Seeing Hair as Fabric: A Conversation with Alyssia Dotson

There are moments in this industry that reawaken your passion—and my chat with Alyssia Dotson was absolutely one of those. Alyssia is the founder of Main Seamstress Education, where she teaches hairstyling through the lens of fabric. Yes, fabric. Think cotton, satin, silk—but in hair form. It’s a concept that completely flips the way we think about texture, and honestly? It’s genius.

We talked about a lot—her start in the industry, her unexpected pivot from a path in psychology to discovering her voice (and her calling) behind the chair. “I didn’t grow up doing Barbie hair,” she told me. “I found hair by accident—but I stayed because of the connection it creates.”

With over 22 years in the industry and 12 as an educator, Alyssia has this magical way of breaking things down into accessible, relatable language. She’s not here to throw around buzzwords—she’s here to help you see hair differently. “Every stylist already has the ability to do every type of hair,” she said. “They just need the knowledge and empowerment to approach it.”

We got into some real talk about the gaps—no, chasms—in hair education, especially when it comes to textured hair. Alyssia shared her experience being the only stylist of color in a European-rooted salon early in her career. While she never felt excluded, the lack of education around textured hair was glaring in hindsight. “It only showed up in avant-garde looks,” she said. “We weren’t taught how to care for it. Just how to make it ‘work.’”

One of my favorite moments? When Alyssia talked about earning the right to touch someone’s hair. She asks every guest: “Can I touch your hair?”—a simple but powerful reminder that we work in one of the few industries that involves physical contact. That moment of consent sets the tone for everything that follows.

And then there’s her educational style—rooted in curiosity, safety, and sparking creativity. Whether she’s coaching stylists one-on-one or leading a group session, Alyssia’s goal is always the same: help stylists rediscover their creativity, reignite their curiosity, and feel confident working with all hair types.

This conversation was filled with golden moments—funny, thoughtful, and flat-out inspiring. If you’re a stylist looking to grow, challenge yourself, or just want to feel reconnected to your craft, this interview is for you.

🎥 Watch the full video to hear Alyssia’s powerful insights, her thoughts on the industry’s evolution, and how you can start viewing hair—and your own career—through a new, more inclusive lens.

You can find Alyssia at:

https://www.instagram.com/maneseamstress/

Transcript

Liam Shea (00:01)
Okay, fantastic. Here we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. Would you like to introduce yourself quickly?

Alyssia Dotson (00:10)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m Alicia Dotson.

Liam Shea (00:12)
Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (00:15)
I don’t know if you want me to give a full, full, I’ll do that again. Yeah. Yes. Yes. It’s Alicia Dodson at Main Seamstress and I’m the founder of Main Seamstress Education where we educate hair from the standpoint of fabric. So thank you so much for having me.

Liam Shea (00:18)
Yeah, and okay, let’s just do that again. Yeah, would you like to introduce yourself?

Love it.

Yeah, that’s super exciting. Fabric, big fan of fabric. My mother is a long time fabric hoarder and seamstress. So textures and colors and all of that. There’s a large obsession in our family with all of that.

Alyssia Dotson (00:47)
nice.

I love that, yes. I’m a lover of fabric, I appreciate it. I’m not much of a seamstress, only when it comes to hair, so.

Liam Shea (01:03)
No, you

do not need to be, well, yes, you are just with hair. Yeah. And where are you located?

Alyssia Dotson (01:07)
You

located so I pay mortgage in Dallas, Texas, but I go all over. Yeah, so I hail from Dallas, Texas. And it’s, you know, every summer, I think I wonder, what am I doing here? Because it’s so hot. But um, but yeah, so I love, love being able to just jump on a plane and go anywhere.

Liam Shea (01:16)
Okay, yes, yes.

Okay.

Yes, it’s glorious. And how long have you been doing hair?

Alyssia Dotson (01:38)
Yeah.

been doing hair now for 22 years. just counted it. started when I was eight. So, you know, it’s been a great, great journey. Yeah.

Liam Shea (01:52)
Right? It’s

very strange counting up the time. Time is a strange thing. Yes. Yeah, I catch myself saying how long I’ve been doing hair, but with the previous number that I used to say and discovering that it can’t be 20 years for six straight years. Obviously at a certain point that changed, but it’s 25 or more plus minus some. Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (01:56)
I know, it’s like, ugh. But yeah.

I know, I need

to start doing that over under. It’s been over under 20 years. Maybe that’s what I need to start doing. I like your math. Yeah.

Liam Shea (02:21)
Yeah. No one knows. Let’s round down. I’m I’m a rounding

down fan when it comes to that. Okay, and so you’re flying all over the place all the time. What are you doing most of the time when you’re flying about?

Alyssia Dotson (02:30)
Yes.

Usually I’m doing insulin classes. I’m also doing events. do a lot of, I partner with a brand as well. So I head up their North America team. So I go and do a lot for that. Every now and then I get to sneak in a vacation or two while I’m doing it. So work play blends. I just go around sharing my passion.

Liam Shea (03:00)
Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (03:06)
for this industry and just trying to spread the hair love wherever I can go.

Liam Shea (03:12)
Yes. Love it. When did you in your hair journey? At what point did you realize you wanted to educate?

