Shortly after, he began his apprenticeship under a master stylist. Then Fitzsimons was approached to do hair for a photo shoot: "I got my taste of being on set for the first time at 15 and loved it," he says. A few months later, he quit to pursue hairstyling full time.
Fitzsimons knew he needed a portfolio, so he walked into a bookstore, bought a family photo album, and added the images from his recent photo shoot work. With it, he walked into a local agency and said something to the effect of: "You guys need to sign me. I'm the future of hair. I have meetings with a million different agencies." But he didn't. "I was just trying my best to fake it until I made it."
It worked. He was signed to the agency on the spot, allowing him to work in fashion, TV, and film in Ireland for about a year before moving to France. "I was 16 years old living by myself in Paris," Fitzsimons says. "I was doing fashion week, I did McQueen's last show, I was shooting the biggest magazines and really immersing myself in fashion, learning everything I could."
After five years, at 21 years old — purposefully, so he could legally drink — he moved to New York City. That's where Fitzsimons discovered the celebrity side of the industry. "I remember seeing my first photoshoot on a magazine stand," he says. "It wasn't a very popular magazine, but I thought, 'God, people are going to see what I did.' The power of being able to create something and being proud of it, and then having other people enjoying it, became intoxicating."