How Ursula Stephen Went From Cutting Hair in Her Mom's Laundry Room to Prepping A-Listers for the Red Carpet

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.

Ursula Stephen doesn’t remember the first time she knew she wanted to become a hairstylist. She would’ve guessed around middle school, but while catching up with a cousin at a family gathering last year, Stephen learned that she’d apparently voiced her career aspirations as young as six years old. 

“When she told me the story I just bawled because it’s something that I don’t remember,” Stephen tells Fashionista. “But as early as six years old, I already knew what I wanted to do.”

What Stephen does recall is deciding to pursue hair while in junior high. She was stressed about choosing a major at her vocational high school, but eventually picked cosmetology. “I just blurted out, ‘I want to do hair!'” she reflects. “I never knew where that came from. I just had this attraction to making things beautiful and making people feel great about themselves through hair and styling.”

Once she picked up a comb and stood behind a salon chair, she never looked back. 

More than 20 years in, Stephen’s work can be seen on clients including Zendaya, Anok Yai, Taraji P. Henson, Ariana DeBose, Ryan Destiny, Tilda Swinton, Kerry Washington, Jodie Turner-Smith and Maya Rudolph. It has also graced the covers of Essence, Vogue Italia, GQ, Nylon, Paper, Marie Claire, Wonderland, Glamour UK, The Cut and Flaunt.

One of the stylist’s biggest collaborators is Rihanna, a relationship that goes as far back as 2007. Stephen was the mastermind behind RiRi’s trend-setting “Good Girl Gone Bad” asymmetric bob and has since worked with the artist on a plethora of defining hair moments. 

“She saw my vibe and we had the same vibe,” Stephen says of her connection with the singer and entrepreneur. “[Our partnership] happened very organically.”

Today, Stephen is one of Fenty Hair’s official global stylists (alongside Yusef Williams and Justine Marjan). She represents the brand through hair education and content creation and is an active voice in the product development process. (One of her favorites is The Protective Type 5-in-1 Heat Protectant Styler.)

Ahead, Stephen talks about getting hands-on experience as a cosmetology student, legitimizing herself in the industry, her biggest career lessons and more.

What first steps did you take once you realized you wanted to do hairstyling professionally?

Every opportunity that came to me, I took it. It didn’t matter whose hair I had to cut. I think that, because I started so early, it allowed me to have fun with it, not be so serious about it and also be able to take different pages from different people. I started in high school and I listened to everything my teacher said. They would say, ‘You have to work in a salon to assist and learn. You’re not going to learn everything here.’ So what did I do? Right after school, I was in the salon being an assistant.

I did competitions, I went to beauty shows and I made sure I met people. I did all the things and just enjoyed it while I was doing it. I never thought of it as a career. It was just something I really liked to do and I wanted to really become great at it.

I love that approach, of just immersing yourself in your craft.

When I made money and I did my friends’ hair, my mother set me up in her laundry room. She was so tired of hair being all over the house, so she was like, ‘You have to stay down here.’ I had my little mini clientele that would come over. It’s like that saying, ‘Be who you want to be even before you get there.’ I just surrounded myself with all things hair and I loved it. Before I even had my diploma, I had my [cosmetology] license.

I worked in downtown Brooklyn. I used to leave school and go straight to the salon. I wanted to be around other hairstylists and learn from them. I always was the youngest stylist in any salon I worked at, and all the older stylists would try to learn from me. I would come in with all the new innovations and push them to learn this and that, and I just really enjoyed what I did.

What lessons did you learn in those early days that you still carry with you today?

Save your money, honey. It comes large, and it comes fast. But you have to save it, and really get into taxes. My lesson may not sound so glamorous, but it’s a real thing.

Another lesson is always investing in yourself. A lot of stylists will make a lot of money, but they never want to buy new [equipment] or they never want to go to a hair show, they never want to go all these different things. I always took a portion of what I made and put it back into myself. I was always looking at this, buying hair, testing out hair or making wigs — not waiting for the opportunity, but creating my own opportunities.

What moment in your career would you identify as your big break?

There were so many little breaks that created this big break, but I would say working with Rihanna, because that’s when people started to really look and pay attention. All of the things that I did led to me getting her as a client. It’s not like I never cut a bob before. It’s not like I never worked with any other celebrity before: Before Rihanna, I had Remy Ma and Keyshia Cole, and those were big moments for me. But when I did Rihanna, yes, that was the big break because we both shot up like stars after that.

