Phoenix Rising

BY REX A.C. SILVER

Phoenix Thompson, American Crew’s Global Education Director, is living the dream of many an aspiring educator, I bet. 13 years, across two countries, and four cities, with American Crew, Phoenix travels around 35 days a year, it used to be more, covering 11 global regions with currently, around 50 educators worldwide.

She now calls Brooklyn, New York home, with her offices on the 50th floor of One New York Plaza in Manhattan. Phoenix thanked me for making her write down her journey and have her dig deep and have to think about barber and life story, and, then look at the written words and reflect on a career she feels immensely proud of.

I guess it’s an exercise most of us never undertake and it made me feel great that she told me, how much she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I guess this is what a team leader does, brings out the best in all those around them, and she does so, so effortlessly as well. It’s no wonder her creative education team speak so highly of her and value the time they have with her when learning the new seasons collections and directives.

We highlight in this piece, Phoenix’s story and to help understand life in her shoes, we land on the creation and roll-out of the Ac-iD Collection….. a little something, she and David Reccuglia founder of American Crew whipped up together.

“I was brought up in the Village called Ackworth,” says Phoenix, “which is near a small mining town called Pontefract. The nearest city is Leeds in West Yorkshire, so you can imagine how small it is. It’s famous for Pontefract cakes (little liquorice rounds) and it has the remains of a castle! Movies like Billy Elliot and this is England will give you an idea of the landscape at the time.”

“My mates and I would run around the farmer’s fields, jumping off hay bales while pretending we were in music videos all before lying about being at each other’s houses, so we could stay out late and get up to mischief. I grew up with incredibly hard-working parents that would save up to take us on fantastic holidays every year, be it a caravan in rainy Scotland or a trip around Bulgaria, Istanbul, and Romania.

Once we were on the bottom level of a ship, clearly the cheapest cabins available, this is where I realised that I did not have the sea legs of my dad who spent time in the Merchant Navy. I was seasick the entire time, but it instilled my desire to travel, so I am oddly grateful for that experience.”

“I remember having a lot of fun at school, although “easily distracted” showed up on my report every year, along with “could do better, if she would focus.” I always struggled to engage with anything I wasn’t interested in. I was terrible at maths, and my chemistry teacher would kick me out of class as soon as I walked in, knowing full well that I was going to disrupt an experiment. It didn’t bother me; I would go to my art teacher’s classroom and work on my art and design projects.

Unsurprisingly, I loved drama, art, and music. I took flute lessons, and I even joined the orchestra. Looking back, this may have been so I would get to stay indoors and out of the cold of winter, and those couple of cute boys that were in the percussion section! “”

“All was great until the dreaded perm of ‘88. My then-boyfriend dumped me because my Casual Princess Diana Wave ended up a perfect, incredibly tight, 6” long halo of hair, and not the good kind-- a ‘just electrocuted’ vibe that was certainly NOT the picture I had taken to the hairdresser! This experience served as an early ‘effective consultation’ lesson that I would often reflect on when thinking about when teaching.”

When did you realize hair was your calling?

When I was 15, I had NO idea what I wanted to do when I left school. Cutting hair was never on my radar. I was applying for graphics courses at college (college in the UK is from 16 – 18), so, of course, I was going into something creative. In our 5th year, we had to do ‘work experience’ for a week like a way to dip your toe into potential careers, and all that changed.

My school had a list of pre-approved companies that you could choose from. In true form, I was late getting to the careers advisor to go through the list, and the only placement left was at a kindergarten. Those who know my affinity for young children will laugh at this; my next question was obvious, “Uhm, can I get my own placement?”

Every Saturday, my mates and I would go into the city (Leeds), and I used to walk past Vidal Sassoon in awe and think how unbelievably cool the people were that worked there. Their hairstyles and fashion were super intriguing to me, so I waltzed in and asked them if I could intern and work for free for a couple of weeks!

They agreed, so, at first, I cleaned, washed, and dried towels, swept the floors, and did general apprentice-type jobs. I loved it so much; I asked if I could come back during the summer holidays. It was an hour-anda-half bus ride to work and back every day, but it was total freedom. Gill Daley, the GM at the time, asked me if I wanted to interview for an apprenticeship.

