From Carpenter to Hall of Fame Hair Artist w/ Paul Mac
Award-winning stylist @paulmacspecial was a small town barber who secretly entered a hair competition - and won. He shares the amazing story of growing to be an internationally recognized hair artist, and the growing pains he had trying to leave small-minded individuals behind.
Award-winning stylist @paulmacspecial was a small town barber who secretly entered a hair competition – and won. He shares the amazing story of growing to be an internationally recognized hair artist, and the growing pains he had trying to leave small-minded individuals behind.
All right, Paul Max special.
You're an internationally renowned Irish barber, educator, judge, editorial stylist, and
self-taught avant-garde hairpiece designer.
It's a mouthful right there.
You do a lot.
You.
You've won too many awards to name.
I started writing them down and then I'm like, no, you know, the listeners as they're
driving to the salon in the morning, you know, they don't, I don't need to list all like
35, you know, awards, but you've, you've won a lot of awards.
You've had more than 30 magazine covers and you're the founder of Harris layers, the
international education brand, which we just mentioned.
So I was in Ireland, uh, about two weeks ago.
On away with the part.
I just kind of blew through Dublin, Dublin.
And I started in London with my family.
We did a few days there and then we did a few days in Scotland and I'd never been to
Scotland.
And then we hopped across to Dublin and we had three days in Dublin.
My family is Irish.
I have a lot of Irish.
You can look at me and you can tell.
My wife, similar.
My daughter looks like
looks like she's strolling through the Irish countryside when you just see a picture of
her.
And I figured we had to go to Ireland.
I'd never been there before.
Have you traced back your ancestry?
Do you know which part of Ireland?
Oh, I did.
Well, I did the 23 and me.
I don't know if that's tracing back well enough, but I did that and I had, I'm in on my
mutt, right?
I got things from everywhere.
I have, you know, every Eastern Europe, Italian, my dad's side is Italian, but most of
what I am is Irish.
I don't know that it got very specific.
I know that Ireland is a pretty big piece of land and you've got Northern Ireland, you've
got the Republic of Ireland.
I learned all these things and the Reformation and all these things.
I got earfuls of this stuff and it was so fascinating and I enjoyed talking to everybody
so much.
And the one takeaway from the entire experience was just how darn nice everybody is.
And like there were times when I'm somebody who's being super nice to us and I'm thinking
like, are they going to want a tip or whatever?
You know, it just kind of felt like, you know, they are going to ask for money and just,
you know, and then I'm like, well they don't tip.
So it's like, they're just being extremely nice.
And, and that's kind of what we left with.
It was really an extraordinary experience.
And, and I can't wait to go back.
Yeah, generally any Americans that come here get on well and really like the place.
I've met a few who've, they might have just been kind of doing a semester here in uni or
whatever and they end up staying and working and staying here for a few years and stuff.
So yeah, that would be quite regular.
But I find the same.
I love going to the States.
I love the…
the enthusiasm and the kind of welcoming and like everyone's very positive and kind of
thankful.
you know, like my wife is from Wales in the UK and she says like that the Irish all that
were about want to be American rather than the British are kind of like their own kind of
thing that like I think Ireland kind of sees the States as kind of big brother, little
brother kind of thing going on, you know, so.
We all get on well.
uh
yeah, 100%, 100%.
And of course the history, you guys have longer history than we do.
So it's always fascinating to see how far back things go.
you get a nice perspective of human nature over millennia, over 1,500 years, over all this
span of time, which is always very special.
yeah, a lot of it felt like home.
So it was really, really neat.
And we've interviewed other Irish barbers, on the show, Ryan Collin.
I'm sure you know Ryan.
ah It's been a few years since we talked to Ryan, but um actually Ryan's accent was
brutal.
Like I really struggled to understand Ryan.
I had been, I don't remember if I did my interview in person.
He came out for the Lookbook show years ago.
Some of the listeners might remember that.
Um, and some, some other UK hairdressers came out for that, but Ryan was the hardest one
to understand.
I can understand, I can understand you perfectly, but he's tough.
can't give much away but I did some filming recently with Ryan and Hayden Cassidy for some
potential kind of TV work.
I saw it sweet, you see kind of thing but there's big things in the pipeline so that's all
I can say with the three of us involved.
Very good, very good.
Well, we'll wait for that.
I'm sure you're gonna announce on social media.
Let's start with you with your origin story.
Where are you from and how did you get into hair?
Why did you get into hair?
Okay, so I'm from a little place in West Cork called Aheol.
It's in the middle of the country.
Like my parents' house you can't see a neighbour's house, trees, fields, cows.
And like I was always the kind of black sheep kind of down there.
know, everyone is very conservative.
uh Everyone works in an office or in a building site.
I was never academic in school.
I was always crafty, kind good with my hands.
I actually started off when I left, say high school, doing carpentry.
Like I had done a lot of that over summers and kind of things like that.
