After six years working in the salon, Atkin got an offer she couldn't refuse: to do the hair for the dancers on Madonna's "Confessions" world tour in 2006. "We were getting VIP service at clubs and seeing celebrities backstage at shows," she said. "It was my first time travelling the world, and it was an experience that really helped shape who I am."
Once the tour wrapped, she felt ready to venture out to the floor on her own. "It was like the bird's out of the nest, and now was the time to build my own clientele."
Atkin started booking appointments for extensions, which is how she began working with her own roster of celebrities. First, it was Nicole Richie, Mischa Barton, and Lindsay Lohan. Then she was cutting the hair of Hayden Panettiere, Amanda Bynes, and Sofia Vergara, right as she catapulted to Modern Family fame.
In the span of the 15 years that followed came the domino effect of little big moments that led to even bigger moments. It was working backstage at Paris Fashion Week. Doing editorial photo shoots. Travelling with John Galliano when he was at the House of Dior to Shanghai and Paris. Meeting Kim Kardashian for the cover of Cosmopolitan, then Khloe, then the entire Kardashian-Jenner klan. "And yeah, the rest is history."
By this point, Atkin had made a name for herself in the hairstyling world, earning enough clout to start expanding her reach. She masterminded the digital educational platform Mane Addicts, which serves as a source of inspiration and advice on all things hair. Then, around the same time, came the idea to launch the hair-care brand, Ouai.
"I wanted to create a solution to people's problems," said Atkin. "By then, I had spent enough time working with so many different brands and really honing in on my hair skills, and talking to numerous clients in the salon, that by the time 2014 came along I was like, 'God, I really wish that a brand spoke a little bit more like my friends, and felt more relatable, and had a social media aspect to it.' Because at the time, Instagram had only been out for a few years. I thought, 'I would really love to be able to speak to this community that follows me, and create a brand with and for these people.' It was just this notion of democracy."