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“Stylists are a girl's best friend”
Words Deborah Dominic
We’ve all had epic hair days, living-our-best-life take-over-the-world kinda styling, world domination I’ve-arrived-with-this-crowning-glory-vibe, and we’ve all had those moments where we’ve wondered what on earth we were thinking when we asked our stylist for that pixie crop/ micro fringe/ Beyoncé inspired hair wefts for our saturday night out and not come away exactly embodying the goal.
Our friends will notice either way and love us regardless of our choices (some more vocal than others: we’ve all got that one friend haha!), but for those in the public eye and industries where you can’t go unnoticed, hair choices can be make or break; celebrated or berated, empowering a profile or accelerating their clickbait value, and of course, inspire the masses that are viewing them.
Emily Blunt
Hair: Laini Reeves
The secret (and this goes for all womankind), is finding YOUR stylist. The right fit for you. The one that knows you better than you know yourself, who knows what will irritate you to live with & what you’ll love to be seen with. The one that understands the clients hair, gets behind what is required visually & logistically. The stylist that can transform you to where you need to be.The stylist that is motivated with passion & drive to make their client shine as opposed to themselves, are the ones that are made of pure magic.
Jourdan Dunn
Hair: Lacey Redway
Stylists have to work from the bottom up regardless of their target market, years of graft for the craft, countless hours to prove themselves (with little or no recompense in the beginning) & non stop persistence to build their reputation. It’s not necessarily glamorous in production but the outcome always makes it worthwhile.
For those styling in the public eye, it is a huge position of trust and a relationship that has to be built on that from the word go. It is also essential to work well under pressure swiftly and expect a curveball at any given moment!
Chrissy Teigan
Hair: Jen Atkin
With the arrival of social media and networking contacts opening up more opportunities than ever in the hair and beauty industry, the trajectory of the celebrity stylist can be accelerated, but it is still in no way an easy hill to climb.
You have to earn your stripes to earn the clients trust & respect & once you have that you have to consistently produce the optimum results they require to maintain that position.
Julianne Hough
Hair: Riawna Capri
The multi dimensional lives that so many women live now, juggling personal & public elements, indeed need a team of behind the scenes assistants to help run it smoothly. To transform the morning bare faced mum into the early evening show stopper without a flicker of a perfectly placed lash, so they may hand responsibly over to the professionals safe in the knowledge the job will be done & they can return to the next task in hand.
Alesha Dixon
Hair: Michelle Sultan
For those in the public eye, consistency is key. A signature look needs to have its high level of gorgeousness reproduced each time.
Kate Middleton’s stylist, who has tended to the royals for over 30 years, travelled with on their entire south east Asia tour to daily reproduce hair that not only stood up to the humidity but also the scrutiny of the world watching her diplomatic trip & style choices.
Kate Middleton
Hair: Amanda Cook -Tucker
Stylists can invariably become celebrated in their own right, may even go on to produce their own product ranges & in some cases become part of the celebrity families they tend to, joining them on holidays & at family events. But fundamentally, they are still building their craft daily & wouldn’t be able to help themselves if there was a hair challenge thrown down.
Kim Kardashian
Hair: Andrew Fitzsimons
The life of a stylist is exhausting but exhilarating, if you love what you do it is a pure pleasure to create joy via hair for another person & for so many, that is the driving force in their career ascent. To have passion is to have everything.
That & being part of something great that people have come together to create. Passion, creativity, community. A holy hair trinity. That & champagne obviously, and maybe the odd designer shoe.......