What's up, Hair Game listeners? We've opened our new Pasadena location, and by the time you hear this episode, our new Woodland Hills location will be open to.

Go to SalonRepublic.com for info. This episode is a conversation I had with Tatum Neal, founder of Elevate Hair, and at the risk of shamelessly building suspense, I'm going to go out on a limb

and say that Tatum gives us what I think is our best hair horse story yet.

What's up, brother? Good to see you. Good seeing you. We just met today. Yeah. So thanks

for doing the podcast. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about your family. I know you come

from family with deep roots in the hair business, right? Yeah, so my grandfather started our company, a distribution company, like in the late 40s. My dad kind of took it over in the 60s and revolutionized it. His focus was, or he was kind of one of the first people to really believe in the hairdresser and the way that, you know, they

weren't just like high school dropouts, that some of these hairdressers for high school dropouts

are millionaires. So maybe they're not so dumb after all. And so he really believed in the

hairdresser and he also believed in elevating the hairdresser from a craft perspective. So he's

very influential in bringing in artists from all over the world to educate.

And we're based in New Orleans, so we're like a Southern company.

But being a Southern company, we're the first million dollar,

million dollar distributor for Paul Mitchell, Redkin, and Evada.

So three major brands really kind of got their start based in the South because of our distribution strategies and his, you know,

commitment to hair and to education.

Right. Very interesting. So do you work for, it's Neil Corp, is that correct?

Neal Corporation is our company, yeah. And my, you know, he had seven kids, three while I was seven kids.

Wow. And no one in the family has ever done hair. And so I actually went to college to get my degree in environmental policy.

I went to UNC Chapel Hill, came back, was working for Neil as like a corporate tree hugger.

And was just kind of into the artistic side of hair.

And I thought maybe being a platform artist would be sort of cool, like most hairdressers.

And I went to New York.

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