Mark Adkins
We met Mark a few weeks ago at NAHA and have been stalking him and his Hair Husband Richie Roman ever since! We asked Mark to be a Hair Husband contributor because he offers a unique perspective, he is both an accomplished hairdresser and Hair Husband. Trust us when we say... he has quite a personality!
Nerds have to eat too..
When my partner ushered into the bathroom where I was enjoying my hot shower and said “hurry up and get dressed because we are meeting up with The Hair Nerds for lunch,” my initial thought was oh shit I hope they like me in a nerdy kind of way! My second thought was what should I wear and how should I style my hair?! After all, I am representing my husband, Richie Roman!
Upon arrival at the restaurant, Richie ran to the restroom to wash his hands while me and “The Misses” (which is my nickname for our 2 year old daughter, Tallulah) waited in the lobby-way. At that point, the Hair Nerds walked in appearing as a stunning and beautiful glossy team of nerds. Sort-of in the vein of singer Lisa Loeb! The "comfortable" wall opened up instantly. As we sat and all savored our lettuce wraps and chatted up the afternoon, they asked what is it was like for 2 hairstylists to be together 18 years.
2 Hair Dressers- 1 Home
I’ve taken 2 years off to be with The Misses. In that time, I've proudly watched Richie Roman go on to be a 2 time nominee/1 win at the North American Hairstyling Awards.
So what is it like being the hair husband now? Well, when you’re with Richie, especially for almost 2 decades, you get an extremely talented guy who is strong-willed!, intelligent, animated, full of laughter, opinionated, adventurous… with never a dull moment! But with that, you also get the other side of him.... Which is strong-willed!, opinionated, animated, adventurous.. with never a dull-moment!
He's quite passionate about his work. Though on my end of the spectrum, I guess I'm probably the same damn way. So I couldn’t be with anyone else. Strong people need to be with strong people. People often ask how do two creative stylists work well together and are able to go home together. The thing is... we sort-of know when to back down from each other and have learned to say sorry (even when we’re not) because you get a lot further that way.
So many moons later as a couple we figured out that in order to have longevity, that’s just what you have to do. When we met early on, we didn’t have a long courtship. We got our first apartment together after only 6 days and 5 dates. At that time, I think we both thought we wouldn’t last… but the way we are in the hair industry is the way we are at home. We're not quitters. And the fact that we’re both Gemini’s, and still find each other very fascinating, that really helps out too!
Add a #HairBaby
Now with a daughter, our relationship is probably the strongest it’s ever been. Having her, I’ve learned when to wear my Husband/Daddy uniform as opposed to my Hairstyling uniform. So now, when we’re on set doing a shoot, I’m able to decipher when I should be in the Hubby/Daddy role and when I should be in the Stylist role. We still do talk about work a lot to keep each other inspired. But now with Tallulah here we no longer talk about what we didn’t like about each others work... only what we loved about it. She really keeps our tone of inspiration positive and more creative.
In a million years, I never thought I would even get the opportunity to have a child and be a supportive husband, while still getting to work with so many innovative artist's. But like everything we have done so far in our relationship, from a quick meeting, short dating, having creative careers, still being madly in love, having a baby, and excited about what’s yet to come, we really have broken all the stereotyped rules!
Hopefully we will continue on with just what we’re doing. Having lunch with The Hair Nerds and telling my side of the story to them just reminds me that being Hair Husband really does have it’s perks!