“I think that the most important thing a woman can have — next to talent, of course — is her hairdresser.
” — Joan Crawford
I’m trying to grow out my hair so I can donate it this fall. I stopped in to Rapunzel’s for a talk and trim with stylist extraordinaire Marcos Matos and we dished on life, love and longevity.
PGN: So tell me about the marvelous Marcos Matos. That sounds like a boxer’s name. MM: [Laughs] I was born in Puerto Rico, but I came to Philly when I was about 10 years old. My mom wanted a better future for us than she thought we could have staying in Puerto Rico. We came from very poor circumstances plus she wanted us to speak two languages. I lived here until I was about 16 and then I moved back to Puerto Rico. [Laughs] I was a mama’s boy and I was so spoiled/protected by my mom that when I started to realize that I was gay, I moved back to Puerto Rico to escape her and figure things out.
PGN: Who did you stay with? MM: My dad. I knew that he was, like, more open-minded than my mom. Six months before I decided to move back, I told my mom I was gay, and all she did was sob, “Why, why? What did I do wrong?” The usual. After that I was like, I need to leave. I need to go find myself. I got there and my dad was like, “What are you doing here?” I said, “I need to find myself!” He was like, “You’re 16. What’s there to find?” He lived upstairs in his house and there was a rental space downstairs, which was empty at the time I moved back. He said, “OK, this will be your home. You’re going to pay me rent and you’ll find yourself all right.” I was like, Holy crap! I knew I needed to finish high school and I needed to find a job. I found two, McDonald’s and Burger King. I worked at McDonald’s from 6 a.m.-noon, then from 1-6 p.m. I worked at Burger King and at 6:30 I went to night school. It was an accelerated program so you could finish two-three years in one year. I worked like a slave. Cramming all that schoolwork in really made me appreciate education and I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I just love kids and I wanted to be a first-grade or kindergarten teacher, so I began to attend college in Puerto Rico.
PGN: How did you go from that to becoming a hairdresser? MM: Well, I was so exhausted from working and going to school that I quit my job at Burger King. I was telling a friend that I needed a new job and she told me that the guy who lived upstairs from her was a hairdresser and was looking for an assistant. I didn’t know anything about it but my mom had been a hairdresser for a short period of time and I figured I knew at least a little. I went upstairs, met the owner, who was about 30 and of course I fell in love with him. He fell in love with me too and gave me the job. I told him that I was 19! We were dating and I was working for him and one day I asked him if I could do a haircut. He of course said, “No, you have to go to school for that.” I kept bugging him until he finally let me try and it came out really good. He asked me how I learned to cut hair and I said “From watching you all this time.” He wanted to send me to beauty school and I said, “Hell no! Then everyone will know I’m gay.” [Laughs] That was my big worry! He offered to pay for it and eventually talked me into going to beauty school. I did and became a hairdresser. One of my first jobs was doing hair for a soap opera called “Three Destinies (Tres Destinos).” It was a great experience — really, really cool. I dated him for about six years until I caught him cheating on me and I decided to come back to Philly. That was in 1995.
PGN: Wow. So let’s backtrack a bit … Tell me more about your family. MM: I have an older sister who moved to the states right about the time I was going back to Puerto Rico, and an older brother who is gay too.
PGN: Who came out first? MM: It’s funny. I did not know that my brother was gay and vice-versa. We both had suspicions about each other but never spoke about it. It wasn’t until I started working as a hairdresser and dating that guy that he finally said, “Aha! I always thought you were gay!” I said, “Then why didn’t you say something?” We were never really very close. I used to follow him around and he would throw rocks at me and told me to go away. Looking back, I guess it was because he was gay and didn’t want me tagging so close behind in case I found out. My older sister was always the nurturing one; she was like a mother figure.
PGN: You mentioned that your mother came here for a better life. What were some of the things she was trying to get away from? MM: The bad neighborhood and bad influence of other kids, drugs, poverty. She didn’t realize that stuff was here too. She was really strict, though, and it was to her favor that we didn’t speak English. It allowed her to make us a little bit afraid of the streets. We literally moved every year because she was always looking for a better neighborhood. Because she didn’t know the areas, it was hit and miss. I remember one time we moved to Fifth and Cambria and it was like, “Oh, no, this is not going to work.” We were only there for a few months.
PGN: That makes me think of all the kids trying to cross the border right now to get a better life. Of course Puerto Rico is already part of the states, but it’s the idea that being in the continental United States would offer a better life. MM: Yes, it’s not always great here but it’s certainly way better than what they had. It’s amazing the way people are getting worked up. I mean, we’re all immigrants. We all came from other countries. But now that they’re here, folks are saying, “Oh no! Keep them out!” It would’ve been nice if the Indians said the same thing to them when they were trying to come to this country. And these people aren’t saying, “We’ll all go and overpopulate the country,” they’re just trying to save their kids. It’s everybody’s dream to come here and do better for their children, just like my mother did.
PGN: I keep thinking if we stopped putting money into all these ridiculous wars we could feed and house all those children and perhaps make a priority of educating our own. Your mother sounds like a special lady. MM: Yes, she just passed away about three years ago. She died of an aneurysm; she actually had three of them, it was bad. But she was a survivor. She didn’t even want to go to the hospital with the first one, she just thought it was a bad headache. But it turned out her head had been bleeding internally for a week. The doctors at Hahnemann Hospital were our saviors. We probably would have lost her that first time if it hadn’t been for them. We were able to have her for another five years. But she was only 58 when she died. I have a little shrine for her in my house.
