How Tracey Cunningham Went From High School Haircuts to Hollywood Hair Colour

Cunningham didn't start doing her own hair until she was a teenager; her tool of choice being "the biggest pink foam rollers" that she could find. "I would wash my hair at night, put in the rollers, and I would just let it dry overnight," she said. "If I woke up and they weren't dry, I would take the blow dryer and dry them up, and it would just make it smoother." That was as far as she went in terms of experimenting with her own hair; she never dyed it — she was always the hairdresser.

Her reputation as the neighbourhood hairstylist spread when she started giving haircuts after school. "I would ask, 'Who needs a haircut?' And I would say, 'Okay, you can all come over to my house after school,'" Cunningham said.

Eventually, she progressed to doing hair colour as well when a friend of hers, who moved to Washington from Norway, wanted to lighten her naturally dirty blonde hair. "We went to Fred Meyer [editor's note: a supermarket] and we bought colour," said Cunningham.

Cunningham always knew the after-school hobby would become her career — it was those around her who took some convincing. "There's nobody like me in my family — everybody went to college and has normal jobs. But because I was so passionate about it, they were fine with it."

She advocated going to cosmetology school part-time while finishing her high school degree to her principal and started learning at the Gene Juarez Beauty Academy, which she calls "the nicest salon in Seattle," in their advanced training centre.

"You would pay to be in this program, but you would also work and get paid," Cunningham said. "I did the laundry, I swept, and I got people coffee. It was the best job, and I was so inspired." She did that while nannying for Bette Midler, who paid for the schooling.

It wasn't all smooth sailing. Being self-taught, a lot of what Cunningham was learning in beauty school went against how she had always done it. "I remember one of my teachers telling me that I didn't hold my blow-dryer properly — I don't hold it where everybody else holds it, I hold it by the nozzle," said Cunningham. "She said, 'You're not doing it right,' and I looked at her and said, 'If you can blow-dry hair as good as me, then I'll hold my blow-dryer like you.' That was not good to say."

After beauty school, Middler introduced her to Lily Aldridge's parents, Laura Lyons and Alan Aldridge, and her older brother Miles Aldridge, a fashion photographer (Lily was only four at the time). Miles had recently shot a W Magazine cover, which happened to be for former stylist Art Luna, or "Hollywood's Hippest Hairdresser," as the cover said in bold letters. Cunningham knew instantly that she had to work there and reached out. "It was a great experience," she said.

After that, word of her work spread in the celebrity circle. She began working with Portia de Rossi, then came Anjelica Huston, Angela Featherstone, and Renée Zellweger. It was all through word of mouth. "I thought I was sort of the flavour of the month, but it kept going," said Cunningham.

That was only the beginning. In 2007 she landed a coveted partnership with Redken, which has been going strong for 13 years now. In 2009, she experienced one of her favourite career moments to date when she did Drew Barrymore's hair for the cover of W Magazine. "We bleached her hair for 10 hours from brown to blonde, and it was just so incredible," she said. But every job she works on threatens to be even more memorable than the last.

Just last month, Cunningham flew to the Dominican Republic to do Jennifer Lopez's hair. She had finished a job the day before at 5 AM, had another client a few hours later at 9 AM, and then flew to J Lo that night. "After not being able to go nowhere for a year and a half, it was so cool."

All of that said, it might come as a surprise to learn that Cunningham second-guesses herself even now. "I doubt myself still. . . a lot," she said. "I always think what I do isn't good enough." In those moments, she tries to remember all that she's accomplished and all of the hard work that she's put into her career.

"You don't just get to be me overnight. You have to put in the work, and you can't give up before you're 30," said Cunningham. "I think it's so cool that you can rise so quickly with Instagram, and there's so much of an audience for hair, but you really have to pace yourself."