GUINGUI PÉREZ, THE BORI BRAID GURU
Guingui at her braiding studio in the Lower East Side. Photograph by Amanda Saviñón
Guingui Pérez is a hairstylist and artist, but I like to refer to her as the Bori braid guru. Growing up in NYC between Harlem, The Bronx, and Washington Heights I witnessed a lot of braids but never had I ever seen braids done the way she does them. Guingui has braided folks like Michael B. Jordan, Yvonne Orji, J. Balvin, Ivy Queen, and FKA Twigs (to name a few), and has worked with brands like Reebok, Coach, GQ, Converse, Supreme, Cosmopolitan, Moschino, Elle… all before opening her first braiding studio, Strand Addict, located in the Lower East Side of NYC.
On a brisk Fall evening, after I clocked out of my day job, I took an Uber from my Greenpoint apartment in Brooklyn to the Strand Addict braiding studio on Allen Street where Guingui was wrapping up her workday and starting to organize some last-minute things for her forthcoming braid pop-up event. Guingui welcomed me with a big smile, offered me some delicious white wine, helped me get set up, and we settled in for our interview… which you can watch here or read below:
AMANDA SAVIÑÓN: Thank you for having me and making time for me. What does it feel like to be you today?
GUINGUI PÉREZ: To be me today? I feel like I’m always kind of overwhelmed, but that is also the gasoline that powers me in a way. If I wasn’t overwhelmed, I’d probably be stressing about not being overwhelmed. That’s a bit of what it feels like to be me today, but it is also very exciting.
AS: You were born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, but you grew up in Isabela, right?
GP: I was born in Mayagüez, but my parents were living in Isabela, so I was in Isabela up until high school, and then I went to Rio Piedras which is where I attended the University of Puerto Rico for Art History. I started braiding in high school, and I took that with me when I went to college.
AS: I remember reading in on one of your Instagram posts that you used to do everyone’s hair in high school, including the teachers, and that is what you would do for fun. After I read that I thought about how people always say that if you want to know what you’re passionate about in life, just observe what you’re already doing for fun.
GP: Yeah, we should just follow what we are naturally drawn towards. I have pictures of me with sewing machines as a kid and Barbies whose hairs I was chopping off. I started braiding in the 2000s and it was because of the influence of watching TV during the era of new musical artist Alicia Keys, and, at that time, NBA Superstar Allen Iverson. That was the first time I’d seen cornrows with designs, I was in awe and completely obsessed, so I wanted to get them done.
I learned to do braids from the girl that did them on me and then I started braiding everybody, and everybody was thirsty for braids at that time. When I started, I was braiding, literally, with my client on a plastic chair in my mom’s living room every afternoon after school, and even in school. I kept braiding as I went into college, and it evolved with me even though I was doing a bunch of other things like pursuing a bunch of jobs in education, while also going to fashion design school on Wednesday nights, and studying art history at the University of Puerto Rico.
Then straight out of high school, I applied to FIT here in New York, but I got rejected because I didn’t have a portfolio and I’m like, “What is this? A portfolio? I have never drawn anything in my life!” How are they going to ask you for a whole portfolio if that is the reason I want to go to college in the first place? For them to teach me how to put together a portfolio. Their acceptance process was very heavy for a regular high school kid from Puerto Rico.
AS: When was the first moment you realized that you were going to start a braiding business?
GP: That moment happened very recently, very late in my braiding career. Mainly it was because I was exploring and pursuing other fields. I left Puerto Rico when I was at the top of my game, braiding everybody’s hair! But unfortunately, Puerto Rico is such a small island, the resources are very limited, and everybody is fighting for them, everybody is fighting for a spot. For example, how many celebrities can one really service out there? How many magazines are actually big there? How many movies or commercials are really being shot there? I left and came to New York originally to be a makeup artist. I wanted more. I’ve always been in love with New York and the culture, it’s like everything dope in my life always had something to do with New York and finally, I was like, “I need to get out of here”.
AS: I love a fresh start.
