featured notice
Within the American Hair Industry, education is not equal. Over the decades, it’s been refined, relabeled, and redistributed by the big product brands. Just about all trends, products, and classes are taught through one of these companies. In 2020 we saw a shift within the industry for a few reasons. The Black Lives Matter movement caused the hair industry to finally stop in their tracks, highlight and invest in curly hair products and education while also completely dismantling their education teams. During that time, many educators were either laid off or companies shifted towards online classes. While this helps expand access to many, for the majority of us, it is far from replacing hands-on education.
In my time substituting at a local beauty school, I’ve seen students either struggle to learn from these methods or go completely off the rails and seek education on their own. While the pandemic broke a lot of these old systems, it left gaps that haven’t fully reformed and many hair artists have been creatively starving for a long time now.
Because of these gaps and a greater emphasis on social media for both connection and education, many stylists have stepped forward in an attempt to find their own voice and fill this void by recreating the structure and guardrails big companies once provided for the industry.
In 2023 I noticed these new lead stylists being picked up by the big companies and announcing cross country tours which was exciting! However, I started to see a pattern. While these new education leads were major faces on social media, they also all primarily lived in the same big cities they always seem to come from, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. Even though all of these tours were being planned Seattle never seemed to be on their radar, nor did it seem to be a place big companies looked to for talent. I even saw one stylist announce a “nationwide” tour with the only exception of Washington being the only state they weren’t coming to. I saw so much local talent repeatedly looked over and disregarded and I got really frustrated. Whether it’s due to the laid-back stereotype of Washington’s fashion, the fact that there just aren’t large product companies here, our comparative lower emphasis on social media, or something else, I wanted to make a change!
For those that aren’t aware, there exists a concept and stereotype here in Seattle called the “Seattle Freeze”. Whether it’s a real thing or not is constantly up for debate but one thing I regularly hear from clients, friends, and myself is how disconnected we all feel. Part of this I believe comes from many people coming from smaller cities or more established cities where community was either unavoidable or people had previously laid the foundation to create that community. I consider Seattle is a relatively young city and one without a firmly established foundation. It’s in its awkward stage and I think people expect it to just “be”. However, growth is uncomfortable and requires effort and when there’s no one creating that effort it either allows for companies to come in to create their own or worse yet, that feeling of separation continues to fester and only breeds more separation.
When I started working at the Capitol Hill suite, it became clear to me that with many stylists moving towards suite rental or starting our own businesses, coming together to grow, connect, and educate was going to be more intentional than it had been and if the local scene wasn’t being seen or nurtured it would become a shell of itself. No creative person wants that. With how many folks have moved to the area from these larger cities, I felt it was only a matter of time before a large company relocated here.
Eventually, I said “eff it.” I was tired of seeing this pattern and waiting for someone to come in and change things, especially if those changes ended up just being more corporate packaging. However, I knew for it to succeed, I couldn’t do it alone and having moved to the city just before the pandemic, I found myself with minimal connections. I ended up doing what every self-respecting millennial was taught to do and blindly reached out to some of the recurring local faces I’d seen online and ask to meet up. It was exciting and intimidating to meet so many popular names I’d seen over the years and despite my imposter syndrome many of them responded and were interested! We began planning our first event in January 2025.
One of my favorite things has been to see this group of very independent, talented stylists come together and collaborate. The synergy we’ve experienced in the planning process fills my heart every time (its cheesy but it’s true.) Since we started, we’ve been lucky enough to host two amazingly successful events and are hoping to do even more this year (2026)
Our team is in the process of growing and our path is unfolding as we progress but currently, we consist of myself, Brandy Hofmeister of @cognacbarber, Henry Lopez of @henlo, Micki Yeates and Micki Thorson of Hatch Hair and Company, Tommy Ransom, Adam Kim Luk, and Remy Nazaeno of Ransom Studio, Rebecca Raine and Al Kellenberger of Lady Neptune. To be able to stand up there with these local heavy hitters has been an honor and I’m excited to see what we do next.
It takes community to build community and community takes time, trust, patience and respect.
If we can use Seattle Hair Sessions to help bring the industry closer, keep the heart in the art, and elevate the incredible talent here and beyond, I’ll be a happy little noodle.
