ABOUT

We all have a story. 
Or an accumulation of stories. 

Coming from a culturally mixed, working-class family from Littleton and Barnum, Colorado, Andrea’s parents raised her on Prince, Sade, New Edition, and Kool and the Gang. Her music taste is heavily influenced by her parents, though she is always seeking new music to listen and dance to. Andrea recalls watching her mom draw detailed portraits with chalk, sharpening her eye for detail and artistry from a young age. 

Andrea followed in her mother’s footsteps and began her career as a hairdresser at the age of sixteen. Part of her DNA, creativity, and artistic vision came effortlessly to her. Struggles with addiction and alcoholism came just as easily. A staple of the Denver nightlife community including So What!, Skunk Motel at The Snake Pit, and The Solution, Andrea divided her time between the salon and the dance floor - a fast lifestyle that would eventually catch up with her. Nonetheless, she flourished as a hairdresser for over twenty years at Denver’s most recognized salons, including Antione Du Chez, Luxe Salon, Crush, Grand, and Lincoln & Dakota. In 2008 Andrea started a fashion consulting and personal shopping business, Urbane Dame, LLC.

Facing inevitable change, Andrea made the choice to become clean and sober in 2009. Swimming upstream into a new, unfamiliar life of sobriety, Andrea sought a healthy and creative outlet. Taking the advice of clients and friends, she started penning her tales of her career as a hairdresser. Through the process, it was clear that the project would become more than salon stories of an assumed glamorous lifestyle full of photoshoots and behind-the-scenes hairdresser gossip. It would bare what people did not know of her, what she hid, and why she hid it - and how she maintained the balance between darkness, success, and an active social life. 

Andrea took a necessary break from dance floors and nightlife to peel back the layers of addiction and sobriety to focus on herself and dive into writing. The desire to change led Andrea on a steady path of self-improvement, self-nurturing, introspection, and accountability. Through her processes, she’s learned the value of discomfort and the expansion it provides. Personal development, growth, and wellness have become a new foundation. (In 2014 she enrolled at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado to study Holistic Nutrition). 

Always a supporter and pillar of the creative and music community. Andrea would step back into the Denver nightlife scene a year and a half into sobriety with a renewed, healthier perspective. Her first stop was at her favorite weekly party, The Solution, a weekly hip hop party founded by DJ Low Key and DJ Sounds Supreme. 
Clean, sober, and re-emerged into nightlife, Andrea welcomed the new-found clarity - and community. In 2012, Goodness w/ DJ Low Key and Friends quickly became Andrea’s safe place, an unofficial/official claimed dance floor and gathering place of artists, renowned DJs from across the country, and creatives. Goodness became home, and she reigned as Resident Homegirl amongst her collective. 

Joining forces with her best homeboy DJ Low Key, (Justin Green), Andrea decided to release her long-awaited self-published memoir, Knotted, at Goodness in the summer of 2016. Six days before the release of Knotted, Andrea’s grandma Lorraine passed away. Knowing that Lorraine would insist the show go on, it did. Andrea’s two outlets came together for a release party rich in support, love, and success. Knotted continues to allow her readers into her experience. 

2016 was a pivotal year for Andrea. In addition to releasing her book and the passing of her grandma, Andrea also retired from her two-decade-long career from the beauty and fashion industry. (Oh, and Prince died). Feeling the necessity to shift gears, she worked for a small design firm and welcomed the change. 

Having accomplished everything she set out to do, Denver had run its course for Andrea. An opportunity to move to Southern California presented itself at the right time. Not a stranger to significant change and embracing the unknown, Andrea seized the opportunity. In August of 2018, Andrea left Denver, Colorado, to start a new life in California. The change, peace, and initial seclusion would be a welcome reprieve after a trying few years. 

Shifting creative gears, shortly after settling into her new home, Andrea began working in corporate marketing for a medical device company in North County, California.

Andrea continues to write short stories and essays about personal development, self-help, addiction, recovery, relationships, love, and childhood. During the summer of 2018, she started publishing on Medium.Com. Her intention as a writer is for her readers not to feel alone in their experience or struggle. She’s working on her second memoir. 

Andrea recently completed Wellness Life Coaching 1.0 from Coach Training EDU. She is taking clients; focusing on working with creatives in the BIPOC communities.

Between work and wellness life coaching, she listens to her DJ community stream their sets on Twitch and visits with a new, growing community - from a safe distance, of course. Forever embracing her artistic and music-driven roots, Andrea prioritizes sharing and promoting the works of artists, writers, DJs, producers, small business owners, photographers, designers, and independent clothing lines and brands.

Her favorite activities are dancing, writing, laughing, and listening to Prince.

Coach Training EDU Wellness Life Coaching 1.0 Certificate of Completion

“Why do you go by LorraineDrops?” 

“My grandma’s name is Lorraine. My grandpa used to call her Rain Drops. I remember shopping on South Federal as a kid with my grandparents, and during a rainstorm, my grandpa started singing a song called Rain Drops to my grandma. He laughed a jovial laugh. Given my grandma’s impatient and fiery nature, she was none too pleased. I’ve always remembered that moment.

When I created my Instagram account, I didn’t want my clients at the time to be able to find me. I wanted to use a different name than my own, but something that wasn’t generic. ‘Rain Drops’ was taken, so I created LorraineDrops. I was always very close to my grandma, so I went with it. Had she known at the time she would have been furious. Since her passing, it’s apparent that it’s worked out as it was meant to - adopting her name as a bit of a tribute to her. And yes, people who don’t know me well or don’t know me personally call me Lorraine. It’s the biggest compliment I could receive.”

Lorraine@LorraineDrops.com
IG: @LorraineDrops