hey, it’s me :)

I'm Alyssa & I'm the hands & heart behind Born & Bred salon & studio.

My business is the fruit of my own self discovery, trial & error, & ultimately returning to my roots to find that almost all of the things that I am passionate about have traveled through my bloodlines to lead me here.

I grew up here in Hartford, my parents did too. My dad's mom was a cosmetologist, which I felt connected & drawn to after she had passed - just as I was starting cosmetology school. I am proud to share the same trade as she did. My dad, his brothers & their father are all tradesmen. Give them a task, project or idea & they can build it; it's incredible to watch.

My mom's side of the family is sprinkled with seamstresses, masons & makers in their own right. My grandfather owned a construction company in Hartford for many years & has worked on projects all throughout the city - including restoring the brick outside of one of my favorite Hartford homes:  The Mark Twain House.

I spent a good chunk of time working in environments that didn't fulfill me in all the ways I had hoped they would. After shrinking myself to fit in, I decided that wasn’t something I was interested in doing anymore & wanted to create a space for myself that would allow for growth in new ways & help me uncover parts of myself that I'd hidden, or that I didn't know were there.

I love helping people SEE themselves through beauty & helping their outsides match their insides by co-creating looks that feel like THEM. 

I love repurposing, upcycling & looking at objects in new ways to find new use for them. I thrive on creating goods using thrifted materials, or that would be deemed useless & giving them new life as something we wouldn't have thought of initially.

I would love to share the path of self discovery with you, there is so much you can learn about yourself just by asking. 

Let me help you create something that allows you feel better connected to who you are or helps you remember where you came from... bonus points if it does both. ✨