In our long-running series, “How I’m Making It,” we talk to people making a living in the fashion and beauty industries about how they broke in and found success.
Yusef Williams’ career trajectory changed forever in one simple moment: when Rihanna tapped the Miami-born hairstylist for her look for the Balmain Spring 2010 runway show during Paris Fashion Week. He styled Rihanna’s hair into a gravity-defying quiff with blonde ombré tips resembling flames (a signature of the artist’s “Rated R” era), and the duo has worked together ever since, co-masterminding some of the star’s most memorable hair moments.
“We kicked ass at Paris Fashion Week [in 2009],” Williams tells Fashionista. “I was supposed to be with [Rihanna] for three days, and she was like, ‘I need you to stay for a week, I want you to do all the shows,’ and we just created magic every show after show. That’s how our relationship really began, and it’s just been magical. She trusts me to execute even the craziest things and we’ve been doing it ever since.”
Since Williams and Rihanna first met more than 15 years ago, the pair has collaborated on more than 20 Vogue covers (Vogue Brazil’s May 2014 cover tops Williams’ list of favorites), hundreds of red carpets and multiple campaigns for the musician-turned-mogul’s ever-growing fashion and beauty empire of Savage X Fenty, Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Fenty Hair.
Now, Williams — who also fronts his own hair tools brand, The Y By Yusef — is entering the spotlight as one of Fenty Hair’s global stylists (alongside fellow hair legends, Ursula Stephen and Justine Marjan), who represent the brand globally through their hairstyling expertise and education. (If you’re wondering, Williams says the products he turns to most when working with Rihanna are the brand’s The Comeback Kid Instant Damage Repair Treatment and The Protective Type 5-in-1 Heat Protectant Styler).
“She’s not scared of anything,” says Williams says of the Barbadian singer’s willingness to try out pretty much any hairstyle.
Ahead, Williams reflects on cultivating his hairstyling career backstage at Paris Fashion Week, how the ballroom scene impacts his creative process, his advice for up-and-coming hair artists and more.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
When did you realize that you wanted to get into hair styling?
I pretty much grew up in the entertainment industry: My mom is a backup singer, and she moonlighted as a hairstylist on the weekend. She did all the girls in her group, so I was always around beauty [and] fashion, so I just embodied my mom’s energy. She sings, she danced and she did hair, and I am my mother’s child. By the time I was 10, I was helping her do hair. I was her assistant and then when my little sister came, I was doing her hair for school, so at a very young age, I had this eye for hair and beauty.
What inspired you to then pursue a career in hair styling?
When I graduated from high school, I met someone who was on the design team at Saint Laurent, and he was my partner at a very young age. I moved to Paris, and he was friends with lots of models. So he was just like, ‘Hey, I have someone that can do your hair when you go into castings.’ It happened naturally. I don’t think there was ever a moment where I said, ‘I’m going to do hair for a living.’ It just fell in my lap and took over me. Luckily, I had the knowledge. In high school, I was able to get my cosmetology license.
Tell me about the steps you took early on in your career. What did your journey to becoming a hairstylist look like?
It was a natural transition, because I had the tools for both [music and hairstyling], so if I became a musical Broadway star or if I was the hairstylist that I am today, it was something I was prepared for — I was trained for [and] I had the knowledge for it. So finding myself backstage at Chanel, working with Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, assisting Odile [Gilbert] was just something that, at first, I didn’t realize the magnitude of it. And then all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Holy shit, I am in the best position that I could ever be in. There’s no turning back now.’
So I had to kick into gear and really own the space, and also, being one of the only people of color in those rooms, it was a very big deal, and it was some big shoes to fill. I had to really show up and show out and prove myself.
You’ve worked with major fashion houses like Chanel, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier and Gucci. Tell me about those experiences.
It was pretty out of body because [I was always] so enamored by fashion and beauty; my friends and I would look at fashion magazines in the morning in high school and make sure we knew all the designers’ names, we knew all the models’ names, we knew who did the hair, we knew who did the makeup. Being in tune with all of those things at such a young age, at like 15, it was crazy. So it was very surreal one day just meeting Odile, and she’s like, ‘Hey, do you know how to braid?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know how to braid.’ And then she’s like, ‘Okay, well, come here at 5:00 in the morning.’ And I’m at the Louvre backstage at Gaultier braiding hair — [I was] one of the only braiders at that time back there, with Alek Wek in my chair. I’m trying not to fan out and trying to be super cool. It was insane.
It was something that I honestly wanted, but it was so far away, but I had to really tighten up and be like, ‘I’m supposed to be here. I manifested this.’ That’s how I’ve taken every opportunity.
Photo: Courtesy of Fenty Hair
What are some of the lessons you’ve learned from working backstage with these major brands?
Professionalism is key. That’s something you should learn early on in the business — you are there to do a job and not fan out. These are people just like you, and they’re expecting you to do a job, be creative and be talented.
Coming from looking at editorial hair in magazines and working in the salon part-time, those were two completely different worlds. So I learned how to think fast [and] how to be very quick on my feet. I learned that in editorial, it’s work smarter, not harder — you’ve got to learn how to make things look a certain way for the shot. Find your own lane.
How does hairstyling for the red carpet differ from backstage or on-set work?
It’s live. It’s lights, camera, action when you’re doing red carpet. Everywhere you turn, the hair has to be perfect. You have to be able to get a shot from the back, so a finished look is something that I take pride in. I always have the aesthetic of being very finished and very polished. If [a look] was messy, it was a controlled mess.
