Dwight Miller

With over 45 years in the hairstyling industry, I am honored to have the opportunity to interview Celebrity Hairstylist Dwight Miller. In his 45 years as a hairstylist, Dwight has worked with celebrities including Doris Day, Juliet Prowse, Cindy Crawford and Monica Seles. Dwight has also had a hand in developing numerous product lines such as Vidal Sasoon-London, System Biolage and John Frieda Sheer Blonde.

What would you say is your title?

My main title I guess would be ‘industry consultant’ though I have a salon and do shows through our academies.

What is the name of your Salon?

Salon Sante Fe

Salon Santa Fe® Inc – www.myspace.com/salonsantafe

And the name of your Academy?

V L V T® academies – www.myspace.com/v_lv_t

‘versatile learning-versatile techniques’ pronounced: vl-vt – velvet.

How did you get started in the Hairstyling Industry?

I was in the Marine Corps, agreed to ship-over for another four years. Marines were to send me to the Los Angeles Sheriffs & Police Academy, after years as an MP – Armed Forces Police – CIS (Criminal Investigation Section), in the Philippines, Okinawa and Camp Pendleton, California.

Visited a beauty school in LA while a close friend had her hair wrecked. Ha. Ha. One of the instructors spent the whole time with me. No idea what she said, but visited a few beauty schools in San Diego when I was home on a weekend. Picked one, took two weeks leave and gave it a shot. Loved it, decided not to stay in the Marines.

Often wondered what my life would have been had I not had a split second decision. Most changes that have had the greatest impact on my life and career seem to be the most spontaneous, unexpected ones.

Can you tell me what beauty school you studied at and graduated from?

I started at a Comer & Doran franchise school ‘Southwestern Beauty School’ downtown San Diego on the Plaza. When I graduated it was a Marinello-Comer franchise as they had merged.

After the merger, the company had 10 company owned schools (were Marinello) in SoCal and over a hundred franchises (was Comer & Doran) worldwide, including Yamano in Tokyo the largest beauty school in the world.

I later got my teacher training and instructor license at Marinello-Comer Beauty School in Hollywood. As Styles Director taught advanced classes at the Hollywood location and traveled to the other school locations, special classes for the instructors and students.

How long have you been in the industry?

Since ’64 – 45 years. Have hopes that stylists starting now will have as diverse a career as I had, including the major shifts in hairstyling.

Started with razor cutting, pin curls and brushing, then on to high fashion, razor cutting in a different way, rollers, backcombing and dressing. Competed in the days when we had a hundred people in a category. Today, competition is back in a whole new way. In those days we needed a great model and dresses, we spent thousands on the dresses. Today hairstylists are spending thousands on the team: model, make-up, fashion stylist, photographer and post – photo manipulation through Photoshop programs. Some amazing photo-images can be seen at NAHA (North American Hairstyling Awards). I’ve won, judged and presented at NAHA. I came up with the master’s category, as they weren’t getting the big names to compete at the beginning. Today NAHA represents all levels from the newest to the most seasoned.

How did you get your ‘break’ in the hairstyling industry?

I had a few advantages, as the only guy graduating the year I did, I had several offers, but at the last minute got a seasonal job in a salon in the wealthy area of Del Mar, California during race season. Took the place of a stylist that was in the Navy reserves. He had to go on maneuvers right at the time Del Mar was loaded with movie stars and racehorses.

Inherited his full on clientele, plus the rich and famous race season crowd. Got my photo in the Turf Club Magazine, what a way to kick start a new career!

After the season, in those days the streets of Del Mar folded up and it was back to doctors and lawyers wives.

I then went to work at ‘Exotica Incorporated’ in Pacific Beach. The eccentric owner was one of the most talented hairdressers I had seen to date. Ivory inlayed (smuggled into the US) stations, fabric laced with real gold thread. I worked from evening till near dawn, with a clientele of high caliber call girls. The owners skipped the country owing more money then I could count in those days and so it was off to Hollywood.

How does it feel to be so successful in the Hairstyling Industry?

Not sure how to answer this question. If doing clients, we’re only as good as our last haircut or color. If working for a product manufacturer, only as well as the results I’m hired to produce, if headlining a hair show, only as good as the audience we’ve drawn.

