A Hair Stylist

01/30/24 • 28 min

Cutting to accentuate the client's eyes and ears, plotting to tame Einstein's hair, and riding the ups and downs of entrepreneurship with Ona Diaz-Santin, a hair stylist and owner of 5 Salon & Spa in New Jersey. What's the most irritating way a client can respond to a haircut? And why was she christened "The Hair Saint"?
Our show takes a lot of inspiration from Studs Terkel's classic book Working. It features interviews Terkel did with more than 100 different people from different jobs: police officers, waitresses, gravediggers, private investigators. His guiding question? "What do they do all day?" Radio Diaries actually got their hands on the audio that Terkel recorded of his interviews and collected them into an episode that you can listen to here.

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Want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Got a comment or suggestion? Email us at [email protected]

Want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Previous Episode

A Welder

Pushing perfectionism to its limits, suffering third degree burns from slag, and having your welds “shot” by X-rays with Matt "Lucky" Reed, a welder in Florida. What happens to welders' eyes if they don't wear protective hoods? And what's a time-tested way of trolling a fellow welder?

Got a comment or suggestion? Email us at [email protected]

Want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Next Episode

A Stand-Up Comedian

Crafting jokes that kill, hustling to find gigs, and improvising based on the audience's reaction with Chris Grace, a stand-up comedian. What's the worst he's ever bombed? And what is a "bringer" show?

Got a comment or suggestion? Email us at [email protected]

Want to be on the show? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

What It's Like To Be... - A Hair Stylist

Transcript

Dan Heath:
Ona Diaz-Santin has been a hairstylist for 27 years. She's known as 'the hair saint.'
A client gave her that name. It was a musician who traveled a lot.
Ona Diaz-Santin:
He was somewhere where it was hot and his hair was super dry, super dehydrated. And he came in and we treated him, we cut it, and he was so happy. And at the end of that, he's like, "Oh, you're like the Santa of hair", the saint. And I started cracking up and I'm like, "Okay."
Dan Heath:
The hair s