And I was doing for the kitchens, but I found it quite boring.
To be honest, I knew in my gut that I wanted to do hair more, but my dad…
is like very kind of old school kind of Irish.
And he was like, no, you do this job now, little kind of Arra make a man out of you kind
of thing.
So I did it for a few months, but like I was fucking miserable.
The boss was just a bit of a head case and everything was like, fuck this and fuck that.
Oh, you have to monitor.
And just like fag hanging out about 24 seven.
And if he left the workshop for half an hour, he'd give you about three hours work.
just in case you might have two minutes to yourself.
So I was like, not for me, definitely not.
I would have…
is in the cabinetry shop.
It was of Fiddy Kitchens, yeah.
Like I would have liked something more like, you know, antique restoration or something
kind of dead crafty.
But the Kitchens was just pretty much screwing MDF together.
And like I just found it very repetitive and you're not meeting anyone else.
You know, it just wasn't for me.
And then…
So as soon as I could, started, know, I went, initially when I tried to get a barber
apprenticeship, I was just faced with a lot of kind of setbacks, like back in the day, 20
something years ago, generally shops, unless you were like related to them, it was all get
attractive girls in to kind of get the lads in, you know?
And like the haircuts weren't kind of that technical back in the day.
So I was like, and there wasn't many kind of shops back in the day.
was like, you know, they were scattered and like generally they were like Turkish barber
shops or like very kind of old school kind of barber shops.
But like I remember in particular one of the kind of the only trendy one at the time and
kind of going in and like, you know, I just kind of going in and
like, can I get an apprenticeship, blah, blah, and like, come back and we're qualified,
come back and qualified.
And it's like, how am I gonna get qualified if no one kind of gives me a break?
So then I went and I went to St.
John's College, a hairdressing college.
I studied there.
um I still have like a lot of kind of links there.
I go back every year and I'm judged to kind of national hairdressing student competition
that they always kind of hold there.
And like they've been very good to me when I've wanted to kind of host classes in Cork
with kind of other educators and stuff.
So like they've really cool auditorium there that I've used a few times.
So I left there then and I went to Tony and Guy.
and so at St.
John's, like, how many hours or how long did that take you to get your hair education
there?
It was a full time course, but my attendance was the greatest.
I'd never missed a hair practical, but when we were doing stuff like the business and
science and like computers and all, like I was playing a lot of kind of sport at the time
for the college team and stuff.
And I'd often use that as an excuse when I'd be like, I'm over from the night before.
I have a match, can't come in, but I used to kind get away with murder, but that I was
like, that they could, guess, see that I kind of had the flair for the hair part, they
kind of let me away with it.
And there wasn't too many guys in the course either, so yeah.
I kind of winged my way through it, yeah.
And so then I went to Tony and Guy, and I was there for a year, and I…
Yeah, but more as a junior, like a trainee, but made really good kind of friends and
connections that I'd be still in contact with a lot of them to this day.
And they've been very kind of supportive of my career and stuff.
But like, I wanted to be doing like the funky haircuts that I seen on the window or on the
wall.
I didn't want to be like shampooing old nanas and like doing curly blow dries and
hints and so like the four-year apprenticeship I was just like I can't hack this out you
know I did a year and I left and then I went to a barber's and I was like I after trying
all of the other shops I went to this shop and this is a funny story actually so it was
actually it was dead quiet like she'd me like cleaning shelves twice a day and stuff to
just to keep you busy it was like
And like there wasn't enough work to keep the two barbers there.
So I don't know how they thought they were going to take on an apprentice.
like so I came back from like getting the paper or something the Friday morning and like
the envelope was ready with my wages and was like, we have to let you go.
And I was like, what?
After like four or five days.
And I was like, it's like, you're.
I don't think your attitude is right.
You're staring out the window.
You came in hungover one day and Tony, guy, everyone would be hungover all the time.
It was just the norm.
Like it's what I knew.
So I was like, what the fuck?
Like, so then I remember I like one of them going, oh, like, I don't think the hair, the
barber industry is for you.
And I remember going, I'm going to fucking show the two of them.
And I was walking up the road like freak going.
How am I going to tell my mom?
I was staying in college house where my friends were doing like fucking law and accounting
and pharmacy and things.
And I was like, I'm doing barbering and I fucked this up already.
I was like, oh my God.
So was like, So I left there and I'll go back to that.
It's funny going back to that story.
So years later then, um
a girl with a successful salon in town kind of message going, thanks for liking our page,
blah, Congrats on all your success and all the rest of it.
So I was like, oh, thanks for much great to see you guys doing well as well.
But I goes, the girl in your profile picture kind of say different and she goes, what do
mean?
She goes, no, no, no.
She's like your biggest fan.
She's showing your pictures around the staff room daily, whatever, blah, blah, blah.
