I established Erin Athey Hair in 2013 after a lifelong obsession with hair and personal expression. My first salon job was as an assistant when I was 17, and I knew then that I wanted to create a career in the beauty industry. My parents were less confident in that as a path and I spent the next several years attending colleges, working in art and eyewear retail, and playing music until I hit a wall and decided that despite what anyone else thought, I was going to hair school. I gave my notice at my job and enrolled the next day.
From there, I relocated to Los Angeles, where I again went through a beauty program at the world renowned Vidal Sassoon Academy while working in restaurants and wine bars to pay the bills. In 2009 I received my California license and proceeded to assist for a year, and then move into a position as a junior stylist at a well known salon in Hollywood that also had a regimented and in-depth training program. During that time I submitted my work to the Wella Young Talent Award and was a finalist for my look in 2011. I left the large salon and spent a brief period at a boutique salon in Los Feliz before deciding it was time to branch out on my own and establish my own business. It has been about 10 years since that decision was made, and i wouldn’t have had it any other way.
