Read Stephanie`s Cover Story Article

feature | cover story
With her
massive
online
following,
Stephanie
Brinkerhoff
could not
only be the
new face of
upstyling &
bridal hair,
but also the
future of hair
education.
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Something huge is happening when it comes to hairdressing
inspiration and education, and it’s going to change everything.
In fact, it already has.
It’s called social media and Stephanie Brinkerhoff is our poster
child for the hairdressing business. Steph’s 25 years old. She
lives in Ogden, UT, about an hour outside of Salt Lake City.
Stephanie has never taken an updo class. She’s never been
to a large hair show. In fact, other than Martin Parsons, she’s
never heard of any other special-occasion styling educators, or
any other well-known industry educators for that matter.
While Stephanie may not have taken the traditional route of
education, she is a true upstyling genius and creates the kind
of styles a modern bride is looking for today—loose, perfectly
imperfect in execution, combining updos, braids and vintage
techniques in all of her styles. It’s fair to say she takes the
concept of a messy bun to a whole new, sophisticated level.
And despite the fact that Stephanie does not know our icons of
hair, what she does know is how to build a website, and how to
blog. She’s mastered Photoshop and she understands how to
create truly inspiring Pinterest boards. So much so, that in just
a few short years she has amassed the largest online following
of any hairdresser we are aware of. Stephanie has 5.3 million
pinners following her Pinterest boards, 485,000 Facebook
fans and 130,000 followers on Instagram. She has a website—
hairandmakeupbysteph.com—that receives thousands of
page views as a direct result of having a massive social media
presence. And, with the help of her husband Kollin, a video
and photography specialist, she has also produced dozens of
photographic step-by-steps and simple video styling tutorials
for consumers and more complex video and photographic
tutorials for stylists who want to become better updo
specialists.
Only out of beauty school just six years, Stephanie has built
a thriving career as a hairdresser and, most specifically, as a
wedding hair and makeup specialist. And with these numbers,
there’s little doubt that she’s the most famous hairdresser our
industry has never heard of.
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Here Come tHe Brides
It was in the sixth grade when Stephanie knew exactly ‘what
she wanted to be when she grew up’. She joined a group of
friends at a salon when they were all getting updos before a
birthday party, and right then and there, she fell in love. She
remembers staring in the mirror, watching the stylists work
and wondering how they were creating the styles. She tried
to break them down and understand the processes behind
the looks. “I had never thought about doing hair before that,
but from then on,” she says, “there was never a question in
my mind. I would do hair.”
After high school graduation, she enrolled at the Taylor
Andrews Academy of Hair Design in Layton, UT. She
attended full-time in order to save as much time as possible,
and graduated in November of 2007. She also took a special
M.A.C. certification course to learn makeup as well. While
Stephanie enjoyed cutting and coloring, she found herself
wanting to create more upstyles—to create more natural,
beautiful, wearable hair, but she was never really able to find
the kinds of classes she was looking for, so she spent a lot
of time teaching herself how to break down the looks she
wanted to create.
Within two weeks of graduating, she was hired as a
commissioned stylist at a salon called Panache Hair Salon in
Ogden. At the same time, she made contact with the owner
of a bridal company that does hair and makeup for weddings.
She emailed questions about doing bridal hair and requested
advice. Instead, she was offered a chance to interview
and ultimately got a job. Stephanie worked for the bridal
company for about 3 years, after which she decided it was
time to leave the company and start her own business. Once
she opened her own bridal business and got her website
live, her work quickly exploded online. Stephanie wisely
began collecting photos of her brides from the wedding
photographers doing all the shoots. With encouragement
and help from her husband, she continually updated her
website with all her new work.
During the busy season (April through August) she was
doing hair and makeup for brides nearly every weekend.
And in Utah, there are lots and lots of weddings. With a high
percentage of Mormons in the state, girls tend to marry a bit
younger than in other parts of the country. (Stephanie herself
got married when she was 22 and only a few days after
our shoot, delivered identical twin girls)! She then created
a business page on Facebook. Again with the help of her
“techie” husband, she began shooting tutorials of her work,
and posting those on her website. Her website includes her
portfolio and tips and tricks to help clients create simple
upstyles. Then came Pinterest, which raised the stakes
dramatically.
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Stephanie has
following her
and
Pinning and Winning
Pinterest was the perfect platform for Stephanie’s work—it’s mostly
trafficked by women and it’s a primary destination for brides who
create boards for their dresses, table settings, hair and makeup.
Stephanie’s style—imperfectly perfect, exquisitely executed, modern
and flattering—resonated immediately with Pinterest pinners and
hundreds of thousands began to follow her. Pinterest itself took note
and showcased her as a preferred pinner, which lifted her profile, and
followers dramatically...into the millions. With the attention she was
getting on Pinterest, she was able to direct more traffic to her website.
Soon she was booking appointments with brides all over Utah, and well
beyond. She’s been booked to do bridal-related photo shoots by bridal
magazines and consumer websites and she started receiving inquiries
from salon owners across the country requesting classes and workshops
for stylists. Last year, Refinery 29 invited her to Fashion Week and after
one of our BTC editor’s pinned Steph’s work a few years ago while doing
research for her own wedding, we’ve published Stephanie’s work several
times already in behindthechair.com On Paper.
aisle style
Stephanie’s personality is a huge factor in her success. Soft-spoken
and even-tempered, she’s a calming presence at weddings and in front
of a class. Whatsmore, she’s punctual, organized, conscientious and
thorough.
