Thomas McKiver has styled hair for Taylor Swift and Natalie Portman, created ad campaigns for L’Oréal and Clinique and curated shoots for Elle, Vogue and Glamour.
And after 35 years in New York, the Scots-born stylist has traded the Big Apple’s Union Square for Dundee’s Union Street.
His new salon, tom, opened this week, and Thomas has plans to make it the epicentre of a style revolution — not just in Dundee, but Scotland and the UK.
Together with his lawyer wife Sheila, Thomas has moved from the US to St Andrews, looking for a quieter, gentler pace of life.
Thomas McKiver’s work taken worldwide
Thomas was a freelance stylist, whose work took him all over the world.
“I worked in TV, advertising and editorial for magazines like Vogue and Elle,” he said.
“I’ve worked with Michael Jackson, Guns N Roses, Shakira, Taylor Swift — a decent number of people.”
After moving to St Andrews and working in salons in the city, he decided to take matters into his own hands and open a new venture.
With lofty aims, Thomas said he wants to train the next generation of stylists to be as particular as he is when it comes to creating cuts.
“My aim, in the long term is this. First, I have to be the best salon in Dundee. Secondly, the best in Scotland. Third, the UK. And I think I can do it, but it takes time.
“I want to make Dundee known for innovation for hair and style.
“We want to put our young trainees and stylists on the map.
On searching for a premises, he points out he could have gone for a large space and opened a larger salon.
“We decided to open in a smaller space, with a smaller staff roster. And I can train them to a standard I want,” he adds.
“People in Dundee are, overall, very friendly.
“I have two staff who are starting with us. There are nine chairs, and we could comfortably employ around four or five stylists.
“We are also doing things a bit differently with our products. We haven’t signed with a manufacturer.
“A lot of the time a big company will dictate what you can do, what products you use, what art work you use. We didn’t want to do that.”
Covid recovery
Like nearly every industry, hair dressing was greatly impacted by the pandemic.
Thomas clams standards were affected as salon owners became “greedy”, and staff stiffed on wages decided to either work from home or rent a chair in a store.
“The industry was ravaged by Covid.
“One of the things that happened during the pandemic was the greedier salon owners took the money and kept it.
“So a lot of the younger staff realised they could make more money for themselves working from home.
“Staff who were staying, then got offered to come to salons and ‘rent’ a chair. This has become a huge thing in the industry.
“The standards have varied as a result. So we will not be doing chair rental. We will have full-time staff, and it is how we can keep it to a certain standard, which is so important.
And although he has worked with some of New York’s top models, he said he would not be charging Empire prices.
Sheila adds: “We are going to be in line, price-wise, with everyone else in Dundee.
“We would like people to come to us because we are different and can offer a better cut, than charging and saying that’s why we are ‘best’.”
Conversation