Walk me through how that opportunity changed your career, beyond legitimizing you and opening doors. How did it influence how you saw yourself and the type of opportunities you went after?

It really showed me that I was able to legitimize myself in the industry. I say that because, when you take away everything from it at the end of the day, we’re still freelancers. That’s what it is. You’re freelancing, it’s a gig. Once that happened with Rihanna, I felt like I was solidified In the industry. It helped me to cultivate a different type of clientele that I didn’t even know that I wanted. Sometimes, it’s like dreams that you never had. 

Before Rihanna, I had to convince people [of my vision], but now it’s not a hard sell anymore because they see what I’m capable of. 

Fast forward to today, you’re a global hairstylist for Fenty Hair. How does this role speak to where you are now as a hairstylist?

It is, again, another dream that I never had that came true. Rihanna and I had worked together for so long, and she always had ideas — she would talk about what she wanted to do with her future [….] I knew that — and I think she knew, too — if she was doing anything hair-related, I had to be a part of it.

It made me realize that she really respects me as a hairstylist. Even when I think about my career, I think about what’s next. I don’t want to leave my industry. I’ve always wanted to go through every corner and crevice of my industry and see how I could build my career. This was a big part of it, to be able to consult and product develop.

In addition to Rihanna, you now work with so many other celebrities. How do you decide who you want to work with? 

It’s rare that I say no to clients. I say yes to everything. I always want to see how I could come in and really elevate somebody. If I ever get into the mode where I start targeting people, it’s because I feel like I could elevate their look or I see a vision for them that they haven’t tapped into yet.

Outside of the clientele, like consulting product development, I do think more about that because I know that that’s the next level […] What people don’t realize is that they see somebody like me and they don’t know that there are so many different things that I do besides being on set or styling hair for a red carpet. There is product consultation, there are panels. There are so many different things that make up what I do now that I’m just saying yes to all of it and seeing how it works out and see where it takes me.

Can you paint a picture for me of how a look comes together for a client from concept to reality?

It all depends on what that client is doing. It also depends on who’s really in control — it’s not all the time I’m in control, creative-wise. Sometimes I may do an editorial and the photographer or the stylist has a vision and they’ll send me a mood board. So then I kind of go off of that. 

With somebody like Rihanna, who’s very visual, I send images so she can understand where I’m at and get on the same page. Sometimes there will be clients who have no vision at all. You may see them on the red carpet and think they’re this fashion person and they’re really not. They depend on me to come in and say, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’ And they’re like, ‘Alright, Ursula, I trust you.’

What’s been the most significant sacrifice you’ve made for your craft?

Time. Time, girl. I don’t have any regrets. I was right where I needed to be, but I definitely feel like time is something that was sacrificed because I’m away a lot.

You also have your own salon. I read in an interview that you had dreamed of an ‘atmosphere mixed together.’ Has that dream of working in an integrated hair space been realized?

I think I’ve created that, and I’ve always wanted that because I really hate the terms ‘Black salon’ and ‘white salon.’ I mean, I get the reality of it. But the industry is so diverse.

So when I decided to open a salon, I wanted a diverse salon. Even if the stylists were mostly Black, I wanted them to be able to do all hair types. Sometimes I walk into my salon and we have a Muslim client in the back having her hair done. When I see the curtains closed, I know there’s a Muslim in here. I love the fact that people feel like they could feel comfortable enough to come to my salon no matter what color they are, no matter what race and no matter what [hair] texture.

What does it take to be a standout hairstylist today?

You have to be knowledgeable. It’s great to specialize in something, but you should always know how to do a little something of everything. […] Becoming an expert is what makes you a standout stylist. People respect you differently.

When all is said and done, what would you like to be remembered for?

I want you to remember me for being a trendsetter and an image maker. When I look back on my career, I’ve always been able to help a client coin a signature look. And it’s always been remembered.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

It’s so funny, because I feel like what I told my younger self, I’ve stuck to it. Which is to stay focused, no distractions. Keep the goals to yourself, stay focused and it’s going to happen, girl. Don’t share anything with anyone, because others don’t have your vision. They don’t know what you’re capable of. You have to be careful with sharing your vision with people because they don’t understand it. Do not allow anyone in their thoughts to change your mind or deter you from what you know to be.

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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Source: Fashionista.com