This is not to say there weren't hurdles. In fact, there were many.
It wasn't just investors shooting down her business idea for Ouai ("they'd say, you're not famous enough' or 'this isn't the right time,'" she recalled) or hustling to get her foot in the door, although there was plenty of that. At the time of her rise, the hairstyling business was also known for being male-dominated and highly competitive.
I had to believe in myself. In the same way I looked at Dave Matthews like, 'This is a human being who created success for himself out of his talent,' I looked in the mirror at my own success.
"There weren't a lot of women to look up to in the industry at the time," said Atkin. "That's changed dramatically, which is awesome to see, but I always felt like I don't belong. This is a boy's game. I understand as a woman what it feels like to have a gorgeous gay man doing your hair, and I never felt like I could compete with that. But I had to push that aside and believe in myself. In the same way I looked at Dave Matthews like, 'This is a human being who created success for himself out of his talent' — I had to look in the mirror at my own success."
Still, after 10 years of "living on a plane, in the salon, on set," as she describes it, Atkin reached a breaking point. "I hit a wall and my body just gave out. I was I was go, go, go all the time and doing too much. I was very guilty of being a part of the hustle porn culture, constantly saying yes to everything. If I wasn't working, I was still working. I just felt like I didn't deserve to have a day off. I got a herniated disc in my neck from being on my phone and computer all the time. My body said, Enough."
Finally she ditched her phone for a week and headed to the Hoffman Institute, a psychotherapy camp, to reprioritise her mental health. She was in the middle of writing her first book — aptly titled Blowing My Way to the Top — and it quickly became her reason to slow down and reflect. It was the ironic luxury she hadn't afforded herself until then.
"I never had enough time to really stop and look at my journey," she said. "So I set aside my old job log, because I kept track of every job I've ever had in a Google Doc, and then I went through my photo albums, and my Blackberry photos, and then my iPhoto, year by year, and just started writing down a jogged memories."