Stylists

“Hairdressing was the furthest thing from my mind,” smiles Birchler. Originally from the East Bay, Birchler ran in a tough crowd of professional boxers and kick boxers. Yet every time he visited his girlfriend at work he was inspired by the dynamic energy and creativity in the salon. With her encouragement, Birchler applied to beauty college in Sacramento. “I didn’t tell anyone,” he says.

While waiting to be interviewed, he bumped into the wife of a trainer at his karate school. Sensing his embarrassment, she let him in on a secret; not only was her husband a hairdresser, his mother owned the school. “Here was this mean, 6’3’, 215 lb, aggressive tough guy,” he says. “To realize this black belt instructor I respected was also a hairdresser completely changed my perspective.”

Darin was hooked from the first snip. He found a creative release he had never experienced having come from an athletic background. After working in Sacramento for a year and a half he slid into an apprenticeship at the “rebel black sheep of salons,” Architects and Heroes, in San Francisco, where he remained for eight years. “The artists had more freedom there, it was a looser structure,” says Birchler. “And they were turning out architecturally beautiful work.”

In the mid 90s, Birchler loaded up a U-Haul and struck out for Los Angeles with nothing more than a dream and a wad of cash burning his pocket. He landed a job at a Beverly Hills salon and in less than a year, Los Angeles magazine named Birchler “L.A.’s Hot New Up-and-Comer.” After 10 months, Birchler left the “restrictive salon environment” in pursuit of freelance work on photo shoots, commercials and music videos. “I wasn’t feeling the unity I was used to in San Francisco,” says Birchler. “The kids in San Francisco were artists, they loved what they did and they fed off each other’s talent.”

He teamed with friend and colorist, Amanda in an artist’s loft with panoramic views from the 11th floor of the old Asahi building. Word-of-mouth swept the city and soon Birchler’s reputation for architecturally genius cuts earned him a fierce following running the gamut from actors and musicians to college students and housewives. Within five years he had outgrown the space and began searching for a new location to expand his vision.

It was important to Birchler to hire the right staff in order to create a unique family environment where the artists could thrive and the clients would feel welcome. He encourages his staff to get to know everyone’s clients, not just their own. “No one’s going to walk in and feel judged by the staff. Some salons buy into that, they want the cattiness,” he says. “That’s not going to happen here. That’s why 18 years later I still love what I do.”

Email : Darin@ChopChopSalon.com

Chelsea’s personal approach to hair has always been about change. “All I want to do is grow it out, chop it off, and grow it out again,” she says. While she loves encouraging clients to take risks that reward them with a renewed sense of identity, she’s equally adept at creating exceptionally natural looking color for clients who prefer a traditional approach. “I was really good at chemistry and science in school,” she says. “I love that I get to come up with the perfect color blend and express my artistic side at the same time.”

Her passion for hair may have started before she was a twinkle in her parents’ eyes. With two family members owning hair salons in her native Florida, the cosmetology gene seems to run in her blood. Even at the age of 15 when her family relocated to Los Angeles so her sister could pursue an acting career Chelsea claims her sights were set on hair. “All I wanted was to get to cosmetology school,” she says.

She did just that in 2005 when she enrolled in Moro Beauty College. While Chelsea was studying both color and cutting she landed a job as a receptionist at a local hair salon where she met her first mentor, Beth Oropeza. A 30 year hair veteran, Oropeza took Chelsea under her wing as her personal assistant. “She was just the best!” she says. “She knew everything, had seen everything, and was like a second mom to me.” Oropeza introduced Chelsea to “everything Vidal Sassoon” including taking her to first hair show. “It was art on a head,” she says. “That was it for me.” Inspired, Chelsea landed an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon in Beverly Hills from 2007 – 2009. She then transferred to Sassoon in Seattle where she worked as a colorist until she returned to Los Angeles several months later. In the end she feels Sassoon was a little “too corporate” for her, preferring instead the creative freedom she finds at Chop Chop. “When I first walked into Chop Chop, I felt like I was home.” Chelsea joined the team in June 2010.

Email : Chelsea@ChopChopSalon.com

Lindsey won’t send you home with a cut you’re not going to be able to manage in your own bathroom. “It’s about lifestyle,” she says. “Not about how many rollers it takes to reproduce the look.” Being able to barber with just scissors and a comb is an art form not every stylist has attained. But her training at the original Vidal Sassoon Academy in London armed her with the skills and confidence to masterfully execute beautiful precision cuts with just two simple tools.

Lindsey looks for inspiration in the clean lines of architecture, fashion, and art. She scours the pages of magazines, soaking up the innovation and creativity behind the hairstyles designers pair with their collections.

