adventures of a… SESSION Stylist
Linnea Nordberg is a London-based session stylist. Here, she talks her biggest inspirations, Suki Waterhouse, and the key to assisting on fashion shows…
“There are so many photos of me doing my cousin’s hair when I was a kid. It’s so cute and shows that it’s something that I always enjoyed doing,” says Linnea Nordberg, as she chats to us about her journey into the industry. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that she headed straight to college to study hairdressing. “I’m from Sweden, so once I completed college, I worked there for a couple of years before I moved to London in 2011,” she tells us. “When I moved to London, it was very much the fashion scene. London had the heritage of Vidal Sassoon – there was a buzz and it just seemed like the coolest place in the world at the time.”
Working as an assistant at Windle & Moodie in Covent Garden, Linnea underwent further training and specialised in cutting and styling. “I did that for a few years, but I always wanted to do fashion, so I gradually moved into that, and became freelance in the salon.” It was from here that Linnea tells us she began assisting Ali Pirzadeh. “He was the first person I really assisted – he’s amazing. I learned a lot from him about ‘the babysitting of the hair’ and just the joy for it.”
From there, she started doing shows with Duffy, and soon became the first assistant to Alex Brownsell, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Bleach London, for three to four years. “I was also working in product development at Bleach, which was a really good experience – it was really interesting to get to see that side of things.” However interesting it may have been, it led Linnea to realise that being on set and doing client’s hair was what she really wanted to do, so she started doing her own work across fashion and beauty brands; gaining a celebrity clientele.
When it comes to her A-List clients, it’s very much a collaborative effort. “I’m very lucky, they are absolutely lovely. You have a bit of a chat and then you go somewhere with that.” Suki Waterhouse, for example, is a regular client. “I think why we work so well is because we have similar taste,” Linnea tells us. “With Suki’s hair, the signature is the cut, and we change up the style. We do different textures – we’ve done more of a blow-dry for red carpets, more volume and movement, and more of a rock vibe for her headline shows. We recently did a haircut that was inspired by Marianne Faithfull in the 60s, playing with these nice flicks.”
Linnea tells us she takes inspiration from vintage sources: “I love going into shops with old books. I found a book about Pucci, the fashion brand, and there were some amazing hairstyles with really big ponytails from the 60s,” she says. “It’s really inspiring and fun seeing cool stuff basically!”
Meanwhile, her advice for any young hairdressers looking to step out from behind the chair into the fashion world, goes beyond assisting. “Seek out the people that are like you and assist – it’s helpful to work with people whose style you like. But it’s one thing to want to do something, and it’s another thing to be ready for it,” she says. “You never want to be booked for a job and not actually have the skills to do it. Doing test shoots allows you to put stuff onto your Instagram or your portfolio where you can show the person you want to assist that you can do hair. It’s not about your style or taste, it’s about, can you do a good blow-dry? Can you do a sleek ponytail? If you can show that, then you’re more likely to get booked on assisting jobs.”
Looking back at the young girl doing her cousin’s hair in photographs, Linnea reflects: “I think if little me could see me now, I definitely would be proud of myself, that’s for sure! I think when you get frustrated with yourself, you have to remind yourself where you started.” So, what’s next? “I would probably say I still haven’t reached my goal, but then I also don’t really know what my goal is anymore.” Whatever it is, we can't wait to watch from the sidelines!