What still stands out the most from my interview was my retort when asked: “What will you do if you don’t get an apprenticeship here?” I responded, “Well, I guess I’ll just go and study graphic design at college. There’s no point in doing hair unless I can learn from the best and be the best.” I have never been good at filtering, but this was one instance where my honesty paid off, essentially launching my career.

I left school at 16 and went straight into full-time training at Vidal Sassoon. While an amazing experience for a teenager, it was the most challenging three years of my life. Precision cutting, hard work, and 100 tons of hair swept. All the other apprentices seemed to love doing ladies’ hair, but I just wasn’t as interested in long hair (not as challenging) or colour., When I started learning men’s shapes and techniques, I was like, “THIS IS IT!” I had found my passion! I then got to work alongside absolute legends: John Vial, Edward Darley, Tim Hartley, and Mark Hayes to name a few.

I officially qualified as a barber at 19. At 21, I got a transfer as a master barber to our Glasgow location. I loved Scotland, and Glasgow was the birthplace of my grandad, so this would also allow me to connect with my Scottish roots. But just as my world was coming together professionally, my mates were planning a round-the-world adventure of their own.

They would be going to Africa and Thailand, and then spending a year working in Australia. While fulfilled, I remember being insanely envious of what excitement was ahead of them. A mere three weeks and a serious case of FOMO later, I decided to leave my job, boyfriend, and my life in Scotland to go with them. Africa was as incredible as I’d imagined, but when we landed in Byron Bay for Christmas in 1998, I knew there was something special about Australia. Needless to say, I never made it to Thailand with the girls – I made Australia home.

I took a break from the stress of officially being behind the chair. I would often be found cutting hair in the gardens of hostels or on the beach to scrape enough cash together for a box of cheap wine (Fruity Lexia if I remember correctly), as well as a late-night trip to the bakery for drunken snacks.

I even tried my hand at door-to-door sales with Optus selling cable tv and phone packages. When I landed in Melbourne, I got a job teaching at Biba Academy It was there where I met some of my best mates to date, and my passion for teaching really grew.

Take us through your career with American Crew to you becoming Global Director of Education.

I remember Peter McDonald (American Crew Australian Distributor at the time) came to Biba to present the American Crew brand to the team. This is a man with unsurpassed passion and energy, and I remember thinking – I want to work for them! There was no one else at the time that was an exclusively men’s brand. I loved the story of David Raccuglia’s creation and conception of the product and brand, so long story short, I literally harassed the team at American Crew in Australia until they gave me a job.

I wanted to work for them so badly, that I took a job with the Revlon Professional brand as a colour educator to get my foot in the door. At the same time, I was taking cutting classes with the godfather of the All-Star team, Gary McKenzie. That was when everything just clicked. It was like a total light bulb had gone off and was a life-changing moment. I mean, I thought I was good at what I did, but then I realized that the intricacies of AC education were mind-blowing. It was complex, detailed, and so in-depth.

I realized it would give dimension to something I was already so passionate about. I kept taking classes repeatedly, and with the most incredible support and encouragement from the team, I eventually became an All–Star myself. Soon after, I became the Education Manager for Australia. Getting to work with Gary, Mark, and Lino was the most incredible part of my journey, for sure. Those are some seriously talented humans.

Fast forward to 2018; it was time to leave Australia and move to Miami to become the Global Education Manager. When the Miami office closed, I was brought up to NY in 2019. Now here I am, Global Director of Education!

Please walk us through The Ac-iD Collection

A trend collection really starts as soon as the previous one is complete and diffused to the teams.

The collection starts with David Raccuglia and me discussing hair and fashion trends that are inspiring us. We sometimes brainstorm for hours at a time about photography styles, hair, products, and music. We will be ideating and sharing screenshots back and forth over the course of weeks until inception. This is by far my favourite part of the process; it’s so exciting to kick off a creative brief with him.

With Ac-iD, we knew we wanted to showcase longer hair again. We had just completed rebranding all our education under the ACed banner, which includes all the fundamentals of our cutting curriculums-- short to long, beard and shave, and we were like, “Ok, let’s get a trend forecast collection together.”

