Hair Care: A Spectacle from Toni&Guy

Jilliann Ransom
Oct 7, 2022
4 min read

I first approached residents of hair salon Toni&Guy, Alecia and Jenn, with the idea of doing a photoshoot that would allow them to showcase their many artistic skills. They were excited and agreed immediately.

The only thing they were given to work with was a Pinterest vision board. Alecia and Jenn sourced all the models, recruited fellow stylists Valentine, Julissa, Nicole, and Megan then got to work deciding cuts, colors, and stylings. This was all done in about a week. We shot on a Wednesday evening: six models, six stylists.

The salon was alive with excited chatter, hustling, retouching, and restyling, as the models posed and the stylists sat back and admired their work.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alecia and Jenn about a week later to discuss the experience and their experience in the industry.

They both express their love for projects that allow them to experiment and tap into their other creative outlets. Many of the stylists worked on the outfit choices and even did complete makeup looks for the shoot. Alecia states, “I’ve wanted to do something like this for so long. “You don’t see these types of looks day-to-day.” “We did things that we were itching to do. We picked the models after we decided what styles we were going to do.”

Jenn recalls her past in the industry, “I started cosmetology school at 16, and started working with the hair industry when I was 18. I’ve worked every position. I’ve been an assistant, a receptionist, a student, a stylist, and now I’m an educator and manager.”

Alicia took a similar route, “I started straight out of high school at 18, I’ve been at Toni&Guy since. I’ve never known another salon. I’m really grateful for that because of how far I’ve come in four years...

...I literally have a Toni&Guy tattoo on the back of my neck.”

Both Alecia and Jenn are huge advocates for Toni&Guy, for its role in their careers and its vision. Jenn has been an educator at the salon since 2016, “Their concept is really progressive, and they have an in-house education system. They’re an education-driven salon. That’s my role there. Every single week I’ve got students and I teach them a balance of business and the technicalities of doing hair. You need to have a good marketing plan, a network, and a business mind. You also need to remain tapped into your creative side as well. I teach them to understand numbers, but also how to be visual, how to understand color, the chemistry, the techniques. All of the stylists who graduate from the Toni&Guy program go on to have really successful careers, even when they’re not with us anymore.”

Alecia and Jenn were really excited for the opportunity to get to show off with the team they’ve had for the last two years. “It’s really special what we have right now. Turnover can get pretty high at salons, so the fact that we’ve all been together for almost two years now, on top of the fact that everyone is so creative, it’s really great.” Jenn takes a moment to brag on the team’s specialities, “Alecia is really extremely creative with men’s cuts, she’s a really sharp haircutter, Megan’s specialty is color, she’s really driven by the ‘fantasy’ aesthetic, Jalissa is amazing at styling and coloring, Nicole and Valentine are both just so creative in every aspect.”

"It's a science and an art, I wish it were more respected."

I ask them to name some facts that would surprise people regarding the hair industry. Jenn nods her head, “It’s more chemistry than people give us credit for. It’s all formulas and reactions. It’s a science and an art, I wish it were more respected.” Alecia chimes in, “You really have to do it because you love it. There is good money in it but it can be very tedious, it has its painstaking moments, and we work extremely hard. But It’s also very rewarding. You need to have passion for it to truly pay off.”

The pay-off comes when the client loves the result. Hair represents more than just outward beauty. Hair means culture, care, identity. Hair can be used as punishment, it can be molded as a piece of art, or shielded beneath a veil. In many cultures religion still plays a large role in its meaning. “Finding identity in your hair can be a good thing or a bad thing. People find freedom and identity through their hair. That’s one of the reasons it’s so fulfilling working in the industry. It’s one of the easiest and fastest things to drastically change about yourself,” says Jenn. Alecia adds:

“Some people use their hair as a blanket, something to make them feel safe and hidden. It can be a growing process for some people, to realize that it’s just hair. You can cut it, shave it off, color it, it’s always going to come back. I encourage people to have fun with it.”