Alyssia Dotson (03:22)
that’s funny. So if you had have asked me at the beginning of my career, if I wanted to educate, would have, or that I would be doing what I’m doing now, I would tell you you’re insane because I did not enjoy speaking in front of groups of people. got incredible stage fright, like palms sweaty. I would do the rush speaking and just black out and

Liam Shea (03:46)
Hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (03:52)
And I think I started thinking about educating about 12 years ago, but now I’ve been educating now about 12 years. And I noticed I started thinking about just what the hair, what this hair industry has given me and what would I want to tell myself? That’s kind of the approach that I came from. And I was just, I mean, it gave me so much. found so much of myself in this industry.

Liam Shea (04:11)
Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (04:20)
And so I said, what would I tell myself? And it kind of just snowballed from there. And I connected with a really amazing, she actually was in education, but she was just kind of the person that would book things. And we kind of talked and I said, hey, I kind of, like this brand and I like this product that works great on me. And I think I may want to do this. And she was like, okay.

We can talk a little and from there it just gained momentum and I have found that I’ve evolved so much more just from educating. And you know, I think you learn as you educate. Like I’ve learned so much just by sharing. yeah, just 12 years wise, but I love what it’s done. It’s given more nuance to who I am as a hairdresser.

Liam Shea (05:08)
Yeah.

Yeah. Do you find, do you find it changes your approach to like, like as you teach people and you break things down, do you find you’re discovering the process of things in a deeper way? Cause I know when I came up, I didn’t really know when anybody was talking about. And when I’ve started to, and don’t get me wrong, I don’t educate on a big level, but I helped with a couple of people and I found

Alyssia Dotson (05:19)
Yeah.

Liam Shea (05:46)
I’ve almost discovered what it is that I do because I’m describing it to people. I didn’t know what my process was.

Alyssia Dotson (05:53)
Yes, yes. I think the best analogy, I’m a visual person, so I like to, as we usually are, it’s kind of like cooking. You cook a dish and you don’t know how much or what step goes where when you’re making the lasagna until you’re talking through it, right? And I think it’s also, it has, like you said, it’s kind of created this space of now,

Liam Shea (06:01)
Mm-hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (06:23)
I’ve discovered more of the whys of what I do, whether it’s why do I point cut at this point? Or how do I decide on that length for that hair shape or creating a textured look where the balance is? I mean, it has kind of deepened how I look at hair and it’s not just from a one dimensional space.

Liam Shea (06:52)
Yeah, yeah, it’s education has changed so much since I came up. found and I mean, you’re completely right. We’re very visual typically in this industry. Every now and then you meet a person that can do a technical. I found I struggled with learning early on because most of the descriptions were descriptions of how something should feel or how it should look. And it didn’t have enough of this plus this equals this.

And so it just took time for me to start to develop that feel for myself. Did you, were you lucky enough early on to have an educator that spoke to you in the way that you learned? Or did you find you had to work through some of that on your own?

Alyssia Dotson (07:21)
Right?

that’s okay. It’s a lot. So I’ll bite it off. I’ll answer and bite. So I fell into here by accident. I wasn’t actually a person. I don’t have the story that every other hairdresser has. It’s like, my God, I was playing with hair and Barbies and all the things from the time I was three. My mom was, I don’t have that story.

Liam Shea (07:41)
That’s a lot. I know that’s a long question.

Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (08:07)
I actually come from a long line of just medical and nursing and the medical field. And I was that kind of, know, quote unquote nerd kid. I straight A’s, I was on my way to doing psychology. That was my path. And I remember when I sat down and told my mom at the time she was a host, she just retired.

She’s a hospice nurse and she said, I told her, I said, I think I’m going to do hair. And she’s like, well, are you crazy? You’re going to throw your life away? Like what are you doing? And why I chose to do it and why I chose to kind of, called to me is the experience of it all. mean, you, the, the moment you’re able to uncover something and let, and reveal that to a person that they didn’t know was there. That’s what I live for. And, um,

And you meet the most interesting people. Let’s be honest. I love a good story. And so when I got into it and started learning, because cosmetology school just teaches you how to pass the test. It doesn’t really teach you how to do hair. And I got to the very, a year or so in, I met this, she was actually a hairstylist at

Liam Shea (09:07)
yeah.

Ugh.

Yeah. Not really.

Alyssia Dotson (09:34)
a salon and she came in and just kind of did a career day or whatever for us little cosmetology kids and our apprentices at the time. And she was a person of color and she was working at a predominantly like a salon that catered to predominantly, you know, Caucasian hair or hair that was not textured.

And she was just, her story was what drew me. I said, my God, I can do this. I can do this. And it was the way that she described her journey is what allowed me to really visualize myself doing it. And then as far as like learning, just learned from, I did have a couple of teachers that were, and it was really in my apprenticeship where I had a lot of these people that spoke.

my language and just created the space for me to learn. So I was fortunate in that way, but a lot of the other things that I’m now passionate about, have realized that I’ve been passionate about all along, are things that I’ve discovered on my own, you know? So I hope that answered your question. That was a very scenic route. I had to paint the picture, Liam.

Liam Shea (10:35)
Yeah.

Yeah.

was a very,

it was a very scenic question. So that’s amazing. You, you pulled any specifics out of that question. And so when you finish cosmetology school and you end up at a salon, was it like the salon that early mentor was working out? Was it more of a white, more of a Caucasian European style salon?

Alyssia Dotson (11:08)
You

Liam Shea (11:24)
To begin with.

