Keep On, Keeping On
Founder of A Cut Above Hair Salon And Hairstyling Academy Datin Winnie Loo looks back on her 41 years of being in the industry, and looks ahead at what’s next in 2021
Hairdressing doyenne Winnie Loo looks back on her stellar career as she keeps on moving forward
It wasn’t so much a leap of faith as it was a determined dive towards her goals for 23-year-old rookie hairstylist Winnie Loo when she opened her very own hair salon, A Cut Above, alongside business partner-and-husband Richard Teo in 1979. Renowned locally and internationally, Loo not only runs multiple outlets across affluent districts, but has also opened a hairstyling academy, and has since earned herself numerous accolades, two of which include the 1997 World Master of The Craft in New York, as well as the 2010 Ernst & Young Woman Entrepreneur of The Year award.
However, as the age-old adage goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Loo’s hairstyling
empire. Trained by the late British hairstylist Vidal Sassoon himself, she recalls being sidelined by senior colleagues and customers alike when she’d first started out in London as well as Singapore before ultimately returning to Malaysia.
“Well, I guess being bullied as a rookie is commonplace in any industry,” Loo muses. “But I thought of it more as a characterbuilding exercise instead of it being a negative experience, using the lessons I learned to polish and perfect my skills.”
Attributing that gutsy, nose-to-grindstone spirit to her father’s guidance, Loo reveals that the secret behind her success was in fact, no extraordinary formula. “Growing up, he’d teach me the value of true grit—and that was to simply persevere, stay focused and be determined… that even after I had started a business, there was no shortcut to success.”
In 1993, 14 years after she hit the ground running, Loo eventually picked up a call while working on a client, asking if she’d like to be featured in Tatler’s personality column. “To be honest, I was so surprised (by the call) at the time because I felt like I wasn’t up to Tatler’s standard,” she admits. “So it was an incredibly surreal experience for me when the photo shoot was done right under my roof.”
Then, two years after winning the Best Hairstylist of Malaysia in 2003, Loo wrote and published an autobiography entitled Built On Hard Work, True Grit, and A Pair of Scissors. Pride and contentment could be heard from her tone when asked how she felt at the time. “My baby made it to 25 years in 2004,” she says. “I was riding on a high, and wanted to celebrate it by penning it down. But of course, that didn’t mean I was going to stop any time soon.”
A firm believer in lifelong education, the hairstyling doyenne refuses to rest on her laurels, stressing that as a pioneer herself who has taken many aspiring hairdressers under her wing, there was no room for slacking off as she needed to lead by example. “If I were complacent, I wouldn’t have been able to lead my ever-growing team in my earlier days,” she says modestly. Having graduated from the Asia Metropolitan University at the age of 63 with a master’s in administration while working as adjunct professor in 2019, it’s safe to say that Loo’s professional and personal advancement doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, even in the face hard times ahead.
“It’s humbling, when you realise that you can motivate others to take action with just your experience,” she shares thoughtfully. “When I wrote my thesis, ‘Legend & Beyond’, it just proved that anything was possible even for someone at my age—that just because someone says it’s impossible, it doesn’t mean that you need to limit yourself.
“It’ll take a while for things to go back to normal for everyone, but despite that, here’s my two cents for those trying their best in times like these: don’t give up just yet, and don’t be afraid of getting knee-deep in mud, because sooner or later, you’ll find what you’re looking for along the way. Failure isn’t the enemy, but the lack of drive to achieve your goals.”