And I goes, no, no.
day starting off uh I worked with her she said the hair industry wasn't for me blah blah
blah and your one was like that's so weird I'm gonna say that to her tomorrow and then
like your one was super embarrassed she never knew it was this I was the same person and
so then maybe a few months later the hair awards when I won and she kind of kept looking
over and when we were kind of up the bar and I was like
You remember me now?
I was just like, yeah, I I waited fucking years for that moment.
But you know what?
We made up and we get on good now and it's water under revenge.
like, when…
did she admit that she had to let you go because they didn't have the business?
No, no, it wasn't kind of said that way.
It wasn't her shop.
She was kind of like, I guess, the manager.
was her friend's shop.
yeah, no, just kind of, Irish don't really kind of, we just rush things under the carpet.
So yeah, it's all good though.
That's very funny.
So after you left that shop, you were dejected.
You had to tell your mom, and your dad, and you know, which was, I'm sure really…
and let me think now.
think I went, yeah, I went abroad for the summer to like Ionappa in Cyprus, similar to
Ibiza kind of thing.
So worked there, just kind of, you know, kind of.
cutting hair on balconies just kind of for all the workers and that kind of stuff.
And then when I came back and I had a bit of a gap where like still couldn't find a job.
I had no like experience and stuff.
So I went working kind of part-time in a nightclub and then I started doing a kind of
barber course.
So I would have done that for kind of six months and then, you know,
I pretty much begged the shop that I did it in to like, worked for free, just give me a
chance, just kind of get my foot in the door.
So I did that for a while and I was there and I was there for eight years and generally it
was good.
But the last few months when I started kind of really, you know,
Until I was 30, I had never done a photo shoot.
I had never entered a competition in any of that.
Never knew all that side of the industry.
And I won't name any names, but the boss discouraged me going, oh, you're only little
barber and carp.
They'd only be laughing at you up in Dublin.
Don't even bother wasting your time and money.
So I entered my first competition.
um
he said that, you entered it.
Yeah, told no one, didn't tell my parents, literally no one, my wife and the two models.
I went, I won, I was the first barber to ever win it.
Up against all the big, huge salons.
And one salon in particular that I had done work experience when I was in St.
John's, did it for…
a few months, but one wanted to take me on, another of the owners didn't, and I beat the
two of them into second and third place.
Yeah, and they had already won the women's, come first and second, it looked like they
were gonna clear the board, but then I won, and at the time I was like charging 13 euro
haircut, you know?
god, are you kidding me?
they were the biggest shop in town.
Wow.
And how long ago was this?
Hmm.
Let me think.
So I'm gonna be 42 next week.
I would have been 30 at the time 12 years ago.
Yeah.
pounds or 13 euros.
That's unbelievable.
Unbelievable.
Okay.
So, I mean, so far this story is amazing, right?
That you've got all this, all these headwinds and your passion clearly for the industry,
for the craft is pushing you to continue to find any possible way for you to get into the
industry.
and then your talent clearly is being recognized through these efforts, finally.
how did you, so when you won, did you go home and, know, to mom and dad where you're like,
look.
Yeah, but you know, my mom is like me, she's more a talker.
And like one of my sisters is a talker.
And then like my dad and kind of the other sister who's like a policewoman, they're more
kind of stern and kind of serious.
So if my dad is kind of complimentary, I nearly hear it more secondhand from people
than…
directly from him and like he doesn't kind of get the hair kind of thing.
Cause even like, I remember when I got inducted into the Irish Hair Wrestling Hall of
Fame, that's the only night he was ever kind of at one of the things.
And you know, you had people kind of coming up going, you should be so proud, blah.
And he was like, yeah, yeah, But I'm like, I was hearing a thing, but not generally.
Like my dad would be more kind of into sport and building type work and you know, like
he'd kind of think more that like I'm an ambassador for Jameson.
My dad would think that's bigger than winning awards internationally and stuff, you know.
Yeah.
that's so funny.
Okay, so your talent is being recognized, and where were you working at the time?
I don't want to name the place because I go into it because it went to shit.
That was the start of it because so I won in the first six months, I won three Irish
titles and two internationally.
And the shot, but it just led to more negativity and drama in the shop and me getting
busier.
And they never once put up a social media post.
wishing me well or like, you know, congratulating me, whatever.
like, because it went from just kind of like a normal barber shop, a bit kind of, shall I
say a bit of a chubby kind of clientele to getting a bit more kind of cooler and kind of
alternative and stuff and clients coming in for me and waiting and like.
I'd ask if I could do appointments that would free up the waiting room and the boss would
be giving out the clientele, like there's no point waiting for him, go over to John there,
he's not special there, go over to him there, you'll get the exact same haircut.
But I could be after doing the consultation the night before with clients sending pictures
and can I get this done, can I get that?
And usually, we're kind of younger guys who are like, oh, no, no, I went away for Paul
Mack.
the boss and some other staff kind of didn't like that.
this is a bit of a story.
then, before I was going to Lisbon for the American Crew All-Star Challenge that I was
representing Ireland after winning the Irish leg of it.