Alyssia Dotson (11:26)
It was, was, it was, the salon was based out of Europe. So their approach was, yeah, it was like, it was very, it was Tony and Guy. I started at Tony and Guy. can, I’m gonna drop a name. I started at Tony and Guy and Tony and Guy is where I cut my teeth in just learning. I’m a huge advocate for apprenticeships and sitting under someone. It just, you,

Liam Shea (11:34)
Well, that would.

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (11:56)
gathers so much from them. And so I was the only person of color in the salon space that I was in. However, I never felt like I was the only person of color, if that makes sense. wasn’t just only getting the person that wants the flat iron or the silk press. They were teaching me the art of hair. And that’s what I can appreciate.

Liam Shea (12:13)
Absolutely.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (12:26)
and I love so much. Yeah.

Liam Shea (12:28)
Yeah. I mean, it was one of,

it was one of the places to learn at a certain period of time. Right. I mean, you know, I sort of came out of the beginnings of my apprenticeship came out of Sassoon, but people at other places were coming out of like, as Sassoon was sort of, I don’t want to say fading because it hasn’t faded, but as it’s cool factor was fading, it was sort of happening because Tony and Guy was shifting out of London and spreading. there was this new

Alyssia Dotson (12:36)
Yes!

Yes.

Liam Shea (12:58)
Don’t worry, let’s break everything. Don’t worry about the rules. No, mess it up, break it in half. What happens? Let’s test it out. So I can imagine that would have been an incredibly cool place to be at the beginning.

Alyssia Dotson (13:01)
Yes.

Yes.

yeah,

yeah, I it was like right around the time of Tony Guy was kind of the new kid, you know, the kid on the block that was doing the cool things over there. They’re still playing with shapes, but they’re breaking the shapes. And Sistune was the place that you went and you just, if you wanted to create these, you know, mean, the foundation of things and.

Liam Shea (13:25)
Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (13:40)
and really create solid shapes, it was known. So these were the two big, big ones that were in. mean, you had the others, but as far as European, like global schools and global organizations, that was it. And Tony and Guy kind of just, it was the connection of, wow, okay, maybe I could find my tribe there. Maybe, I don’t know.

Liam Shea (13:42)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (14:10)
It just kind of went from there. Yeah.

Liam Shea (14:12)
Yeah. I

do find that when it comes to like finding your tribe, half the time you don’t know until after you aren’t at a place that that was, that was my, that was it. cool. didn’t, I never felt comfortable enough at any one place in the first 10 years to feel like I was with my tribe. I just look back and think, I was doing a thing. I was part of a thing. I didn’t know it at the time. I thought I was the outsider.

Alyssia Dotson (14:25)
Yes.

Yeah.

Liam Shea (14:41)
I think as so many of us do. So coming up and Tony and guy and with the sort of styles that they were they were they were working with at the time. Did textured hair come up at all within your education there? And that’s not a tell me how good or bad they were at it. But it’s just like at that time, did you find that was being taught on any level?

Alyssia Dotson (15:11)
No, yeah, it wasn’t. It wasn’t something, and it’s kind of speaking to your point of you don’t notice a thing until you’re able to span out a little and you’re like, wow, yeah, that wasn’t there. It wasn’t there. when it was there, it was there as an avant-garde look, you know, like something that was very, let’s, you know, let’s.

Liam Shea (15:26)
Yeah.

Right.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (15:39)
pull a few pieces and then send them down the runway or send them, you know, to, so it wasn’t taught, you didn’t really know how to do it. It was just, let’s spray some hairspray or let’s spray some shine spray on it and then just let them go. It was very interesting. Yeah, you look fine. Let’s just fluff you, let’s judge it. look.

Liam Shea (15:44)
Yes.

Good luck. Yeah.

Yeah. This is how it’s supposed to be. You don’t know. Don’t you know where you are? Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (16:07)
Exactly,

Yes. So it wasn’t really taught and I didn’t really realize that. And I didn’t know that I had working knowledge. Cause you just, I mean, I’ve lived with texture here my whole life. So I didn’t really, you know, I didn’t really know that I had some working knowledge that not everyone else did. I was, I was like, Oh, well, okay. Are we really going to send the model out like that? Okay. Well, sure. I guess.

Liam Shea (16:29)
Mm-hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (16:36)
You know, it’s fantasy, but exactly. Yeah. It’s so, yeah.

Liam Shea (16:38)
I guess that’s just how it’s done. Yeah. As we’re told so much. When I, when I was doing my

apprenticeship, I was also, you know, the receptionist, I was dealt with inventory, dealt with everything. And I was always told if anyone with anything vaguely resembling textured hair on any level came into the salon to say, we don’t do that here. And then name this one salon on the other side of the city where, you know,

Alyssia Dotson (17:07)
yes.

Liam Shea (17:07)
they do

textured hair. And I was told, don’t worry, we all specialize. And I know for myself, I was like, wow, so we all specialize in one texture of hair, and then the other textures all go to some other place that I’ve never heard of over in a… So I felt like I wasn’t even supposed to be doing it for the first several years, let alone had any opportunity to learn it. At what point did you find…

Alyssia Dotson (17:12)
Yeah

Right.

Mmm.

Liam Shea (17:36)
if at any point that you were learning more about it and obviously you had an understanding of it, but learning more about textured hair and having the opportunity to do it, not on a platform.

Alyssia Dotson (17:48)
I probably started realizing when I started really getting into session work and doing fashion week and you started really, you know, meeting these models or sitting, you know, you’re on photo shoots or anything like that. And you’re meeting models that, you know, have had traumas or they, you know, or they come in and they have

Liam Shea (17:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (18:18)
extensions in and they only want you to, like you started recognizing these really like a version of PTSD that they had and you only had 30 minutes to create a look and the designer, and that’s a long time, know? That’s a long time and the designer wants this hair that is Donna Summers.

