Hair Goals With Sheila Chung
In February my beloved hairstylist told me she was moving back to Japan in a month. I was distraught. When you find someone that gets you and your hair it can be magic, but Ami had helped me with my clients too. We were a great team.
As most know, it can be unnerving to sit with someone new for the first time for a haircut or color, or worse both. Enter Sheila Chung, who takes hair as personal as I take wardrobe. In fact, we had similar paths to our careers – always had interest and ability, but got a late start. Growing up Sheila spent a lot of time in her mom’s hair salon across the street from home and was the go-to friend for hair and beauty during her teenage years, but explored more traditional paths after her mom passed away while she was still young.
In 2006, a friend asked Sheila to do hair and makeup for her wedding and Shelia was working for a bank, but afterwards, she took the leap and went to cosmetology school. She was the oldest person in her class and while she didn’t doubt her decision, nothing was more encouraging than finding out at graduation Sheila’s mom had left her daughter her scissors, which the now-hair stylist still cuts with today.
I’ve seen Sheila twice now and each time loved what she did for me, so while its early days for us she has already made a number of my clients happy too. “I love that people trust me with one of their best assets. I take that trust seriously and want to help them look and feel their best.”
Sheila’s passion includes working with people with trichotillomania (TMM or hair pulling disorders). She carefully helps her clients with privacy during a session and specialized techniques to style around hair-pulling patches, dependent on their unique cases. Sheila also advises on extensions, wigs, hair pieces, or new looks. “There are so many options out there!” she says. “Pieces made from real hair will look the most natural and are able to take and hold different styles, but synthetic ones have come a long way. Whatever the material blend of the caps, breathable ones are most comfortable and a custom cap one will have the best fit.”
One of her first proudest moments was when a client known as The Hat Lady, because she had pulled almost all her hair, threw her hat away after she was given a new style with a piece. “Hair is everything,” Sheila says as she gave me a cut. I curiously asked her if she is appalled by my wash-and-go attitude towards hair. “No, no. Not at all. Hair is so personal,” she responds. “You’re natural. It’s your look.”
Personal it is — just like her work, right down to the scissors.