And then I was going with Team Ireland to Frankfurt for the OMC World Hair Awards the week
after.
And the boss had said, uh seeing as I haven't sponsored you so far, we'll pay for your
flights going to Germany.
So I was like, OK, great.
Then a month before, oh, yeah, we can't afford that.
You don't see any other guys looking for
sponsoring for football or golf or anything, but it was like, your shop is all over the
local newspapers and stuff from what I'm kind of doing.
So then I went to the kind of, I guess I messaged the kind of other more silent partner
kind of going, know, I hope you can kind of help me, whatever, blah, blah, or else I'll
have to look at going somewhere else.
And after a big reply, obviously they had conferred.
But all I got back from it was like, if you think you've outgrown the place, so be it.
So I was like, cool.
After eight years.
So then I went in, the following came back from work that weekend.
And like, you could cut the tension with a knife.
And like I said to a few of the workers, I was like, what's up here?
they were like, nothing.
And he had me cleaning, that the juniors would do, and just shitty vibes, just like,
boasting about how he was getting a new car, and just all this mad stuff.
was like reality TV, the last month I worked there.
then, yeah, yeah.
And so then, I had to put the head down and just get on with it.
Because I needed my holiday pay going or I couldn't afford to go and all the rest of it.
So then uh the local nightclub, there was a big DJ playing the Saturday before I was
leaving for Lisbon, say, on the Tuesday for the awards.
And they were like, we'll give you a kind of VIP night for a few friends to kind of wish
you luck, blah, blah.
So I was like, cool.
And like one of the guys who I worked with was in there and like we were kind of up on a
different level and he was just kind of nudging his buddy and just kind of pointing up and
kind of like that.
And I was like, what the fuck is, oh, I've enough of this shit and work.
And then he kind of came up to me and he was like, oh, we're all shit, is it?
We all do nothing, all these sit out back reading books and this and that.
I was like.
What the fuck you want about?
And he goes, I seen the text message you sent to we call her Mary.
And I was like, what do you want about?
I goes, I have the text here if you want to look.
And he was like, no, no, no, fucking rah rah rah.
I grow on my face.
And we came to blows.
And like, we were literally, yeah, yeah.
After working with each other for, yeah, yeah, yeah.
For four or five years.
um the part of the club, was in the,
the bouncers, took a while to get there.
there was a clip down the rungs on social media for about a minute and a half of us kind
of going at it.
And then I had to go in and work with him, just the two of us on the Monday, Tuesday,
whatever, because I needed my holiday pay to go.
like, but I went up to him, goes, put out the hand, I goes, fair enough, we shouldn't have
been fighting, but I goes, you will see in time, that's the only wrong they've done in
this situation.
And so went to Lisbon, won the Men's Health Magazine Award out of 1100 worldwide, came
home, went into the shop.
No congrats from any of them in there.
I sat there while the owner was finishing a haircut and he goes, you wanna talk to me?
He goes, no, goes, you wanna stop for minute and clear up the bullshit you've been telling
people.
I goes, I seen that text message you sent, you're obviously after doctoring that I had
sent Mary.
um he goes, you're no one to be coming here demanding staff meetings.
Go on away now and fuck off to your hairdressing competition in fucking Frankfurt.
And I goes, I had my, well, my wife had my, what is it, your kind of termination or
contract, whatever letter written up.
And like, I literally like a frisbee, fucked it at him and I goes, you've always been
jealous of my kind of success.
You're nothing but a bully.
Go fuck yourself.
Walked out the door, best feeling ever.
And I was over in the new shop, half an hour later, prepping my model for Frankfurt.
And then the guy who I had to fight with and a few of them were messaging and they were
like, oh my God, I didn't think I'd come to this blah blah blah, our heads are wrecked.
and you send us those messages, um sent the screen grabs, message back, oh shit, they're
totally different to, we call them, what John showed us in the staff room.
I goes like, I never gave you a reason to doubt me, you know he does some shady shit, but
like you just didn't wanna believe it.
I goes, bit late now, best of luck.
And so then when I left and I was in.
hold on a second.
Hold on.
So the salon owner doctored texts in order to get the staff against you.
As you as you're doing better and better.
That is wild stuff.
And of course, there are some listeners listening to this and they're like, Eric, I've got
better stories for you.
Yeah.
So then, like the guys that were there were literally on the daily doing laps passing my
new shop, what would become my shop down the road.
like say for two years, I was kind of renting the back room.
from there and until I took it over then down the line.
So then I went back to St John's College and I was teaching a class for the students and
afterwards some of students came up and they were like, oh we really want to do your class
but like it's so confusing that there's two Paul Mack.
classes and I goes no it goes like there's me and that's kind of it oh but that old shop
you was working he said his nickname was Paul Mac and um yeah yeah yeah so I like he was
doing the classes and refusing to give back deposits claiming Paul Mac was his nickname
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
And like say anytime clients that wouldn't have been on like social media or whatever came
into the shop looking for me, this could be a year or two later and he'd be like, he's
just gone to the shop, have a seat there.
