Chris Appleton on trends, tips and the key to the perfect blowdry

At National Beauty Live, I am going to be showcasing a few looks that people may know me for. Hopefully, I’ll inspire people as well as be inspired by them. It’s always great to be around creative talent and to share a bit of my journey and hear about other people’s.

I think younger me would feel proud of my life today. I always felt like I was going to be doing something different. I just didn’t know in what capacity. From a young age, it felt clear that I didn’t really fit in. I’m so proud that I’ve been able to use some of the things that made me different to excel me in different areas, even just being dyslexic and struggling with those things and how that kind of enabled me to get more creative and use my hands more.

At a young age, my mom didn’t really have a fortunate childhood and I think she’d had quite a bad experience in life. I saw this sadness that I wanted to maybe take away and I used to do her hair to make her look and feel good. She stood up and looked in the mirror and I saw her react to that feeling; she stood differently and responded differently. I thought that was really powerful and I just knew I wanted to be a part of that industry. I remember my first day in the salon, people looking one way when they walk in, and absolutely looking and feeling a different way when they walked out and that for me was like, oh, I know I want to do this. I want to be a part of that industry.

One of the biggest hair trends now is finding out what suits you. I think people are starting to be aware of individuality and that not one size fits all. It’s what really works for you – your eye colour, your skin tone, your personality type, your face shape, all of these things. People are starting to understand that finding what works for them is actually the best look, rather than following trends. It’s great to have inspiration and different ideas, but I think one of the biggest trends is just finding out what really works for you and personalising it.

As a hairdresser, you become like a therapist in a way. Your image is very powerful, and if you feel lost in your image, or if you’re lost in your identity, or if you don’t even know what your identity is yet, you’re really on a journey with your hairstylist. I think being understanding and open to a journey is really helpful to become a successful hairstylist, to be really invested in your client, and there’s that therapist element once they’re in your chair, because there is so much vulnerability.

The routine that helps me look and feel good is the gym. Working out for me is really important, to have that hour in the morning where I can work my body and try and take care of myself and start the day in a positive light. My time in the gym is really important in making me feel like I’m doing something for myself.

In writing my book, Your Roots Don’t Define You, I became a New York Times bestseller, which was not on my list. That gave me the confidence to feel like maybe people have enjoyed reading a little bit more about me and my world. It’d be great to do the next book and share a part two to that.

A common mistake the average person is making with their hair is heat styling. A lot of people really overheat their hair and damage their hair and don’t necessarily understand that the hair is a fibre and you really need to look after it with simple things like using a product range that has heat protection in it and deep conditioning treatments. I’m a big fan of the Money Mist and the Money Mask because they’re really hydrating and strengthening at the same time. I think it’s really important to put that love back into your hair that you’re taking out when styling it.

The mistake most people are making when it comes to a great blowdry is probably not using enough product. I really use a lot of product to help me create the texture that I want. A lot of people don’t use products, and they expect their, for example, fine limp hair to be a bombshell, and you’re not going to get that if you don’t use the right product. That’s why I love working with Color Wow to help me build a great foundation or the right foundation that I need.

The advice I would give to a hairdresser just starting out would be, don’t be afraid of the no’s. I have had so many no’s in my life and still get them way more than I get yeses. You really just have to stay true to what you want to do and your dreams and aspirations and follow them through and look for people who have achieved them and how they did it. Everyone’s been on a journey, I don’t think anyone just gets anything in life easy. Stay true to who you are, and find the people that you feel have achieved something that you want to achieve and how they did it, use the person as a sponge to absorb and take knowledge from.

I get inspired by things like music or old music videos or old Hollywood stars or sitting on the tube and watching how girls do their hair. I’m always mesmerised by Marilyn Monroe and how she used to create a hairstyle with the tools that they had back then or Audrey Hepburn or Brigitte Bardot and how she had that bombshell hair and people still reference these things now, all these years later. I’m taking my inspiration from the realms I’m in of Hollywood or how girls on the street are doing their hair. Right now I’m watching Love Story so the colouring of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her 90s blonde era and how it transformed from when she was brunette to blonde and when she was blonde, she just seemed to stand out, and how blonde can make such an impact – it’s moments like that I’m inspired by.

This year, we’re seeing interpretations of colour. Even a brunette can have a version of like Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s hair with those brighter pieces at the front and that nod to those face-framing pieces. There’s inspiration to be taken from it, and in the power of transformation and how you can be perceived one way with one look and a different way with another look. There are so many different individual trends now, like cashmere blondes and cashmere brunettes but I think they’re all a nod towards having a more personalised finish, where something that actually suit your skin tone and your eye colour and your personality type is more of a trend now when something works with the individual, bringing it to life for them and making it more personalised and taking inspiration from the many trends that are always floating around.

The person I would like to work with that I haven’t is Britney or Pamela Anderson. That Baywatch bombshell, and the way she used to chuck it up, it was so effortless!

Photography by Guilherme Resende, @guilhermertds.