Liam Shea (18:27)
Yeah.

Yes, no.

Alyssia Dotson (18:47)
to go into a really sleek ponytail, you know, and not show any of the extensions. And you started realizing like, okay, they don’t know how to work with, they don’t know what this is gonna do, you know? And so you started noticing that. I think that’s when I started noticing that there was this gap or this, you know, candy in between places.

Liam Shea (18:53)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I was gonna say gap is a very kind

use of that word for that. I’m not sure that’s I think even Canyon might be a touch small Galaxy, I don’t know

Alyssia Dotson (19:17)
Yeah. Yes. yeah,

I think we, I started noticing that and that’s when I started noticing that I had a working knowledge of something that a lot of other stylists did it. But I also realized that it was an opportunity to really create a safe space for not only the,

stylists that were working alongside me, but the models who at that time for 10 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever was my client and I wanted to create a safe space for them too. And I think that’s when I realized I had a moment to be able to really kind of create the change I wanted to see, if you will.

Liam Shea (20:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (20:14)
And that was probably about, I’d say probably about seven years ago. it, you know, when you started really, it’s the first moment and then you start seeing more and more. yeah, it’s.

Liam Shea (20:30)
And being able

to being able to create those experiences. I know for myself, and I usually tell a lot of my guests that come into my salon, because I still do hair two days a week on the other side of that glass there. number one goal is always just that you feel better than when you came in. What it is we do, how I get to express myself on your hair. That’s not a my website says I’m a hair waiter. Like I’m just purely here. I just want to an experience. I want you to feel better.

Alyssia Dotson (20:40)
Yes.

Yes.

Liam Shea (20:59)
I ended up working with lots of people with hair trauma because so many people, even outside of just having textured hair, get mistreated by people who don’t know what to do with them and get made to feel like it was their fault somehow. no, no, it’s not me that’s incapable of doing it. It’s you. It’s crazy. So much, the insecurity is palpable. Like it just always seems to feel like,

Alyssia Dotson (21:03)
huh.

Yes!

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Right, it’s crazy, isn’t it? It’s like wild, you’re like, my gosh.

Yes.

Liam Shea (21:29)
you’re just afraid. You were a bully, but you’re actually just afraid that you’re inadequate. Like this all comes down to you just feeling small. Ugh. God.

Alyssia Dotson (21:38)
Yeah, exactly. That should be, yes, that should be a t-shirt. It’s like,

ugh, exactly. It is.

Liam Shea (21:47)
Like that’s it. You were just embarrassed.

Why didn’t you just say you were embarrassed? Like everyone’s embarrassed all the time. Don’t worry about it. Just say something. Why be a dick? I don’t. So, you know, obviously you already possessed a working knowledge and a skill set of it. So you could make people feel however it was you wanted to make them feel safer, heard, whatever it was.

Alyssia Dotson (21:50)
Yeah!

Yes.

Right, exactly, I agree.

Liam Shea (22:15)
and you said that started about seven years ago. Is that incorporated in your education that you give now, would you say?

Alyssia Dotson (22:17)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. I have always felt very strongly, even when I’m behind the chair, I wanna create a space for people to feel their best self, to feel safe enough and have permission to embrace their best self. And I’m the conduit by way of giving you beautiful hair. But.

I’ve just felt that way and so it translates into how I educate as well. I just, you know, people should feel comfortable being able to get out of their comfort zone and that can be scary. And I don’t want you to feel like, okay, well, if I ask a question, is it an absolutely dumb question and I’m gonna get, you know, beat to hell, you know, like.

what’s gonna happen to me? know, like, is it safe out there? You know that, I don’t want people to feel that. And so I really like to just create that moment in space of people feeling like there’s no really horrible, awful question. If you are taking the time to open yourself and be vulnerable, I will be vulnerable with you. Let’s have a conversation. And that’s just, I mean, I…

Liam Shea (23:20)
Right.

Yep. Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (23:47)
I wish everyone would educate that way. I wish everyone would be that way, right? Wouldn’t that be great? I just, it would be great, right? It would. But I figure if I could be the small little ripple in my little pond, then hopefully it translates out, so.

Liam Shea (23:54)
It would be great.

And did you like I see the tiny, tiny shift that started to happen in the industry in the last, let’s say five years at the most? Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (24:19)
Yes, yes

I did. So I started Main Sextress Education. I started teaching about this. This was birth in 2020. And it was from all of just what I was seeing. I mean, we had a moment to like, know, pandemic happened. We’re all like sitting still.

And we had a moment to really take inventory of where we were. And I took advantage of that moment just to kind of where are you now? What’s happening now? We were at this shift as an industry anyway. I still think we’re in a transition. I personally believe that. Where you’re really starting to see people, I mean,

Liam Shea (25:02)
Yep. Yep.

Alyssia Dotson (25:11)
It’s an evolution that not everybody’s gonna come out on the other side doing hair maybe. But I think we’re in the middle of it. And I noticed at the very beginning of this where, I mean, we were getting into conversations now that were like bleeding into each other. I, as a person of color, but also as a hairstylist,

I was very much, and as an outsider, it’s like, we are kind of considered misfits of hairstylists, like kind of the fringe group. And I think as a person who is used to living in that space, it was just such a disconcerting thing to see so much turmoil and chaos and just unhappy and negativity. And I wanted to just create

Liam Shea (25:47)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Alyssia Dotson (26:08)
that positive moment and also create a safe space to talk about it because it was a lot to talk about and it’s a lot.