He let him sit there for 20 minutes, whatever, and be like, oh, something's come up.
I look after you today and he can get you the next time.
They get butchered and come back to me and be like, fucking whatever.
And I'm like.
Lard, my lesteria or two go what the fuck, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
So normally at the end of an episode, we do what's called the hair horror story where I
asked for hair horror stories, but it looks like we just walked right into one.
seen them too.
I've a good one that happened in Tony and Guy that's a bit mad.
So we keep that for tonight.
All right.
We'll keep that one.
Wow.
That is crazy stuff.
All right.
Well, I love that story.
Thanks for telling that.
these days, so you do a lot.
So in the intro, barber, educator, judge, editorial, you know, with the magazine coverage,
you do the avant-garde, the hair pieces.
There's a lot to talk about.
But I want to, I want to, my, one of my first questions is,
I'm curious what you think about when you go to a restaurant and there's a lot of other
customers around and you're looking around at some of the guys and their hairstyles.
Like what are you thinking these days?
Like what are you seeing out there?
uh It's definitely got a lot cooler in recent times.
There's a lot more mullets and stuff now that there wouldn't have been.
Ireland would have been just way behind the times compared to the UK or the States back in
the day.
But say the last 15 years maybe, it's really caught up.
Then it went through a phase of just
skin fade, skin fade, which would predominantly be the main cuts that I do.
But it is good that there's a lot more kind of mullets and stuff.
Stuff that I would seen in LA back pre-COVID 2019 has finally come to Ireland now.
But there is misconception.
what people would be kind of seeing of the work I do on stage or kind of editorial shoots
and stuff that I'm doing all these mad kind of funky hairstyles all day.
I wish that was more the case, but I only get a few of them.
I might get two of them at Fortnite, be honest, two or three.
Ireland's still quite kind of conservative.
And what tends to happen is…
people can kind of, when they leave high school and in uni they might be like studying art
or you know someone might be doing like a tattoo apprenticeship or whatever.
So you get a window of a year or two where they're kind of more alternative and they don't
give shit and they kind of go mad and but then people like tone things down like Ireland
kind of.
In Ireland a lot,
you know, people hate Terti or they get married and they just get super conservative, you
know, with their clothing and hair and kind of, so yeah, there's kind of a lot of that.
Like, so that's why I love especially going with kind of hair slayers going to the States
that, you know, there's such a kind of vast selection of models and kind of more black
sheep like me, you know.
Right.
No, I love it.
So, so to that point, how do you split your time these days?
How many days behind the chair?
How many days traveling for whatever shows, education?
um I do four days behind the chair.
I mind my two sons Monday, Tuesdays and then they're in kind of fresh, creche and
preschool the other three days.
And so I work Wednesday to Saturday generally and I kind of do the head pieces night time.
I'm more night owl anyway, like definitely always have been.
So generally my working hours most days
I kind of work till 12 till 7 or 8 or 9.
You know, that suits me better.
Like back in the day when I was working for people and having to be in at 9am killed me.
I just hated it.
Like so working, I guess more tattooist hours, 12 till 8 or 9 suits me better, definitely.
And then by the time, you know, you kind of get the kids to bed, have some time.
with my wife, Charlotte, whatever.
Generally, when I'd be doing the headpieces and stuff, I'd start at midnight and I could
work to the kind of three or four.
That's when I'm kind of in the zone, you know?
I loved lockdown.
Most people hated it.
Ireland was in lockdown for nine months.
Our biggest lockdown, we put down tools Christmas Eve and we didn't open again until the
first of June.
And like most people were going crazy.
I taught myself how to do the headpieces.
Like I'd never done art in school.
We didn't do it in our school.
um I watched the Alexander McQueen documentary.
It's on Netflix.
One of the best thing I've ever watched.
I've watched it a few times.
And in particular, it was his collaborations with Philip Tracy, the headpiece designer.
They're kind of collaborations from the nineties.
fashion shows that really kind of blew my mind.
And I just started kind of ordering shit off Amazon and kind of taught myself and kind of
off I went.
like, what I love about them is that, you know, I can do it in my kind of own time.
And in a sense, it's like they're wearing a hat.
You can get really good models.
It's not affecting their overall appearance.
It's like they're putting on a hat for a shoot and taking it off or going on a runway.
So that really kind of helps.
And you do the one and you can kind of get four or five kind of shoots out of it.
And it's great to see what other kind of photographers, makeup artists, et cetera, kind of
like clothing brands and stuff can kind of bring
bring your vision to the next level, know, kind of take it up a notch.
So I love collaborating and that's kind of why I started hair slayers, because generally I
found that kind of my own and other kind of more alternative hairstylists, their work
wasn't at the time, we're talking about kind of six years ago, wasn't kind of getting the
platform that I'd say apart from Aesthetica,
um Shout out to Sergi who's always been a great support from day one.
