Ryan Rodgers has worked behind the chair as a stylist for 10 years. In addition to cutting and coloring, he is now a Redken educator and visits salons all over the Greater Philadelphia area, teaching advanced-color techniques, product knowledge and hair styling to salon professionals. Rodgers worked for nine years in Delaware County but since June has brought his style, flair and expertise to the Andre Richard Salon, 1218 Locust St.
We stopped in the salon to get a heads-up on the stylist and his work.
PGN: Tell me a little about yourself.
RR: I was born in Brookhaven, a small town about 10 minutes from Media.
PGN: Large family?
RR: Small, I have two older brothers. My dad only had one brother and my mom had stepsiblings so there wasn’t much of an extended family.
PGN: Were you a fashionable kid?
RR: I was the youngest of three boys and both of my brothers played sports. My parents tried to get me involved as well, but it wasn’t exactly my niche; though in my teen years I found the swim team and it was a place where I could fit in when it came to athletics. I was a Catholic-school boy growing up and we wore uniforms so fashion didn’t really have a place there, and at home I wore play clothes for neighborhood time. But I transferred to public school in high school and I started paying more attention to how I dressed. By the time I became a senior, I was voted Best Dressed.
PGN: There you go. As the third of three boys, did you get a lot of hand-me-downs?
RR: Oh, absolutely! We just had Halloween and it brings back memories of all the Halloween costumes that I never got to choose because I had to wear what my brothers had picked the year before. And of course I got regular hand-me-downs as well: shoes, clothing, everything. By the time I got the sweatpants, there were already holes in the knees.
PGN: Ha! And now you’re paying good money for pants with the rips already in them!
RR: [Laughs] I know!
PGN: What was the worst piece of clothing handed down?
RR: Probably the Halloween costumes. I remember standing in the corner one night and throwing a tantrum because I refused to wear this stupid pumpkin costume they were trying to put me in.
PGN: Hey, I’ll have you know I won a second-grade contest dressed as a pumpkin.
RR: I’d wear it now in a second, but as a teenager it was not exactly the costume I wanted at the time. The other thing was that my middle brother was as thin as a twig and I was the husky one. In fact, he never called me his little brother, he always called me his younger brother because I was always bigger than him! So I didn’t get that many hand-me-downs from him.
PGN: What did the folks do?
RR: Dad worked in sales for the Delaware County Housing Authority but had to retire. He was a Vietnam War vet and had some problems stemming from that: PTSD and things associated with it. He got a Purple Heart from being wounded in the war. My mother was a retired school teacher; she passed away five years ago from breast cancer. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her. I attribute the person that I am today to her.
PGN: How did your father’s PTSD manifest itself and how did it affect the family?
RR: I was young when it started getting intense and I tried to ignore it. I pretty much stuck with my mom and tried to stay out of the way. I was her best friend and she was my best friend. At that point, my brothers were growing and doing their own thing, getting into high school and college, so I just stuck with my mom. I don’t know if that makes sense but that’s the best way for me to describe it.
PGN: Did he have problems with substance abuse?
RR: Oh, yeah, definitely. He was in and out of rehab facilities. There were often times when we had to go visit Dad because he was in a facility or see him at the veterans’ hospital. I didn’t have the best relationship with my father growing up because of it. I was 13 years old and going through things myself so I just avoided him. If I needed a parent for advice or anything, I went to my mother. But as time went on, he started getting involved in veterans’ affairs and found the help that he needed. As I became an adult as well, we were able to rekindle our friendship and, at 31, I can say that our relationship as father and son is the best it’s ever been. When my mom was sick and dying, he was there for her the whole time, taking care of her and being there for her. I have a really big spot in my heart for him for stepping up and doing that.
PGN: Sounds like he worked his way through his problems.
RR: Definitely. And he’s come to respect me now as a professional in my industry and understand the advancements and achievements I’ve made in my career and in my private life. I purchased my own home and have proved myself as a man and he’s proud of that.
PGN: How did the coming-out process go with both Mom and Dad?
RR: Wow. So, one of the first people I came out to was one of my very good friends, Mandy. Soon after that, the whole world knew. I’d been holding it back for so long that when I finally had the confidence to come out, I wanted to share it with everybody. I took no time at all telling Mom, and her response was that she knew already. She also told me that I was her favorite son but that I was not to tell my older brothers that.
PGN: Can I print that?
RR: Yes you can! [Laughs] So anyway, we laughed and we cried and she told me that she supported me and was very proud of me. I also told her that I wasn’t going to ever share the information with my father and … oh boy, I’m going to start crying. I don’t know why. [Takes a breath] I told her that I was never going to share the information with my father until he was 6-feet-under because of the upbringing that I had with him. And to this day I haven’t.
PGN: You don’t think he may have softened after going through what he did with your mom?
RR: Um, yeah, all my friends are like, “Don’t you think your mom shared that information with your dad before she passed?” and I think she probably did. Absolutely. And I’ve been out of the closet for 10 years now, and he’s been around my life enough to know what my orientation is at this point. He’s met significant others that I’ve had, but I’ve never said, “Dad, this is my boyfriend Joey, or John.” One of my friends recently was giving me flack for the fact that I haven’t officially come out to my father, and I told her that next time I was in a significant relationship that I would come out to him. I feel comfortable enough with myself at this point to do so and I feel comfortable enough with my relationship with my father to share who I am with him. I think he already know, but it’s never been a conversation we’ve been able to have.
PGN: What made me ask how he handled it was that you’d stated that your dad was finally proud of you “as a man,” so I felt there may have been some problems there.
