Introduction

When I was growing up just outside Manchester, England, I was constantly re-creating my image. Completely inspired by music and fashion, I spent every day of my teenage years reading the key fashion magazines of the time (of which there were very few) and getting into all the new trends. My older brother was a hair colorist at one of the best salons in Manchester, and he was the coolest and hippest person I knew. He changed his style frequently, and he inspired me to do the same.

Although my clothes would change, it was difficult for me to change my hair because I had some insecurities about my looks. My sticking-out ears and high forehead made me determined to keep my hair long to cover up these so-called failings. I didn’t like my hair’s curliness much, either. On the one occasion I cut and straightened my hair, the results were disastrous and embarrassing.

I suppose it was inevitable that I became a hairdresser. At first, I just thought a hair salon would be a great environment in which to work, that I’d get to meet lots of new and interesting people and have the chance to be creatively involved in the fashion industry. Besides, I needed a job—and some spending money—to help me enjoy those teenage years. At sixteen, I landed my first job and became a hair assistant at the biggest salon in Bolton, a town just up the road from where I lived.

I loved my new job straightaway. There was a hip young staff, music playing all day, friendly clients, lots of energy, and parties every weekend. How could I not love it? I realized pretty quickly that I wanted hairdressing to be my career. I also realized that if I was going to do this for the rest of my life, I wanted to be great at it. Now I had to work out how to be the best that I could be and make it to the top of my industry.

I was sure that I needed the best education possible in order to have a chance of making it big, so I went to the Big City: Manchester. By luck or by fate, I landed a job at the best salon in the country, Vidal Sassoon.

Vidal Sassoon was located in an iconic five-story building on famous King Street, Manchester’s fashionable epicenter, complete with cobblestones and dainty trees. With its brown-tinted windows and larger-than-life images of amazing cuts and colors hanging throughout the majestic and futuristic space, Vidal Sassoon had an intimidating presence that reminded me of ultrahip London. I had arrived at the real deal, the place of excellence that was all things hair and all things cool. Vidal had revolutionized the hair industry with his precision-based technique, and now I was one of his new disciples.

I soon realized that I lacked true natural ability, but I vowed not to let that stand in my way. I would just have to work harder. And I did. Every day, I was the first in and the last to leave. I wanted to make a name for myself and build a reputation that would earn me the respect of my peers. I attended every single training class and gave 100 percent toward improving my skills. I learned from my mistakes and observed carefully, striving to be the best.

Once my apprenticeship was over, I became a stylist, and two years later, I was promoted to assistant creative director at the Manchester salon. I was just twenty-one then and I had already learned a lot. I learned that hair is an accessory to your total image. I learned that if you work with your hair in its natural state you will achieve greater success in maintaining your style. I learned that a precision cut is the most fundamentally important thing. I learned that my skills were getting better and better as my experience grew. And I learned that I was slowly overcoming my insecurities about my own hair, forehead, and ears.

With this newfound confidence, I began encouraging clients to change their opinions about their hair. I wanted them to work with their hair in a more natural, easy way, but I was faced with many people who had their own insecurities to contend with. I realized that if I was going to counsel people to look past their issues to see what the possibilities were, then I had to banish my own insecurities for good. After all, how could I give advice that I wasn’t willing to take myself?

I liberated myself by shaving my head. Without the long bangs I’d been hiding behind, my forehead and stick-out ears were completely exposed. This was my lesson to myself, and do you know what? It really helped! Nobody else seemed to mind what I thought were my odd features. I experienced and overcame my insecurities. Change was good!

I continued to evolve as a stylist and I continued to love my work. I helped people to become ecstatic about the way they look every day, and I still love the feeling I get from sharing that moment with them. Whenever I get the chance to see a new client, someone lost in her own hair dilemma, I gladly take it. I believe I have the confidence and the skill to lead people toward a whole new perspective about themselves, and when they get there and can finally see themselves as I do, it’s like magic. It gives me a great sense of personal satisfaction every time.

I moved to New York City in 1994. It was a dream fully realized and a fantasy come true to live in the Big Apple. As education director for a major New York City salon, I began formally educating other hairdressers. I loved, and continue to love, this part of my job. To pass on my experience to the next generation of stylists and help them to become true masters of their craft is a real honor. It’s why I recently opened my own academy for advanced hairdressing education.

