KATE GELBART
Like many others in this industry, my career started out by me routinely cutting, coloring, styling, and messing up my hair as a teenager. I grew up always loving art, and hair and makeup became near instant passions for me as soon as I started to experiment with my look as a teenager. I became known for my colorful appearance, and I knew I had found what I wanted to do with my life.
I was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, and luckily, was able to attend cosmetology school at a vocational high school there. I almost immediately began assisting in a salon after graduation, having already done a good amount of freelance assisting in school to learn as much as I could. Specifically, I sought out to assist Leysa Carrillo, a curly hair and color specialist who I admired and I’ll be honest, was a bit intimidated by. When I say this has shaped my entire career, I really mean it, as assisting Leysa was no joke. I worked both in salon and on tour with her as she was growing her own education brand, Forever Curls, and learned about so much more than just how to do good hair. After working with Leysa, I had the opportunity to assist another stylist, AnnaMarie Adkins, who helped me polish out my technical skills and continue learning so many different ways to do hair. To this day, I work with Leysa and Forever Curls as an educator, teaching curly hair techniques nationally and internationally as part of their Culture Team.
Over the years I’ve learned and tried out many different avenues of hair. I’ve done hair pieces, extensions, bridal, wig making, editorial work, and many other avenues. In salon, I like to focus on curls, vivid colors, and corrective work, as those consistently give me the most rewarding processes and challenges to scratch my creative itch. I decided to move to New York in 2023, and it has given me even more opportunities to try new things in this discipline. After a lifetime of dreaming about being an artist, I really am so grateful to follow that dream. There’s always more to learn and I love the opportunity to make such personal art on every client. I cherish this career and its opportunities and look forward always to what the future has in store for me to try next!
