How Melanie Was Made
In nearly three decades of doing session hair and makeup for the entertainment industry, Melanie Shelley has built an impressive and exciting resume. With intensive New York training alongside top editorial stylists Oribe, Danilo, Kevin Mancuso and Losi, Melly's independent work has been featured in countless major fashion and music magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, ElleMEN, Allure, People, NATIVE, O, Billboard, Vegas, Cosmopolitan, Interview and US Weekly.
Traveling between New York and Nashville, Melanie was featured in 2001 as one of VOGUE Magazine's young "rising star" stylists. Melanie continued to build notoriety for her forward-reaching editorial work with photographers Norman Jean Roy, Robert Ascroft III, Annie Leibowitz and Frank Ockenfels, but her catapult into the public eye came from her creation of the now-famous "Binx" haircut [since copied by Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and many others] which rocket-launched the young gender-bending beauty Leona "Binx" Walton to supermodel stardom. Binx now walks the runways of Yves St. Laurent, Chanel and Marc Jacobs, and is widely considered one of the world's top 20 supermodels.
In 2021, Melanie is “first-call” session hairstylist to Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman [Prada Runway Show, Milan, Italy], COBRA KAI star William "Billy" Zabka, Grammy-winning musician Keith Urban, legendary songwriters Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris, Former Vice President and climate activist Al Gore and countless Nashville and national luminaries. A frequently-featured beauty writer and pundit for major publications, as well as a highly-revered advanced haircut and style educator for the beauty industry, Melanie continues to push boundaries and further the impact of hair in fashion, music and beyond.