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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Oscar James: Lord of the Hair

by

20131104

Ever won­dered who's re­spon­si­ble for the fab­u­lous hair­styles worn by Hol­ly­wood A-lis­ters ike Be­y­once, Mary J Blige and Queen Lat­i­fah? They all call up­on one man, the Em­my Award-win­ning styl­ist Os­car James.

James, whose ca­reer as a li­cenced cos­me­tol­o­gist spans more than 20 years, boasts a star-stud­ded client list that in­cludes Vanes­sa Williams, Iman, Halle Berry, Nia Long, Pat­ti La Belle, Ashan­ti, Star Jones and Tyra Banks.

On Oc­to­ber 25, James flew in from New Jer­sey for a few hours to lead the pan­el for the pre­judg­ing of the Face of T&T com­pe­ti­tion. It was his first vis­it to the coun­try and he told the T&T Guardian he ab­solute­ly en­joyed the short time he spent here and he'll def­i­nite­ly re­turn. James came on the in­vi­ta­tion of Face of T&T cre­ative di­rec­tor Kirk Thomas.

Born in Flo­rence, South Car­oli­na, James de­vel­oped a love for hair art from an ear­ly age. He told the on­line mag­a­zine juicy­on­line.com, "I've been do­ing hair since I was a child. I like to say I didn't choose it. It chose me."

His pas­sion drove him to pur­sue hair­dress­ing as a ca­reer. He en­rolled in beau­ty school while still at­tend­ing high school. In 1983, he got his high school diplo­ma as well as a cos­me­tol­ogy li­cense and put his dream of be­com­ing a hair styl­ist in mo­tion.

As fate would have it, a de­ci­sion to move to New York City in 1987, opened doors for the man known in the in­dus­try as the "hair lord."

While work­ing at Luxe Den Sa­lon and Spa in Man­hat­tan, he met pop­u­lar make-up artist Sam Fine who was in­stru­men­tal in land­ing him his first run­way gig, some­thing that would change the course of his ca­reer. Soon enough, he was work­ing with some of the biggest fe­male stars in Hol­ly­wood.

Os­car James has been hailed as one of the top hair­styl­ists in the world by fash­ion mag­a­zines like Vogue, Essence and Cos­mopoli­tan, and his work has al­so graced their cov­ers.

The 48-year-old says the high­light of his ca­reer was styling Halle Berry's hair for the 2002 Acad­e­my Awards, when she made his­to­ry by be­com­ing the first African-Amer­i­can woman to win an Os­car for a lead­ing role, for her part in Mon­ster's Ball.

In an in­ter­view with per­fec­thair­col­lec­tion.com, James said he draws his in­spi­ra­tion for hair­styles from "fash­ion, tele­vi­sion, mag­a­zines, his moth­er, friends and the uni­verse."

He al­so said his fo­cus is on the health of hair, a great cut and the in­tegri­ty of the hair.

"Hair is a great ac­ces­so­ry. A great bob is nev­er out of style. I think the most time­less styles are what I fo­cus on. I like to look at a woman and I like her to look pam­pered and time­less."

James is re­spon­si­ble for the more so­phis­ti­cat­ed look that Tri­ni-born hip hop star Nic­ki Mi­naj has been rock­ing late­ly. He said the 30-year-old reached out to him as she want­ed to tone down her edgy look.

Mi­naj felt she need­ed some­thing dif­fer­ent as she launched a cloth­ing line and en­tered the world of mer­chan­dis­ing.

"I gave her the dark roots and kept the blonde hair, (with blonde) be­ing her sig­na­ture style," he said.

James cur­rent­ly re­sides in West Newark, New Jer­sey, and owns and op­er­ates sev­er­al sa­lons in Flo­rence, South Car­oli­na and New York City.

About Os­car James

Want to know more about Os­car James?

Fol­low him on Twit­ter: @Os­car­Jame­sHair

Like his Face­book page: Os­car James Hair

Look at his pho­tos on In­sta­gram: Os­car­Jame­sHair

Vis­it his Web site: www.ken­bar­boza.com


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