Interview With Martin Hillier - Global Hair Artist and Co-Owner Lounge Hair Studio

Please share a little about the journey that led you from you're beginning in the 70's in London, to where you are today. Looking back, were there any signs when young this would be your future?

Absolutely no signs haha! School in the 1970s, much like many now, were all about academia and I was pure art. I loved the English language & writing, but with dyslexia not yet given its meaning, I was pretty much a drift at school. It was suggested I leave at 16. If I wanted to be artsy, go join a local hair salon as artists don’t make money until they’re dead and I wouldn’t make it in the fashion industry. So that’s what I did.

Where/how did you gain your skills?

Leaving school early was the best thing that happened to me. I got an apprenticeship at a local Salon & would travel by train once a week to college to do my ‘City & Guilds’ diploma. I thrived in the salon atmosphere because unlike school where when I did something wrong I was told, here I was also praised when I did something right! A whole new concept.

 

And I ate up all the information and techniques from the various stylists around me. Some had been big hairdressers in the 50s or 60s, and one of our college tutors had been a hairdresser during the Second World War. So while everyone was busy doing the latest blow dry, I would ask her to show me how to do victory rolls and waves -  things I used later on stages around the world!

You spent several years as a Global Art Director for several brands. How did you open the door to those opportunities and what was that time of your life like?

In the UK, after doing an apprenticeship for three years you come away with skills, tips and tricks from everyone you work with. That comes the obligation to ‘pass it on’. You don’t just pay a sack load of money and do a ten month course, you rely on everyone around you to help shape who you become as a hairdresser. So it is natural to give the same gift others. In this way you become a teacher right from the start, so moving into education was a natural thing for me to do.

When I was first asked to work on stage, I took to it like a duck to water. I will always be nervous before heading out in front of a crowd, but I think that is healthy. If you’re too confident you have missed the point. I love sharing knowledge and ideas and that‘s all you’re doing, you are sharing not dictating. The travel can be grueling, landing in Australia or Brazil or Europe and jumping straight into a model call. But your adrenaline kicks in and away you go.

I’m blessed to have seen the world through my job and subsequently to have met so many amazing artists throughout the globe I may otherwise have not known. And the act of sharing skills and ideas is priceless.

When did you and your partner Lance Blanchette open The Lounge Hair Studio? What inspired your decision to own your own brick and mortar salon? Do you have a philosophy that guides your operations? 

We opened The Lounge back in 1997. I was getting discontented where I was working and had just gotten back from a work trip to Africa.  just knew it was now or never. Lance (whose own journey is amazing) had been my apprentice after leaving a good corporate job as a Bank Manager and starting again from scratch. As a new stylist his potential was obvious, plus he knew facts and figures and, as I said before I’m pure art. 

So I put it to him that I was going to be moving on and didn’t want to rock the boat for the other salon (bad karma), so would not take other staff with me. I asked if he fancied a gamble and he accepted. I knew our values were the same through the training process and so that was that. 

Starting a new is always a struggle, but again, your adrenaline kicks in and nothing can stop you. We trained new team members up, many that are still with us, and have had others join along the way. We chose the name purposely to not be associated with our own names, but with our philosophy of a warm welcoming place to relax, take a load off, have a laugh and leave with great hair & a smile on your face.

You also are involved in TV, magazine makeovers as well as collaborations with makeup artists, designers, and photographers on photo/video shoots. How do you approach working on these type of creative projects? Do you have a fun story you can share from one of your shoot?

Yes, I’m luck enough to have done large campaign shoots with amazing budgets, top models and fantastic photographers, makeup artists and stylists globally. With a cooperate shoot, in most cases there is a theme or point you are trying to get across. You have to be very focused on delivering that story.

When you do collaborative shoots, getting together with like minded artists in all the aforementioned areas, then the manic really starts. Everyone brings their best game to an idea that can evolve and expand as you work. Don’t get me wrong - someone will have the idea and the team will come together with story boards and locations, etc., but without restrictions. Art for the joy of it.

 
TV is a different fish. Sometimes it’s a makeover show where the whole cut and finish has to be done before the program ends for the reveal. That gets your adrenaline pumping. Other times they are looking for a prediction or for fashion chats. I’m lucky in the sense that I don’t think about the camera, just the host I am talking to or the work I am doing.

A funny moment I remember - just to see people’s faces - was at a show where a wig was not behaving so I reversed it just before she went on and everyone first looked with panic. Then they saw the results and realized it looked fab! There was an audible exhale and then laughter! You have to think on your feet and use your intuition. Life will go along with you.

In 2023 your were awarded an Industry Originator Award at Vancouver Fashion Week. What did this honor mean to you?

I was surprised and thrilled. I have been fortunate to win many national and international hairdressing awards over the year, but to be recognized from the fashion industry for my work was amazing! I have always looked at all my shoots over the years holistically. They had to tell a story from the background forward. So to know I have helped those stories get out there and in turn helped showcase the amazing designer talent of Vancouver, BC, and ultimately Canada, was brilliant.

Do you have anything coming up you'd like to share about or a favorite go to quote that inspires you?

I have several collaborative shoots coming up once all the artists have time. One I’m really excited about (clue, think wedding not wedding). I’ll be shooting with Liz Dungate & Zabrina Matriu, which always excites me! Getting to work with photographers like Liz, Blair Hansen, Noah Asanias, Felix Yuen, Jamie Mann and so many others, plus all the make & stylist we have here is amazing.

There are so many quotes that I love. But I recently posted a comment by the late great Bob Marley - 
"The day you stop racing is the day you win the race."

Links -

• Instagram - @martinhillierhair
• Facebook - www.facebook.com/martin.hillier.90
• Youtube - www.youtube.com/@martinthillier
• Lounge Hair IG - @loungehairyvr
• Lounge Hair FB - www.facebook.com/loungehairyvr
• Lounge Hair Youtube - www.youtube.com/c/LoungeHairStudioVancouver/

Photo Credits -

1. (green hair) Photo @jamie_mann MU @zabrinamakeup
2. (short dark fringe) Photo @lizdungate MU @isabellaissima Styling @vlstyling
3. (blond pink dress) @lizdungate MU @janabizz
4. (Outdoor, double shot) Photo @lizdungate MU @zabrinamakeup Style @zadenir.studio
5. Photo @devin_film MU @busydragqueen
6. (updo against wall) Photog Hamma Style @ nikkokefalas
7. (Avantgarde blonde look, can’t remember team lol)
8. Photo @blairhansenphotography Styling @janetadrienne
9. (faces on eyes) Photo @lizdungate MU @zabrinamakeup Styling @lil_pebbels
10. 10 Working shot
11. (blonde updo) Photo @lizdungate MU @zabrinamakeup Styling @jasonpillay
12. (sepia crown) Photo @chinphoto66