I've done quite a few front covers for Estetica.
I don't know if you can see in the background there, but this is my home studio.
um
of magazine covers in the background.
You can see it on YouTube.
You could also go onto Instagram and I'm perusing Instagram right now and the avant-garde
head pieces are unbelievable.
I mean, it's…
I'll show you guys one or two of them.
They're on a shelf here.
So two seconds.
So this one, this was for Bambi Tug who represented Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest
and I've collaborated quite a lot with Bambi and like they were recently on tour with
Poppy and
baby metal around Europe and they've played download festival and like they're really kind
of blowing up.
This one was actually featured by Vogue on their Instagram.
It won Vogue's best kind of I don't know Halloween kind of look.
The make-up artist that we used for the hair slayers event in
in Sarasota that I co-hosted with BottleBland and we had a really good Macbethist there ah
from Chicago.
What her Insta is like, Muse, M-U-S-E.
So she entered it.
So that was really good.
I'll show you my most recent one.
So.
I mean, these things I'm still perusing and I'm finding on Instagram the things that
you're showing us.
Oh my God.
Okay, so it looks like a spider, your most recent.
So this one, how long did that take?
You see, it's hard to kind of put a time on them when I just kind of make them when I kind
of can.
So it took a few weeks, I guess.
Yeah, kind of hours here and there at night.
This I made originally for my wife's maternity shoot.
It was one of the first ones kind of I ever made.
It's actually made out of one of the Perspex PPE COVID visors that I put a load of like
resin and shit, stuck a load of stuff on it.
uh
you melted down the resin from the COVID era masks to make that?
Jesus.
I mean, that's seriously next level.
listeners, so as, as Paul is showing us all this stuff, you got to go to the YouTube
channel.
All right, here we go.
my God, that is unbelievable.
What is that?
Is that plastic or paper?
resin again yeah so I might put resin and kind of gold flakes through it to give that kind
of leaf effect so
you paint it to get the colors?
Um, no, they're actually gold flecks kind of in built into the resin So they're kind of in
a part of it.
Like I'm more I'm not the best at painting I am kind of improving but like I'm more a
sculptor with kind of like shapes and textures and stuff than actually um Like someone
who's really good at painting so i'll just show you this one last one so
sculpture.
Okay, so this one I saw on Instagram.
so is that metal?
It couldn't be metals.
That would be too heavy.
So a lot of it is like I use foam clay.
it's like sort of like clay though that you kind of shape and then you kind of over time
it kind of hardens and goes kind of rock hard but it's really good material to work with.
uh
that's really unbelievable stuff.
so give us an idea of where the idea comes.
So the one that you just showed us, the gold one, let's say, with the horns.
So do you come up with the vision for that?
And do you draw it out?
um I'd say above average at drawing, but I wouldn't consider myself like great or like
naturally the best drawer.
generally I Photoshop bits together.
I kind of make mood boards and like I chop bits up and I kind of stick them together.
See how it looks in person.
Because generally, if I just sat down with a load of stuff and it was all in my head,
there'd be just too much going on.
I need to physically see it in front of me.
And that way then I can kind of send it to, like say, the designer of the outfit or the
makeup artist or the model or whatever.
So everyone kind of, everyone's on the kind of one wavelength and they kind of get the
whole vibe of what I'm kind of.
trying to achieve and like generally I kind of have I try and stick with the same kind of
creative team like because I've had some kind of shit shows with photographers over the
years like like ah just egos and dick measuring you know that like it's just it's meant to
be like like I've had people reach out to me that they want to shoot my work and then
They're like, when you're trying to, usually on set it's grand, but it's just when it
comes to the editing process, that's when the shit show starts that like, cause I always
say to them beforehand, like hair editing or say the head pieces is a lot more tedious
than a fashion shoot where the model just has to look kind of pretty.
So like, yeah, I've had some fucking nightmares there.
So I'm blessed now to have found really good people that.
I like collaborating with a lot and like and like in terms of make back this like my
friend Liam, Liam B um is incredibly is one of the best kind of drag queens in Ireland.
And like he does like everything from kind of, you know, Hollywood glamour to like fucking
mental Marilyn Manson stuff, which is more my kind of vibe.
So, yeah, we've done some.
great stuff together and like, he was just in Manchester and we've done shows in Dublin.
Like I did the halftime show of the Irish Hair Awards, which usually people have pretty
models walking up and down in line, but I had five drag performers that were like
creatures and I had like Slipknot and like.
Wow.
horror visuals from like The Shining and Nosferatu and oh all that.
