Infatuated with the avant-garde styling of magazine editorial, Caitlin Ford once asked her cosmetology school instructor, “How do you get to do this as a career rather than the base colors and highlights?” She was told there was no money in that—but Instagram has changed the job, giving Ford a platform with 100,000-plus followers watching her create her signature rainbow bangs, dye hair vertically, and share how she recently lost a finger.
Where do you find inspiration? All over the place. For a while, I was doing looks inspired by desert landscapes. Lately, it’s been the Argentine-Spanish artist Felipe Pantone, on whom I based the colors in my bangs. It’s fun to challenge yourself by looking at something that’s not hair and saying, “How do I turn this into hair?”
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How would you describe your style? I just watched this Joan Jett documentary, and I was, like, “Man, she’s such a badass. I want to be Joan Jett.” So I’ve been wearing a lot of red leather jackets, black fishnets, leather skirts. The rainbow bangs I started two years ago, I wanted people to know that I do creative color. It’s become the best business card.
Hairstyling seems so glamorous. What do we not see? I think many people have a misconception that being a hairstylist is not really a job—you go to work, make people pretty and happy all day. Nowadays not only do you have to be good at doing hair, but you have to be a really intelligent business person.
How has your career changed since losing your right index finger? I had an accident with a table saw, where it kicked back and my hand slid sideways—wrong place, wrong time—and it took my finger off instantly. When it happened my first thought was, “Did I just like ruin my life?” The shocking part for me was how easy it’s been to adapt. Getting back to work, it was kind of second nature to use my middle finger as my pointer finger. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a time that I don’t notice it… I’m not beating myself up for it as I was in the beginning.
