Presence Extraordinaire
by Deann Armes
images by Laurie Z Divine Photography
When you walk into Alberto’s salon, greeted by one of his friendly canines, it feels like you’re being welcomed home, and the man himself shines even brighter than the sun-filled room where he stands.
You immediately sense you’re in the presence of someone extraordinary, and you’re right. The man has overcome death and cultural oppression to exude the highest expression of himself. Every intentional detail of his impeccable style is a visual delight; the artist, dressed in a vibrant palette of blue shades set against neutral tones, is himself a work of art.
“I love your navy-colored leather beret,” I compliment, also taking note of the gorgeous long black hair flowing out of it.
“Thank you, I have one in every color,” is his spirited reply. A lover of beauty and color, this unapologetically authentic men of presence has turned his four decades of working as a hair stylist into something more suitably described as an “intuitive transformation artist.”
THE MAIN INGREDIENT IS LOVE
Alberto’s rich interior beauty is reflected by his exterior appearance through years of devotion to the art of well-being in every facet of his life – a fanciful wardrobe, stylist yet practical Feng Shui home design, an abundant garden. cupboards full of his own handmade pottery, meditative spiritual practices, holistic “no bar code” cooking, and Ayurvedic medicine.
He brings the same devotion to his salon, Switch, as he guides clients through their own process of transformation: “My job is to help the client connect to the new self they have created inwardly. Maybe to their dreams, their life experiences, the grind of everyday life. I get to crown them with this new self they are today. That’s what I do to serve life.”
And for Alberto, it’s not a job. It’s art: “What make it art is loving what you you. If it’s not love, then it’s a job. And when you love what you do, the money will follow.”
THE ART OF BECOMING
Born in New York City and raised in the 1970s male chauvinistic society of Puerto Rico, the idea of doing what you love was unpopular. But Alberto followed his heart.
“From the beginning, everyone said ‘That’s impossible, you cannot do that.’ But you know, I made it. I made my career. I made my own business.” He describes walking into a unisex salon as a kid for the first time as a pivotal moment of self-discovery. The place was buzzing with gorgeous male hair stylists, exuberantly dressed in polyester, high fashion head to toe resembling the Bee Gees, the room full of music and happy chat about life.
The scene was the doorway to finding himself. “It was my intuition tapping into my own inner freedom of being who I really am.”
A man of distinction, according to Alberto, is “being who you really are, not what someone else thinks you should be.” He does things his own way at his salon – his was the first “green” salon in Utah, he does not rely on social media for clientele, and he only books one customer every three house.
In his personal life, what sets him apart is his 30-year “HU” meditation practice and a spiritual freedom that goes beyond sexuality or self-expression. “Finding your spiritual freedom, for me, is when you’re not afraid to die.”
DYING EVERY DAY
“I died, came back, so I can tell you, don’t be worried about it when you get there.”
Alberto had the “privilege” to leave his physical body when he was gravely ill in 1997, weighing only sixty pounds and given three weeks to live. As he left his body, he saw, felt, and heard a silver cord snap, then traveled through a tunnel of light through all of his past lives in the blink of an eye, and landed in the “inner planes” or Akashic records – the place where all creativity and love resides and where we all originate.
“It was like normal, and I had been there before,” says Alberto. “And then my spiritual teacher came and he said, ‘Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, you’re not done.’ And he sent me back.”
Alberto woke up, gained weight, and walked out of that hospice 12 weeks later, very much alive. Shamans, acupuncturists, and other healers had been sent “by a voice” to the hospice for him. They said they just had to come.
“All I know is that I was not supposed to die.” Alberto has been healthy and thriving ever since.
“It’s harder to stay alive than to die,” Alberto explains, “Because alive you have to make choices, you have to discriminate, you have the grind of everyday, the pulling and tearing, the stress, getting lost, refining and shaping, taking control, all of these things.”
MEDICATION AND MIRACLES
Medication gives you freedom by detaching you from your physical body: “Dying is nothing farther than when you do a meditation. When you do a true meditation, you disconnect from your mind and body. You are literally soul traveling. Meditation is to die every day. You should die every day. You die by surrendering your thoughts, your opinions.”
It’s a daily practice. Alberto says: “I am not a good human being when I don’t do it. For me, I become the effect of someone else instead of my own cause.”
When you die every day you become a cause, you learn how to tune in, and you stay connected with your higher self.
“HU” is an ancient love song to God that has been passed along for many years, a song he uses as a mantra every day for 20 minutes. “It makes you start paying attention to the miracles.”
You learn to be mindful in every moment throughout the day. Alberto says: “We’re all going to die sooner or later, why not enjoy the moment, the power of the now? So when I’m in the kitchen doing something, cooking, grinding garlic with my mortar, bringing it down, and chopping it out, chopping my vegetable, it’s more than chopping, it’s this preparation that requires that extra care.”
INTUITIVE TRANSFORMATIONS
Alberto brings the same mindfulness into his salon: “When doing a haircut or color, it’s just not throwing the color there. You must be mindful of what it’s going to do, how this going to react. I want to make sure that if I don’t see you in six months to a year, that the color or cut that I’m giving you is going to collaborate or work with the environment you’re going to be exposed to.”
He describes working with his clients as a shared “mutual exchange,” because it’s a dance they must do together: “When they come and see me, like you and I right now, I’m supposed to give you something and you are giving me something, it’s in a mutual exchange that happens. What can I give you, what can I share with you?
We are all together, like in the canopy of the Redwoods. The reason they are together, and the reason they have survived for centuries, is because they are all rooted together under the ground. Everything moves together. So no tree will fall by itself, the whole forest will fill it, and because they are all together, they have created this microenvironment and nothing can grow below them or near them.
So every person that comes through my doors, I surrender to because I need to complete whatever I need to complete. It could be something like a message or a song. We’re part of these roots, so we are together, and when one goes down it’s because it’s ready, you know it’s done, and it will not affect the forest.”
In the best possible ways, Alberto is still affecting the forest.
You can reach Alberto at www.switchsalon.com