Like it started off all nice with kind of like Labyrinth and Edward Scissorhands and kind
of Sweet Dreams was playing and it was just all nice and then it just turned and just went
batshit and yeah I think I freaked the shit out of half the audience but people that I
thought wouldn't have got it loved it so I was very kind of
very happy with that.
so, yeah, and another one I want to mention when it comes to kind of my work would be
Ryan, who'd be my kind of right hand man who do all the retouching and editing of my
images and like kind of branding and logos and stuff.
like he saved some shit shows from photographers.
Like I swear to God the befores and afters, like, cause like what I'd be generally, I'm so
OCD with things.
I'd be happy with how the hair looks on the day.
And especially with the head pieces I've even more time to play around with.
So like they're fucking good to go on today.
The head piece itself say doesn't need much editing, but like some of what hard was it's
just like.
the fucking between the lighting and angles and this and that and like, and some then
won't let you kind of direct and like, they're just not hitting the spot or the vibe or
the angle where it all kind of comes together.
but like Ryan has done miracles with like swapping heads, like the best body pose and the
head piece from another nearly taking a face from another and like,
blending it all together flawlessly.
So the editing, and he just gets, I don't even have to explain it, and he knows what I
mean.
He just kinda gets the vibe, gets my, gets it, so yeah.
so important, so important.
That's what the art director is for.
And you just need to, you need to direct it.
And if you get a photographer who wants to direct it, then you guys are gonna butt heads.
And uh that's not good.
So part of the creative process is knowing who's in control.
And for everybody knowing who's in control.
And yeah, I mean, these pictures are…
absolutely unbelievable.
uh again, listeners, Paul Max special on Instagram.
Are you on TikTok too?
Is Instagram kind of your home base for people discovering you?
definitely Instagram.
Facebook then is just more for family and friends kind of thing, know.
um Instagram, 100%.
I just can't get into TikTok.
I've tried, like, I don't have a personal TikTok.
We have a hair slayers one, but like, I never updated.
I just kinda, I just find, like, there's so much work.
goes into the Instagram alone that like I just don't have time to try and grow TikTok as
well, you know?
So yeah, I just kind of leave TikTok to the side.
like, and I remember I used hate and reels with a passion.
used just, because I used to nearly find editing a picture like nearly relaxing in a
sense, but I used to find making reels so fucking tedious.
Like.
Cause I'm just so precise with a thing and if it wasn't a hundred percent, I'd be like
nearly fucking deleted, fuck this.
like I've kind of got, there's an app called InShot and it's nearly like editing for
dummies and it's down to the ground.
So yeah, I've definitely kind of gotten more into it.
But like I've so much stuff on my phone that like I could do a lot more kind of behind the
scenes and the making of.
that if like, but now as well that like we've only moved out since December, like we
bought our first home and between set, thank you, between setting up the home studio and
like having two young boys and fucking work and this and that and like the renovating and
garden and this and that.
I haven't had a lot of time to do kind of the extra stuff, but like, like.
I will.
I'll get around to it, you know?
Well, it looks like you're doing great.
All right, so let's get to that hair horror story that you mentioned before.
You gave us a good one with your barbershop owner, but you said you have more.
Yeah, so when I was in Tony and Guy, and like it was a busy Christmas and the head
colourist wasn't my biggest fan in the first place anyway.
So I was rinsing a colour for him of like a very nice lady, of like posh housewife, kind
of elderly kind of lady.
And he asked me to rinse the hair with
white violet, which I had never mentioned or heard of in nearly year in Tony and Guy, or I
guess two years in the hairdressing industry.
And it was busy Christmas time.
So I went down to the backwash and I was looking and I was like, flower colour, flower
colour, blue orchid.
That must have to be the one.
So I think you know where this is going.
So then I…
I went using the blue orchid instead of white violet on her hair and her fucking
highlights turned blue.
And I was like, oh fuck.
So then I was like, scrubbing, scrubbing wasn't coming out.
So I was like, uh two seconds there now.
Went up and told them, I mean earlier the fucking shit show.
And like, they were so booked out that she had to keep her hair blue for the weekend
until.
at Christmas time could come back in on the Monday to get it like really done and then for
my final few months there that colourist wouldn't speak to me.
Literally he'd say to someone standing next to me go down and tell Paul do this, go down
and tell Paul do that.
Be giving me dirty looks throughout the day and like wouldn't talk to me so.
Amazing.
I love it.
I love it.
one more quick one also.
I have a lot of these, but this is another one.
So um in Tony guy again, classes, I've color classes.
I was doing this lady's color and like um elderly kind of lady, again, quite posh, super
rude.
to be honest, she was horrible.
She was going like, what, why are you doing this?
This is no job for a man.
Blah, I goes, oh, I, I like working with my hands being creative.
And she was like, son's an engineer.
Wouldn't you go and do a proper job like that?
And then she was like, you're making a mess of my hair.
I can tell you're allergic.
You'd rather be anywhere.
Allergic in corkslang means like you're
You I don't know how to, you don't want to be there.
Like you're, you know, you're allergic.
You're like, yuck, I hate this kind of thing.
