Noted Hairstylist Teddy Charles Honed His Craft With Legends

Hairstylist Teddy Charles can thank his deep familial connections with first connecting him to the craft as a teenager. “I was very close to my mother, so I would do her hair and apply the color,” Charles explains. “I have an older brother who’s older than me by three years. He started to be a hairdresser at a hair salon, and I was like, wow, this is a job.” Motivated to escape the monotony of local Versailles salons, Charles set out to Paris to assist some of the biggest names in the business like Christophe Robin, Julien d’Ys, and Orlando Pita before setting out on his own. While hair assisting, his charming looks put him in front of some of the most prolific names in the business, but his reverence for the supermodel elite resolutely keeps him from donning the model label himself. Now stateside, he’s since handled the textured tresses of supermodels like partner Amber Valletta, Cindy Crawford, and Kate Moss with his creative work featured on the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Dazed, and Numéro. Models.com spoke with the bicoastal creative about assisting some of the biggest names in hair, striking out on his own, and the drive you need to succeed in this business.

How did you first get your start in the business? There was a rumor you moonlit as a model but is it true?
No! Fun fact, I started to work in a hair salon at 16. I went to a hair school for some time, you go two days a week in France, every 15 days, and I did it for three years. One of my teachers asked the class to put why we wanted to work in the business, and after I gave her the letter, she said to me actually, “If this is what you feel, you’re going to go very far.” Then, I started to work freelance when I was 19 years old as an assistant hairdresser in the fashion industry. What initially happened was we were shooting with photographers like Richard Avedon, Mario Testino, and Bruce Weber and they would ask me if I could be part of the picture. So that’s why others may have saw me as a model, but I’m a very bad model, to be honest with you.

Starting in hairstyling so young, did you naturally fall in love with the craft and technicality, or did you have any influence from your family?
Correct, the influence was from my family. First, we didn’t have money, so my mother would buy hair color from the supermarket. I was very close to my mother, so I would do her hair and apply the hair color. I have an older brother who’s older than me by three years. He started to be a hairdresser at a hair salon, and I was like, wow, this is a job.

Growing up outside Paris, were you ever influenced by fashion that early? You mentioned big names like Richard Avedon and I’m curious about how you made that connection into this industry?
First of all, I didn’t think about fashion at first. I mentioned that I worked in a hair salon when I was 16 years old, and the problem with me was I couldn’t stay in the same hair salon for more than one or two years. I was bored very quickly. My first salon was in Versailles, outside Paris, but before she passed, my mother found a hair salon in Paris. In this salon in Paris, the guy used to take hair salon appointments and freelance on the side. I started to see some of the work that you can do outside of a hair salon. Then I changed hair salons to work with Christophe Robin. In the beginning, he only had a little hair salon and I worked with him for three years. Hairdressers like Julien d’Ys used to come with actresses and models, and Christophe used to do the color and Julien used to cut their hair. Christophe connected me with Julien and Julien asked if I wanted to assist him on one of his shoots that he was going to do for Comme des Garçons. That’s how I started to have a taste of the freelance world of fashion. I think maybe six months after that, I quit with Christophe and the hair salon world completely to go freelance.

It seems like having that creative outlet drove you to go down a less traditional route.
Exactly, that was more my personality. It’s always been creative. I never like to do the same thing, and I’m always about meeting new people, always traveling, left and right. You’re never bored and you always see something. When you work at the hair salon, after a while, you start to see the same people and do the same thing, which is not the case in fashion at all. You’ve got to renew yourself; you always need to challenge yourself to do new things. When you do a fashion shoot they always come with a new subject, a new project, a new look, or a new style.

How do you reinvent and make something new? How do you push yourself and challenge yourself with hair?
I think for me, you’ve got to challenge yourself on things that you’re not comfortable with. So often, people say, “I don’t like this, I don’t like to do that, I don’t like to do this,” and I think it’s because they don’t feel comfortable exploring, to come out of their limitations, to challenge themselves. They don’t like it because they don’t know. If you allowed yourself to take a risk and to go to those places, to do things that you don’t like, you will be able to challenge yourself and create new things. It’s easy to feel comfortable always doing the same thing, but the sky has no limit if you express yourself by taking risks on new things.

When did you transition to the current stage of your career? Could you point to one of your earliest projects that took you into your own space and not have to assist anybody anymore?
It came very naturally. First, I worked with Julien d’Ys for two years. I was in love with the work of Orlando Pita, and I looked forward to us working together. I moved from France with my two babies and their mom, and we moved to New York for him. I worked with him for three years, and then Art + Commerce took me on. I was still working at the same time with Orlando and we were in Paris working with Karl Lagerfeld; I think we were shooting Fendi. My new agent asked me to come there earlier because I have a shoot for Bazaar that was with Greg Kadel, Brana Wolf, and the model, Gemma Ward. That story blew my whole schedule up and I started to work all the time for myself, and little by little, I stopped working with Orlando.