Liam Shea (26:18)
It was a lot. It is a lot. mean, it is and

continues to be and will continue to be a lot to talk about. Although it was a hilariously large amount at the beginning, because it was like we had to figure out which way up was before we could even get to the next part of the conversation.

Alyssia Dotson (26:25)
Yes, and it

yeah.

my gosh, absolutely. You’re just like, what do we, okay, what part do I pick apart first? And that’s what birth is because I realized and I felt, I remember I was talking to a friend of mine and I said, you know, these are two separate conversations that need to happen. Like hairstylists and hair and then racial, like all of that and inclusivity.

Liam Shea (26:57)
Yes.

Yes.

Equity across the board.

Yep.

Alyssia Dotson (27:06)
Those are different things and they’re a tight rope. And if you’re not, if you don’t handle them with care, can make, it just creates even more trauma. so, and that’s what I want. And I saw that it was happening. So I just wanted to kind of create a space for people to have safe conversation. So.

Liam Shea (27:22)
Yep.

Yeah, unpack some

stuff. Right? Okay, we’re in a group hotel room. Let’s unpack some stuff. Someone’s not gonna feel comfortable with showing what stuff they’ve got packed, but let’s unpack some stuff. I love it. And so, okay, so you started that in 2020. So what is that? So I come to you to one of your classes to whatever

Alyssia Dotson (27:36)
Yeah, yeah that part unpack some stuff Yes But let’s unpack it let’s unpack it

Liam Shea (28:03)
What does that look like? What does a typical one look like?

Alyssia Dotson (28:10)
So if we come to class or if you do one-on-one or anything like that, the first thing that we’re gonna do is talk about the standpoint of connecting textures with a fabric and connecting how we look at hair. So really turning on your creative mind because I think, especially for stylists, I don’t know if you felt this way too, but after doing hair for so long.

Liam Shea (28:21)
Yep. Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (28:38)
you kind of get one lens, right, that you’d look through. it makes, especially when you now have trends that stay around forever, how do you get creativity and you lose or it dims the creativity just or that lens dims over time because you’re hearing what, you know, Susie did the other night and you’re hearing all, like you’re a therapist and then.

Liam Shea (28:41)
Yes. Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (29:07)
All these things. And so I want to spark that creative lens. So that’s the first thing that we would do is we would connect that standpoint and just spend time talking about the consultation aspect and really creating an experience to make that guest feel safe and earn the right to be able to touch their hair. then from there, we would then, whether it’s focused on

Liam Shea (29:09)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (29:36)
cutting or it’s focused on styling, we would then walk through different ways to approach various hair fabrics and how to spot these things and how to spot what product works best for say, sadden hair, what product works best for cotton fabric hair, you know? And once you look at it that way, mean, every hairstylist has the ability to do every type of hair.

that sits in your chair if you learn about it and you are empowered and really get that empowerment to be able to approach it, you know?

Liam Shea (30:15)
Sounds like you’re breaking it

down in an accessible way. mean, when you talk about breaking it down into a fabric and then saying, okay, we’re just discussing a thing that looks and feels like this responds well to this, which is what I, when I was saying that, like the this plus this equals this, I struggled with not having enough of that early on. Everything was taught to me through metaphors. Like, I don’t know what you, what you mean. Whereas, stuff that’s like, okay, this stop thinking about it from this perspective. This.

Alyssia Dotson (30:19)
Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Liam Shea (30:45)
You do this with this.

Alyssia Dotson (30:47)
Right,

I mean we already do it with fabrics that we, I would never put a silk blouse or silk pants in the dryer, know, or in high heat. Once you start thinking of it that way, it just changes how, and it sparks that creative lens again, you know? So, yeah.

Liam Shea (30:56)
No. No.

Yeah.

I love

that you were talking about consultations. I’m a huge, huge fan of, of consultations and how much of a stylist’s problems can be solved before they ever happen through a myriad of things. What’s your sort of, when you begin talking about a consultation, what does your ideal consultation look like? Obviously different from person to person, but what, what do you like to ask at the beginning?

Alyssia Dotson (31:24)
Yes.

yeah, but the overarching,

Liam Shea (31:38)
Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (31:39)
the overarching is you always want to find out what is their lifestyle like, what are they doing, how do they approach their hair, you learn, I mean, there’s a lot of things that you won’t even have to, it makes your roadmap and your blueprint so much easier when you see, so what do you do from wash day to wash day? So finding out their lifestyle and then looking at their face shape.

having them bring in photos of what, when did they love their hair? What are things that they love about their hair? inspirations, actually create anytime I’m doing a consultation and I do a consultation every time, no matter how long they’ve been seeing me, because things change. Their life has changed. They may be on some new medication. I mean, there’s so many things that changed.

Liam Shea (32:12)
Hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (32:35)
And in six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks, there’s a long gap. And I want to know what you’ve been up to. So just finding out that and asking them what are some of their products? Why do they like this? You know, how do they use it? Put the product in their hand. Where does your hands go first? And you know, a lot of times it’s like, it’s here. And I don’t know why my hair’s so heavy. Well.

If you’re putting everything, you know, it’s, find out so many things. and so that’s usually how I approach a consultation is just finding out their lifestyle and what their goals are and what their blind spots are. And, and that helps me build a roadmap for them and for myself. So, yeah, yeah, I love it.