After living in New York for eight years, I was lucky enough to be asked to show my skills on the television show What Not to Wear. It was around that time that I began thinking about how great it would be to educate not just hairdressers but clients as well. I thought that with the right education and understanding about their hair, clients would have a better chance of maintaining a great hairstyle and be loads happier.

Those thoughts continued to percolate while I became somewhat of a hair celebrity. The TV experience helped me grow even more as a stylist. When I watch the show, I can witness and reflect on what it is we do for the client. I’ve learned from watching my own chairside manner and by seeing how the client likes to wear her hair after she has left the salon. I get a sense of how she really feels about the experience, and most important, whether I was right about what she needed and whether I helped her. Then it hit me: In order for hairstylists to grow and improve, we must educate our clients. We have to help them understand more about their potential.

I see so many clients with the same problems, problems they think are unique to them but really aren’t. Maybe they have had bad advice in the past and that has scarred or tainted them. Maybe they just have the wrong perspective and need to be shown the true nature of their hair and what it can and can’t do. I have met and successfully styled tens of thousands of clients, and with all my knowledge and experience, and with my newfound visibility, I truly believe now is the time to put all this information into one concise, thorough, and—I hope—enlightening book.

The ideas, thoughts, and opinions that I want to share with you will give you the information you need to achieve something that is important to all women: fantastic, attainable, and easy-to-wear Great Hair. I want to dispel all the myths and help everyone see the realities so they can feel great about their hair and themselves. My goal is not only to help everyone to rethink their hairstyle and styling choices, but also to prove that if you work with your hair in a natural way, you will, without question, achieve a fantastic look.

This book can be used in two ways. Read it from start to finish for a completely new perspective on every aspect of hair, or pick and choose the sections that relate most to you. I also suggest that you keep this book by your vanity mirror and use my how-to styling sections anytime you want to shape and style your hair. I encourage everyone to start with a clean slate and an open mind because this could be the wake-up call your hair has been waiting for, and it may just dispel many of your preconceived ideas about hair.

I will begin by showing you how to understand and care for the hair you have. Then I hope to inspire you to make some changes for the better. No matter what kind of hair you have—whether it’s curly or straight, thick or thin, dark or light, or somewhere in between—this book presents lots of options so that the new hairstyle you choose will also suit who you are. Chapter 3, “The Ultimate Hairstyle Guide,” has all sorts of different styles for you to choose from. All the women in this style guide (and in the makeover section of the book) are real women from age fifteen to fifty who applied to be part of this project through an advertisement on my salon Web site. These aren’t models who came to me with practically perfect hair. They are women who showed up in my salon carrying with them a whole range of issues and insecurities that they needed help with, just like you. And all the styles I created for them can be easily worn from day to day, or shaped into a magical special occasion do. I show real women in this book to prove to you that getting a great hairstyle, one that makes you look young, fresh, and more modern, is achievable for women of any age and any hair type.

Great Hair will also equip you with the information you need to find a great hairdresser and coach you on the right way to approach a consultation, a critical part of getting a hairstyle you love. I also show you how to style your hair and achieve different looks at home. Whether you want curls, or volume, or smoothness, and whether you want to use your fingers, a blow-dryer, or a hot iron to get the look, I show you how to make hairstyling creative, fun, and successful, whether it’s for every day or a special occasion.

I take a close look at color and how it can beautifully enhance the way you look. I cover problem hair and maintenance and I give you salon secrets that are used to overcome common challenges. And because ethnic hair types come with their own unique set of assets and challenges, I devote an entire chapter to the different options and techniques available to women with this kind of hair.

In this book you’ll find my voice, my vision, and all of the advice that I happily share with anyone who seeks me out, sits in my chair, and asks me for help. I believe everyone has the potential to achieve Great Hair. My prescription for making that happen for all types of hair and all kinds of women is all here and explained in a way that is easy to understand. Ultimately, I truly believe it’s not just about how you look; it’s about how your look makes you feel about yourself. I hope this book inspires you to be confident and beautiful, sexy and happy!