THE DANCER

PROFILE The Dancer

Vivienne Mackinder champions and educates an industry much more than she would ever have

imagined by Kim Hughes

iF VIVIENNE MACKINDER’S BUSINESS CARD listed all her credentials, it would be a Flintstones-sized tablet. Her biography in point form covers seven full pages, while her name sparks industry-wide recognition on both sides of the Atlantic and in most English-speaking pockets of the Pacific.

And can her resumé name-drop? Oh, honey… how about Sassoon and Sorbie (she served as artistic director to both), Boy George and Katie Couric (onetime clients), and Betsey Johnson and Jean Paul Gaultier (fashion show patrons). That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Then there’s the session work, editorial and TV gigs, awards, films, keynote speeches. Yup, the London-reared, New Yorkbased Mackinder has done it all. Yet in reviewing that gargantuan resumé, some illuminating key words emerge: artist, mentor, industry cheerleader, breakneck globe-trotting professional. Oh yes, and really amazing, mega-award-winning hairdresser devoted to ongoing professional development.

So how does one—ahem—tease the minutiae out of Mackinder’s momentous curriculum vitae? Answer: one doesn’t. That’s what websites are for (www.mackinder.com). What one can do is spotlight her essence, then focus on current passions.

With Mackinder, both tasks are surprisingly simple. What propels her is devotion to her craft: the well-executed cut and the happy client, her personal artistic development and her continued experiences as competitive stylist and consultant. Mackinder’s current obsession, meanwhile, is fostering peer education, chiefly through her new interactive instructional website, www.hairdesignertv.com.

Targeting professional hairdressers, the website allows subscribers to supplement and bolster their experience and knowledge via tutorials, gather certifications for work completed, trade life lessons with other professionals, and network, network, network, preferably globally, leading to exchange trips and corresponding exchanges of ideas.

“We want every person to have a study buddy—someone of a like mind who is invested in education and wants to be a winner,” Mackinder explains over two interviews conducted a week apart. In addition to launching the website, Mackinder is involved in the ongoing I’m Not Just a Hairdresser documentary series while continuing to see select documentary series while continuing to see select clients and attempting to balance a private life of her own.

She continues: “The typical salon owner is too busy to constantly motivate and educate his or her staff. So what I’m offering is a support mechanism outside the salon. As much as it’s an educational forum, it’s a place where like-minded winners can network together, showcase themselves and really get the support that a salon traditionally doesn’t offer.

“In our profession we give so much to people,” the genial Mackinder continues. “Whether you’re a milkman or a countess, our job is to make you feel good. When we do our job right, it’s the best feeling in the world, and when we do our job poorly, it’s the worst feeling. So I always say to hairdressers that it’s essential they do something positive and fun for themselves outside of work.

“That’s part of what got me into ballroom dancing a couple of years ago. I had been a dancer as a child, and when it was clear I would never be good enough to pursue it professionally, I gave it up and ended up in hairdressing. Ironically, as a hairdresser I’ve spent more time on stages than I would have as a dancer.

“The other thing about our profession is that there really are no limits to what you can do or where you can take it. You can work anywhere—on a cruise ship or in a salon or in film or fashion or whatever. Even people who find they don’t really like people can still make a go of it as wigmakers.

“But talent without desire is no good,” she says. “Desire is the catalyst to passion, which is the catalyst to exploration. From there you strive to better your education, you’re curious, and out of that comes creativity. Without that desire, nothing works.” S