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ADVICE
Jay Birmingham, celebrity hairdresser and session stylist. Monday
Location
To kick start a super busy week in my life, Monday began with me working on a magazine cover shoot. My day started early as I headed to Arcadia magazine to style TV sports presenter and former professional footballer, Alex Scott’s hair.
London Years in business
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@jaybirmingham_ @jayb.hair
A WEEK IN
The creative brief for the front cover shoot was natural, effortless glam, so I styled Alex’s hair into a voluminous wave with volume and texture around her face. Shoots like this mean I get to work closely with the talent, the makeup artist and the photographer so it’s a collaboration between all of us as creatives; it’s one of my favourite parts of my job as a celebrity and session stylist.
Tuesday Today I worked with my gorgeous client, Munroe Bergdorf. She was heading to the Bridgerton season 2 premiere in London so I loved getting her red carpet ready. Munroe is such an amazing source of inspiration and working with her allows me to create and style lots of wigs, which I love as it means we can change her look in an instant. I love the buzz of getting celebrities ready for the red carpet!
MY
SHOES
All imagery supplied
Wednesday
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Today was an exciting day assisting one of my favourite celebrity hairdressing peers, Andrew Fitzsimmons. He’s recently launched his own range of products and asked me to assist him with styling the hair for a model for an event in London. I drove to the glamorous NoMad hotel in London and worked on the hair with Andrew and the team. Working collaboratively like this is always great fun
and leaves me feeling really inspired.
collection and have a sneak peek at the looks.
Thursday
Saturday
Today marked the end of my journey working with the gorgeous Maya Jama as she filmed for the hit BBC TV show, Glow Up. I’ve been working with Maya for around two months since she started presenting this season of the show and today was the filming finale; it was such an honour to celebrate everyone’s hard work with the team. For Maya’s look for the show we opted for a very cool girl aesthetic; her style was stripped back and effortlessly gorgeous which is my favourite.
I’m heading to Los Angeles for the iconic Coachella festival next week so I spent the morning organising my kit and making sure I’m all stocked up on my favourite hero products for the occasion. For trips like this, you can never be too organised. I make sure to pack a selection of clip-in extensions and hair pieces as well as a few different heated styling tools so I’m ready to create a variety of looks.
Friday During the day I worked with a few of my regular clients. I still love client facing work from extensions to cut and style and sometimes I offer colour too. I think it’s important to have a balance so I often work with a few of my private clients throughout the week.
Following my morning of packing, I headed to style Rochelle’s hair. She was celebrating her birthday and wanted something polished and put together to head out and celebrate. I created a super shiny, soft wave through her hair before I tied half of her hair up to create a subtle lifted effect round her face. To elevate her style I created a defined centre parting to bring it altogether.
Jay’s advice
“Make sure you are always the hardest worker in the room. Remain professional but f riendly at all times and try not to blur the lines between your work life and personal life too much. Always be open to opportunities but have confidence and belief in yourself to say no to things that don’t feel right for you – everyone is on their own path.” In the evening I headed to The Londoner, to celebrate the launch of former singer and TV presenter Rochelle Humes’ collection with Next Official. I’m often invited to events like this due to my Instagram following and profile within the industry. This event was lovely and was a chance to celebrate Rochelle’s new
Sunday In contrast to my work with celebrities and creative work, I still work as a bridal hairdresser, so I headed to my hometown of Birmingham to work with a bride and create some classic, bridal glamour. Love it!
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