After we got the Barnsley Boys together this time last year, our friend Tim Scott-Wright was inspired to take a look at the homegrown talent in his stomping ground. While it took some time to get these workaholics in one place we met with Tim, James Earnshaw and Michelle Thompson, to find out what it means to be Made in the Midlands.
Tim Scott-Wright
Starting out under the wing of the late Umberto Giannini in 1995, Tim remembers his mentor’s words at his first British Hairdressing Awards…“you’ll get there if you work hard enough.” To date, he has won Midlands Hairdresser of the Year three times, making him Hall of Fame material (the youngest to gain this title), and has held an ambassadorial role for Schwarzkopf Professional ever since. Like many he always wanted to have his own salon. Returning home, he started his business back where he began in Stourbridge.
Michelle Thompson
Michelle’s career began at 14 and she was already an educator by her 20s, travelling the world teaching hair. Specialising in afro and textured hair, she’s won many awards, and is in the BHA, Afro Hairdresser of the Year Hall of Fame. Such a non-stop career meant less time spent at home so, more recently, Michelle decided to go freelance, taking on Ambassador roles and serving her clients from her Wolverhampton base.
James Earnshaw
James has been in the industry for 16 years, starting at a local salon in Bridgnorth before moving to TONI&GUY and later Francesco Group. From there he threw himself into competition work with Wella’s TrendVision and One Shot and winning BHA Midlands Hairdresser of the Year. In 2020 he signed ambassadorial contracts with Wella and ghd, keeping a list of regular clients but focusing on social media content and session work. To date he’s grown a following of over 108,000!
First of all, let’s get acquainted… how well do you guys know each other?
James: When I was at Francesco’s, Tim was entering the awards and I remember one of his collections where he did one model and changed the colour four times and I was so obsessed with it. I’ve known Michelle for so long, she’s like my sister. I worked with her for years in the Francesco Group Artistic Team doing shoots and shows and I could always rely on Michelle to give me honest critique of my work which gave me loads to learn and she’s given me such input for over half of my career.
Michelle: My first encounter with James was when he came for a trade test at Francesco’s. He brought a model with afro textured hair and I thought ‘ah ok!’. I tested him and knew he had potential. Afterwards, he said ‘I knew I had got in anyway’ as he’d looked at my paper when I turned around! Now it’s like I’m his big sister. We have a very honest relationship. We talk all the time and still ask each other’s advice, yep, we talk a lot.
Tim: This is the first time Michelle and I have properly sat down together and spoken, we see each other all the time at events, judging and things, and I have always been in awe of her and what she does. She’s really shone a light on afro and textured hair with her incredible skills and her collections are just superb. James reached out to me as a spring chicken and I take my hat off to him as he knows what he wants to do and he nails it. I follow him on Instagram and love the way he drives his career in the area he loves.
You’re three very different hairdressers, all from the Midlands born and bred. What makes this region so special?
Tim: I’ll go first. When I started hairdressing I thought it was beyond amazing that we had Umberto, this celebrity hairdresser who wasn’t London based. He really opened my eyes to the idea that you could rise in hairdressing and have a fulfilling career in the Midlands. Umberto had worked in London and hated it, so it gave me a drive to be a great hairdresser in the Midlands. For me it wasn’t about just being successful, it was about living my life where I wanted to live it, doing what I loved – and being successful too.
James: Birmingham, at the heart of the Midlands, was the second city to be in after London. There were always a lot of hairdressers who moved to London but a lot of great ones stayed here.
Michelle: Everyone wanted to go to London but I wanted to stay here in the Midlands and have a more specific focus on afro and textured hair and there were not so many here focussing on that. I am from the Midlands so I’m biased, but there really are some amazing hairdressing stories here. I have had so many invitations to move to London but it’s not for me.
James: People always say that don’t they.
Michelle: The older I get, the less I want to move. It’s great to go into London and great to come out.
