Israel Alvarez, of “Hair by Israel” in downtown Hartford, is stylist of Hartford bigwigs and visiting celebrities. But back in his native Puerto Rico, his first styling scissors were used to train roosters for cockfighting.
Alvarez grew up in the city of Ponce, where his father trained roosters before selling them off to cockfighting enthusiasts. Alvarez’s father used the scissors to clip roosters’ wings to keep them earthbound during training sessions. Alvarez – who made it a point to voice his dislike of cockfighting – found a different use for the scissors when he was young. Much like other 10-year-olds might set up a lemonade stand, he started to cut neighbors’ hair for a quarter a cut.
It started with just one kid, Alvarez said, but soon he had customers from all over his neighborhood. That’s how he earned his very first dollar — which, instead of spending right away, Alvarez kept, and actually still has tucked away in his home. Cutting hair has always been a passion, he said, and he was able to make more dollars soon enough with his thriving neighborhood business.
Alvarez played entrepreneur throughout his early teens — “Until my mother discovered [my business] and she didn’t want more hair in the back yard.”
He had to give up the neighborhood practice, but by then he was able to find work in a salon in Ponce, where he learned more about the trade—enough to come to New York in 1980 to compete in a global hair-styling competition. The competition invites stylists from all over the world to take part in events like, “classic updo” and “ladies’ nighttime style.” Alvarez took a gold medal, and that was enough to catch the eye of Paula Moynahan, a plastic surgeon with her own spa in New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Alvarez said she contacted him about working for her, even paid for some styling and coloring classes.
So when Moynahan opened up The Paula Moynahan M.D. Medi/Spa at 18 Haynes Street in Hartford, Alvarez came too, working as senior hairstylist for 15 years there.
But when Moynahan announced plans to close up the Hartford location, Alvarez didn’t want to leave the city.
“I’d bought my condominium in Hartford, and this is home to me,” he said. Instead, he worked at Bella Domani Hair by Israel & Co. at 99 Pratt Street, and eventually broke off into his own shop in December.
“This is my solo dream,” he said, motioning to his new studio in the Essex Building on 15 Lewis Street. Alvarez wanted the freedom that comes with owning his own business, but he carries an established reputation into the new venture.
Throughout his career, Alvarez has cut the hair of prominent Hartford players such as restaurateurs Richard Rosenthal and Steve Abrams, as well as celebrities such as Bette Midler, Neil Diamond and Ray Charles during their Hartford stops.
He handles work for the Hartford Stage and The Bushnell – “When the stars come to the city, they call me.”
Alvarez said cutting hair has always been more than just a paycheck to him.
“It’s not a job, it’s a passion,” he said.
