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It Takes a Pro: MJ Déziel on Self-Expression, Creating Space, and Never Being Done Learning
It Takes a Pro follows hairstylists across SalonCentric Canada, at every stage of their journey. Because this industry is about more than great hair. It’s about the passion, the dedication, and the moments that shape who you become behind the chair.
At SalonCentric Canada, we’re here to support that journey. With the education, community, and resources you need to keep moving forward. This campaign brings real stories to the forefront. The ones behind the craft.
From first sparks of inspiration to the turning points that change everything, each stylist represents a milestone. A reminder that growth isn’t one moment. It’s continuous. Always evolving.
Because it takes more than talent to succeed in this industry.
It takes a Pro.
Before you read her story, hear it in her own words.
Meet MJ Déziel
Founder and Creative Director, APART Studio, Montreal
MJ Déziel did not grow up planning a career in hair. Her mother worked at L’Oréal, and MJ spent her teens hanging around the office, fifteen or sixteen years old, taken with the people more than the products. Then one summer a friend asked her to model at a hair convention, and she said yes without thinking twice.
“It was my first introduction to the hair world. Big stages, big sound, people with microphones. I thought, I can’t be a rock star, so I’m going to do hair and I’m going to get on that stage.”
Until then, hair had been something she got done because she needed it. A year later she enrolled in hairdressing school, and it turned out to be the first classroom that worked for her. Good relationships with her teachers, good grades for the first time, and a way of learning that suited her: a bit of theory and a lot of practice with real clients.
“I have a big personality, I could talk to people, and I was getting paid to play with hair.”
She had also studied graphic design for a while. She is quick to say she is not a designer, but credits it with sharpening her eye and taking her to the places where hair meets fashion.
She graduated at nineteen, started behind the chair, and started saying yes: international work, projects, knocking on doors to fund the campaigns she believed in. The studio came later, and it came from the same instinct that got her on that first stage.
For MJ, the space came before the business plan. APART opened to answer a need she could not find anywhere else in a very traditional industry, a place where hair is a language for self-expression, for her team and for the person in the chair.
“If there is no space for me, I will create it. That’s how my head has worked since I was young.”
She is quick to draw the line on what self-expression actually means. It is not a look, and it is not a requirement.
“You don’t need green hair or a head like mine to express yourself.”
At APART, nobody walks in needing a haircut. They walk in wanting one. Clients research the studio, choose their stylist by style and personality as much as by technical skill, and arrive with a project in mind. That changes the appointment before it even starts.
“You come here and we collaborate on a look with you, to bring you to the next version of yourself.”
It also changes who she hires. MJ recruits for the things she believes cannot be taught, curiosity, generosity, listening, drive, taste, an eye for aesthetics. Technique is handled in house, through a workplace apprenticeship program and two mentors who take her young stylists by the hand. A creative industry, she is careful to say, is not a free-for-all. There is rigour and there are standards, and inside them, a lot of freedom.
“I don’t want to teach you a technique or a look. I want you to understand the why. Then I know you can apply it.”
Her drive works the same way. When MJ has an idea, it has to happen, so she breaks the ambition down rung by rung until the last step is small enough to simply do. An international career means national work. National means regional. Regional means assisting someone. Assisting means knowing a stylist who does it. And that means picking up the phone.
“In my head, everything is possible. I’ll find a way to get there.”
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“All of a sudden it becomes possible, because it’s a phone call.”
She is the first to say the ideas need grounding, and credits her business partner for being the one who tells her which ones are viable and which ones stay on the shelf.
What she is proudest of is not the growth. It is the room itself, the team working somewhere they value, the relationships built inside it with photographers, models, and collaborators.
“I’ve always had it in my mind to create space rather than build business. It’s human first.”
That is also how she describes her distributor. MJ has worked with the same people since she was nineteen, from the year she graduated through every step that led to opening the studio. They brought in brands she loves, trusted her with the EVO launch in Quebec, and backed the campaigns she wanted to run, including her push on non-gendered pricing. They stayed through a pandemic and a change of business model.
“We grew up together. They followed me through my whole career.”
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“As a salon owner, it matters to know your distributor is there, and that they won’t drop you.”
Some of that support is not a purchase order at all. Sometimes she calls simply to think out loud about a marketing idea. That, she says, is what gave her confidence in her role as an owner, not only behind the chair.
When MJ told her grandfather she was going into hair, he gave her one instruction: be the best. She has carried it since, and passes it on in her own words.
“However you look, whatever you do, make your craft the thing that sets you apart.”
“Find your people and do great hair, that’s your job.”
Q&A with MJ
How did you end up in hair?
Not on purpose. My mother worked at L’Oréal, so I was in that world as a teenager without really noticing. Then a friend asked me to model at a hair convention and I saw the stages, the lights, the whole show, and I decided that was what I wanted. I signed up for hair school a year later.
Who helped you get here?
My teachers, first. School was the first place I got good grades and I had real relationships with the people teaching me. Then my reps, who have been there since I graduated at nineteen. My mentors, who I still travel to learn from. And my grandfather, who told me to be the best at whatever I chose.
What did opening APART represent for you?
It was me making the space I needed. I did not fit the traditional mood of the industry, so I built somewhere my stylists, my clients and I could feel good, and where hair could be pushed somewhere more artistic.
What do you look for when you hire?
Soft skills. Curiosity, generosity, listening, drive, taste. Those are the things you cannot really teach. Technique we take care of, we have courses here and two mentors who develop our young stylists. I am not looking for a type of person or a style. I am looking for sensibility.
What role does education play in your studio?
It is everything. I am a student at heart, I travel to take education and see how things are done elsewhere, and I bring it back. When I teach, I am not teaching a look, I am teaching the why, so at some point my team can challenge me. That is how I know it worked.
What would you say to a graduate who doesn’t feel like the traditional image of a stylist?
There is room for everyone. There are salons for everyone and clients for everyone. Stay yourself and make sure you are good at what you do. My grandfather told me to be the best when I told him I was going into hair, and that stayed with me. Find your people and do great hair, that’s your job.
How has working with your distributor supported your journey as a salon owner?
They have been with me since I was nineteen, since I graduated. They followed every step until I opened the studio. They brought in brands I love, they asked me to take on the EVO launch in Quebec, and they backed the campaigns I wanted to run. Sometimes I just call to talk through an idea. That relationship gave me confidence in my role as an owner.
What does “It Takes a Pro” mean to you?
I am such a student at heart. A pro is someone who never stops learning, someone who keeps falling in love with their craft and wants to keep refining it.
More from It Takes a Pro
Every capsule in the series lives on the campaign hub:
https://www.saloncentric.ca/it-takes-a-pro/
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