The 2020 lockdown wrought havoc on the salon industry. Considered non-essential (debatable for anyone whose relationship with their colorist is nearly as sacred as their relationship with their spouse), hair stylists and colorists were out of work, resorting to Zoom cuts and color consultations as a way to make ends meet. “I reached out to her when everyone was closed just to be, like, ‘Thinking about you, I know business is rough for everyone, revenue is down, if you need anything, let me know,” the hairstylist Tommy Buckett recalls of a call he made to the colorist Marie Robinson, a longtime friend and colleague. The call was fortuitous: Robinson—whose bona fides include seminal stints with Christophe Robin, Danilo and Sally Hershberger before she became one of the most sought-after colorists in the U.S.—had been rethinking her salon model when the pandemic shuttered her two Manhattan locations, and she had a proposition for Buckett. “She told me about a new idea to let other younger stylists come up and see what it’s like to run a salon and own a business and asked me if I’d want to do this,” he recalls, an opportunity Buckett mulled for ten minutes before accepting Robinson’s offer. “After cutting hair for almost 20 years, it seemed like the next step.”
That the last 20 years have been particularly pivotal for the New York salon scene was not lost on either of the artists, who met at Hershberger’s iconic Meatpacking destination before Robinson left to start her own business in 2010, brining Buckett along with her. After honing his craft for seven more years at Robinson’s original Fifth Avenue location, Buckett left to join Serge Normant’s team, which afforded him the flexibility to build a celebrity client roster that currently includes Elisabeth Moss and Maggie Gyllenhaal. More flexibility is what many hairstylists were seeking when they left the big salons that dominated the late ’90s in search of new, more intimate and sustainable business opportunities such as chair-renting residencies and even house calls. But opening an eponymous salon is still the dream for many young hair hopefuls, and Robinson’s mentorship model, which has brought on Buckett and colorist Angela Hazelton as full partners, offers both equity in and the chance to learn how to run a thriving business. That means that clients can come see Buckett—and the stylists he’ll now oversee—for transformative and adaptable styling sessions that leave hair looking just as good right out of the salon as they do three months later (“Im super lucky because I get to hear that a lot,” he says). Clients will also get access to a cherry-picked selection of seasonal, stylist-approved products when a new boutique concept is unveiled later this year.
“After working at some of the best salons in Manhattan you get to see what works and what doesn’t,” Buckett says. The kind of environment he’s hoping to foster in his new leadership role is collaborative, rather than competitive—an idea as fresh and modern as his effortless cuts.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
