HJ CAREERS
Adventures of a… BRIDAL Boss
After styling Venezuela Fury’s wedding hair, Lynz Austin’s career went viral. Here, she tells HJ about the journey that got her there…
Lynz Austin has been around hair for as long as she can remember. “My nan was a hairdresser, and we were always in the house when she was doing hair,” she tells us. So, it’s no surprise that at 14, Lynz began working in a salon after school to learn the craft. “They put me onto an apprenticeship when I left school, and I qualified when I was 17 because I was already ahead with my training.”
From there, Lynz rented a chair before opening her own salon at just 20 – which she’s now had for 19 years. And while colour and extensions feature heavily in her day-to-day, it’s weddings that she’s become particularly known for. “Even when I was 14, I used to be sent out to big hotels to do hair-ups,” she tells us. “I’ve always been known for them.”
In the last 10 years, weddings became a bigger part of Lynz’s work, and in the last five? Even bigger.
But one wedding in particular changed everything – Venezuela Fury’s. With just two weeks’ notice, Lynz was brought on board to style Venezuela’s hair for her wedding on the Isle of Man. “I went on holiday, came back, and then flew back out again afterwards!” she laughs.
After flying over for the trial, where Lynz got to know the Fury family, she returned two weeks later for the wedding itself. The night before was spent prepping Venezuela’s hair into tight curls ready for the finger wave, before Lynz headed back at 5am the next morning. “I was running on an hour and a half’s sleep – pure adrenaline,” she says. “But we absolutely smashed the day. She looked beautiful and her hair went up like a glove.”
That’s when things went slightly wild. “The following day she posted about me and my page just went viral.” One Instagram Reel reached around 3.5 million views, while Lynz’s overall Instagram views climbed to 6.2 million. “TikTok went wild too,” she adds. Radio interviews, local press and the BBC followed. “My life has been manic since May!”
But Lynz isn’t exactly someone who sits still anyway. Alongside running the salon, last year she opened an academy teaching hair-up and extensions, and she’s recently launched ‘That Wedding Team’ in partnership with make-up artist Danielle Gregory, to provide services focused on traveller weddings. “We’ve already got things coming in and enquiries for weddings abroad,” she tells us. “I don’t know how I’m fitting it all into my life, but I’m trying!”
A typical salon day? “I’ll probably work from half nine until half eight or nine at night.” Add weddings, judging panels, podcasts and the academy into the mix, and busy might be an understatement.
But surprisingly, when we ask Lynz about the biggest challenge in her career, it isn’t the workload. “You’re not just a hairdresser anymore, you’re a therapist,” she says. “You help people with hair loss, vitamins, relationships – everything.”
This year though, Lynz decided to put some energy back into herself and her career. “At the beginning of the year, I said every month I had to do something, and it had to be bigger and better than the month before.” And safe to say, it’s worked. “I’d say this year has probably been my biggest and proudest year.”
Her advice? “Collaboration over competition,” she tells us. “Stick in your own lane and do what’s best for you.”
Now, she’s focused on what comes next. “I want to get my brand as big as possible,” she says. That means more travelling for weddings, expanding her businesses and more podcasts. “It’s not even about getting your name out there, it’s telling people how your career started and what you’ve done,” she tells us.
From after-school training at 14 to millions of views, a salon, academy and another business on the go, Lynz certainly has plenty to talk about. And with another challenge to beat next month, we have a feeling things aren’t about to quieten down anytime soon!