As an avid “people watcher,” she has a deep appreciation for diversity and avoids being pigeonholed as a stylist. “I’m not just about creating one kind of look,” she says. “I work with all kinds of hair from the soccer mom to the punk rocker. I can come up with something that will suit every individual.”

After moving to Los Angeles in 2008 she continued working for Vidal Sassoon in Beverly Hills.Chop Chop offered Lindsey the atmosphere and high standard of work she was looking for. She joined the team in March 2010. “This is a business of instant gratification,” she says. It’s a fast process to make someone feel great about themselves and that’s really rewarding.”

Email : Lindsey@ChopChopSalon.com

One of the things Chase loves most about what she does is watching a client transform in her chair. Rather than generating a "signature look," Chase prefers to customize each cut to suit her client. "Not just the bone structure and hair texture," she says, "but fine-tuning it for each personality." For Chase, form and functionality are paramount, which makes perfect sense given her background.

In 2001, Chase graduated from UCSB with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. She went on to work in Product Design for Modern Architectural Inc until 2008 when she decided to swap budget restraints and creative restrictions for her first love, hair. Having cut hair on the side for friends and family since college, she decided to formalize her training at the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica. After graduating, she went on to work at the Vidal Sassoon Salon in Beverly Hills until 2011.

Chase loves building one-on-one personal relationships with her clients. Her roster is divided equally between men and women. "With men, it's about attention to the finer details and creating a strong, masculine silhouette," she says. "With women, it's about the bigger picture. What kind of mood are we going for? Something sexy and beautiful? Or more functional?"

Relying on a strong sense of composition, Chase is inspired by fashion, design, furniture and architecture. She feels a beautiful haircut is akin to a beautifully tailored suit or couture cocktail dress. "It's about suitability for the client," she says. "And by the end of the hour when you can see them transformed - happier, more confident, more like the person they want to be - I feel an immediate sense of gratification that I have never experienced with any other art form."

Chase joined Chop Chop in February 2011.

Email : Chase@ChopChopSalon.com

Marissa’s expert flair for matching hair color with skin tone has earned her a loyal following and a reputation for producing hues that make complexions glow. Charming and warm, Marissa never shies away from offering inspired suggestions to help keep her clients looking fresh. “I’m a perfectionist,” she says. “And I’m not happy until I know we’ve maximized the highest potential for each client.”

Always game to experiment with new techniques, Marissa enjoys working with a blend of multi-dimensional shades from sun-kissed blondes to bright reds – as long as they adhere to her “flattering and functional” motto. While Marissa’s esthetic tends toward edgy, her work ethic is nothing short of old-school. She routinely goes above and beyond for her clients, and has been known to come in on days off when it suits a clients’ schedule. “I love what I do,” says Marissa. “My job is my hobby, and I love making people happy.”

An Orange County native, Marissa fondly remembers hanging out in her family’s salon. At the age of 15, Marissa discovered her natural talent when she first experimented with color in her own hair. Two years later, she began her formal education at Golden West College in Huntington Beach. In 2007, she left Southern California for San Francisco and landed a job at a high-end salon where she was trained under Vidal Sassoon instructors.

While it wasn’t easy for Marissa to leave her clientele in San Francisco, she returned to Southern California to be closer to her family. Since joining Chop Chop in July 2011, she says she couldn’t be happier. “I knew the second I walked into the salon that it was the right vibe for me. Chop Chop has the staff and clientele that I mesh with best.”

Email : Marissa@ChopChopSalon.com

"A haircut has the power to entirely transform a person's appearance," says Boyd. "By accentuating or downplaying the right features, and choosing the right length, you can make somebody look 10 years younger." But don't mistake Boyd for a sweet-talker; she believes in straightforward honesty and doesn’t mince words when she feels a client could benefit from a different hairstyle.

An artist at heart, Boyd enrolled in the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica at the age of 18 with the idea that she could satiate her creative appetite and simultaneously bypass the starving artist route. Boyd says she went from “not being able to hold a blow dryer” to winning the Student Premiere Award at the end of her training. Following graduation at the end of 2006, she began her apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon in Beverly Hills.

Two years later Boyd was tapped to be one of the founding stylists at Vidal Sassoon in Seattle. In addition to establishing the salon from the ground up, Boyd was asked to style hair for Seattle's fashion week, and helped cultivate the look for several local bands in Seattle's ever-expanding music scene. During her first year on the floor in Seattle, Boyd won Sassoon’s international competition “Look of the Season," when her creative color and cut was selected from stylist submissions around the world.

Whether a cut is creative or more classic, Boyd is known for turning out beautiful hair. "It's like sculpture on the head," she says. "The only moving, growing canvas that continuously changes."

Boyd returned to Los Angeles in July 2011 and feels right at home with the team at ChopChop.

Email : Boyd@ChopChopSalon.com