Cherisse's Hair Salon
W
Written By Jordan Rosenfeld
hile Cherisse White,
owner and master
stylist of Cherisse’s Hair Salon in
Morgan Hill, works her hair magic on
many people, she got her start styling
a much different clientele.
“My parents are professional dog
breeders and dog handlers, and I grew
up running around show circuits as the
dog groomer,” White said.
She thought she wanted to be a
veterinarian but couldn’t stand the gory
side of medicine. “Blood makes me
cringe,” she said.
While in high school, a counselor
suggested she join the cosmetology
program at Gavilan college. Thinking of
it as a back-up plan, she did just that.
“From day one; hook, line and sinker,
I loved it,” she said.
White got her cosmetology license
in January 1984 and has been styling
hair ever since. She acknowledges how
rare it is for a person to have only one
career their whole lives, but she knew it
was perfect for her. She raised a career
alongside her children—son Hunter,
17, and daughter Dakota, 20—with
her husband Chuck White, who runs
White Painting.
Her first salon was a modest 450
square feet, across from Maurizio’s,
in 2002, but her next was a dramatic
upgrade, a day spa/salon on the corner
of El Toro and Monterey at 2400 square
feet. The economic downturn of 2008
put a damper on her business, so she
“right-sized” and moved to East 2 nd
Street, until the city redeveloped the
lot. She moved for the last time, she
hopes, to her current location on West
2nd street, near Active Spinal and
Sports Care, where she has been for
four years.
Her salon specializes in hair and
make-up transformations. “I love when
someone gets a full dimensional color
and new cut and they look like a brand
new person,” she said.
Hair and makeup may seem like
surface treatments but White has found
that changing these elements can go
a long way toward making a person
feel better on the inside, too. She’s
seen clients who have left an abusive
relationship or who have finished
cancer treatment take a new look and
transform it into a new job, a new
approach to life, even a new career.
White said the salon is especially
strong at doing color, including color
correction, and extensions for people
who want fuller, thicker, longer hair or
“pops of color.” White, herself, boasts
bold streaks of her favorite color,
purple, in her blonde hair, a part of
her signature look.
White does a lot more than just cut
and color hair, however. What keeps
her excited and passionate about her
job is teaching. She’s a certified Paul
Mitchell educator who teaches classes
to stylists at other salons every few
months in places as far flung as Hawaii
and Las Vegas. “Education is probably
the nugget that keeps me going,”
she said.
She also runs a program within her
CHERISSE'S HAIR SALON
84 West Second Street • Morgan Hill
408.778.6662
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
august/september 2019
own salon for her employees, offering
them a pathway to increase their skills
and make more money. Stylists begin
as a “rising star” and work their way
up through five possible ranks, the top
being “master stylist.” Only one person
other than White has that title in the
salon: Jo Angulo, who has worked there
for twelve years. Her assistant manager,
Anna Haro, is a “senior designer stylist.”
When White isn’t working with hair,
she’s volunteering her services. The
charity-minded White was awarded
Volunteer of the Year in 2018 by the
Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce for
her numerous acts of volunteer service
in the community. Some of these
include cutting hair at the Morgan Hill
Senior Center for the past nine years;
sponsoring a family every year for the
holidays through Community Solutions’
Adopt-a-Family program; fundraising
for the Mt. Madonna YMCA; sports
and home and school club fundraising
at Live Oak High School, where her
son Hunter will be a senior; and an
annual pet wash that benefits different
animal charities every year. This year
the proceeds will go to Amber’s Angels,
a non-profit that engages people with
special needs in horse-based therapy,
run by Amber, who is also an employee
of the salon.
For White, service is just a part
of her life. “None of it shows up like
work. It’s super easy. Some people ask,
‘H ow do you fit that in?’ For me, it’s
more about how do I not fit that in?”
She likes to set the example for her
kids, as well. “I make them get involved
in whatever I’m up to,” she said. “And I
do it without any expectations.”
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