Liam Shea (33:27)
love that. I love that. You were talking briefly

about earning the right to touch someone’s hair, which sort of falls into that wonderful category of consent that I think most hair. Well, I don’t know about when you came up, but when I came up, there was no such thing that you don’t have me. You didn’t ask when it was okay to start touching someone’s hair or if it was okay, you were already in there going, why do they look so uncomfortable? What’s wrong with this person?

Alyssia Dotson (33:40)
Yes!

Right!

Liam Shea (33:57)
are you,

do you usually ask permission? Do you, are there any steps you like to take before that? Or is it just a matter of, I touch your hair?

Alyssia Dotson (34:07)
Yeah, I ask them, can I touch your hair? And I also start with that. mean, it’s just, you know, we’re one of two industries where we are still touching people and we like are in people’s personal space. Medical is the other one. And so I’m very cognizant of that. And I just asked them, are you comfortable with me into your hair? And it kind of make it fun, but you know.

Liam Shea (34:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes. Sure.

Alyssia Dotson (34:34)
Yeah, and that drops their guard, you know, because they don’t know, you know, it’s a speed date, you know, they’re like, what are you doing?

Liam Shea (34:41)
Yeah, man.

Yes. Yes, it is a speed date. my god. That’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s fascinating because I remember when I first started doing it, some of the people I was working with were really they weren’t put off. But they were confused because they sort of thought well, obviously the consent is given when you book the appointment to have your hair done. And I and I, I understand that as a concept, but I don’t

think it’s true because they still have the right to leave before you start if they want like I feel like you still have to ask. I don’t care if they booked it.

Alyssia Dotson (35:18)
Absolutely. Yes.

And I don’t know, I’m sure, okay, now we’re going into the tea moments of it. And I think, you you hit something up there where you’re like, some of the old school, I had some old school hairdressers have been doing hair for, you know, 30 years when I first started. And I mean, they would just get in there and start just touching their guests. And you’re like, you can see.

Liam Shea (35:25)
Let’s do it. Go.

Mm-hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (35:46)
the deer in headlights moments from the guests. They’re just sitting there like, God. And there’s just, know, what is happening to me? mean, I think I’ve objectified what’s going on. And I think I just, those looks from those guests in the mirror, when I’m standing there as an apprentice, I remember it was seared in my brain. like, I never want anyone to be looking at me like that, where they’re just like, I don’t know, like.

Liam Shea (35:51)
What’s happening?

Alyssia Dotson (36:15)
What do I do? And it’s just, you know, the tone deafness of those stylists, because they’ve just been doing it so long. They’re just like, you’re fine. You sit here. You want me to make you beautiful on my terms. And you’re like, wow, okay.

Liam Shea (36:16)
Yeah.

yeah.

that personality,

I found that personality in Solon’s grading. They were the same person who didn’t really care what you wanted. You were actually really just there for them to express themselves on your head. they’re cool, what do you want? Yeah, sure, definitely I’ll do that. And then you look and you’re like, I don’t understand how you got from there to there. That’s infinity dollars. Don’t ever bother me again.

Alyssia Dotson (36:47)
Absolutely, yes!

Yeah.

Yeah,

don’t bother me again. And I am the top tier stylist here. So that’ll be this amount. And yeah, this hair, this little like layer that you have at the top, the Circle Rod Stewart, that’s okay. You wanted it. You wanted it.

Liam Shea (37:11)
Yep. You’re welcome. Yep.

You I know that because you booked an appointment with me and therefore you wanted me to touch you and make you really upset with what I did to your hair. Yeah, it’s great. Yeah, it’s fun part of our industry. Yeah, it’s good. Let’s keep it going. my gosh. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty bananas.

Alyssia Dotson (37:18)
You booked an appointment.

Liam Shea (37:44)
I just wanted to, there was a brief point where you were talking about brands.

I remember there was a point where people I was coming up with were starting to work with brands and I didn’t know how that worked. I didn’t know how that happened. I didn’t know if I should be comfortable with it. At what point did you start working with a brand? Obviously you came up at Tony and Guy and so there’s a unique quality of coming up in a salon that also has its own brand of products.

Alyssia Dotson (37:50)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Liam Shea (38:19)
So did you find working around product brands natural coming out of Tony and Guy? Or at what point did you start working with brands more directly yourself?

Alyssia Dotson (38:29)
I did, I was used to, there was a level of being comfortable just working with a brand because Tony and Guy is such this massive, like I said, where it’s just, it’s its own mega thing. So for me, it was actually hard to not go with their brand. They had their own, I mean, they had their own product line, they had their own color, all the things.

Liam Shea (38:33)
you

Alyssia Dotson (38:58)
by the time that I left and decided to go out on my own. And so there was this kind of moment of, you know, I was so loyal to them and I really adopted their identity of like, this is what you do. So I found this hard to kind of connect initially, cause I was so comparing, you know, it’s head rushes like this, you know, this.

Liam Shea (39:26)
right.

Alyssia Dotson (39:26)
shine

spray, this kind of thing. And so I went through a space of really kind of detoxing myself from products how I saw it. And that’s then I just, that’s why I started playing with a lot of stuff on my own here. And that’s how started finding brands that I liked. Cause if it works on me, then I feel comfortable using it on anyone. And that was, that was my approach.

