By MICHELLE BEAHM | Staff Writer

April Ochoa was recently named employee of the month at The Brass Ring Salon and Day Spa.

Ochoa has been working as a hair stylist for 23 years, and has spent the last 11 years of her career at The Brass Ring. Ochoa said her favorite thing about working there is the people she works with.

“We all get along really well,” she said. “This is like our home away from home. It’s just really fun.” Ochoa recalled last Halloween as being one of her favorite memories of working at the Brass Ring because everyone who worked there dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. She was dressed as a flying monkey.

The best part about being a hair stylist, according to Ochoa, is the clients, though.

“You get to know them,” she said. “They’re friends, they’re family. My least favorite part is when my clients move away. You get to know them so well. It’s sad … when you’ve done somebody for like, 10 or 15 years, and they go on somewhere else or they move out of state. You have to say goodbye.”

After deciding to become a stylist when she was 15 years old, Ochoa started learning the trade in her senior year of high school at South Kitsap High School, through the skill center. She continued her education in the field at Shoreline Community College, in Seattle.

Now, she still loves her job, and said that being a team player is probably what helped her become employee of the month at the Brass Ring.

“Everybody needs to pitch in and do their share,” she said.