair and makeup, supported my business, and recommended me throughout the years.
But my journey hasn’t been a perfectly straight line. There have been personal challenges, professional challenges, moments of uncertainty, and times when I had to reinvent myself. Those experiences have made me more resilient and have shaped the artist, educator, business owner, and person I am today.
When I look back, I’m proud that I didn’t limit myself to one definition of success. I can be a salon owner, hairstylist, makeup artist, educator, platform artist, mentor, and creative all at the same time. I can honor where I came from while continuing to grow into where I’m going.
More than anything, I am grateful. Grateful for every client who has sat in my chair, every student who has allowed me to teach them, every mentor who believed in me, every brand and creative who has trusted my talent, and every person who has supported **Stylus by Luis Rivera** throughout these 14 years.
I still feel like my story is being written. There are more people to inspire, more artists to educate, more creativity to explore, and many more chapters ahead.
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?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, but I truly believe the difficult parts of my journey have shaped me just as much as the accomplishments.
Resilience became part of my story long before I entered the beauty industry. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was only four years old, so hospitals, doctors, treatments, and medications were a major part of my childhood. I spent years on steroids and dealing with a disease that can be unpredictable. When you grow up managing something like that, you learn very early that life doesn’t always follow the plan you had for yourself.
Later in life, I faced another life-changing moment when I was diagnosed with HIV. At the time, there was still so much fear and stigma surrounding that diagnosis. It forced me to confront my own fears about my health, my future, and how people might perceive me. Thankfully, advances in medicine have allowed me to live a healthy, full life, and I have remained undetectable for many years. Today, I believe there is power in talking about it because visibility and education can help break down the stigma that still exists.
My health journey has continued to challenge me in other ways as well. Years of treatments and steroids contributed to osteoporosis, and eventually I needed a hip replacement. There have been moments when physically I was struggling while still trying to show up for my clients, my students, my business, and the people who depended on me.
Then there are the challenges that come with being an entrepreneur. Running a salon suite for 14 years means experiencing great seasons and difficult ones. There is no guaranteed paycheck when you own a small business. You learn how to survive slow seasons, economic changes, rising expenses, cancellations, unexpected circumstances, and even a pandemic that completely changed our industry. At the same time, you are responsible for continuing to grow, market yourself, educate yourself, and provide the level of service your clients expect.
Moving from Puerto Rico and creating a life and career in Florida also meant building a community and reputation from the ground up. As a Puerto Rican and LGBTQ+ artist, representation has always been important to me. There have certainly been moments when I felt I had to work harder to prove that I belonged in certain spaces, but instead of allowing that to discourage me, I tried to turn it into motivation.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that resilience doesn’t mean that things don’t affect you. It means you continue moving forward even when they do.
There have been moments when I’ve questioned myself, moments when I’ve been exhausted, and moments when I’ve wondered what the next chapter would look like. But every challenge has taught me something—about business, about people, about gratitude, and especially about myself.
That’s also why the accomplishments mean so much to me. When I stand on a stage educating other artists, work with an incredible client, receive an award, or simply have a longtime client sitting in my chair, I know what it took to get there.
My road hasn’t been smooth, but I wouldn’t erase the difficult chapters. They gave me perspective, empathy, strength, and a deeper appreciation for the opportunities I have today. My goal has never been to have a perfect story. It’s to keep growing, keep creating, and hopefully show someone else that the challenges in their story don’t have to determine how far they can go.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
For this answer, I’d make the distinction that you’re **not just a hairstylist or makeup artist**—you’ve built a career that combines artistry, salon ownership, education, brand work, pageantry/editorial work, and mentorship. I’d also emphasize that your biomedical science, psychology, and education background gives you an unusual perspective.
My work has evolved into so many different areas of the beauty industry, and that is one of the things I love most about what I do. At my core, I am a hairstylist, colorist, makeup artist, salon suite owner, and educator, but I have never wanted to put myself into just one box.
For the past 14 years, I have owned and operated **Stylus by Luis Rivera** in the Orlando area, where I work behind the chair creating customized looks for my clients. Hair color is one of my biggest passions and specialties. I especially love blonding, dimensional color, grey blending and transitions, corrective color, creative color, cutting, styling, and creating transformations that still feel wearable and authentic to the person sitting in my chair.
I am also a professional makeup artist, and that side of my career has opened the door to pageants, television, photoshoots, weddings, editorial work, and collaborations with some incredible people. Being recognized by **Orlando Weekly as Best Makeup Artist** has been especially meaningful because Orlando is the community where I have spent so many years building my business and reputation.