Up until then, I’d only known one brand. so as far as like connecting it with just hair and I knew cocktails on how to create the product I wanted and things like that. So I had to relearn. It’s like learning a new language. I had to learn what am I looking for? Why was I mixing small talk and after party together?

You know, why was I mixing this? Yeah, and just going at it from that standpoint. And from there, I then started looking. Once I went through my space of just purging and what do I like, what speaks to me, what do my clients need, that’s when I started searching out other brands. And they kind of just found me in that space.

Liam Shea (40:25)
Right. What was happening there? Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (40:55)
Yeah.

Liam Shea (40:57)
Yeah, that’s so awesome. I love it. So I’m cognizant of time. just wanted, there’s a couple more things I wanted to ask you about. So if I’m a new hairstylist or I’m looking to get into it, I’m maybe finishing hair school and moving into a apprenticeship phase or somewhere. And I came to you and said, you know, what do you think I should do next? What should be the first thing I do when?

Alyssia Dotson (40:59)
Yeah, hopefully.

Liam Shea (41:24)
branching out into salons, what would you tell a new stylist? Do you have any, like if you were talking to yourself as you were heading out into the hairstyling world.

Alyssia Dotson (41:36)
Yeah, you know, this question is such a good one. Because the industry and the terrain of the industry is so different than when I was starting up. mean, salon suites were not a thing when I was coming up. So the first thing that I would tell a new stylist is go to a salon. Like, don’t go to a salon studio. You’re not ready to be in a salon suite by yourself or anything like that.

Liam Shea (41:45)
Yes. Yes.

Nope.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (42:04)
go to a salon, work at a salon. You learn so much just being in a salon setting with all the different personalities and all the different approaches to how you cut hair and really connecting. So going in and seeing the salon in action. And it needs to be more than just, I mean, uncommon or unpopular opinion.

Liam Shea (42:16)
Hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (42:32)
I personally believe it needs to be more than just five people in the salon. Like you need a nice size, probably about a good 10, where you can really get a nice taste of everything. And you’ll find yourself in a salon when you have something of that size. I think you have to, that’s the first thing, is going and learning, sitting under someone.

and soaking in everything. Don’t jump on the floor and start cutting hair immediately. You’re not ready. Or coloring hair. Don’t start doing, you’re not ready. You’re not ready. No.

Liam Shea (43:10)
No. No, you you are not and please don’t do that. You’re definitely not ready to do that. Unless it’s being premixed for you. You’re not ready to do it. yeah, no, there was so much about I

mean, I did a full apprenticeship. So I didn’t go to cosmetology school. It was just a straight up apprenticeship in salon. I’m pretty sure it was seven years long, if I remember correctly, or at least it felt that way. It may have only been two years.

Alyssia Dotson (43:35)
Yes.

Liam Shea (43:37)
I was lucky enough to come up in a salon. was 12 chairs,

Alyssia Dotson (43:37)
Yes.

Liam Shea (43:39)
13 stylists. I was the assistant, the apprentice, the receptionist. I cleaned the place. I folded the towels. I washed the hair. I swept the hair. And it was great. It was especially great for me because I’d never even held a brush before I worked at a salon. So it’s not like I was always going to be in a hair salon. Everything was foreign. So I got to watch and, and almost everyone there was actually a chair renter.

Alyssia Dotson (43:47)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Liam Shea (44:08)
except when you finished your apprenticeship, you could become a stylist, start on commission, and then you could work your way to chair rental. So was lucky enough to see really different styles, personalities. And yeah, so I completely agree. I mean, obviously not everybody has the option of where they end up, but I completely agree. A larger salon with a bunch of personalities, some of which you’ll like, some of it you really will not like. Something, some of

Alyssia Dotson (44:18)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

yeah, but you also learn

how to work with the people that are those, you know, the grisly, you know, the ones that have been, you know, in the trenches of hair for 50 years. You want that person there, cause you learn, you learn a nugget from that one too, right? Absolutely. Yes.

Liam Shea (44:39)
Yeah.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, even if it’s just how to deal with that person. That’s a huge… because somebody’s gonna sit in your chair that’s that person at some

point. And it could go poorly if you weren’t ready. Yeah. Man. Gosh. I love it.

Alyssia Dotson (45:03)
Absolutely. Yes. Yes, I agree. Yes. I feel like a

side book should happen.

Liam Shea (45:14)
yeah. It’s really interesting watching people

come up today though, because you know, there was no social media when I started. You couldn’t DM your favorite hairdresser in another city or country. It was, you knew the people around you. I did a class every week and you had to find your own hair model, which was just walking around the streets, you know.

Alyssia Dotson (45:24)
no.

no.

Yes!

Liam Shea (45:41)
as a man

walking around the streets, scaring people, walking up from behind asking, do you want a one length bob?

Alyssia Dotson (45:44)
my God.

Yes,

you had to go out and find that, I mean, the level of thick skin that I have now just from having to walk up to someone and try to sell them on this one length bob, and I have to give it to you this length. can’t be, you get no say in it, or trying to sell them on a pixie, you know? And it was, when no one wanted a pixie, no.

Liam Shea (45:51)
Yeah.

my god. Yes.

No.

when no one wants one, like, right? It’s like, nobody’s getting a pixie.

Would you like one? know, and side note, I’m not very good at it. How about that?