Sure I can look at the scope of what I’ve achieved, but success is something that is measured by ones own standards, experience and objectives. Each project, like the Children’s Hospital industry-wide charity/fundraiser initiative, HairRaising, that I’m now working on. I feel successful in the artists that have come on board, the biggest names in the hair fashion world as well as the top industry names, but getting the individual salons nationally to register their salons is a real challenge. Concentrate on the least aspect of success and not the achievement or you don’t continue to grow at a rapid pace.

I don’t hang awards in my salon, as John Sahag never mentioned the celebrity clients that he had hordes of (an understatement). The more secure one gets in themselves and their talent the less one concerns themselves with past achievement and more the process and challenge of the present. Also success is somewhat humbling, as the pressure only gets greater. That’s the last of my philosophical bit.

Traveling around the world doing hair shows, lived in London when I worked for Sassoon’s, four years in the early 70s, definitely added something I couldn’t have gotten any other way. Going to South Africa, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Australia every year, made them seem like home. The years I had an apartment in the West Village – from when it was the meatpacking district until the ultra trendy place it is today. Everything affects who you are and how you see things.

What would you say are your greatest accomplishments?

If I have to look back, it would be the teams I’ve built more then the companies. Many from the teams are some of the biggest industry names today, some own their own product companies or have helped build some of the biggest product companies. Then there is the talent that they built on their own, and it goes on. The team I built in Korea more recently and the Korean product company is now the largest in that country, in all categories, liquids, perms and color. Only other company to achieve this was Matrix during my stint their.

What do you love about hairstyling?

There is never an end to developing ones personal skill. Having a great eye for shape and balance separates artistry from technical skills, working with people, collaborating with clients, it’s all an endless learning and continuous personal growth cycle.

Clients connect me to my town in so many ways. Invites to gallery openings, concerts, the opera, private dinner parties into some of the most beautiful homes in Santa Fe. It’s a wonderful profession.

What was the first haircut you did? What was it like?

I guess I’ll talk about the first haircuts I did when I arrived in London to work for Sassoon’s. For the first month we did one length cuts at various lengths. After each they would be inspected, a mirror under the line, especially the ear area. They were never perfect so we did them over & over. Sassoon’s at that time had little vocabulary, it was see & do. As I came from highly developed systems Marinello-Comer & Pivot Point Int’l it was even harder when there was no explanation. Today, I believe the reason the London hair-cutters have trumped the world in skill is because they learned by doing vs intellectually like we do with highly refined in systems.

What would you say are the more popular hair trends?

I get several trend reports seasonally, from many sources as fashion comes from the mood of society, whether it’s paint, clothes, hair, make-up, architecture or beauty products. They each have their progression, evolution and history, there is more often a common influence.

Some times trends just come together seamlessly as the shingled-bob and short skirts did in the 1900s (Irene Castle 1917) and almost repeated verbatim in ’the early 60s with the bob (Vidal Sassoon) and the mini-skirt (Mary Quant).

In hairstyling there is a strong desire to push the envelope to more complex work, especially in photo images. In the salon there is an influence from celebrities, make-up and hair. For the most part it’s hairstylists, make-up artists and fashion stylists behind them. Kind of a circle if you will with no beginning and no end. If I had to say what would be the direction, I’d say movement, waves, some form of texture and dressing hair. Been coming on strong since the 90s.

Hair © Salon Santa Fe

Do you like or dislike these trends?

I’ve loved every period of hairdressing, cutting, coloring, styling, during their time. I wish every client could go to any stylist and get a good haircut, color and style. The industry is far from it. There is hardly a shape that hasn’t been done before, no reason or excuse for a poor haircut or style. During major changes like dry-cutting with the scissor to wet-cutting with the razor (mid-50s) or from the razor to the scissor (60s-main stream by the 70s), okay, huge paradigm and skill shifts. It’s a young persons business, by the sheer volume of beauty schools graduating young new hairstylists. Developing strong basic skills, so no mater what the trend it can be executed with a skill set.

What trends do you anticipate this year?

I love doing unusual cuts on my clients, probably why I attract clients that don’t want to look like anyone else. Challenging and rewarding. Cutting hair dry, tapering individual sections, can cut parts separately, unblended lengths, because there are no lines in the cut, it looks perfectly blended. Perhaps visually and not technically. I say they do blend technically, if we redefine the word from the heights of the Sassoon era. It’s all semantics. As there are no lines, the cuts grow out without much notice. Maybe not the best business model as my clients stretch their appointments out, some as far as several months.