GP: I managed to come to New York to pursue a career in makeup artistry because I also liked to do makeup. I started doing makeup for my friends and I thought it was fun and it was something I could profit from it. When I got to New York, I started getting my gigs off Craigslist, and the people were mad flaky and weird, and I hated it. I actually hated it. When you do makeup, you have to carry so much material and equipment around with you and I had to travel so far with so much stuff. It was very exhausting.
Slowly, people started to reach out to me for braids. Braids always ended up taking over everything I was doing. And I was like, “No, no, no, I want to be a makeup artist and I want to sew clothes!” But recently I told myself, “You know what, Guingui, you’re really good at this [braids], just dedicate your whole life.”
Photo: @guin_gui/Instagram
Photo: @guin_gui/Instagram
AS: That goes to show that what is meant to be will always be no matter how much we fight it. The cool thing about what you do is you get to curate your lifestyle and what you surround yourself with from the people to the vibe.
One day after a 20-month hiatus from Loyal Nana my much-needed break was coming to an end and while scrolling through social media I see a photo of you in the Puerto Rico Metro newspaper braiding J. Balvin’s hair. For me, it was a sign to come out from hibernation and get back to work, and to start back up with an interview with you. So thank you and congratulations on the article and on your new and beautiful branding studio…
GP: Aww! Thank you.
AS: Aside from that great article with J. Balvin, you’ve also done other amazing projects with Cosmopolitan, GQ, Office Magazine, Reebok Luar, Elle, Moschino, and that is only to name a few. What have those experiences have been for you?
GP: Honestly, it’s all so mind-blowing to me. My parents get to pick up a newspaper and see me in it. What the fuck? My dad was like, “My friend stopped me in the supermarket, and he was talking to me about you [and the article]” and I am like “See? I hope you’re proud, I am doing something right!” This little thing that started on a plastic chair in our living room in Puerto Rico turned into something good. I am sure having so many strangers around the house and clients yelling “Guingui!!!” out of the window of their house was very annoying to them…
AS: And now your dad is listening to strangers talk about his daughter in the supermarket line because of an article she was featured in...
Photo: @guin_gui/Instagram
GP: It’s all come so full circle for me. To know that I’m making them proud and that they get to talk about me in a good way… Their support is definitely a big reason why I’m here.
AS: You mentioned your parents are both artists, what do they do?
GP: They’re not really artists like that, they don’t make a living off it, they just naturally are. My mom was a secretary for the Department of Education, but she was the one in charge of decorating all the parties. She would put on her fanny pack, and she would be in charge. She also did it all for free because that is literally her passion. Right now, she’s retired, but she cannot stop making stuff.
My dad was a mechanic in a factory that made contact lenses in Puerto Rico. He is retired too. He is a genius, he’s a scientist. You tell my dad to build anything, and I promise you, he could do it. You can talk to him about religion, philosophy, math, physics… this man knows at all.
That is what I grew up around. It is so important to have supportive parents. For example, the other day I was trying to transform a chair so that it can lean back and lean forward, and I knew exactly what I had to do and what I had to get at the hardware store. This is just automatic knowledge that I have from watching my dad do so much stuff constantly. At that moment, I thought “Oh, this is why you need father figures around.” He didn’t even sit down to give me a lesson, I would just watch him do his thing and I learned so many skills that have helped me save money and have given me such advantage and independence in life. Even running errands for them growing up taught me so much.
AS: SHOUT OUT PARENTS THOUGH. What was your first hustle?
GP: My mom trusted me to dye her hair and do her eyebrows when I was younger. That was my very first gig and how I first started making money. Slowly I started doing everybody’s eyebrows and it started in middle school. As soon as my mom gave me permission to get my eyebrows done, I went to school with my eyebrows done, and everybody wanted their eyebrows done, so I started doing it for free because I just loved it. Soon after, all my friends started feeling guilty about bothering me so much and they started paying me.