Alyssia Dotson (46:17)
And I’m not good at it. And I’m gonna have

someone watching me. It’s not gonna be just a 45 minute haircut. It’s gonna be two hours, just so you know. And I’m gonna have someone double checking it. I’m gonna have, it just, you know, you don’t get, now someone can just DM, they can look at all your body of work and, yeah, I’m gonna fly from here to there and come see you. And I.

Liam Shea (46:29)
Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (46:47)
I think you lose that, just how to really consult, have a consultation. Cause you didn’t realize you were having a consultation and learning a lot about that experience until now looking back at it, I’m like, my God, I was doing consultations in the, you know, in the pub bar, trying to get the bartender to, please let me do this. Please let me do this shag on you. And the layers are going to be two inches.

Liam Shea (47:10)
Exactly. Please. It’s you’re gonna love it. Yeah, it’s

been 30 years since anyone liked it, but you’re gonna love it. That’s great.

Alyssia Dotson (47:17)
You’re gonna love it. This round

layer haircut is gonna be great.

Liam Shea (47:26)
Yeah. It was so cool. I’m sure it was the same for you watching all the different personalities do consultations like the amount of watching you get to do when you’re assisting at the beginning and some of it’s amazing and some of it’s a train wreck like some of it’s what to do and some of it’s what not to do. Like I’m not gonna that’s not the way to talk to a person. Yeah.

Alyssia Dotson (47:36)
Yes.

Yes.

Yes, no, yes.

There was one particular guy that was a hairstylist and I my first two years of, I apprenticed for two and a half years after coming out of cosmetology school. And it’s one guy he’d been doing hair for, I think he’d been doing hair like 20 years and.

Liam Shea (48:03)
Mm-hmm.

Alyssia Dotson (48:14)
very soft-spoken guy and he would, any guest that sat in his chair, he would spend about five to 10 minutes just looking at their face and messing with their hair. And you’re like, oh my God, does this guy even know what he’s gonna do? And he would come out with these bangers all the time. He’d ask them, how do you feel about where this sits on your hair? And just the questions he would ask, but it was a lot of silent stretches and you’re just sitting here like, oh wow, what are you doing?

letting the hair speak. And you just kind of learn his energy and how he did it. And then on the other hand, I’d see someone who was like, we’re going to do this and this and this and this.

Liam Shea (48:46)
Yeah.

That’s right. You know, what’s great on textured hair, a lot of some sort of one length haircut that involves a lot of tension what wet it’s going to be great when we blow dry that straight, you’re gonna love how it looks. Yes. And really only today. Never again. I very much enjoyed about 15 years ago, I found there was and it’s different for everyone. I found there was a bit of a transition.

Alyssia Dotson (48:56)
And yes, yes, it’s gonna be fabulous. You can only wear it straight, only smooth out, no curly. Yes, yes.

Liam Shea (49:24)
It didn’t involve textured hair for me yet at that point, but it involved natural growth direction. was the beginning of moving away from, well, I’m just gonna put this shape on you and went with, I remember it started with, I was starting to focus on short hair, more sort of longer barber-styled haircuts, and I was rediscovering the crown, and I was rediscovering how hair moved and.

Alyssia Dotson (49:39)
Right?

Mm-hmm.

Liam Shea (49:53)
no longer trying to fit a shape on someone, but trying to figure out what shape their hair already is and how do I transition that to something. I know that for me, that was like the precursor to when people started educating in a way that I could access textured hair. That part came a little naturally where it’s like, look, hair’s gonna do what it’s gonna do. So how can you work with what it’s gonna do as opposed to how can I make it do what I know how to do?

Alyssia Dotson (50:16)
Right.

Yes.

Liam Shea (50:23)
So you

already had experience with textured hair, but was there a moment where you saw a shift in the industry, and not like the 2020 shift, but just the shift away from forced shapes to a degree? Or did you find it?

Alyssia Dotson (50:37)
I did, I started seeing it. It’s probably around that same time, maybe, you know, 15 to 17 years where you started seeing, and it was actually on the runway. Like when I started working on sets and you started seeing people were letting the fabric dictate how they were gonna wear their hair. The draping of it, oh my gosh.

Liam Shea (50:58)
Yes, draping. Like we’re gonna let it drape

where it go. Look, this is how it sits. So what do I do to make it sit right?

Alyssia Dotson (51:06)
Yes,

yes, because you started seeing a lot of these hair icons that were being called back to really help create looks because they were from back in, you know, the time when you did drape hair and you allowed it to speak and you created. so I started seeing it there and it’s been shifting ever since.

Liam Shea (51:32)
Yeah, I love it. We could go on and on about all of this change. Well, it needs to. It has to the whole point is it has to continue to move forward. Yeah, this has been so much fun. I’d like to do it again, at some point, if that works, because this is obviously just the part of a conversation and not a whole conversation. But I you and me both. But for those that are listening, where can people find you?

Alyssia Dotson (51:34)
which is great. We could.

I agree.

Yes! yes.

I feel like I could talk to you forever.

For the people who let you can stalk me on all social platforms at main seamstress main like the hair main and seamstress like sewing and I Would love to just let’s be friends. I’d love to yeah And then you can also go online. I am hairs fabric dot education and Connect and book a class just one-on-one coaching see where I am

Liam Shea (52:07)
Yep.

Yes.

Yes.

Alyssia Dotson (52:32)
in a city new you and yeah absolutely.

Liam Shea (52:33)
I love it.

Well, thanks a ton. Appreciate it. We will talk again soon.

Alyssia Dotson (52:38)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely. I look forward to it.

Liam Shea (52:44)
Okay.