Phillip Todd has excelled as a hairdresser, colorist, educator, and editorial artist for over 25 years in Seattle and on the road as a platform artist and motivator for companies such as Avada and Redken, yet the effort does not show on his face or affect his gait. Despite his maturity, he is impossibly young with the enthusiasm of an apprentice sorcerer, and good-looking, like a Paul Newman replica.

We spoke to him at Milagros SalonSpa in Belltown, Seattle; a new addition to the galaxy of top-drawer salons in Seattle, WA recently. The salon is uber hip, a green construct of organic shapes and colors. There are amazing touches, like the glass bottle abstraction that is the shampoo area back bar and the nebulous cloth light globes that create a space filled with shadow-less light. Phillip was welcoming and open to any questions we had for him. We came in as a stranger and left as a friend.

The interview went by quickly and covered a range of questions about his remarkable career - a career that spanned a period of great changes and upheavals in the beauty industry. Phillip weathered it all and emerged from that troubled era as another warrior of Beauty, eager to spread Sassoon's and Horst's evocations to make beauty everyday and everywhere.

"I learn so much from students, they have such a fresh perspective. They take my whole belief system and turn it upside down."

Phillip-Todd fell in love with Hair Color while working the early part of his career in London, England. From London he returned home to the Northwest and went on in 1993 to become a platform artist and educator for International Beauty Show Group's American Team Y.E.S, a group dedicated to bringing young professionals to the forefront of the industry. He was invited by Redken 5th Avenue to work as an artist and educator in color.

"American Team Yes was a little bit like American Idol for the hair industry."

Phillip travels across the US as an Avada Haircolor Purefessional, and is Director of Color at Milagros- a Lisa Vann salon in the heart of hip Seattle. Before this, Phillip traveled between IBS trade shows in New York, Long Beach, Dallas, Toronto and Seattle, facilitated cutting and color classes around the Northwest and further, and owned his own salon in Seattle for a period. He was a very busy fellow and remains so today./p>

"While we may have the information in our head (to make new stylists successful), conveying it to someone is not easy. There are different learning types and levels of maturity and it is so difficult to get staff on the same page."

Phillip Todd sums up his remarkable talent best when he said "My belief is that every color that we do should absolutely have dimensional placement and interest. It doesn't have to be stark to be effective; sometimes beauty is in a whisper."

"I love the whole Mad Men resurgence: rollers, irons, flat irons. All are tools in my toy box. I see so much unfinished work today. We need to take the whole composition into consideration."

Hear the interview with Phillip Todd.

Visit the Milagros SalonSpa

Visit Phillip Todd on Model Mayhem

View the Phillip Todd profile on GoPretty

Edward Paul - Capelli d-Oro©2011

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