With Steven Meisel, I'd looked at his work from afar and always loved it, and when I started to work with him, I was blown away. He taught me so much about looking at women and looking at images.

I didn't know I wanted to be a hairdresser. I was always interested in fashion and imagery in a very naive way, but it was always an attraction, like glitter balls. This was in the late '70s, early '80s, so it wasn't like today, where you kind of know all about the industry. Fashion was a very insider industry then - it was very closed. So I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I worked in salons, where you do learn the basic sort of thing. But I didn't know anything about the kinds of things I'm doing now. I learned how to put hot-rollers in.

Fashion is emotional, and the way women look at it is emotional, so it's very important to try to connect with a woman's idea of how she might feel.

It's hard to be shocking now. It's hard to challenge people because the Internet has allowed everyone to become much more worldly, much more visual. It's very hard to surprise people.

Beauty shouldn't be taken too seriously. Life is stressful enough! Hair should be creative and crazy.

Even though the industry is very big and there's lots of money, when it gets down to it, whether it's a photographer or a designer, as well as a stylist or makeup artist, you're really only working with maybe four or five people on a project. It's all quite small and intimate.