As far as editorial goes, it’s just a shot, so you can move things around. Sometimes I’ll just curl the front of the hair and not even touch the back just for the shot — but when you’re on the red carpet, it’s 360, baby. You’ve got to know how to get a finished look, and also something that is going to last, that’s not going to fall apart as they walk down the red carpet. Those are two different worlds, so being able to combine them both is a skill in itself.
Photo: Courtesy of Fenty Hair
Rihanna is one of your longtime collaborators. What has your experience working with Rihanna been like, and how has your working relationship evolved over the years?
Oh my God, that is my sister. That is my BFF. It is definitely a collaborative effort — I think when I came into her life, she was really bursting into the fashion scene, and it was just the perfect marriage, the perfect engagement. I worked with her at Paris Fashion Week in 2009 and when she first came in, she was like, ‘We’re going to the Balmain show, we’re going to this show.’
With Ri, it’s easy because she was the perfect combination of editorial and red carpet for me, and it was just like, this is supposed to happen yet again because I know exactly what we need to do, so it’s perfect.
When you have someone that, no matter what you do to them, they love it and they own it, you have nothing to worry about. I always tell people, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, you guys have tried everything. What else can you do?’ As of recently, when Fenty Hair dropped, her hair was cut short. Let’s just get rid of the hair, let’s start from scratch, let’s do a clean slate. People never thought that she would cut her hair that short and do her natural hair, and it was a huge success. Her being fearless is the best.
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Victoria’s Secret
What are some other memorable hair moments from your career?
I just did Tyla for the Victoria’s Secret show. That was a lot of fun and I used a lot of Fenty Hair products on her and she loved them all, and we created this really luxurious bob with the braids on the side. A little edge, with a little Victoria’s Secret sex appeal. But that was something that was really cool, and working on Tyla’s album packaging. Those have been really great.
I’m always with Ri doing all her Savage and all of her Fenty Beauty and Fenty Hair products and campaigns. She just released the Valentine’s Savage campaign, and her hair was in these crazy pink horns. It’s an ongoing thing to where I’m not trying to outdo myself, but just doing the job that I’m supposed to do. It’s my destiny.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I’ve been a student of hair for a very long time. I watched Orlando [Pita] and Oribe [Canales] and Odile, even as a teenager, and watching them do amazing things with hair and being able to incorporate that into what I do. At the moment when I was coming up as an editorial hairstylist, it was also important for me to translate that to Black girls, because at that time they were not even booking Black girls, because they were like, ‘Oh, her hair can’t do this,’ or, ‘she can’t wear the same makeup as this other girl.’
I was a part of that process, that era, where we were like, ‘Yes, she can, her hair can do this.’ And I was able to do that. I was able to show that in Essence magazine that Black girls can have big hair blowing in the wind and still have their identity as a Black woman. Something that was really important for me […] whatever the job was, was just to show that, this is what we’re doing, we’re doing this for every girl across the board, because guess what? There’s somebody that can do it.
The ballroom scene has been a hub for creativity and fashion for quite some time. As the Legendary Overall Father of the House of Miyake-Mugler, how does the ballroom scene impact your creative process when it comes to hair styling?
It’s a place where you are able to be free to be who you want, to do what you want, be creative, be loud, be yourself or be someone else. It’s a magical place, so I think whenever I’m creating for editorial or anything like that, or even just talking to models on the shoot, it’s just like, all right, girl, let’s create a character. This is who we are, and ballroom plays a big part in that because it allowed me to not just be Yusef all the time. It gives me an alter ego.
It inspires me in so many ways […] Also, when you have people in your chair, teach them how to be fearless and try different things and step outside of the box and not worry about, ‘Is my husband going to like this?’ Who gives a shit? Do you like it? The ballroom scene really allowed me to put out that message to my clients and people that I work with to be fearless and go for it and own it.
Photo: Courtesy of Savage X Fenty
What has been the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?
Honestly, I still get nervous every time I have to go to work or have a big shoot or have a red carpet, and that’s humbling. That’s something that lets me know that I’m still human, that I’ve still got both feet on the ground. I’m not above anything.
How do you see yourself establishing your own legacy as a hairstylist?
For me this year, it’s just really expanding who I am as a brand. I see myself doing bigger and better things and more things, but also talking about it and having these interviews and having these conversations and talking my shit, putting my crown on and owning it.
I think this year is going to be a big year as far as who I have become as a brand, Yusef, aka The Y, and working with Fenty Hair and growing with that brand and making my presence known. That is the most important thing, leaving a real legacy that I’m a teacher, I’m an influencer, I am history, I know my shit, I am a king. That’s just where I am moving forward, and that people will see more of me.
What advice do you have for people just getting their start as hairstylists?
Know your craft, really dig deep, really go into history and know what women were doing to their hair in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, so when you walk into these rooms and you want to work with brands, other than influencers, and you want to grow and be part of big companies like Fenty Hair and other brands, people want to know that you know every aspect of hair. If this girl takes her wig off, can you do her actual hair? Being a well-rounded artist is really important.
The people that come under me, my assistants, I put them in a position to grow. I don’t want anyone to stay under me. I don’t want you to be my assistant forever. So if you want to work with me as an assistant, or you want to be a part of the Fenty Hair team, or The Y by Yusef team under me, you better be willing to learn, take it in and not just be the star, but be an actual hairstylist and hair artist and really know your craft and you’ll get everything that you deserve.
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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Source: Fashionista.com
