37 Magazine
There’s a certain poetry in the timing. This month, Larisa Love graces the cover of 37 Magazine. Today, she celebrates her thirty-seventh birthday.
Thirty-seven is often associated with curiosity, independence, and the willingness to follow a path that doesn’t necessarily come with a map. Whether or not you believe numbers carry meaning, there is something fitting about this particular one arriving at this particular moment in Larisa’s life.
For some people, the symmetry would be little more than a coincidence. For Larisa, it feels like the kind of moment worth noticing. Not because she believes everything unfolds according to some grand blueprint, but because her story has always been shaped by an unusual willingness to trust what she feels before she can fully explain it. Long before the accolades, the international stages, the salons and the brands, there was simply an instinct telling her where to go next—and the courage to listen.
Long before she became one of the world’s most sought-after stylists and colorists, before the international tours, before the sold-out education events, before hundreds of thousands of artists followed her work online, Larisa was simply a young creative standing at a crossroads. The practical choice and the intuitive choice were not always the same thing. Again and again, she found herself choosing the latter.
The pattern would repeat throughout her life.
Signs of Life
At 37, Larisa Love reflects on the instincts that changed everything.
Larisa Love’s path to the top of the industry didn’t start in a salon. She was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and moved to the U.S. at age six, growing up in a household that had other plans for her. At seventeen, when given the ultimatum to either follow her family’s path or leave, she chose the latter. Enrolling in beauty school against her parents’ wishes, she was determined to build something on her own terms. Her father wasn’t shy about his skepticism. “I still remember it,” she notes of his verdict, that “hair is a hobby, not a career.” She has spent every year since turning those closed doors into the foundation for her own unstoppable empire.
She graduated cosmetology school in 2010 and quickly became sought after in salons from West Hollywood to Beverly Hills before deciding to build her own clientele. In 2013, when social media was still largely unexplored territory for professional artists, Larisa saw possibility where others saw distraction. She began sharing her work online, documenting transformations, techniques, and a creative point of view that felt distinctly her own.
In 2015, she planted her flag offline as well, opening the Larisa Love Salon in Studio City, California. More than just a workspace, the salon quickly evolved into a bustling creative hub. A physical sanctuary where she services clients, shoots high-production content for brands like JOICO, and hosts intimate educational classes during her tours. It became the ultimate headquarters for sharing tips, techniques, and inspiration with her ever-growing digital audience.
What followed was not merely an audience but a movement. Her Instagram presence transformed her from a talented stylist into a global voice within the beauty industry, connecting her artistry with more than 500,000 professional colleagues and loyal followers.
Plenty of artists build audiences. Far fewer build influence. To her, hair is a form of artistic expression. Color becomes emotion. Technique becomes storytelling. A transformation is never simply about changing someone’s appearance; it is about helping them see themselves differently.
That philosophy carried her from behind the chair to international stages that would come to define her career. As JOICO’s Global Brand Ambassador and Artistic Director, she has educated artists across the world, sharing not only techniques but a way of thinking about creativity itself. Her classes and appearances have helped shape a new generation of stylists who view themselves not simply as service providers, but as artists.
Her influence extends beyond color education. As a Pro Brand Ambassador for BABE Hair Extensions, Larisa continues to partner with leading brands that align with her commitment to innovation, artistry, and professional excellence. Whether discussing color, extensions, business, or creative growth, she has become a trusted voice for artists looking to elevate their craft.
Tools of the Trade
That philosophy became the foundation for the Modern Artist Movement, perhaps one of Larisa’s most personal contributions to the industry. She describes it as “an initiative designed to empower artists to think bigger about their careers, creativity, health, and future.” What began as education evolved into community, and what began as a tour grew into a philosophy. Thousands of artists across dozens of cities joined her Modern Artist tours, helping transform an idea into a movement.
Her tours took her from city to city, bringing modern color and styling techniques together with the conversations that often get left out of traditional beauty education: confidence, authenticity, business, pricing, mentorship, career longevity, and finding your own voice as an artist. The first For the Modern Artist Tour alone brought her to 21 cities across 17 states, connecting her with more than 1,300 artists.
For Larisa, education has never been simply about teaching someone how to create a color formula. It is about helping artists believe they are capable of creating something that belongs entirely to them. She often reminds other artists that “no one can be you”—a simple idea that speaks to one of the core principles behind her work: that individuality, authenticity, and personal journey are not obstacles to professional success, but among an artist’s greatest strengths.
That same entrepreneurial instinct eventually expanded beyond education. Through the Larisa Love Collection, she developed professional tools, brushes, bags, aprons, and accessories designed specifically for modern artists. “They were the kind of products I wanted to exist and, when I couldn’t find them, I decided to create them myself.” The line reflects her philosophy that the tools of the craft, not just the results, deserve to look and feel like they belong to an artist. It’s an extension of the Modern Artist Movement made tangible: gear built by someone who’s spent over fifteen years behind the chair, for the people still building their own careers one client at a time.
Then came Amsterdam.
Bicontinental Lives
If Los Angeles represents the foundation of Larisa’s career, Amsterdam feels like the next chapter of her story.
Amsterdam, too, began with a feeling.
For years, Larisa and her husband, Sebastian Danzig, had been drawn to the city. Their careers had taken them around the world—Larisa as an international educator and Sebastian as the guitarist of Palaye Royale. They had seen countless cities along the way, yet Amsterdam kept calling them back. “There was something about it we couldn’t quite explain. A pull toward its creativity, its pace, its atmosphere, and the people with a sense that perhaps one day it might become home.”
