Life & Work with Anthony Lillio of West Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Lillio

Hi Anthony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In high school and college studied fine arts naturally gravitated towards the Romanticism movement, During this period of time art shifted to portray and invoke emotions. The color palettes flourished to convey one of the most cherished parts of the human condition love, filled with rich tones much to what we antiquate with romance and desire. My infatuation quickly developed after observing in many of these paintings how women’s hair was portrayed. In this time hair color wasn’t part of the expressive adornment we use today, so natural hair color was specifically embraced along with texture, styling and florals were used to portray status and individuality but hair color was embraced as it grew out of the head. This sentiment stayed with me through college as I studied interior design, after college by chance fell into event design after 7 years this industry took a turn as the economy reflected on budgets. I found myself looking for creative freedom this pivotal moment I decided to pursue cosmetology school yearning to translate my passion of painting and those early experiences of seeing the great artists translated hair color as part of life’s journey. I was licensed in 2016 and never looked back. To me painting hair on fellow humans is the ultimate medium. It’s

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing has been smooth about the journey, as with change comes mourning of what was and transforming into what is. As an artist I was hard on myself as I approached each client I did as a love letter to the world. After I got licensed, I decided to look for assistant positions in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. I was met with a lot of pushback based on the way I looked and that I had such a strong opinion and background with what I did already, of course was discouraging at first struggling with thoughts that I didn’t fit in, once I started getting experience as an assistant I also worked at a salon in the night to start building a clientele simultaneously so in the beginning, I worked seven days a week with not a lot of free time. There came to a point where I was experiencing burnout and I hadn’t even started , but along with most things, I was passionate about it and I push through glad I did

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Most of my business is highlighting, my specialty is replicating natural. I think there’s nothing more beautiful than what the sun does to the Hair overtime or the natural highlights that kids hair has because of being in the sun creates sort of a natural lit within dimensional landscape. Majority Of the color I do always has a sense of richness as Hair that naturally is lightened by the elements are overtime Tends to To have Warmth. I love taking what grows out of the hair naturally and just ever so slightly enhancing it to me. There’s nothing more beautiful.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
The two that stand out to me most as I’m filling this out is The first being I was a kid of the 90s and was really into trolls. In fact collecting things was always one of my favorite things to do as a kid and maybe as an adult. Lol I was a big Collector of trolls and my parents had surprise me by taking me to a store that was strictly just trolls and let me pick whatever I wanted. The second one was I was a huge fan Of the Spice Girls in fact so much so after their movie came out Spice World I quickly became fan club Member after lots of persuasion from my parents. That VHS tape Spice World was watched probably a few hundred times so much so that I had learned the choreography to one of their dance videos in the movie one day. I was watching the movie and proceeded to do the choreography alone in my bedroom probably a lot of noise as I wasn’t a small kid. I was so focused on nailing this routine that I didn’t see. My mom had walked in the room only to find me doing this routine at the Spice Girls. At one point I had looked up and caught her eye as she was staring at me do this routine for her to say nothing, but give me a little smile and then turned around and walked out. It was significant because I felt seen not only as a Spice Girls connoisseur, but the little weirdo that I was.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.thelilliotheory.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelilliotheory?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/thelilliotheory?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==