Her esthetic is also a key to her success. She has taught herself to
break down any photo that a bride-to-be presents to her. Her innate
understanding of scale and proportion guarantee that her styles flatter
every woman. Her work strikes the perfect marriage of trend and classic
beauty (although she says she loves it when a bride is on-trend and
lets her stretch creatively). She says she’s not a “product junkie”—and
boasts she can create just about any look with her ghd flat iron (‘which
really can create perfect curls if you know how to use it!’ she says), a
$5 teasing comb, bobby pins and Kenra’s Volume Spray 25 Super Hold
Finishing Spray!
Hair education 2.0
With her new family, Stephanie plans to phase out her cut and color
clients at Panache and focus on weddings, more classes, and even
publishing a new signature book & DVD series with behindthechair.com.
“Having so much of my business online is really great because it’s so
family-friendly,” Stephanie notes. She and her family (and most of Utah)
are Mormon, so they all share a very strong belief that family time is to
be cherished and that Sundays are strictly for worship and family, no
exceptions. Knowing that hair shows are all on Sundays, Stephanie is
clear that the platform artist life won’t be right for her. “Honestly, I don’t
enjoy traveling for business and I don’t think my personality is ‘big’
enough to be a platform artist. This combination of social media, classes
and publishing allows me to share and teach my skills in a way that fits
my personality and my lifestyle.”
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Steph’S
Wedding
portfolio
tipS
Pro only!
Steph posts snaps from her
iPhone on Instagram but when
it comes to her online portfolio,
she only shows photos taken
by professionals.
Quantity and
Quality.
It’s important to show a wide
range of work, but equally
critical to be discerning. Take
your time when putting your
portfolio together, and don’t
post a photo that isn’t perfect!
Work it out.
Make arrangements before
the wedding with the bride or
the photographer to receive
access to photos. Steph offers
to credit the photographer in
exchange for the shot.
Give and receive.
The wedding network is tightknit and cross-referrals are
common. Have contact info for
good photographers readily
available and refer your brides
when asked. This cements
relationships and means you
are more likely to get the
photos you need.
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behindthechair.com
Stephanie and her husband Kollin selecting photos for her website.
But, there’s something else about Stephanie when you
really think about it. She, and others like her, just might be
the future of salon professional inspiration and education.
Social media has made it possible to learn or access
just about everything you’d ever want to know. In fact,
this second, you could log on to YouTube and watch a
video on how to refurbish your Mustang engine, how to
bake strawberry lemon scones or even how to build an
Adirondack chair. Have a wedding coming up? You can
log on to Pinterest to plan your perfect day by searching
hundreds of thousands of pictures of wedding cakes,
wedding dresses and the perfect champagne cocktail
recipe for the big day. Want to be the first to find out about
Beyonce’s new album? If you follow her on twitter, you
were, with a simple “Surprise!” tweet linking to a digital
download. It was a secret that turned into the biggest
release ever by a recording artist in the week following the
launch of an album.
It’s all these examples, and especially our poster child,
where it gets really, really interesting for professional
education and, might we even say, professional
inspiration.
presents
STEPHANIE
BRINKERHOFF
Right now, on YouTube, you can also watch full-length
tutorials on everything from a graduated bob to a color
correction for over-bleached hair. You can log on to
Pinterest to find inspiration from hundreds of thousands
of hair images. And, while we can’t validate the quality of
the education (or the educator) in all those videos, and we
can’t tell you how many bad hair looks you’ll have to sift
through to find the ones that truly inspire, what we can
do is guarantee that both are available at the click of a
mouse...and both are free.
Bottom line? The explosion of social media is a massive
phenomenon that has (and will) completely alter the way
stylists learn, teach and get inspired. Knowing that, we
have to ask ourselves the following questions: How will
the abundance and accessibility of hair content affect
expensive collection shoots in the future? How will the
accessibility of free education affect the price we’re
willing to pay for it? And how will the abundance and ease
of accessibility of inspiration and education affect our
willingness to travel in the future to get both?
Only time will tell...or maybe Beyonce will “Surprise!” us
with the answers in her next tweet.
photography: Michael Poole
presents
Elegant Upstyles
for Today’s Bride
by Stephanie Brinkerhoff
This spiral-bound book includes over 100 bridal &
upstyling images, along with step-by-step instructions
for the most popular looks.
Order her new book—Elegant Upstyles
for Today’s Bride—and discover why 5
million Pinterest followers have made
Steph the most famous upstyling &
wedding specialist in the social media
world. Stephanie’s styles are completely
on-trend for today’s modern bride—she
combines classic, vintage, braided and
high-fashion elements to create the
perfect look for every client and every
type of wedding. Be among the first to
be educated and inspired by this exciting
and talented trendsetter. You’ll delight all
of your bridal clients—guaranteed!
Order Now!
Only $49.95
(Save $20)
/updo
hair and makeup: Stephanie Brinkerhoff
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