Celebrity hairstylist took many big leaps
“How I became a ... ” looks at Tippi Shorter and how she found her niche
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers. (This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Celebrity hairstylist and hair educator Tippi Shorter has had superstar clients everywhere, from Rihanna and Alicia Keys to Jennifer Hudson and Lady Gaga, and an impressive resume that includes her titles as the first African-American spokesperson for Pantene and as global artistic director for textured hair at Aveda. Now serving as president of hair extension company Her Imports while still keeping herself busy as a celebrity hairstylist, Shorter wears many hats – or, as she says it, “many hairstyles.”
USA TODAY caught up with Shorter to talk about everything from President Barack Obama to cosmetic and hair care companies to, well, hair.
Question: What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
Tippi Shorter: Going to the (first) inauguration of President Obama. I was there working, but I was there, and it was amazing.
Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?
Shorter: I’ve had several, honestly. I’d say the biggest mentor is my very first boss, Jamika Wilson. She is a freelance celebrity hairstylist out in California, and she is someone whose career I had always looked up to, and she showed me that I had growth opportunities outside just being behind the chair as a hairstylist.
Q: What does your career path look like, from college to now?
Shorter: I was super unfocused right out of college, had no idea what I wanted to do. I grew up in Southern California, and I gravitated towards the arts. I was involved in musical groups and dance groups, and my mother was kind of in the space of “if we’re going to go to college, great, but if you’re not, get a job and find something that you enjoy doing.”
I went to college, enrolled for criminal justice, and just knew that I was not fulfilled. So, after the first year, I decided not to go back, and I had an opportunity to work for Jamika Wilson. Her assistant was going to be taking maternity leave, and she was a really good friend of mine. She said, “Hey Tippi, I know you are interested in the beauty industry and, you know, if you go to school and get your license, by the time you graduate I should be ready to take my maternity leave.”
And so I did just that. To make sure I was done in time, I was going to day and night school, I was taking every advanced class I could just for extra credit, and I graduated and got my very first job as a style assistant.
From there, as I said, (Wilson) really kind of showed me there were multiple opportunities outside of just being behind the chair. So, she’s the one that showed me that you could work within the entertainment industry, which was my original passion, helping to develop and create looks for new singers and for actresses, and that you could be an educator for brands, and a spokesperson. She really opened up that door for me to show me.
Shortly after working with her for about a year, I wanted to move to New York, so I did. I really kind of started, as I call it, my “grind,” and it really put the opportunity to create a solid career in New York. By the fifth year of living and working in New York City I was opening up my very first salon in SoHo.
I did that for five years and during that time I was trying to maximize and capitalize on my knowledge, so I was a hair color educator, a haircut educator, the go-to person for a lot of editorial magazines – Seventeen, Teen People, People, InStyle, all those magazines would kind of look to me — and I really found my niche, which was textured hair: curls and coils and things like that. I also got the opportunity at that point to start working with celebrities.
Around the fifth year of owning my salon, I met this beautiful young singer by the name of Rihanna, and she was just starting her career and told me she was looking for a solid team to stick with her through her journey.
I decided to take that leap with her, so I sold my salon, got my passport and traveled around the world with her. It was amazing and wonderful and exciting. She was brand new, I was brand new, and we were just learning and doing it together.
While working with Rihanna, my career continued to grow. I started getting lots of requests from other celebrities, so I started to expand my client roster in that space. Then, I had an opportunity to become a spokesperson: Pantene was launching a new line for women of color, specialized in textured hair, and from what I understand they interviewed about 25 hairstylists. I became a spokesperson for Pantene for 10 years.
From there, I left Pantene and joined Aveda, an Estee Lauder company. I did that for six years.
After that, a hair extension company that was looking to develop products that expanded their range reached out to me. This was the first time I was brought in as a creative, but my role wasn’t specific to a being hair stylist — it was specific to helping the brand expand and build.
During that entire time, I still traveled with celebrities.
So, currently, I still work with celebrities like Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson, and I am president of the hair extension company Her Imports.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
Shorter: Never stop learning. Even as an educator, never stop learning, being a sponge and being able to adapt to new environments and new work scenarios. Be open, be flexible and never stop learning.