Damien Carney is one of the most accomplished hairstylist in his 20 years plus career.
Starting at a young age joining Trevor Sorbie legendary Covent Garden salon working by the sides of now top international stylists such as Eugene Souliman, Ruth Roche and Antoinette Beenders as all where developing their own skills.
His amazing body of work in fashion, beauty, music and film with a portfolio filled with actors, supermodels, musicians and celebrities is renowned internationally and has been published in magazines such as Vogue, Marie- Claire, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, W, GQ and Cosmopolitan.
He was a finalist at the AIPP Coiffure Hair Awards in Paris and finalist a number of times at NAHA as well as a honored judge for NAHA and won men’s hairdresser of the year at the British Hairdressing Awards. Damien is a finalist at this year NAHA as Editorial Stylist of the Year.
Carney is the creative director for Schwarzkopf Professional North America.
In 2006 he channeled his passion for education when he established a modern Mobile hairstyling academy with satellite offices in New York and Los Angeles.
What have you been up to lately?
Most of my career has been focused on education, seminars, shows and photo shoots. Which I love !
Living in NYC keeps me busy, there’s always plenty of work.
Clients and or salons, individuals, hire me for a day or two or more. And we get focused on creating unique educational program for the individual. That can be cutting, editorial hair, photo shoots. So there’s a strong content of technical and creative freedom. Im often photographing my own images. So that can take up a good percentage of time. My role as North American Creative Director for Schwarzkopf Proffessional also keeps me busy. I love it, its not work to me. I get to travel, see, learn and grow from doing hair, dream job ! So its hair every day, in a salon, show or in the photographic studio.
What are your favorite styling products these days?
For styling I like to change the texture of the hair often. With out the right range or product you can’t create the right look. By changing the texture with styling products you can choose what I see as my end final result. Sky’s the limit !
I really like Schwarzkopf Professional Osis range, as it has a full comprehensive range of stylers that can be applied to wet, damp or dry hair. You can work and create virtually anything you want. So there are no limits. I really like the way the product performs. I can often re work, re sculpt on to another look, It’s fabulous for layering one product with another. I like that I can go from ultra light weight products to firm and controlling products. Osis is my go to.
Damien, I see many photo credits with your name on it,I was not aware you also worked behind the camera.
Can you tell me a little about your photography?
I’ve been working as a hairdresser in studios all my life. As a hobby I’ve always enjoyed photography. Living in NYC there’s no shortage of great models, make up artists, wardrobe stylists,etc. So I bought a pro camera and all my lighting gear and thought I would give it ago. My work is improving lol hopefully. But the great thing you learn so much about your style and who you are through the lens of a camera. Yes, all the shots are all my hair and my photography. It’a s strong focus of mine as I simply love to work with amazing talent to create hopefully some eye catching images.
Some -out of many- of his beautiful creations.