“By the grace of God, the salon was not touched,” said hair colorist Jason Backe alongside his life and business partner, hairstylist Ted Gibson. The couple, married in the summer of 2014, are the owners of Starring by Ted Gibson in Los Angeles.
“We have had to modify our booking time and salon schedule [to allow fewer clients a day],” Backe said. On the Wednesday they reopened, the salon was at capacity with six appointments. “While we can still be profitable, a lot of people won’t be able to do that, so I have a lot of concern for my fellow salon owners, and how they’re going to pull through this.”
“If a woman didn’t value her hairdresser in January, in June she definitely does,” Gibson joked. Along with taking the necessary protocols outlined by the state, all clients are given a hot towel and hand sanitizer as they enter the salon, he said, and along with their masks, they’re given face shields to wear when hair is shampooed and conditioned.
“But I know I have to be better, that I’ve always had to be better than my white counterpart at the same level as me because of the color of my skin,” he went on. “I haven’t used it as a crutch, if you will. I’ve used it to my advantage. I knew that it was important for me to have this platform that I’ve created to be able to show the next generation of hairdressers that they can do whatever it is they want to do in the business.
Whether working with Jolie, Hathaway or Chastain, “I never got an option to do [those Vogue covers], even if I had a relationship with the actresses,” he shared. “They would never hire me for the job. Meanwhile, if Oprah or a black woman would be on the cover, what would happen is a white hairdresser would do it. The only one — and this is probably in the last five or six years — if Beyoncé would have a cover, Kim Kimble would do it. And it’s because Beyoncé would demand it.