From a Chicago Salon Chair to L’Oreal’s Creative Director to His Own Shelf at Ulta

Nick Stenson cut his first head of hair at 12 years old, in his mother’s Chicago salon, with zero training and a customer’s grandson in the chair. He was on track to become an orthopedic surgeon before realizing his mom was doing the same thing doctors do — changing how people carry themselves — one client at a time.

He opened his first salon, Caviar Salons, in 2001, eventually running two locations and over 50 stylists. From there he became a creative director for L’Oréal and JCPenney Salons, styled Lady Gaga, Fergie, and Ashley Tisdale, and spent nine years at Ulta — starting with a team of seven and leaving as SVP of Services and Store Operations over a team of 400, after four promotions.

In 2022 he launched Nick Stenson Beauty, a luxury haircare line built around aloe vera and creatine instead of ingredients nobody can pronounce. The brand is now sold at Ulta, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Amazon, with a professional distribution arm reaching salons nationwide — twelve SKUs, all mix-and-matchable, no separate line for curly, straight, fine, or thick hair. Just what your hair actually needs.

What stands out about Nick’s path is the order of operations: salon floor, then global creative direction, then his own brand. He didn’t skip the parts that taught him what actually works on real hair in real conditions before he tried to build a product line around it.

Nick breaks down that full path — and what it took to get onto those shelves — on Starting Small.

Listen to the full conversation with Nick Stenson on Apple Podcasts