RR: Yeah, I struggled with my dad when I was in that teen adolescent phase. I mean, I liked to hang out with the girls. It wasn’t like he came at me for those things, but I wasn’t successful in basketball and football like my brothers so I didn’t get the accolades that they did. And they had more of a chance to bond with him as a result. For instance, my middle brother Chris used to work with my dad doing landscaping. They had a little business and used to haul dirt and cut grass and I didn’t want any parts of that. In my 31 years, I’ve only mowed a lawn once and I hope I never do it again! Swimming was about as athletic as I got.
PGN: Instinctively, you choose the gayest sport of them all.
RR: Yes! Which I didn’t know at the time! And I was really good at it.
PGN: Who was your first boy crush?
RR: It wasn’t anyone I knew; it was probably a celebrity crush, maybe from a boy band.
PGN: Lance Bass?
RR: Oh please! Justin Timberlake!
PGN: [Laugh] I definitely coveted what was around me. I was always saying to the girls in my kindergarten, “Let’s play house. I’ll be the mommy and you be the other mommy!”
RR: I totally played house too. What straight guy wants to play house with the girls? There were definitely signs looking back. I didn’t play video games, I watched “Full House”!
PGN: When did you get into the beauty industry?
RR: When I graduated high school I went to college even though I had no desire to go. I first went to Penn State Brandywine and then transferred to West Chester University. I was a business major, then switched to world studies just for the heck of it, then liberal arts just to try to get the diploma and get out. I failed out the first semester of my fourth year, transferred back to Penn State, failed there too and then had an epiphany when talking to my friend Mandy, who was working in the industry with great success. I was someone who was going to the salon at 13th to get blonde highlights and used to joke with her that I was going to go to beauty school. And one day she said, “Why don’t you just go ahead and do it?” I realized she was absolutely right, so I came out of the closet on Sunday night and enrolled in beauty school on Monday. Quit my job at Commerce Bank and got a job in a salon. I worked in a salon called Contemporary Styles by Mena as an assistant while I was in beauty school and after a year I became a full-time stylist. I worked there for nine years. I moved to Philly and I’ve been at Andre Richard since June.
PGN: And what do you specialize in?
RR: I do both color and cut. Everything from the Balayage, which is trendy right now, to cutting men’s hair, pretty much everything but a Marcia Clark perm. And I love educating other salon professionals. I have the title of Redken artist and I go into other salons and teach them about the Redken brand. I really love it.
PGN: Why is teaching so important to you?
RR: I love the industry that I’m in. I really do, and I enjoy sharing the knowledge that I have, the techniques that I’ve learned. I’ve always taken part in advanced education since the time I got started in the business. The first class was in New York City almost 10 years ago and I knew then that someday I wanted to teach as well. When I found Redken, I felt at home. I get to travel with them and meet new people, which I love. It’s great. My mom was a teacher for over 30 years, which probably had an influence.
PGN: What was the hardest thing when you first started?
RR: Having the confidence to stand behind someone and have them trust me to do their hair.
PGN: Having watched Frenchy in “Grease,” I’d be afraid I’d do something wrong and someone’s hair would fall out!
RR: Definitely, though I was pretty confident the first time coloring someone’s hair. While I was in beauty school, I was also taking advanced classes on coloring. Cutting hair for the first time was scarier. Though there was a time in beauty school when I mixed the colors wrong, but thankfully I was practicing on a fellow student. I had to quietly take her outside in case she reacted and explain that her hair was going to be the complete opposite of what we were going for! Thank God she loved me as a friend and still does, and didn’t make a big deal out of it. Thanks, Lindsay!
PGN: You must have stories about people who were transformed by what you’ve done.
RR: Oh, yes. About seven years back, I had a client who was cutting all her hair off because she was going in for breast-cancer treatment the next day. I cut 12 inches off her head. She was young and an amazing woman. She battled the cancer and when her hair grew back, she returned and became a client of mine up until I left. It was remarkable to be there through the process with her. There have been a number of times where the confidence a person gained from the new look was inspiring.
PGN: What do you do when you’re not doing hair? Collect anything?
RR: I collect vintage irons. I seem to have a lot of black clothing as well. It’s all I wear!
PGN: What’s the fascination with irons?
RR: I don’t know. My mom always had our school uniforms perfectly ironed so I think I was always interested in ironing. I always wanted my clothes just as precise. In high school, I ironed every single outfit I wore every single day of school. Same thing in college. A couple of years ago I got an iron tattooed on my arm and people started giving me vintage irons as presents. Now I have a small collection.
PGN: What other interests do you have?
RR: Hanging out with my friends or spending time with my niece and nephews. I used to play in the Stonewall kickball and dodgeball leagues. It was a good way to meet people and expand my circle of friends but I spend five days a week in the salon and often teach on my days off, so I don’t have time to do it anymore. I also like to work out a lot. It’s where I get my “me” time.
PGN: What was your worst hairstyle? Ever rock a mullet?
RR: I did! Soon after beauty school, I got a mullet. I’ve had so many styles, sometimes I look at old pictures and wonder why my friends let me walk around with them. I remember having one style that looked like I had a mushroom on the top of my head or having my Britney Spears moment before I came out of the closet and buzzing all my hair off.
PGN: Family traditions?
RR: My mom used to make a pineapple casserole for Thanksgiving, which I’ve been doing since she passed. I know it sounds weird but it’s good. I’ll be making one this year. Memories.
For more information on Andre Richard Salon, visit www.andrerichardsalon.com.
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