Nikki Tiller is a hairstylist at Expressions Salon in Hillsdale. She loves her clients and makes anyone feel welcome, despite her occasional sassiness. Her motto is Nikki: not a choice, but a destiny.
Why did you become a hairdresser?
I kind of fell into it by accident because I wanted to get out of high school early. If I took beauty school, then I only had to go to school for three hours and I got the rest of the day off. And then I fell in love with it.
What is your preferred demographic for a client?
I would probably say anywhere from like 95 to 102. Mostly because… no just kidding. Seriously, probably college age students. You keep me young! You guys are like fun and I want to have fun. I’m married so I’m kind of limited in the amount of fun I can have.
What celebrity’s hair would you choose to cut?
I feel like I’m already a celebrity hairdresser. Actually Victoria Beckham because she has sweet hair and I would totally put my name all over that.
Is Suave really as good as the professional stuff, as its advertisements claim?
No. That’s like me asking you if college is the same as kindergarten.
So if not Suave, what product should college students on a budget buy?
If you want to get technical, any professional salon brand would be better than Suave or the stuff you can buy at the store. That is very highly concentrated and a little bit of salon product goes a long way. If you guys buy Pantene or Suave or anything you would probably use three to four times more than with a salon brand.
Have you ever messed up anyone’s hair?
I had this girl and she wanted to be like a coppery red. Well, I turned her bozo red and I could not pull it back out. I had a little miscalculation in my formula there. It would not go away and I tried everything. It still wouldn’t come out. Well, she was here from nine in the morning until eight at night. It was a good time though. She was like “I kind of like it.” And I was like, “really?”
Why should college students come to you, instead of cutting their own hair?
Because we go to school for this. Because we can fix it, if we mess it up. Plus I have seen a lot of hack jobs that came out of that school.
-Compiled by Emmaline Epperson
