If you listen closely, you can almost hear Alex Hofer laugh. Publicly quiet, humble, almost totally unassuming, there are times you don’t even know he is there. In a room full of loud equipment, public traffic and chatter, Hofer worked through some thoughts before another work day opened in the Fairfield cosmetology room. Reflecting on some lighter moments, he almost laughed out loud.
Almost.
“Alex is one of the quietest kids we’ve had in here,” noted Fairfield Cosmetology instructor Lisa Firestone earlier this fall. “Sometimes you don’t even know he’s here. But he’s getting so much better, and you can see he is getting more comfortable in these settings and with his work.”
It’s not to pick on Hofer’s demeanor. He is, after all, the middle of three hyper athletic kids from a Hofer family the Fairfield community knows all too well, notably, dad being former athletic director Mark Hofer. Alex himself, is a successful three-sport varsity athlete, currently a guard for the Fairfield boys basketball team. He also is a sprinter on the track team and was a defensive back and receiver on the football team. Every now and then you’d hear him barking at an opponent on the gridiron, but not often.
There is still more than meets the eye with Alex Hofer.
An eye for style and art, Hofer enjoys taking his thoughts and putting them to use. That is particularly where he is gaining vision, and that ability is making for a budding career.
“Last year, we started off with a lot of makeup and facials, stuff like that”, said Hofer, who fully intends on opening his own barber shop in the future. “A male isn’t typically into makeup. We’ve got women’s hair, men’s hair. Nails. I’ve had to deal with getting my toenails painted multiple times. My fingernails painted multiple times. But you know, it is what it is.”
His chair in the cosmetology room has been visited by several ‘high profile’ names on the Fairfield campus, including principal Jason Grasty, boys basketball head coach Derek Hinen, and his own dad. Alex admits there is a pressure to maintain a high standard he already sets for himself, but to have some of the most public people in his chair is also a blessing.
“A lot of people know who I am and have expectations for me, but I also have the same for myself,” Hofer said. “It’s a nice balance, really, to have expectations like that. It’s actually an honor to work on people like that. It makes me feel good to have that kind of trust.”
Physically, you can’t actually see his eyes, his braids routinely dropped over most of the top of his face. A lone wolf of sorts in the cosmo room, Hofer is the only male in the program. While that gives him an edge in attracting male clients and sharpening his skills, it doesn’t mean he is exempt from what his female peers also have to practice.
“I’ve gotten used to being the only guy in here,” admitted Hofer, shuffling through classmates prepping for their day. “I was not expecting 21 other people to all be girls in here with me. But when you look at it, they are all kinda me, and I’m kinda them.”
Alex Hofer used the word ‘balance’ quite a bit in describing his day-to-day. Whether in the cosmo room, the playing field, the classroom, or just being a senior trying to figure it all out, he kept coming back to ‘balance’. There wasn’t a lot of ‘I’ in his approach, more of a ‘we’. Seeing through the eyes of Hofer is to see a bigger picture.
One he is quietly crafting each day.