Rising Star
Elizabeth Ankenman performed like a seasoned stylist for this photo shoot, with just 1450 beauty school hours to her credit.
She was a shoo-in for any number of child crises awards: “Best in Sass,” “Most Rebellious” and “Top Runaway” to name just a few categories. But Ankenman gradually became a bad-girl-turned-good after one particularly button-pushing cut and color job landed her an appointment at a Robert Cromeans’ ARC Salon in Las Vegas for emergency repairs. Immediately struck by pro-beauty fever, she made a deal with stylist Brandon Holt: “He told me that I could earn future beauty services by getting A’s in school,” recalls Ankenman. “By the time I was midway through high school, I was a straight-A student!”
Five years down the road, Ankenman - by then a beauty school student -proved that she was also loaded with beauty-star DNA after having won Paul Mitchell’s “Next Top Photo Stylist” award in late 2010. This honor gave her the supreme opportunity to be mentored by Paul Mitchell Editorial Director Lucie Doughty during a two-day photo shoot extravaganza in Los Angeles. “I’ve since graduated from beauty school with top honors and am now an assistant at Kelly Cardenas’ Paul Mitchell Focus Salon in Las Vegas,” she beams. ‘‘I can’t wait to do more photo shoots and competitions, earn the honor of being a fully vested stylist and light the way for other lost teens who land in my chair!” (Note: Read more of Elizabeth Ankenman’s compelling beauty tale on HOT.HairsHow.us)