Alumni Spotlight: Loriel Escalera Finds Barbering, Social Media Success

When Loriel Escalera began her barbering career at the Harkness CTE Center in 2015, she had no idea where her craft would take her.

Ten years later, she’s become a highly regarded master barber in the city of Buffalo and has amassed an online following of millions of people who are interested in her work.

“I'm very blessed that I took barbering at a young age,” said Escalera.

Finding Her Path

Escalera, also known as “Loriel daBarbher”, grew up attending Sweet Home High School. She took advantage of the school’s partnership with Erie 1 BOCES and attended the Harkness Career and Technical Education Center for barbering.

“Barbering kind of fit well with my personality and my lifestyle,” said Escalera. “I was giving haircuts around that time, too. So that kind of just motivated me to keep going.”

“Loriel was very focused and motivated,” said Julianne Reinard, her barbering instructor at Erie 1 BOCES. “She was always working on perfecting her skill. She was polite and worked well with others.”

Escalera was thrown into a unique environment as the only young woman in her barbering class. She said that she felt like the odds were against her when she first started out, but she embraced getting the respect of her classmates— and herself.

“Being confident got me to the point where someone would want me to cut their hair or do a facial on them,” said Escalera. “It was a little difficult, but it didn’t stop me from growing and going further than I needed to go.”

“Loriel was very quiet. She was always willing to help others,” said Reinard. “The boys recognized her talents right away and she gained their respect and trust. She was always the one student they would turn to for haircuts or assistance on how to perfect their skills to match her level.” 

At the time, barbering at Erie 1 BOCES was a one-year course. She took the class in both her 11^th and 12^th grade years, and in the process, she became the person she is today, both professionally and personally.

“What I found most helpful at BOCES was that I got out of my comfort zone,” said Escalera. “I was able to find a different version of myself that I didn’t feel at my home school. I was able to meet different kids from different schools. I made different connections. I found myself while going to BOCES.”

Social Media Success

After graduating from high school, Escalera started to establish herself as a master barber. She built a clientele and started to post on social media, which took her career to new heights.

She had been posting videos her entire life, but in 2020, her content creator career took off.

“Locally, there weren’t that many barbers posting haircut videos, keeping up with the trends, and doing the TikTok dances and everything,” said Escalera. “So I was able to integrate that with barbering. It just blew up from then. It’s pretty cool how it worked out.”

She currently has over 4 million followers on TikTok, with nearly 70 million combined likes on her videos.

She also has nearly 400,000 total followers on Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads, and Lemon8.

Her content creator career has allowed her to meet new people, share her talents with the world, educate others, and expand her brand.

“I was able to travel around the United States and Canada. I have a trip coming up to Nicaragua, I’m teaching a class over there. Tons of opportunities came into play.”

She’s now sponsored by a handful of companies, including Gamma, which is naming a clipper after her that she designed. It’s a rare honor for a barber and one that has personal significance to Escalera.

“I have curly hair, I told them that there should be a clipper that’s for curly hair. It’s going to be a clipper release aiming towards the LGBTQ community because there are so many of those types of barbers out there,” said Escalera. “I am happy that I was able to find a company that was willing to produce this for me and trust and believe in me.”

The clipper is currently scheduled to be released next year.

The BOCES Impact

Escalera’s social media career forced her to open herself up to the world, a process that began back in high school when she attended Harkness.

“I was always shy in school,” said Escalera. “So, that kind of just pushed me out of my comfort zone, on top of BOCES then the social media, it all came together and made me a really talkative person when it comes down to like something that I love, which is barbering.”

While barbering is her passion, her road to success has not always been an easy one. It can be difficult to establish yourself in the field, and like many others, Escalera had challenges along the way. Her advice to future barbers is simple.

“Believe in yourself,” Escalera said. “It’s very discouraging. The one thing that I wish someone had told me was that this is your world. Once you leave school, you are your own business. How you are will reflect on your business, your clientele; you’ll create your clientele based on who you are. Just staying headstrong and having good self-awareness.”

That road to success began at a class at Erie 1 BOCES, taught by Reinard, who was an important role model for her as she began her career.

“She really motivated me, especially with me getting into the educational field now,” said Escalera. “I really look up to her for what she does because it’s not easy.”

“I have been so very proud of all that she has accomplished.  In a male-dominated industry, I know from experience that the success she has achieved was not an easy feat,” said Reinard. “I consider her a valuable component of my advisory board. She is always willing to give back and comes back to my classroom for demonstrations and to advise my current students on the steps that they could take to master their skills and achieve their dreams of being a successful barber.”

Escalera encourages others to look into the Erie 1 BOCES CTE programs offered, whether it’s barbering or otherwise, to try to find a career that you’re passionate about.

“The fact that you're stepping yourself into the out of the normal- going to high school, waking up every morning to feel like you’re stuck in all your classes,” said Escalera. “You get a chance to meet new people, try out other opportunities. It’s going to benefit someone in the long run rather than in the temporary moment. You know, it's really nice and I just hope whoever does it just believes in themselves, because it's all up to them.”