Welcome to HJ's New Wave where we speak to up-and-coming stylists to find out what drives them, what's inspiring them and what they'd like to see change in the industry.
HJ's New Wave: Meg Piper Co-owner of freelance space and session stylist
Salon/Co-working space: Solstice Hair Studio
Location: Manchester
Age: 30
Pronouns: she/her
IG: @meg_piper_
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education?
A big pressure, because of how old I am I came from the generation where it was expected that you would go to uni. I did my A-Levels before I became a hairdresser and when I did my interview for hairdressing college they said I was too smart to be a hairdresser. I pulled my application at that point. I was a Saturday girl and decided that that’s what I was going to do but that was my first interaction with the industry and such a strange experience.
What was your first job?
I was a Saturday girl. I was doing my A-Levels at college and a salon where I’d always had my hair done needed a Saturday girl so they told my Mum and I fell in love with it.
Why did you become a hairdresser?
I’ve always been a very creative person, I knew I wanted to be in a creative field. Hairdressing wasn’t on my radar at all until I started working in a salon. I love the expression, the creativity and making people feel themselves. It can make people feel beautiful or gender affirming and put a smile on their face. That made me want to be a hairdresser.
What do you love about the industry?
I love the creative side of it. Being a session stylist is a massive draw to me; the industry is so diverse, there are so many different paths that people aren’t aware of, it's incredible that it all comes under the umbrella of doing hair. The opportunities are not like other industries. I remember my mum saying I needed a five year plan but I plucked up the courage to tell her I wasn’t going to university; originally the plan was to go into film, but I've fallen into fashion instead - I didn’t know that was an avenue I could go down!
What would you like to change about the industry?
No industry is perfect, there are always things we need to work on and continue working on. The way we treat young people coming up in the industry whether behind the chair or an assistant doing session work. There’s an old school mentality of not treating people well. It is changing but it feeds into all parts of our industry. At the moment there's the conversations about freelancers vs. salon owners and women not being recognised enough - all of that starts with how we treat people when they come in. The root cause of the issue in our industry is just because you had a bad time doesn’t mean you get to inflict that onto other people. Treat new people with kindness and respect. Especially people finding their way and who they are. It’s a really important thing. There’s a lot of blame on the youth right now. My goal is to carve a way so people don’t have to endure that. It was horrible for me. I don’t understand why you’d inflict that on other people.
What’s your favourite hair creation?
Anything that Sam McKnight did with Vivienne Westwood in the '90s, particularly the '94 Fall/Winter collection - that is art in hair. It’s beautiful, it’s got a punky edge to it, it showed the sky's the limit in hair and we can create whatever we want. We’re artists and that show embodied that.
Who inspires you in the industry?
Sam McKnight is definitely someone who’s inspired me, another person is Sally Brooks. She was one of the first women I was aware of being a big industry name. There’s a lot of men in the industry but she made me think if she can do it I can do it. My session heroes are Duffy and Nick Irwin and I've always adored Cos Sakkas' work. I've always liked edgy punky stuff.
Do you have any career goals?
Definitely. I'm really focusing on getting my fashion career going and looking at going to Paris Fashion Week. In the next couple of years I'd like to have my own show. It's a massive dream of mine. Entering the BHAs would be a big one for me - it’s the first awards I was aware of at 19. I want to keep on championing other people; I do a lot of work with colleges so I want to make sure the youth are protected. I work with VTCT, doing their roadshows and I go in and try to inspire the next generation to show that there are different careers in this industry.
