SB PEOPLE
BY ELIZABETH DEAL
HEATHER HARRIS
S
salons, after completing a certification course. Heather has natural talent and deep product knowledge, and also helps in some day-to-day business aspects at Avalon.
uccess is personal to each of us. For Heather Harris, it’s achieving her personal best in the hair and makeup industry. Growing up as a pageant girl, she was exposed to the beauty industry early on but embarked on a couple of different career paths. Today, she is 5 years into her dream career in hair and makeup—something she always wanted to do—and loving every minute of it.
“Whether it’s coloring someone’s hair pink or purple or just a natural root touch-up, I love helping my client to feel beautiful,” says Heather. “When my client is elated, I am elated!”
Feeling as if she’d gotten a late start, she was determined “to make up time.” She told herself, “If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it 150%.” “I hit the ground running and within six months was a Redken hair specialist.” The training to become a specialist from New York Citybased Redken teaches discovering solutions to every hair need in order to meet the needs of all clients.
She works closely with friend and colleague Chrystal Bassett and together they are affectionately known as the “Dream Team” when it comes to hair and makeup for wedding parties. Heather’s goal for a bridal portrait is that the bride “feels the best she has ever felt in her life.” Since weddings are a stressful day, she tells her brides, “Let me take on the stress for you.” And she doesn’t leave the premises once her job is done. She stays with the bride to maintain her hair and makeup for the photographs and reception.
Nominated by Grace Anne Blake, the salon owner at Avalon Hair Salon, Heather became a Salon Ambassador for Mirabella Beauty, a top minerals-based cosmetic line (cruelty free, gluten free and paraben free) sold only in
32
SEPTEMBER 2021
| SBMAG.NET
Heather does makeup for the Krewe of Centaur royalty for their Coronation and Bal (where she was past royalty) and has worked on a few short films and with a team of makeup artists and hair stylists for the Fashion Prize.
In 2020, Heather received the call of her dreams: to inter-