Trends should be more individual based, means one has to interpret styles in their own way for each client. My work has only improved, more daring with no end in sight for growth as a hair-artist. Living in Santa Fe, New Mexico doesn’t hurt, with 300 galleries, largest art colony in the US, second largest art market behind NYC, artists and gallery owners as clients. Clients fly in from NYC and Dallas, as this is an epicenter for the arts, not to mention 300 restaurants, world-class chefs with the most beautiful outdoor opera.

Can you go into more about the upcoming trends? Where might we see them popping up first? How long do you think it’ll last?

I watched every minute of the red carpet, the Academy Awards and the wrap up shows. From the staging and the clothing fashion, I’d say there is something reminiscent of the glamour of days gone by. The make up in high contrast like red lips looked powerful in B&W, in color, easily to look over done. The hair, done by well know hairstylists on celebrities, many hairstylist now celebrities on their own.

I can see where they’re trying to go, with more finished lose wavy and up styles. They were poorly executed for the most part. I believe the direction is set, with more styled, finished hair. Wouldn’t be surprised if loose perms didn’t make a comeback for those with naturally straight hair. Getting movement without curl will gain in popularity.

In a couple of years we can look back and see if this became reality or just my imagination. Stylist are so used to concentrating on the cut, in that context, it will require a mind and skill shift.

It will last once it takes hold.

What hairstyle has lasted the longest?

Fashion travels in spirals. Styles reoccur in different interpretations.

I used to do the hair for Edith Head’s costume presentations that wore her hair in what I thought was so old fashion, a bob with square bangs when the fashion was backcombed styles. I’m sure it looked great on her in her youth as it did on Louise Brooks in the 20s. Edith wore her hair that same way, which was her personal style from the 20s.

Going to her office was so intimidating with the walls lined with Academy Award nomination certificates, much more so then the statues behind her desk. She made the bob hairstyle look a bit old and tough as she was, Vidal made it new again. I did really respect her and she loved the wig work I did for her shows. A tremendous learning experience.

Who knew then that was already coming into style. I guess the ‘bob’ with its many interpretations would be the most endearing.

What hairstyle has had the shortest popularity?

I can’t see any style that didn’t have it’s own market longevity. Maybe the worst would be the Mullet? I wouldn’t dare say it was the shortest style in longevity. The mullet is one style, has its own book ‘The Mullet’,  that would get the most ridicule from the masses.

If I was to talk about myself, as I produced four trends a year for two major product companies from ’81 to ’91 (have never stopped just less often since), I did this one called ‘High Rollers’ where I set the hair in rollers in the finished pattern, removed the rollers and that was it. Was in USA Today three times within a few months, interviews, magazines and newspapers followed for months as I spouted about the age of styling. Other then lots of press, tons of hype, even a fashion runway interpretation, never went anywhere. Ha. Ha.

How did you start your salon and academies?

The academies came out of our team headlining the major shows under the manufactures name that we represented, until we decided to give it a name of our own. Most of the team members have been with us well over ten years.

The salon is very Santa Fe, no advertising, no sign, all word of mouth. I was traveling a great deal working with various manufactures, thought to open to be more grounded in my presentations. Shows in general are down in attendance, partly because so many presenters don’t work in a salon, mostly about selling product.

I started the salon with a strong visual image and trademarked the name & logo. Gave brochures to people that asked what I did. It’s a tight small community. No big industries here, artists and small business owners mostly. I was careful not to take clients from other hairstylists. How clients found me in general? That’s a good question?

Websites & Contact Info for Dwight Miller

www.twitter.com/dwightrmiller

www.facebook.com/dwight.miller

www.myspace.com/dwightrmiller

www.linkedin.com/in/dwightrmiller

www.DwightMiller.com/ – “I haven’t touched this in years, being rebuilt from scratch, should be up, new format in a month or so …”

Dwight Miller

707 Don Gaspar Avenue

Santa Fe. NM 87505.2629

505.820.2532 Santa Fe

917.689.1248 New York

‘There is life – there is love – then there is hair’ ~John Sahag

For More Information on the Children’s Hospital industry-wide charity/fundraiser that Dwight mentions be sure to check out HairRaising