Mattie Calloway leads a double life.
In Dallas, she is a ferociously busy hair stylist, embarking from this home base to Phenix Salon Suites across the country to lead professional training classes. This week she’s in Maryland on a breakneck schedule presenting cut-and-color classes using the new 3DeLuXe color line with Phenix International Art Director Robert Edick.
In her other life, Calloway is launching her solo music career. Her freshman single, “New Love,” can be found at www.blackfridayexchange.org. She is also co-lead singer with Keite Young for a Dallas-Austin blues-funk-electro band, The Black and Blue.
Neither existence is hidden or particularly mild-mannered, as would be the case for the cookie cutter super hero of comic books. Calloway is effusively creative behind the mic and the chair.
She grew up in salons but didn’t discover her calling until after college, where she studied radio and broadcast at Texas A&M. She didn’t find the passion in that industry that she’d anticipated. “I tried cosmetology school and was very busy with clients. That’s when I realized, ‘Okay, I think I’m supposed to do hair.’”
She started with shampoo and blowouts, then promoted to cuts and coloring. “I wanted to change my income so I studied and found salons in the downtown area of Dallas that would support that change.”
“Eventually, I opened my own salon. I had 4,000 square feet of space and 12 stylists working for me. I had another realization! You don’t have to be big to be BIG. I decided to go smaller but still do BIG business. I revamped my salon concept to focus on one of the things that I am in love with … Color. This inspired my salon name, ‘Coloured.’” She found Phenix Salon Suites online and picked a salon at the Frisco franchise. “I just feel really connected with the Phenix family. I really like the way they do things.”
Calloway is leading cut and 3DeLuXe color classes alongside Edick at eight Phenix Suites in Maryland and Virginia through May 19. “I love, love the developer,” she said. “And the consistency of the color is great.”