As we are both heavily influenced by music, that is typically a foundation for us. For this campaign, David was focused on a ’90s-influenced creative, and we wanted to celebrate a country that was monumental for music in that era, so, I took that and REALLY ran with it.

Growing up in the UK at that time, hair went from the hairspray and styling of the New Romantics to looser, longer, and rounder shapes of bands like The Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, and The Charlatans. These shapes have been a favourite of mine throughout my career.

The mood board for Ac-iD was about 40 slides long. It included hair images, album covers, graphics, magazine covers from ID and The Face, a Spotify playlist, and a YouTube playlist. I may or may not have gone a bit overboard. We decided to shoot in London, as we really wanted the outcome to be as authentic as possible.

We started production with a brilliant agency. When you want six models of varying lengths to represent a specific haircut, each casting would be intense. They found the most talented and perfect crew and wardrobe stylist for this shoot, which made it run that much more smoothly.

Once we landed the perfect models, we looked at the hair and technical story of the collection. Paul Wilson (Global Art Director) and Crystal Heric (Technical writer) virtually met and planned the story, looking for consistencies in sectioning, shape, and that ‘hero moment’ of the series. For Ac-ID it was simple; three lean shapes and three round shapes using graduation (which is a fresh look for us) and a disconnected area that ‘popped the top’ across all six tying them together.

The shoot was hectic! We shot six models with two photographers and a full video team recording in three different spaces in the studio. It really is ALL about the team and planning: Meticulous. Obsessive. Planning. Shoots are always stressful; you are relying on people to be able to see into your brain and recreate your vision. This one was so personal, and I couldn’t have been any prouder of the result. I asked a lot, and every single human in that production delivered.

Then, of course, I wanted to record a runway show that would look like it was filmed in the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester circa 1990. Yeah, I don’t make things easy for people, that’s for sure. I chose the song for that about a year ago. I would walk it out in my basement with my headphones on repeatedly, and I wouldn’t let up until we had the rights to use it.

A huge part of our shoots is making sure we have a definitive range of product partners. The American Crew Fiber franchise was our hero here. It showcased how versatile the product range is for all lengths and finishes, with a strong focus on double layering the same or multiple Fiber products.

Next comes the hard part, post-production. We create a technical ‘toolkit’ that has all the assets the Education/ Social/ PR and marketing teams globally need to promote the collection, and then primarily teach to barbers and stylists. Then comes the video and stills editing, creating the head sheets, the technical step by steps, and the one unique piece that the professional will receive when they take the class. It takes an army!

It is really like touring a show, I guess, but with insane production value. I was lucky enough to be coming to Australia, so I got to teach my boys here first! Next is the North American team, and then it’s off to Barcelona in July to teach Europe, LATAM, and Asia.

What are the challenges in your job?

Adjusting our mindsets regarding global education to reflect the current state of learning (virtual) Trying to get people back into in-person training. I’ve spent time studying photography virtually, and now in person, I cannot tell you how much that has restored my belief in the value of being face-to-face.

What do you most love about your job? Working on campaigns and education and shoot production with David Raccuglia. I’ve learned so much from him. I mean, I work directly with the founder of American Crew! Not bad for a smalltown girl, right?

60-SECOND SPEED DATE WITH PHOENIX THOMSON

Favourite Destination in the World: Tough question! Safari in Africa or soaking up the music in New Orleans.

Fav Food: Mac and Cheese, but don’t forget the Bloody Mary!

Fav Movie: The Breakfast Club – It’s the way Judd Nelson flips his epic hair. What are you listening to on your playlist?

Scan the code and find out!

What are you reading?

“Tenement Kid” by - Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream)

What are you binging: Ted Lasso and Yellowjackets

Sundays, you’ll find me… Wandering around with my camera doing street photography.

@pheminx @americancrew

AC-iD Collection Credits

American Crew Hair Team

Paul Wilson @paulwilsoncrew

Adriana Fournier @shearwisdonpdx

Ian Harrold @ianharrold1

Creative Direction: David Raccuglia @david_raccuglia_ photography

Phoenix Thomson @pheminx

Photography: David Raccuglia

Andrew Gilbert for AKAcreate - @akacreate1

Clothes Stylist Mark Anthony Bradbury

@markanthonystylist

Make-up Ciara Maccarthy

@ciara_mccarthy_mua