I was recently invited as a guest artist to teach and style hair in Chengdu with a Beijing salon group named Hair Code that runs more than 70 salons across China.
The offer was extended through Weiheng DU, who came to live with my family in Santa Barbara as an exchange student at Santa Barbara City College. “Duke,” as he now prefers to be called, ended up living with us for three years and became like a son to me. Most of the young Chinese that I encountered also preferred English names like Snow, Shine, and Sky that they had picked up from English-speaking rock bands and movies. The names were all a bit funny and cute when not too naïve.
Duke returned to his hometown of Chengdu more than a year ago and insisted that I visit. He is particularly skilled at networking and aggressively seeks opportunities, so he found several salons groups that were interested in my work. After some research and online submissions, we chose Hair Code as the best mutual fit.