AS: Now, we’re talkin’! … Even if it’s $5 it is something…
GP: Five dollars?! People paid one dollar! I would do everybody’s eyebrows for one dollar.
AS: The work that you do impacts people’s self-esteem from the moment they enter your studio and sit in your chair to the moment they leave and beyond. That means you kind of become responsible for people’s confidence for a couple of hours. How does that inform your work and how does that work into how your process?
GP: I joke and tell my clients “You have to pay me for every girlfriend that you bag!” and “I am about to start charging you for every girlfriend that you bag!” HAHAHA. It’s amazing! You know what it’s like to have your hair super fresh and just know that you are turning heads?! And it doesn’t even have to be anything crazy, it could just be two clean braids, but having them nicely done changes a person’s whole aura. So, that’s an incredible power to have.
Photo: @guin_gui/Instagram
AS: What has been your longest braiding job so far?
GP: Maybe not in braids but when I did locks, instant locks, (I don’t do them too much anymore because it takes too long) I would have to divide the appointment into two days. I’d tell my clients, “Let’s do four hours today and then four hours tomorrow.”
AS: For the people that just can’t get over the fact that you did J. Balvin’s braids, (me, I am people), what was that like for you?
GP: He is incredibly nice! I met J. Balvin years before I started braiding his hair because he happened to go to the shop that I used to braid at. I would see him there and he knew that I braided hair. He was always so polite and so nice to everybody in the shop. The barber that does his cut regularly is a really good friend of mine and he used to work at that shop too, and he recommended me to J. Balvin. So, when I was booked to do his hair for the first time, I wasn’t starstruck, but I was nervous mainly because his hair was so short and I was like, “Why did I say yes to this, man?!” But I managed to pull it off.
AS: Did you pick the braiding style or did he?
GP: They let me freestyle. A lot of times, they all let me freestyle, but he is also super chill. Sometimes they will want something specific, but most of the time, I will totally freestyle. Particularly with J. Balvin, the main thing is to switch it up every time, because like this week he’ll have a radio shoot, and then a magazine shoot, and so many other things so you got to keep switching it up. As an artist, you’ve got to switch it up so much.
AS: You’ve named Alicia Keys and Allen Iverson as some of your braid heroes growing up. Who is inspiring you with their braid styles right now?
GP: Beyonce is always pulling off some crazy shit, man.
AS: I’m not sure anything has beaten Alicia Keys’ forward-facing braids from that Fallin’ music video yet though…
GP: Listen, listen, listen! That’s the moment that changed my life! The whole style, and vibe of this classic piano music in the hood with hip hop beats, the violin, and this girl with braids…I was like “What the fuck?”. And then those braids coming to the front with the beads, I was like, “What is going on? You can do that to hair? You can do braids to the front? What the fuck type of regular life I’ve been living?” You know what I’m saying?
AS: Hell, yeah, I do. You’re doing braid pop-up events now in the Lower East Side. How often do they happen?
GP: Every Friday right outside of my shop from late afternoon until we get tired. No appointment is required either. You can just pull up and get your hair braided.
AS: How can people reach you, make appointments, buy the Strand Addict merch, and learn more?
GP: Right now, everything is on strandaddict.com.
AS: Can’t thank you enough. This was a lot of fun.
GP: Thank you. This was a learning experience for me…
AS: Yes! This is what Loyal Nana is really about: Teaching people about themselves and others through their own personal stories and lives. I learned a lot too today. Mainly that I can be less afraid about not knowing what is next in my career because things always work out just as they should. I feel like I am allergic to planning. I have a very I’ll-figure-it-out-when-I-get-there approach to life…
GP: Yeah. I understand that some people need to have the security that comes with planning and knowing, but for me, I like to dabble. Some stuff is secure, and some stuff isn’t. Don’t follow my advice in that department though, but it has been working out for me.
We got to relax, we have so much pressure to be perfect, but nobody is perfect, nobody knows how to do it perfectly. We’re not going to learn without making mistakes, so just freestyle, thug it out.
This article has been edited and condensed for clarity.