Tim: I’m definitely in London enough to get my fix from there and I’m happy with that balance.
How have you built your client bases here?How do you reach your audiences?
Tim: I have a real range of audience, an in-salon one and of course a social audience that is devoted to my salon business and my own social channel that is speaking to the industry and engaging with other hairdressers and that’s important for my ambassador work too. So in the salon it’s a real range for me, I’ve got die-hard clients who’ve been with me for 30 years, I love them to bits and there were times when I moved and they followed me. We welcome everyone and I really enjoy the mix, the different sorts of conversations you have with different people from different walks and stages of life, that’s all part of what I love about being a high street, working hairdresser to be honest, the mixed bag of it all.
Michelle: My client base is similar to Tim’s. I have clients from donkey’s years back, from times when I have concentrated on education and those clients have followed me. With my specialty I get clients from all over. 70% of my clients travel to me and are from London. It’s crazy but for what I do, there aren’t so many who specialise in that area. I have clients aged 15 to 90!
Tim: It’s so odd, Michelle, that with such a massively diverse community in the Midlands, there aren’t more specialists in afro, that is really surprising, why do you think that is?
Michelle: I think that there are loads of afro hairdressers but there are not so many working at the high end. And I don’t mean that at all disrespectfully, but if you just do a Google search the names that come up are all the names we know. Unfortunately, there are so many who I know are doing great work, but they don’t put themselves out there to get that recognition. That’s why it has been important for me to fly the flag for afro and texture hairdressing.
James: I’ve changed my demographic for a number of years now. After spending the past 10 years in Birmingham, I made the move away from salon life to Manchester in December 2021. I had worked at all the places I wanted to work in the Midlands…except Tim’s salon!!! It’s a great option for me. I have a studio space, which gives me the scope to create so much content and see my clients. There isn’t that much I miss from being in the salon but what I do miss –and I think we take for granted in salon life – is the constant feedback and appreciation for doing client hair. It is the reason I wouldn’t give up client work, and also the fact that when you have clients that trust you, you can do what you want and that’s creatively fulfilling too. One thing I miss about the Midlands is that you are almost always just an hour and a half from everywhere you need to be. I really miss that.
You all have working relationships with media in some way, can you talk about some of your highlights?
Michelle: One of my highlights is obviously winning BHA Afro Hairdresser of the Year three times and being in the Hall of Fame, for sure that’s definitely one of my career highlights. And it is a highlight because I want to represent, encourage and inspire others to do it and you have to be profiled to reach that bigger audience so you can inspire others. The hairdressing industry can be a lonely place, as a black female, and there are many times where having that title helps, as people approach you for certain jobs where they wouldn’t before so it definitely gave me a standout.
James: I used to keep press cuttings, ‘OMG I’m on page 73 of Hair Magazine!’ and I remember the first time I had a feature about myself, I think it was in Pro Hair 2012. I would keep absolutely everything. I have a cupboard space where I keep all my stuff and I can look back at when I was a tiny quarter page picture and remember how far I’ve come. Recently I’ve been writing stuff for Vogue Greece, and have been featured in Marie Claire loads.
I’m trying to get the blue tick verification for Instagram and I have to put three testimonials and still got denied! What does it take?
Tim: I have a great relationship with the trade press and it’s changed such a lot since I set out in the 90s. Back then, you’d wait for magazines to come out every week and when you appeared in one, it was a really special, anticipated thing. It’s different these days because there are so many other places to see others’ work and show your own, be inspired etc. So, is it as special, for me? I think it is, in fact, yes it definitely is!
For me it is still great to get the physical coverage to share with clients in the salon. For younger hairdressers I don’t know, but I think it is still important to build a rapport with industry press because if we use today’s language, industry press are also influencers, you know everyone, you network, you have your exhibitions, your social channels, your publications, your events and still give a vast professional hub where we can meet and be seen by our peers.
For the full interview check out page 18 of our September 2022 issue! HERE
