William Edge has a unique and inspiring approach to the world of beauty. He is a hairdresser, platform artist, session stylist, salon and school owner. He has worked with the Aveda brand for over 25 years, as the owner and creative influence of the William Edge, Vann.Edge and ProdEdgy Salon Group which includes 5 Lifestyle Salons throughout Texas, Nashville and Seattle. He is also the founder of Pure Edge-ucation and works throughout the industry sharing his creative approach to systematic success. William’s career has taken him all over the world and made him a regular at fashion weeks and runways shows in New York, Seattle and Nashville. His insightful, fresh perspective engages everyone around him to create a greater collective success. In addition to his acclaimed artistic work, William Edge is also one of the most insightful motivational speakers in our industry.
When asked, William Edge professes that, when given the chance, he loves sharing the William Edge story…”it is a great opportunity to honor our history, our foundation, our values and the adventures that bring our story to life. Our story essentially started with my mother, Judy Turner. Although I didn’t realize I was learning valuable insights to my future, I would spend hours hanging out in her salon. Most of the time I would be getting in trouble for spinning in the stylist chairs, however, I would also hear the conversations amongst the team. I witnessed, first hand, the difficulties of being successful in this industry. I never thought for a second that I would make a career in the beauty industry. I only joined cosmetology school to have a skill that would help me earn some money to get through college. Week one of beauty school…I knew this was what I was meant to do. As a second-generation hairdresser, everything just made sense. However, I knew the last thing the world needed was another salon or another hairdresser. That weekend, I drove home and told my mother “I am going to be a hairdresser…but not just any hairdresser…I want to change the industry.” So in 1989, armed with a cosmetology license, a dream, and $242.00 to my name, $200.00 that a friend let me borrow on my 1974 Volkswagen van, I set out to make a difference and opened our first salon location. I started with two team members and yes, we made every mistake you could think of, and somehow, we did a few things right. I have always been comfortable with the concept of “if you build it, they will come”. Knowing that if I wanted to make a place where everyone had a brighter opportunity, things had to be different. My mother closed her salon and came on board. With a unique skill of stretching a dollar, she kept us from going bankrupt and handled the difficult job of our finances. Without her, we would not be here today.”
“To be honest, I have never really understood the beauty industry. I believe the industry is broken. If it worked, as a second-generation hairdresser, I would be able to share a list of people who have retired from behind the chair, or a college fund for their kids, or something…I just know a lot of older hairdressers. So, the journey to make a difference started with asking “why not?” Why can other small businesses offer what salons traditionally couldn’t. That frame of thinking helped us build a salon that is non-tipping, offers health insurance, paid vacations, paid holidays, education, personal development seminars, a stable compensation and other things that were previously unheard of. Our success of developing new operations and education systems has offered opportunities to share our philosophy all over the world. Locally, we have two William Edge Aveda Lifestyle salons, a training salon and a beauty school. We have amazing team members who bring our mission to life on a daily basis. That is really how I see our story. I could talk about ‘hairdresser friendly financial’, or ‘retail edge’, or ‘training goes tribal’, or ‘engageship’, or any number of the programs that I’ve written, developed and implemented to help this industry continue to evolve. I could talk about our classes such as ‘razor’s edge’, ‘long hair needs love too’, ‘all dressed up’, or ‘edge-itorial’ or any such classes I have created and conducted for the industry and how we are quickly becoming a premier Education Company. I could tell you about the future we have in the works and the salons we are opening and our advanced academy that is on the way. I could mention a number of wonderful things that make us different, however, the true value of William Edge is in the cast members and the relationships that we are all fortunate to cultivate. It is the journey together that really tells our story and, together, I believe we can achieve anything we set our sights on. We are excited to make our unique impact with our students in the school.”