About Heather

Her Resume • Her Life

Heather Ward Kepshire is a L’Oreal Professional Certified Balayage Artist who is passionate about making women feel like their most beautiful selves, while providing them an atmosphere that feels like a personal retreat. She strives to maintain the highest standards of quality as a hairdresser.

When she is not working on her own clients, she blogs about the hairdressing industry and educates other hairstylists in advanced color theory through an on-demand education platform she created called Beauty School Remix.

Her career began at Gary Patrick Salon in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the typical story of starting out as an assistant: sweeping hair and shampooing during the day, while learning the hairdressing trade at night. Heather quickly advanced through their training program, keeping her emphasis on color. Within a year she had her chair, built up a loyal following, and began giving back by educating new assistants as well as her colleagues on color. By the end of her time there she had reformatted the salon’s in-house education using her unique and intelligent approach to hair, as well as her effective communication skills with clients.

In 2010 she switched things up and relocated to Boston, all in the name of adventure. After extensively researching salons on Newbury Street, she set her sights on the prestigious Jeffrey Lyle Salon, and took a step back in her career to become an assistant again, only this time with much more experience under her belt. It took a year to get a chair again, but the risk and financial hardship was well worth the reward. It was during this phase of re-learning she was exposed to Balayage at the L’oreal Professional Soho Academy. She was so challenged by the technique that every free minute she had was spent practicing her new obsession of hair painting. And by the 300th head she said it started to look “pretty good”.

By 2012 Heather was proficient in Balayage, spending her busy salon days introducing clients to the technique. But then she was ready for her next move, this time up to Massachusetts’ North Shore. So she brought her flair for Balayage to Shanti Salon in Newburyport, and her beloved, hand-placed highlights had once again quickly become popular among her new set of clients.

Things shifted gears once more in 2016.  She relocated to Herndon, VA with her husband and new baby boy.  Heather was faced with the decision all new moms have: “How do I balance work and family?”  She decided she still wanted to work as a hairdresser, but on her own terms.  While she was pregnant with her second baby, she renovated 800 sqft of the lower level in their new house to be a bright and welcoming in-home salon.  It truly is the best of both worlds.  She can give the same quality and level of service to her clients, as well as being available if her family needs her.