If you’re a barber at the top of their game, you know what success feels like. Whether it’s acing your education, cutting the ribbon on your first barber shop, opening a third location, or simply mastering a new technique, you are familiar with the joy of accomplishment.
For some, the list above probably covers their primary goals as a barber. For others, it only scratches the surface of what they hope to achieve. If you’re a barber who looks up to those in the public eye and views working with celebrities as the pinnacle of the industry, you may be wondering how to climb that final mountain.
You’ve come to the right place, as we’ll be your guide along the way to becoming the celebrity stylist you’ve always dreamed of being.
How to Become a Celebrity Stylist
Reaching the penultimate position in any industry is no easy task. It takes a lot of hard work, strategic planning, and moving pieces falling into place. The same is true of becoming a celebrity stylist, which is a bit of a rarity in the barbering community. So, if it’s your goal, you’ll want to check out the following.
Earn an Education
Even if you’re the most naturally gifted, skilled barber on the planet, you may be overlooked for opportunities if you forgo a formal education. If you want to become a celebrity stylist, go the extra mile to ensure that you check every box—even those that may seem superfluous. Doing so will open doors for your future.
Choose a reputable, well-known institution for your education and take the courses that apply to the industry you want to enter. This could mean you focus entirely on technical barbering skills, but it could also require courses in things like trend forecasting, fashion show production, and more.
Refine Your Skills
Once you have embarked on your educational journey, you will want to do everything possible to refine your barbering skills. This not only means working extremely hard during training and your everyday responsibilities but also pursuing extra opportunities, such as accepting an internship or apprenticeship to learn from the best and gain valuable experience.
While there are other important factors along your path to becoming a celebrity stylist, results matter, and you need exceptional skills to stand out from the crowd.
Learn Everything You Can
After your education, finding an internship or apprenticeship is step one in the process of absorbing as much knowledge as possible and then translating it into actionable ability. If you have the specific goal of being a celebrity stylist, you’ll want to go even further by immersing yourself in styles and trends.
Staying up to date with the latest looks not only prepares you to jump into the position of a stylist but also teaches you how to be in the know as the trends shift. This is an invaluable skill for a celebrity stylist to master.
Perfect Your Portfolio
Putting together a professional portfolio is key to showcasing your work and moving up the industry ladder. Your portfolio should include pictures that demonstrate your technical ability, creativity, and versatility. Be sure to document the styling projects you work on so you have plenty of material to choose from when constructing your portfolio.
Once you have a sizable portfolio, consider sharing it with others whose opinions you respect and value. If necessary, slim down your portfolio to include only the best of the best. Remember, quality over quality!
Network, Network, Network
As skilled as you may be and as hard as you may work, much of your success as a barber and stylist will result from the industry connections you make. In other words, building relationships is one of the most important things you can do if you want to be a celebrity stylist.
Luckily, the steps that led you to this point are full of opportunities to meet people and begin forming those connections. Be bold, be unafraid to introduce yourself, and be succinct. Learn to present yourself quickly, efficiently, and in a positive light. Many of the pertinent figures in the celebrity stylist industry take their time seriously, so getting your foot in the door is often the hardest part.
From there, be yourself and demonstrate the tremendous value you can bring to their team.
Find Your Unique Style
Learning the basics and emulating those you admire is vital to your development as a stylist. Once you have established a strong foundation, however, it is important to develop your own aesthetic and style. You need to allow your personal passions and tastes to influence your work and elevate it to a level of distinctiveness.
Remaining adaptable is important, but having a unique style sets you apart from the crowd and primes you for work as a celebrity stylist.
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