You'd rather be anywhere here tonight.
And like the girls either side of me were kind of looking kind of cringing and kind of
like, are you okay?
I like, I'm grand.
just want to kind of get on with things, whatever.
And then, so that was grand.
I was like, fucking few.
Thank God that's over.
So then a month or two later, whatever, she comes in again and I was nearly fucking
hiding.
I was like shit.
And then it was like, Skitzo, seeing me, my God, fucking it's you.
I want you to do my hair.
My hair was amazing.
My husband loved it.
The girls in bingo loved it.
It was the most amazing thing ever.
And every, anytime the teeth, yeah, yeah.
Like anytime the teacher would be coming over to check up on me, she'd be nearly shooing
him away going like, he's brilliant, leave him alone, just let him do what he did the last
time.
And I was like, what the hell is like invasion of body statues here?
Like it was like, this is not the same person.
Like what the fuck?
uh
special.
Talent wins the day.
That's the moral of this story.
That's the moral of your story.
You're obviously super talented and it continues to win the day.
Do you have any last words for the community?
Ooh, last words.
um
oh It's just great to see that the industry has got a lot more alternative and that what
would have been the black sheep or the weird kids are now seen as the cool ones.
I remember when I first went over to the Behind the Chair Awards the first year in Austin
and it blew my mind.
seeing the riot squad on stage and like they were incredible and like they were you know
fucking lights flashing and like seeing Robert Crommings on stage and like the likes of
you know hair gods eat on people, people more like me having a laugh cursing just being
themselves because like for a while I was on the a British men's hair team and like
I'd come off stage happy I could be after getting the most audience questions.
And then I'd be kind of told off for being like, you're too flat, you're too monotone,
you're cursing too much.
You need to be more like, hi, how are we all doing today?
And I'm like, fucking cringing.
I'm like, that is not me at all.
So that's why until that hair con show in Manchester, which was really awesome.
I hadn't done a lot in the UK in recent years.
I always kind of felt more kind of more received more support in the States.
So like, yeah, that was kind of the taste of it.
And like when I remember, like I was sitting with Philip Wolf and Danny Ford behind the
chair awards and Alfredo, Rebecca Taylor, all these big superstars in the industry.
There's me from a high hole and I was there and like everyone was doing speeches and I was
like shit does everyone do a speech and they're like yeah man and I was like fuck there's
like 3000 people I've never done a speech in my life and like at the time I don't think I
had ever even stood on stage I didn't go being educated on stage until I was about 33 so
this would have been when I guess I was 31, 32 so then I was like
knocking back the Jamesons at the bar.
And when I went up and did my speech, I just gave it socks, know, like I was just talking
about being a black sheep all my life from a little place in the country, whatever, blah,
blah.
And the crowd was nearly like standing up there just fucking loving it.
And like for the weekend, people were coming up like teary eyed, hugging me that, man,
your speech really spoke to me.
And I was like so surreal because
If I did that speech in Ireland or the UK, they'd be like, get off your fucking knees,
what are you on about?
Like, I'm hearing you.
But like, so yeah, I've always been a bit of an emo.
Like, the American crowd got me, you know?
So I was just like, yeah, this is me.
I need to come back here more.
And then I kind of started a group chat, kind of with people I had kind of met and…
Hairslares was born and during Covid it gave me time to grow the band.
As I said, we were off for nine months.
yeah, and I did similar to this.
I did about 30 Instagram lives with Hairslares from around the world.
Definitely the States is the kind of, I'd say where 90 % of them are from.
There's a few awesome ones in Australia as well.
a few in Ireland, a few in the UK, but um one or two from Canada, but predominantly the
States.
Usually um LA, Texas and Florida, the mad places.
That's where slayers are born.
Yep, 100%.
We've had a number of them on the show.
Finally got you on the show.
Thank you so much for the time.
I know it's late year time.
You said you're a lady.
So I know you're eight hours ahead.
So you're past midnight right now.
So thanks for staying up with us and sharing your story.
enjoyed this and thanks very much for having me on.
It's been great.
Paul Max special he's Paul Max special on Instagram.
That's where you find him Look him up.
Thanks, buddy.
Nice talking to you
Bye now.
- Paul's Journey into the Hair Industry
- The Turning Point: Winning Competitions
- Navigating Workplace Politics and Rivalries
- The Impact of Success on Personal Relationships
- Building a Brand and Future Aspirations
- Hair Trends and Styles in Ireland
- Balancing Work and Family Life
- The Creative Process Behind Headpieces
- Hair Horror Stories
This Week's Topics
- Paul's Journey into the Hair Industry
- The Turning Point: Winning Competitions
- Navigating Workplace Politics and Rivalries
- The Impact of Success on Personal Relationships
- Building a Brand and Future Aspirations
- Hair Trends and Styles in Ireland
- Balancing Work and Family Life
- The Creative Process Behind Headpieces
- Hair Horror Stories
