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The first thing you should knowabout Matt Newman is he has what he calls shitty hair.
Courtesy of Matt Newman
Like,hairthat never does quite exactly what he wants.
Hair that finds him, an hour before a big event, cursing at the mirror.
Hair that frizzes in the humidity and flattens in the rain.
But having shitty hair has turned out to be his secret weapon.
Like, how do I fix my flat hair?
Flip your head over!
Or, why does my high pony never look that high?
The about-face in his career is stunning to Newman but also poignant.
I worked so hard, he says.
I can never explain how freaking hard it felt like I worked for all those years.
To experience this payoff…I am so proud of myself.
It’s like, oh my God, I did that.
I cannot believe I did that.
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Newman, if you couldnt tellfrom his distinctly Midwestern twang, grew up in the suburbs of Detroit.
In high school in the 2000s, though, he did find an outlet.
Emo was my drag, he says.
But I never went full scene.
I wanted to not be looked at all as different in terms of sexuality.
One summer though, everything changed.
It was all because of one city and one boy.
The boy was named Gary, and there would be no @MattLovesHair without him.
It was the first time he had ever come out to anyone.
She was just trying to figure it out…and I was like, yeah.
And it was so insane.
I couldn’t believe I did that.
He and Gary dated for years, and Gary wasnt sure what he wanted to do with his life.
Newman didnt really wantGaryto go to beauty school.
But he was still nervous about going all in on his dream.
In that sense, I do feel he’s with me, Newman says.
It’s how I ended up where I am today.
I love being a hairstylist and I love connecting with people in this way.
Newman knew Gary would want him to live his life his way.
So he returned to New York and enrolled in beauty school.
He absolutely loved it but often felt like maybe the industry didnt love him back.
I always leaned into how fabulous I thought the work was.
I felt friggin badass.
In hindsight Newman thinks maybe he just wasnt a great fit.
He was earnest and Midwestern nice and sometimes didnt gel in the rarefied air of the fashion industry.
He struggled to find consistent work.
So he supplemented his income doing, he says, literally any odd job he could find.
He gigged at DryBar and Glam Squad.
The club was like the better version of DryBar, he says.
There was no wet hair….
It was just at night and it was all for cash.
I loved it and I loved the company that I was in.
Different women from different places and different backgrounds just coming together in a slightly competitive environment.
Then, of course, came the pandemic.
At first, he made some funny videos, tried his hand at comedy.
Then Newmans partner, Jeffrey, gave him a fairly obvious idea.
Why dont you just make some hair videos?
I was sitting there scrolling…and I saw this viral photo of a before-and-after hair thing.
So I had this flashback to thinking that night, Oh, I should have used social media.
Why the hell didn’t I do that?
So let me do it now.
Newman knew though that he wouldnt be making aspirational hair videos.
When I first started this, most hairstylists did all their content on clients, he explains.
I made videos showing my tips as a hairstylist on myself…. Of course, thats not all.
What Newman does on his channel, while incredibly simple, is surprisingly profound.
It’s the worst!
And you know what?
Even when you’re in that realm of practicing, it happens.
Everybody gets there from doing it over and over again, Newman says.
Youve got to start somewhere.
And that’s why so much of my content is the basics.
In a world of aspirational social media content, the basics may be what many of us need.
Hes open to wherever that takes him.
And I just really hope that’s how it continues to go.
Inevitably, by the end of our conversation, I have one question I am dying to ask.
So how do I fixmyhair?
Practice on a friend and practice on yourself, he says.
I guess it’s kind of boring advice."
At the end of the day, its all about how you feel.
You get to decide that.
Stephanie McNeal is a senior editor atGlamourand the authorofSwipe Up for More!
Inside the Unfiltered Lives of Influencers.
