Skyler mcdonald talks about her inspiring career

Skyler McDonald, creative director and head of education at seanhanna salons, talks about her inspiring career. What do you love most about your job? I love that my role is versatile. I am always working on different projects so I am never bored. When it comes to education at seanhanna, I love coming up with ways to involve our whole team, which in turn impacts on our clients. I recently developed a new colour technique called Colour Melt, as well as a training programme, which I delivered to the whole company alongside our creative team. I then designed the marketing images, the step-by-steps and shot the marketing videos. Working with the marketing team, we launched the colour service to the public. It is hugely satisfying to take something from a concept and see it grow, become successful and impact on the success of our business. How did you enter hairdressing and what was the attraction for you? I had a Saturday job in a salon while at school and that gave me my first taster. When I left school I went to university in Houston, Texas, to do marine biology, but I always had the desire to do something more artistic. I used to be inspired by fashion magazines and in particular by the London scene. So I packed my bags, headed to London and decided to make hairdressing my chosen career. What were your first impressions of the industry and the possibilities open to you? I always saw hairdressing as a very cool thing to do. I looked at who did the hair for what projects. If I saw a film where the hair was integral to the characters, I would want to know who did it. Or if I saw a great photo in a magazine, I would want to know who created the hair. I read about Vidal Sassoon and how he was an intrinsic part of how 1960s’ fashions developed, and I found that very inspiring. Even as a Saturday girl, I could see how a stylist could make people look and feel brilliant. How did your career progress – how did you start to work towards achieving your goals? I did well in my training and although my haircuts were possibly the slowest, my tutors gave me positive feedback for my designs and executions. It was more challenging when I started working with clients. I was too slow and found it difficult to give the client what they wanted rather than what I thought would be best for them. So earning money was difficult. However, with some good coaching I started to understand the difference between hairdressing as an art, and hairdressing as a client service. I worked hard to build up a clientele and things improved financially, treating my ‘art’ as a separate thing. I started to take pictures of my work and found this pushed me to keep improving and learning. Eventually, I started to win awards and people were always asking me to help them, which paved my way into education. What advice would you offer someone looking to carve a long-term, exciting career in hairdressing? Everything you do carries your reputation. If you want to be the best, you have to make sure you put 100% into everything you do. Your shampoos should be the best, your training models should be the best. If you are working on a doll’s head, when you leave it, people should be checking it out because it looks interesting. If you want to be better, you have to do things differently to those around you. When you’re focused and committed to achieving your goals, it’s good fun. It is more about being brave enough to not follow the herd.