Another major part of my career is education. I have spent more than a decade as an educator and platform artist with **John Paul Mitchell Systems**, traveling and teaching both future and established beauty professionals. I’ve had the opportunity to educate in salons, beauty schools, major industry events, and on stages alongside artists I respect tremendously.
Education is actually where all the different pieces of my life unexpectedly connect. Before cosmetology, I earned my degree in Biomedical Science with minors in Psychology and Education. At the time, I never imagined that those areas of study would eventually influence my career in beauty, but today they absolutely do.
Science helps me understand the “why” behind what we do, especially when it comes to hair, chemistry, color, and product knowledge. Psychology has helped me understand communication and the importance of truly listening to the person in my chair. Education taught me how to take information that can feel complicated and translate it into something another artist can understand, remember, and actually use.
I think one of the things that sets me apart is that I approach beauty from all of those perspectives at once. There is the technical side, the artistic side, the business side, and the human side.
I also don’t believe beauty should be about creating a copy of whatever is trending on social media. My job is to understand who you are, your lifestyle, your personality, your maintenance expectations, and how you want to feel when you look in the mirror. From there, we create something together.
I’m incredibly proud of the opportunities I’ve had throughout my career—from working with amazing clients and talent such as Madison Anderson Berríos, to participating in pageants, television and editorial projects, to receiving industry and community recognition. But I’m equally proud of the relationships I’ve built.
Some clients have trusted me for years. I’ve watched them go through careers, relationships, weddings, children, celebrations, losses, and completely different chapters of their lives. There is something very special about realizing that people don’t simply trust you with their hair or makeup—they trust you with moments in their lives.
The same applies to education. One of the greatest compliments I can receive is when another stylist tells me that something I taught them gave them confidence behind the chair, helped them solve a problem, or changed the way they approach their business.
After all these years, what I am most proud of is that I still love this industry and I am still a student of it. Trends change, products evolve, techniques evolve, and I continue learning. I never want an award, title, or number of years in the industry to make me believe that I have nothing left to learn.
I want people to know me not only for beautiful hair or makeup, but for **education, authenticity, consistency, creativity, and connection**. Whether I’m working with one client in my salon or standing in front of a room full of beauty professionals, I want people to leave my presence feeling more confident than when they arrived.
To me, that’s the most beautiful transformation I can create.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is leaving an impact on people, not just an impression.
As a beauty professional, it would be easy to measure success by the number of clients I have, the stages I’ve worked on, the people I’ve worked with, awards, social media, or recognition. And while I am incredibly grateful for those accomplishments, they aren’t ultimately what defines success for me.
What matters is how I make people feel.
Whether someone is sitting in my salon chair, attending one of my classes, working beside me on a photoshoot, or simply having a conversation with me, I want them to feel seen, respected, supported, and hopefully a little more confident than they did before.
Family and the people I love are also incredibly important to me. My Puerto Rican roots have shaped so much of who I am, my passion, work ethic, personality, sense of community, and the way I connect with people. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that accomplishments are much more meaningful when you have people you love to share them with.
Representation also matters deeply to me. As a Puerto Rican and LGBTQ+ professional, I understand the importance of walking into a room and seeing someone who looks like you, speaks like you, comes from a similar background, or has faced challenges similar to yours succeeding in that space. I never take for granted that simply being visible, authentic, and open about my journey might give someone else permission to believe that they belong there too.
Education is another huge part of my purpose. Knowledge has the ability to change someone’s career and sometimes their entire life. That’s why teaching other beauty professionals means so much to me. I don’t want to keep what I’ve learned to myself. If something I’ve experienced—whether it’s a technique, a business lesson, a mistake I’ve made, or a challenge I’ve overcome—can make someone else’s journey a little easier, then I believe it is worth sharing.
My life experiences have also taught me not to take time or opportunities for granted. I’ve learned that plans can change very quickly, so I try to appreciate the chapter I’m in while continuing to work toward the next one.
At this stage of my life and career, I think much more about **legacy**. Not necessarily legacy in the sense of being famous or having my name remembered, but in knowing that something I did made a difference.
If a client felt beautiful during an important moment in their life, if a student became a more confident artist because of something I taught them, if another Latino or LGBTQ+ person saw my journey and felt inspired to take a chance on themselves, or if the people I love know that I showed up for them—that matters to me.
At the end of the day, titles and awards are wonderful, but people remember how you treated them and how you made them feel.
That is the kind of success and legacy that matters most to me.
Pricing:
- $25-300
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stylusbyluisrivera.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luiema84/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StylusbyLRivera/
- Twitter: https://x.com/stylusbylrivera
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFOH57Zm-buR0Zpu2FaBJeA/about
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@luiema84