I never really forced anything. Before I went out on my own, I was so crazy happy to work with Julien, Christophe, and Orlando. At the time nobody knew me, and I’m not a big talker. Everybody used to ask, “Does he talk?” I was so focused on making Orlando happy and giving him the most that I could to make his work easy. Then the agency connection came around because he was at Art + Commerce, they talked to me, and I wanted to be with them. I didn’t even say, “I want to work for myself now,” it just came along. I find a lot of people sometimes force going out on their own a little too fast, because sometimes when they work with people, it seems easy and we make it seem easy. They don’t really see what the real work was done before you’re on set, and that’s why you make it maybe look easy. I think just go with the flow and don’t force anything.

What have been some of the most memorable projects for you as you broke out on your own and things that stuck out to you?
One of my first jobs was with Patrick Demarchelier for a BCBG campaign and I was just so happy because that’s somebody that I didn’t get to work with in the past while working with Julien or Orlando; with Julien, I worked a lot with Peter Lindbergh, Paolo Roversi, and with Orlando I worked with Meisel, Mario Testino, Craig McDean but not really Patrick. That was my first time on my own and that was just a big accomplishment for me. He pretty much became my business father, Patrick Demarchelier.

When it comes to new projects, where do you normally go to source inspiration or find references? What drives you creatively?
Everything pretty much. You go in the street in New York, and people have such a good look that inspires me. If you go to a museum to view a painting, this can inspire me, books definitely inspire me as well. I have two daughters, one is 21 years old, and the other one is 20 years old. They have a very good style, and those girls inspire me a lot, my daughters. One wants to be an architect, the oldest one. Both of them are in university in Paris. The other one, she’s more dramatic and wants to be an actress, she’s in the theater. I’m going to be 45 years old and I can ask them something and they know everything. If there’s somebody I don’t know, I just ask them and they know exactly and can describe to me where they come from and what they’ve done, so that’s a big edge.

How do you think the beauty industry has evolved since you started?
Since the time when I’ve came in, the business changed tremendously. It’s being ruled by social media, specifically Instagram; a lot of creatives and models come from Instagram, but the prospects have completely changed. It keeps you informed, you’re able to see what people do and you can get inspired by this. I’m going to say the truth, I lived in New York for 15 years, and I moved to Los Angeles six or seven years ago. Sometimes you’ll be in LA, and you feel a little detached. Instagram keeps me connected in some ways.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re going to choose in life, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to need to love it, you’ve got to make sure that you love it, because it’s going to get hard.”

Who have been some of your favorite models to work with and why?
Well, Amber. I was insanely in love crazy with Orlando Pita’s work and one of the crazy shoots that I loved was that Versace campaign that they did with Steven Meisel with that big hair? This campaign was so big that it was in a museum in London when it came out. A piece of art. After, I’ve worked with Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, and I love Daria [Werbowy]. Kate. All those girls, I love all of them, they all have different personalities, they are all fun to be with, they all have a certain perspective, a certain intelligence, a way to work. When you work with those girls, it’s not just like you’re working with a beautiful person. Those supermodels, up to today, when they go on set they turn it on and immediately start to work. They’re going to put value in what you did to them for styling, they’re going to think about the way they move and they’re going to think about their hair, they’re going to think about their makeup. Those girls think about everything.

It’s not easy! You have models that lose themselves because maybe they’re a little afraid, they’re more shy, or maybe they don’t know themselves as much. For example, you can work with some models and they put their head down when they get in the chair. We’re doing your hair and we’re doing your makeup, how can you put your head down when we do that? It’s those little things. You’ve got to be aware, as soon as you’re in the chair, it’s like acting, you’re going to need to start to put your shoulders back and start to be in the persona that we want you to be.

What advice would you give to upcoming artists wanting to break into the industry or assist?
I’m going to give the advice I gave to my daughter. It doesn’t matter what you’re going to choose in life, if you’re going to do it, you’re going to need to love it, you’ve got to make sure that you love it, because it’s going to get hard. And when it’s going to get hard, you’re going to want to quit. If you love something, you’re not going to quit, you’re going to keep going just because you love it that much. Things don’t come easy, and with our industry you need to work hard, and and you’ve got to love it.

You’ve done so much, but what do you want to do with your next step?
I like to not make any limits in my life but one thing I’m going to try to do is I want to make my name a brand. I want my name to fully be in the beauty world.