We caught up with the brilliant and insightful T. Cooper a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

T. , appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Fortunately, I have been able to earn enough money to support myself doing makeup and hair full-time.

From day one it was pretty tough. I had a career as a professional tailor, and I thought I would be able to leverage those relationships when I decided to do makeup. I did a lot of work for brands and publications, so I thought I had an advantage, but it was quite the opposite. No one took me seriously! My contacts were unwilling to trust the same person that did the alterations on set to do glam for their clients. I was starting all over from scratch. Perhaps if I knew that it would be as difficult as it was, I would not have given it a shot in the first place.

I continued to tailor, but I scaled back to part-time, and I worked in a restaurant at night bartending, so that I could do gigs and test shoots during the day. Initially, some artists gave me false hope about what kind of income I could make at first, I thought there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t able to get the rates that they told me were industry standard. Eventually, I found someone who was painfully honest – exactly what I needed at the time. They said to be prepared to work my first two years for free, that made me feel much better about my progress, because I was starting to feel like a loser! I was fully prepared to work two years for free to build my book and cultivate new industry relationships. While I was prepared to work the first two years for free, I actually started getting paid after 10 months. I didn’t get paid a lot, but it was way better than the zero dollars I had been receiving. I was pretty

excited that I was a little ahead of schedule. After two years in the industry, I was able to eliminate both other jobs and support myself solely from the money I made from being an artist. It felt amazing then, and it still feels amazing now!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is T. Cooper and I am a professional makeup artist and hairstylist from the Bronx. I own a beauty and grooming company called Major Face. I am also a represented artist who primarily does commercial advertising, beauty, celebrity, editorial, and runway.

I got into the beauty industry accidentally. I worked as a professional tailor for years, and I picked up makeup as a hobby to break up the monotony of my normal routine. I enjoyed it, and I received a lot of encouragement from others to pursue my hobby as a career. I took a chance, and it worked out. I had no clue that this is what I was supposed to be doing with my life, but I now know that it’s what I was meant to do.

Pursuing a career in beauty sounds glamorous, and it can be once you start to achieve your goals, but initially it is tough AF! You have to be prepared to work hard, work for free, work long days, and hustle your ass off! If you don’t want to do that, it will be quite difficult for you to make it, especially if you live in a competitive, large city like New York.

What sets me apart from others is my extreme tunnel vision and my willingness to do almost anything. I said no to very little in the beginning of my career, and that set me up for success. Some of the most ratchet jobs that I’ve ever done in my life, led to much bigger opportunities later on. You cannot be above anything, and I’m still like that now. 11 years later, I still do test shoots and free editorials. You can’t ever lose that hunger!

I am most proud of my work being printed in American Vogue. I never thought that would be an option for me, like, ever! I had two pages of my work for Moschino published in the issue with Kamala Harris on the cover – I still can’t believe it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

What issues my resilience is how long it took me to finally get signed. It took me six years in this industry to finally get representation. I tried so hard, I assisted at so many agencies, and I kept coming up with nothing. I interviewed with a few agencies who had not very nice things to say about my work, it made me considered quitting, but I didn’t. One artist agency looked at my book and told me that the only thing that I did well was a men’s grooming – thank God I didn’t listen to that crap! When you finally meet people who believe in you and believe in your artistry it’s life-changing. Around the time that I signed with my management, I was also talking to a couple of other agencies about possible representation at the time. What clicked in my head was that I had been working with those agencies and assisting with them for a long time, and they were just now starting to see my value, yet my current manager had only sent me on one job and felt that I was worthy of being represented. It was an easy choice. I’ve been with them for a little over 5 years now.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

The main goal driving my creative journey is making the presence of artists of color of felt. Whenever I get the opportunity to hire other artists, 95% of the time they are artist of color. We do not get the opportunities that we deserve, so it’s always my pleasure to give artists of color a chance to show these companies what they are capable of. Just recently, I did a campaign for Stella Artois, and I got to hire three artists to work with me. They were all Black! It was amazing to look at that billboard and know that Black people were responsible for the makeup and hair for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.majorface.com
• Instagram: @tcooperbeauty
• Other: TikTok: @tcooperbeauty