Pete Burkill has travelled the world, is a go to hairdresser for A-list celebrities, and has appeared on TV numerous times. Here, he shares his journey...
Pete Burkill describes his career journey as being very hair-centric from childhood. It was in fact his mum’s best friend who lured him into the industry, even after he left school with top grades with thoughts about becoming a doctor. “She was running an academy at the time, and she talked me into doing her course,” he tells us, as we chat on the phone. “I learned from her, and I qualified in seven months.” You may be thinking ‘wow – that’s quick!’ which was our reaction too, but Pete ensures us he was simply obsessed with hair. “I grew up in the early Noughties when hair was centre stage and ghd became a thing,” he says. “I would just do everyone’s hair in school, so when it actually came to training, everything was second nature to me.”
At 17, Pete became the youngest ever member of the Clynol Protégé Team, became a product ambassador at 18, and finalised as Newcomer of the Year at the British Hairdressing Awards, sponsored by Schwarzkopf Professional, at 19. Next came travelling the world, being a hair expert on Good Morning in New Zealand, and working on films and fashion shows, before returning to the UK and working with Akin Konizi as part of the Creative Team at HOB Academy. “We would do shows at Salon International and industry shows around the world, educating hairdressers and sharing experiences.” Pete then decided it was time to further branch out which led him to Josh Wood, where he still works to this day, along with juggling shoots, red carpets, and various projects.
Was a varied day-to-day always the plan? “From a very early age, I wanted to experience every corner of this industry. When I started hairdressing at 14, I would read every issue of HJ – it was like the Bible. It was a really good way to see what the different routes were, and I thought, I want to do that,” he tells us. “So, I worked in TV and film learning about continuity, fashion shows, shoots, editorials, in the salon, education – there’s so many facets that I consciously made the decision to try and understand as much as possible and somehow manifested that into what I do today.”
But learning to adapt brought its own challenges. “Imposter syndrome comes in when you’re putting on different hats,” he tells us. “Telling yourself you’ve put enough groundwork in to be an expert in your craft – that took some time to settle in.” And of course, being an expert in your craft comes with proud moments – let’s rewind to last summer and the surge of the bleached buzzcut… “I created that hairstyle on Romeo Beckham. It was a real 360° moment because I used to take pictures of his dad, David Beckham, to the hairdressers when I was a teenager. And when we bleached David’s hair and cut it really short, that summer was just full of boys having the same hair as David and Romeo which I had done – it was a real proud moment.”
Speaking of 360°s, looking back, Pete explains how he never saw hairdressing as a job but more of a lifestyle. “It’s bringing out the best in people, and I think seeing that from such an early age, really resonated.” Which leads us to ask, anything exciting coming up in the pipeline? “I’m focusing more on doing podcasts and events, video content, educating – I enjoy sharing the knowledge I’ve built, so I want to go back to my roots a little bit.” Hopefully he’ll be keeping the scissors in favour of a stethoscope though!
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