PGN: How did you end up at Rapunzel’s, the salon where you are now? MM: Well, when I came back to Philly in ’95, escaping — here I go again running, this time from my ex-boyfriend — I thought I was just going to be here part-time. I wanted to give him time to get over me. I kept extending my stay here so I decided to get a job. I went to a lot of different salons in Philadelphia but no one would hire me because I didn’t have a license in Pennsylvania. So I went to the good old Chop Shop on South Street: They hired me and never asked about a license so I never told. I became the manager after two years and stayed on for another eight.
PGN: As manager, did you write yourself up for not having a license? MM: [Laughs] No! Shortly after working there I did go and get that stupid license. Before that if the state inspectors ever came in, I would run out the back door leaving my client in the chair! It’s like a $500 fine or something if you get caught. After 10 years, I bought a building at Second and Bainbridge and was planning to open my own salon in 2007. That was just as the economy was tanking and all my budget plans went down the drain. Maggie Phun was one of my coworkers at Chop Shop and had already opened her own salon. She invited me to work with her so I sold my building and I’ve been here at Rapunzel’s beauty salon for nine years.
PGN: What’s the craziest request you’ve heard? MM: I had a woman who wanted me to dye her vagina purple.
PGN: I’m assuming you mean pubic hairs? MM: Yes, yes. She started to pick up her skirt to show me what she wanted me to do and I yelled, “Stop!” That was not in my repertoire.
PGN: What services do you do? Will you do a bikini wax? MM: We offer quite a lot: color, cut and style of course, make-up and bridal services, retexturing and waxing — bikini and anal. The only thing I personally don’t like to do is manicures and pedicures.
PGN: [Laughs] Wait, you’ll do anal waxing but not a mani-pedi? MM: The waxing is quick, just one, two, three, rip! The manicures are too much intense work. I don’t have the patience for it.
PGN: Any hobbies outside of the salon? MM: I love to people watch. I’m always wondering what’s going on inside someone’s mind. What happened to them today, or this year? That’s why I don’t judge people, because you never know what might be going on in someone’s life.
PGN: Tell me about your partner, Gatto. MM: I met him six months after I came back to Philly. It was Latin night at the 2/4 Club. Remember that? I was wearing a kilt, which was popular in Puerto Rico but hadn’t quite hit the states yet. He’s from Ecuador and I know he was wondering what was going on with me. But we danced that first night, then had our first date the next day. We went to two movies, then Woody’s and then stayed up all night talking. At about 6 a.m. he said, “If you’re tired, you can stay over.” I told him as long as there was no funny business because we’d just met and he said, “No, of course not.” Two weeks later we moved in together and 18 years later we’re still together. The next step is to adopt a kid.
PGN: That’s amazing. Changing topics, is there a lot of color consciousness in the Latino community like there is in the states and in the African-American community? MM: Not really, most Puerto Ricans are a combination of Spanish, Indian and African descent. One thing about Puerto Ricans, when it comes to color there’s not a distinction between lighter and darker Puerto Ricans. Before I came to the states I didn’t know what racism was. If you’re walking down a dark street and a black person is coming towards you there’s no, “Oh my God, I better cross the street!” reaction like there is here. It’s just another person. Here, especially in the media, it’s always, “Black man kills someone, Latino man robs a store.” And they never distinguish who that Latino is, he could be Columbian or Venezuelan or Spanish, yet most people will just assume they mean Puerto Rican or Mexican.
PGN: Unless you’re speaking, I would think many people would assume you’re black. Have you faced racism because of it? MM: All the time. People always think I’m black. It’s fine with me. I wish everybody would think like they do in Spain, though — it’s not about your color it’s about your actions. Are you kind, are you good or are you rude and obnoxious? That’s all that matters.
PGN: Who’s the funniest person you know? MM: Nobody beats Noel Zayas. And the funniest part is that he’s not usually trying to be funny.
PGN: Very true! And he’s got an infectious laugh! What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? MM: I’m such a romantic I love really sad songs. There are a few Latin artists I listen to that you don’t even need to know Spanish to understand what they’re saying. They are so depressing and I love it! There’s another song … who’s that black singer from the ’90s? She’s a woman and she sings … Ooh, what’s that song? “I drive so fast …”
PGN: Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”? MM: Yes! That’s it. That song is sad, but it makes me happy!
PGN: If you could have any elective surgery done with no risk, what would you do? MM: Electric surgery?
PGN: [Laughs] No, that would be shock therapy. Elective! As in cosmetic … MM: Ha! I already did it. I used to have very sleepy, droopy eyes to the point that I had trouble seeing. I hated it because people always thought that I was high or drunk. It really bothered me. So I had three eyelid procedures to correct it.
PGN: You do a lot of hair for wedding parties. Any bridezillas? MM: Plenty! I’m not the kind of guy who will lie to you and tell you you look good when you don’t. I had one client who wanted me to put her hair up in this hideous hairstyle on the center of her head and top it off with a crown. She was kind of round to start with and it didn’t look good on her. I said, “I want you to have what you want, but I won’t be able to do it.” She was shocked but I’ve worked very hard to put my name where it is and at the end of the day, when someone looks at her pictures and says, “Who did your hair?” I don’t want them mentioning me. Because it won’t be followed with, “But that’s what the bride wanted.” They’ll just associate my name with that terrible hairdo.
PGN: So, Romeo, what was your most romantic gesture? MM: I took Gatto to the Cayman Islands and when we were enjoying drinks on our deck as the sun was setting, I got down on one knee and gave him a ring. It wasn’t exactly a marriage proposal but I asked him if he would like to be with me forever and he said yes.
For more information, visit www.rapunzelsbeautysalon.com.
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