Celebrity Hair Stylist Kristan Serafino—how to become a celebrity stylist
KRISTAN SERAFINO
CELEBRITY HAIR STYLIST
NEW YORK
CELEBRITY HAIR STYLIST
NEW YORK
Celebrity Hair Stylist? Check. Product Endorsement? Check. Beauty Blogger Extraordinaire? Double Check.
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Hair Stylist Kristan Serafino has all her bases covered these days with celebrity clients such as Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves (ummm, can we say recent People cover?), her name branded with the product tool company, Kiss products and a hit blog titled, SerafinoSays.com.
Life is all about taking risks but perhaps one of the biggest risks Serafino took was switching from a corporate job to starting up as a hair stylist at the age of thirty. “I went from a six-figure salary to $6.50 an hour behind a shampoo bowl. I knew that I wanted to be a hair stylist and I knew that in order for me to do that, I had to give up a lot of securities in my life which were my two-bedroom apartment in the city, my shopping budget… but it was so worth it because of where I am today,” says Serafino.
With the moral support of her family to make this career change, Serafino attributes a lot of her strength and determination from advice that her parents gave her. “My mom and dad, they just constantly encouraged my sister and I to believe in ourselves, to pursue our dreams and I know this sounds so cliche, but to just be a really good person… with morals, ethics, and believing in yourself,” says Serafino. “My mom always said that in order to love other people, you have to love yourself. I think by believing that, it’s completely allowed me to just pursue what I really wanted because I had the confidence to do it.”
Being both a good person and listener would later find Serafino as a stand-in therapist to her clients, as most of us have often experienced. “I have a client who told me that he stopped going to his therapist because he would just come and get a haircut,” she explains. Creating that bond and trust with her clients is very important to her as she has a direct influence on their physical appearance. She loves encouraging women to see their own beauty within which was one of the major inspirations for her to create her own blog, SerafinoSays.com. “I have a tagline on my blog which is ‘True beauty isn’t about perfection. By liberating people to realize this simple fact, we help them see the real beauty within themselves,'"says Serafino.
With a constantly growing clientele list as well as ad campaigns for beauty and fashion clients, Serafino has become a hair expert in the media, often quoted in magazines such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan—to name a few. All of this press caught the eye of the hair styling tool company, Kiss Products, who brought her on board to be a spokesperson for their Kiss Silicone Protextion Flat Iron. She just completed a guest host spot on ShopNBC for Kiss Products where she introduced the Red Pro Tornado 360 Blow Dryer. “It has a 360 revolutionary rotating nozzle. It helps to prevent heat damage. You no longer have to shake your hand and be exhausted from shaking the blow dryer. The spinning nozzle does it for you. I’m really excited [about it]!” says Serafino.
Serafino loves every waking minute of living in New York and offers a bit of advice on how to maintain summer frizz. “I really like to encourage natural texture in the summer… sometimes I think that you shouldn’t fight so hard. I think working with the texture of the hair, during the summer can create new, fresh looks every day because of the humidity.” What product does she recommend for the busy on-the-go NY woman? “I think that I always have a mini hairspray in my bag because I think I can do anything with it. You can take away the flyaways, especially in the winter when you take off your hat. From day to evening—you can go from hair down in the office to a quick chignon or an updo with a rubber band and a couple of bobby pins for your evening out on the town.”
When Serafino’s not busy with clients and just wants to unwind, you can often, okay, maybe regularly find her at Market Diner on 43rd and 11th. Why does she love it so much? She says, “It’s my haven, my home. It’s the only place where I’m a rock star. I know everyone there. I live there. The food’s amazing—the best hummus and dessert.” —Lorna Soonhee Umphrey
Photos: Courtesy of jjbpr.com