Meet Brittany Woodcox of The Royal B in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Woodcox.

Brittany, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Paradise, CA. It was a beautiful small mountain town that was leveled in the campfire in 2018. I loved growing up there but I never wanted to stay. In high school, after cutting a friend’s hair, I realized I had a real interest in hairstyling which led me to me freehand styling and hi-lighting the hair of my friends and family. Having always loved film it occurred to me, if I learned how to do hair, I could do this professionally on set. I had my out of Paradise.

I was a month out of high school when I started beauty school, after which I worked in Chico, CA at Satori Color and Hair design. It was there I learned the ends and outs of the business. I’d built a wonderful clientele, I’d built a life, but I still wanted out of the area.

So I moved to LA and started to work on films, photoshoots, and music videos. I loved the energy of set life but it wasn’t what I truly felt I wanted to do. Los Angeles can be unforgiving and I realized, while my clientele was amazing and the stories engaging, something was missing. And I moved to Austin, TX. I have a mobile hairstyling business in Austin now and, more recently, I started working at a Pomme salon in Dripping Springs, TX. But once a month I still fly back over to work with my LA clients and because you never really leave LA. Once you’ve lived it a part of you is always there.

Great, 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?
I was 18 when I started my career and, being from a small town, I had zero life experience. I felt I had to figure out how to look, act, and present the knowledge of someone older than myself. Eventually, I gained more confidence in my skills and who I was and let go of the idea I needed to be older (or someone else) to prove I was a talented stylist.

Moving to LA presented a whole other set of obstacles. I lasted three months the first time before moving back to Chico. I was just so unhappy and unprepared to be in a big city like that. I moved home defeated but undeterred. I’ve never been one to let myself be knocked back for long so I went back to Satori Color and Hair Design, rebuilt my clientele and became one of their busiest stylists. I continued to visit LA, developing a studio and dubbing my work “The Royal B”. After a couple of years of traveling between Chico and LA, building my brand and sharpening my identity, I decided to try to live in LA again.

I worked on many photo, film and music video shoots. As is common in LA, I loved the work however the pay was only enough to live on comfortably, not to save or plan anything past a year. There was the option of if it was a good job then maybe I’d get into the Union, but I didn’t want to spend six years at maybe getting $250 a day. Younger just starting out me would be ok with that cozy life, working in Chico for $100 a day, only worrying about rent and the odd bill. But I was still looking for more.

After three years, I broke free and moved to Austin, TX. Initially, I tried to work at a salon again, renting a booth by the day, but it didn’t work out and probably for the best. I’ve found I get the greatest returns in this industry when I have the option to travel to my clients. When I can make my own hours and spread a wider net for clientele. So of course, I created my own mobile hairstyling business under The Royal B. It’s been great but has its limitations, like how many people I can see in a day and of course not everyone’s comfortable with you coming to their home, but those hurdles are worth it to write the story the way I see it. My business has me traveling to LA every two months and working at Stardust Salon (off Vermont and Fountain Ave) while I’m in Hollywood and Sydney Clark has been so welcoming to me. This group of amazing stylists she has curated within Stardust are a godsend. They are kind, nonjudgmental and generous. I feel lucky to find them and feel like, with moving to Austin but keeping a toe in LA, I’ve found a balance. I love having a Hollywood home now and it only took moving away to find it.

The Royal B – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My specialty is in personalized hair art. I want to create a look for you that brings out the you that makes you love yourself more. Everyone should love their hair and the way they look. I help my clients discover what looks good on them and help them execute their style no matter how minimal. I use cruelty-free products and do my part to work with companies that are conscious about the environment. I use Hairstory products to style wash and style my client’s hair. If you haven’t heard of New Wash by Hairstory, you need to. They donate 1% of their proceeds to clean water charities. Color me by Kevin Murphy is the color I use. It’s ammonia-free and all of their packaging is made from recycled plastic from the ocean. The care of your hair is my job and keeping the integrity of your hair my priority. No matter what your hair concerns are I will do my best to get you to your hair goal.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I feel proud when a client comes to me and tells me how much they loved their hair, that it was so easy to style, or strangers came up to them to compliment them, etc. When I get compliments like this, I feel proud because they felt good. Their hair helped them feel confident and good about themself. Everyone deserves to feel and look good. One of the reasons why I love what I do is because I help people feel good about the way they look.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4709 Fountain ave
  Hollywood, CA 90029
• Website: TheRoyalB.com
• Phone: 818-850-3721
• Email: theroyalbhair@gmail.com
• Instagram: The_royal_b_hairstylist
• Facebook: The_royal_b
• Twitter: The_royal_b

Image Credit:
Michael Becker, Ross Gronvold, Rhea Whittle

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