((PKG)) MAKING A LIVING: ESTHETICIAN, MORGAN HAWES
((TRT: 06:40))
((Topic Banner: Making a Living: Morgan Hawes))
((Reporter/Camera: Ailin Li))
((Camera: Laura Luan))
((Editor: Meggie Miao))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main character: 1 male))
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
In order to do eyelash extensions professionally, I absolutely think that you need to be a perfectionist. You need to be very detailed in your entire analysis of the person's natural lashes. You need to be very exact in your placement and your styling in order to create the look that you want to on the client. You need to be very precise in how you place each extension on each lash and make sure that it's not touching any other neighboring lashes. And you have to do that several hundred times per appointment. So, you have very little margin for error.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
Hi, my name is Morgan Hawes. I'm 36 years old. I live in New York City and I’m an esthetician specializing in eyelash extensions. And this is my ordinary life. I've been doing exclusively eyelash extensions now for 14 and a half years.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
Hi there. And here’s my office where I do eyelash extensions all day.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I sort of fell into this industry. I thought I was just going do it for a year or two, just to keep me busy between undergraduate and dental schools. And 14 and a half years later, here I am.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
My business name is Primp Daddy. It was given to me in a sense as a moniker. I think it's been a good business name. It's funny and it sticks in people's minds.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
My clients right now range anywhere from early 20s all the way up until about 80. Roughly 50 percent are Asian, most of which are Chinese. A lot of times, at the very beginning in this industry, people would see or decide to prescribe a certain look, a certain shape, a certain style for all Asian eyes. And I recognized very quickly that's not correct. It’s not good. It’s not the way to do it because there's just as much variation amongst Asian people's eyes as there are Caucasian people's eyes. Not categorizing all Asian eyes as one, I think, is what ended up bringing a lot of Asian clientele to me first.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I'm not terribly expensive, particularly for being in New York City. So typically, your new set is a two-hour appointment and I charge at my base rate $110 per hour, so $220 for the initial set. Then most people come back around every three weeks or so for a fill and that's usually just an hour appointment.
In terms of income potential, so let's say on a normal light week, I do 30 hours per week. So that would be 110 times 30. So that's $3,300 per week. And if I simply times that by 52 weeks in a year, I could gross $171,600. You know that does get knocked down a bit because I don't work every single week.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I definitely take some time off on vacations here and there. But, you know, the income potential is there.
The single biggest business cost here in New York City is inevitably going to be rent. My little space is roughly $3,000 per month and it's just a small, windowless room.
Then, of course, there's materials. Overall, I'll probably end up spending around $5,000 per month on overall costs.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I live in Hell's Kitchen. It's Midtown West. So, I actually live two avenues away from Times Square. I love the neighborhood. It's kind of the gayborhood [LGBT-friendly] too. There’s lots of small restaurants. It’s obviously very centrally located. If you’ve been to New York, you’ve probably been close to or in Hell’s Kitchen.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
My apartment is a 5th floor walk-up. It's a very typical New York City, not exactly a railroad-style, but it's long and narrow. It's a two-bedroom which is luxurious for here.
I live with my partner, Derek. We've been together for eight years and have lived together for basically just as long.
We spend, I think, a little over $4,000 [a month] for our apartment and that is, for what it is, really a great deal in the area.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
In terms of my personal spending, I'm actually quite frugal and I save a large percentage of my income. I try not to eat out a lot. I don't drink coffee, so I never go to Starbucks. I don't drink alcohol which in New York City is rare and a really expensive thing. So that saves me a whole lot of money. My rent and expense is roughly $2,500 a month out of my own pocket for an apartment. Of course, phone for maybe another $100. Food, I usually keep that probably around $600 per month. My gym membership is around $500 per month. Clothes and incidentals, I would, maybe, average another $200 a month.
I save just simply as high of a percentage as possible but that's usually at least 60 percent of my net income. I needed to be my own security blanket and after having been sort of shocked by being poor in the past, I just did not want that to happen again.
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((Photo Courtesy: AP))
((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I grew up, for the most part, in a really small town in the middle of Oregon and I was fairly obviously gay. And that doesn't sit that well in a small town in Oregon. And I always saw New York as kind of the place if you want to go be gay and have that be, quote- unquote, “normal”. At least be just seen as another person as opposed to somebody that was standing out constantly.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
For six years, I was between Portland, Oregon and New York, trying to start this office. I was flying back and forth every few days. It was exhausting. For a time there too, I became completely broke. So, I remember there was one point where I landed here at JFK [airport]. Then I took the train in from JFK. And in order to get that train ticket at that time, I actually had to dig around in my carry-on bag for change, for all this like extra pocket change that I had because I was kind of down to my last few dollars at the time. And I realized like, wow, this is rock bottom in a sense. I mean, I was still liking what I was doing but I was working so hard.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
It was always my goal and my dream to get here to New York City and that's what it took. But I do feel like I had to crawl, scrape my way, you know, piece by piece to get here.
It is very costly to just even exist here. And so, it leaves not a lot of room for, you know, breaks, time-off or COVID-19. It becomes extra challenging whenever anything is not perfectly in line.
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((Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
I’m very glad that I have saved that percentage of my income over the years. That helped to keep me afloat during all this time.
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Morgan Hawes
Esthetician))
My definition of success has certainly morphed and changed over the years
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and as I've gotten older. I think when I was younger, it was this strict how much money you have made. And the more money you make the more successful you are. I feel very successful because I thoroughly enjoy my life. I work hard but I like what I do.
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