Hair professionals fall into one of two categories: the creatives and the strategists. It’s clear to some people how creative hair artists are, especially when you stretch your gaze toward fashion magazines or edgy circles where groups of pink and green-headed folks gather. To others, hair professionals have obvious technical skills when weaving and wrapping hundreds and thousands of foils or rods. Every hair stylist possesses a little of each, but many favor one approach over the other. Scott Clark leans into his technical strengths because doing hair isn’t about expressing his creativity. He’s pushed through enough creative opportunities to know where he belongs among hair professionals.

Scott comes prepared with cake and fancy cake trays.
If Marie Antoinette was baking today.

After more than two decades of working in the hair industry, Scott has traveled every avenue. He’s been a salon owner, an educator, an editorial artist, and a stylist behind the chair. Each hat brought new levels of enlightenment, but his biggest revelation was focusing on his salon family. Turns out Scott Clark is a big softie.

Hair stylists are people-pleasers, but that term doesn’t quite capture Scott’s motivation. He’s the boss who says his work team is a family, and he means it. Expert skills and mountains of knowledge raise great hair students and deliver the kind of services that keep his books filled, which means he’s filling their cups so they can return the favor. Bonding with people is the name of the game, whether it’s because he taught them something, gave them great hair, or made them a birthday cake to die for. His number one rule is human connection.

He knows how to check for the perfect whipped filling.
Food science and something about whipped peaks.

That’s why he started baking. He wanted to bake his niece a birthday cake every year, a kind and loving gesture that sparked a new fascination. Baking, like hair, requires some creativity and some technical skill, so it’s familiar territory to Scott, but this is where he flexes his imagination. “Hair is creative, but my approach is through science and psychology. Baking is my true creative outlet.” Most people would agree that how food tastes is more important than how it looks, but elaborate cake decorating never killed anyone. Scott thinks so. His loved ones think so, too.

Displaying a beautiful cranberry and orange tart he made.
Scott shows off his gorgeous tart he made with ease, as if he were born with a whisk in hand.

You could say Scott’s bond with family pushed him toward people-pleasing interests. Without the close relationships he shares with his mother, sister, husband, and the rest of his extended (and chosen) family, he might’ve ended up working on those oil rigs anchored off the coastlines. Okay, that’s a big stretch, but would his priority still be human connection if he hadn’t had those connections earlier in life? You should ask him the next time he devotes hours to placing clean foils in your hair or applies his precision cutting skills to your bob.

Scott acknowledges that a lot of the LGBTQ+ community suffers rejection from their immediate family, but “we have the privilege of choosing our family. I’m fortunate to have a lot of blood family support me also.” It’s an inescapable fact of life, making his time with them all the more precious.

Scott sprinkles his elaborate cupcakes with pistachio toppings.
Beautiful toppings and swirls and…who else is hungry?

Baking aside, traveling adventures with his husband are high priorities on his bucket list. His passport swims in foreign ink, reminding Scott of Canada, Iceland, Greece, and all the other countries he’s visited. That will always factor into his future, but life at home looks less certain. Not in a foreboding way, though. Planning five years out is something all responsible adults tend to do, so you can count Scott among them, he simply hasn’t nailed down the details. He recognizes how fortunate he is to still have a career he loves, but he’s ready to ebb and flow with the unpredictable stages of life.

Scott admires his baked goods, which he hopes brings a lot of joy to his loved ones.
Scott Clark, the Pastry Professor of Starling Salon.

Scott doesn’t ask for much because it’s in his act of giving to others that he finds joy and fulfillment. Sometimes, the best gift is a good conversation. Even when he is most content, he considers the future to better predict and manage life’s twists. That’s one grounded guy. If intelligence and empathy are part of your criteria when searching for a hair professional, then meet Scott.


View Scott’s pricing here.

If you’re suddenly hungry, indulge in Scott’s baking-focused IG here.