When they finally began exploring the possibility seriously, they spent time living in different neighborhoods and cities, testing the idea of what life in the Netherlands might actually feel like. And when they returned to Amsterdam, the answer seemed almost immediate. Everything clicked.
The house came almost as unexpectedly. Buying one wasn’t even part of the immediate plan; it was supposed to be something for later. Then, almost on a whim, they went to see a property that had come onto the market. They weren’t seriously looking. They were simply curious. But the moment they walked through the door, something changed. The house had the light, character, energy, and soul they had been looking for. The owner was an artist, too—a detail that felt like one more small piece falling into place. They left joking that they should make an offer “just for fun.” Then the offer was accepted.
Looking back, it feels almost like the kind of story Larisa has spent her career collecting: a series of small signals that only become clear once you follow them. The feeling comes first. The explanation comes later. And perhaps that is why the move to Amsterdam never feels, in retrospect, like a departure from the life she had built in Los Angeles. It feels like the next piece of it. A leap, certainly, but one that had been quietly taking shape for years.
This year she opened her second flagship salon in the city’s historic Jordaan district, bringing the vision she built in California across the Atlantic. The space is unmistakably Larisa: bold, artistic, and deeply intentional. Designed almost entirely in black, the salon was conceived with a singular purpose—to allow the work itself to command attention.
Every Transformation Becomes the Artwork
Dark interiors frame the experience while natural light pours through the windows, allowing the true focus to remain where she believes it belongs—on the color itself. Designed with dramatic black interiors, the space strips away distractions and allows the color to command attention. Against the dark backdrop, every shade appears more vibrant and luminous. Blondes glow brighter. Coppers burn warmer. Brunettes reveal unexpected depth. The salon functions less like a traditional beauty space and more like an artist’s gallery, where color becomes the focal point and each transformation is given room to be fully seen. Every client becomes a living canvas. Every appointment becomes an act of creation.
The design reflects something fundamental about Larisa’s philosophy. Throughout her career, she has viewed hair not simply as a service, but as an art form. The Amsterdam salon is perhaps the clearest physical expression of that belief—a space where artistry takes center stage and color is allowed to speak for itself.
The salon functions almost like a gallery, with hair serving as the artwork and each client becoming a living canvas. It is a physical expression of a philosophy Larisa has embraced throughout her career: when the foundation is intentional, creativity has room to shine.
Perhaps the most symbolic detail of all is how the building entered her life. She and Sebastian were drawn to the space immediately. There was no spreadsheet proving it was the perfect choice. No elaborate logic. Just a feeling. Months later, during renovations, they discovered a photograph revealing that the very same corner had housed a salon more than seventy years earlier in 1954. They had trusted the feeling first and learned the story afterward.
It is difficult not to notice the metaphor. Again and again, the defining moments of Larisa’s life seem to arrive that way. A feeling before a plan. A vision before a roadmap. A leap before certainty.
It then became its own kind of full-circle story. Remodelling the house and now the salon tested her patience more than any project she’d taken on: delays, unreliable contractors, sleepless nights. But the payoff was a vision that finally matched the scale of her ambition. Proof that a stylist known for taking risks with color wasn’t afraid to take one with architecture, too.
Thirty-Seven
A Birthday, A Milestone, A Masterpiece
At thirty-seven, her résumé is impressive enough on its own: salon owner, educator, entrepreneur, international touring artist, designer, mentor, and industry leader.
But accomplishments only tell part of the story.
The more interesting story is how she got there. Not by following trends. Not by waiting for permission. Not by knowing exactly how everything would work. By trusting the quiet voice that told her where to go next.
Some people call that instinct. Others call it timing.
Larisa might simply call it listening.
That instinct continues to lead her toward whatever comes next. Time and again, she has followed a feeling before she had all the answers. A choice that once meant saying yes to hair, then seeing possibility in a fledgling platform called Instagram, then building a movement, launching national tours, creating the tools she wished existed, and eventually following a pull across an ocean to Amsterdam.
The Evolution
Looking back, the moments begin to look like layers on a canvas—each choice adding depth to the next, each decision revealing something she couldn’t have seen from the beginning. Maybe that’s what makes the timing of thirty-seven feel so fitting. On the very day she enters her thirty-seventh year, she finds herself on the cover of 37 Magazine—another small piece of the story falling into place.
There’s something fitting about where Larisa Love stands on this birthday; not slowing down, but expanding outward, from a single chair in Studio City to two flagship salons on two continents, a movement, and a product line carrying her name into other artists’ kits. Ask her to sum up the work and she’ll point you back to the color itself: bold, transformative work built for people who want their hair to say something
Her signature scissors are more than a nod to the craft that built her career. They feel like a fitting emblem for the artist herself: bold, unapologetic, and never afraid to follow her own path. Throughout her career, Larisa has stayed true to her vision, trusted her instincts, and remained willing to go against the grain when she believed in something.
Being on the cutting edge means staying ahead of the curve, embracing innovation, and seeing possibility before it becomes obvious to everyone else. Larisa has made that instinct part of her career: trusting her vision, standing by her choices, and taking the leap when something tells her it is time to move forward.
Step behind the chair with Larisa Love. Explore upcoming tour dates, advanced techniques, and professional education on her official website.
- Cover Star: Larisa Love
- Publication: 37 Magazine
- Photography: Jordan Kelsey Knight
- Writer/Editor-In-Chief: Jamie Beth Livingston
- Publisher: Livingston Publishing
