She's one of the most respected hair stylists working today, but if weren't for the scent of shampoo, Ruth Roche would have been a mechanical engineer. "Every time I walked into a salon, I'd smell the products and just get so excited," she recalls. As a high school student in Napa, California, Roche experimented on her own hair, and come college, "I was cutting people's hair in the dorm for a six pack." Determined to make the fantasy of hairstyling a reality, Roche dropped out of UC Santa Barbara to attend beauty school, stunning her parents, and even herself.

Her career began in 1985, and within three years, she was working with Trevor Sorbie, one of the biggest names in the business, and a stylist that Roche describes as "particularly famous for breaking the rules and doing what no one else had been doing at the time." She eventually became Sorbie's Artistic Director, a job that required her to travel the world styling fashion shows and holding educational workshops. "I've spent most of my career traveling," Roche reflects. In reality, she's also spent most of her life traveling. With a father in the Navy, new towns became old news, and the flexibility and adaptability she learned in her childhood has proved remarkably applicable in her professional life.

As Global Artistic Director at Redken Fifth Avenue, the then thirty-one year old Roche was involved with myriad aspects of the corporation. She trained other artists, worked in product development, and assisted in the re-launching and marketing of an entire styling line. The chance to engage with the business side of the Redken brand only heightened her enterprising instincts, and she left the company in January 2001 with the intention of opening a salon.

"A lot of people thought it was a really stupid move, "Roche admits. After all, she hadn't truly worked in a salon for years, and didn't have the clientele typically necessary to begin a business. But she had grown restless. "For me, it's about the constant creation of something," Roche explains. "I felt like I had done a lot there [at Redken], and I felt like it was getting to a place where I couldn't do as many new things as I wanted to do, and I didn't know if I liked that for my personal growth."

For two years, she built up her name (and funding) by focusing on what she had done for years: education. She booked a photo studio in Manhattan and planned her first workshop for September 9-11, 2001, an inauspicious beginning for what would become one of the signature components of her salon. By the time Rare NYC opened in 2003, Academy classes were 70% booked; today, they sell out up to 9 months in advance. Roche acknowledges that she has a "reputation of being one of the top 10 leaders in terms of training," and clients will come from all over the country to learn from her. Classes focus on all aspects of the industry, from how to build your own team and business, to how to translate the latest trends into wearable looks.

Roche has worked at growing Rare NYC as a brand; to that end, she insists that her team be "experts in hair," so that clients can make an appointment with any of the salon's stylists and trust that they'll receive the same quality of cut and color. And Roche herself is in the salon regularly, recognizing that "if your clients can't reach you, they'll stop coming." Still, she manages to find the time for exciting freelance jobs, including recent forays into styling for television commercials. Her editorial work has placed her alongside big names like photographer Annie Liebowitz, and actresses from Lindsay Lohan to Mariska Hargitay. "I'm a Law and Order fan," Roche confides, "and I would always see Mariska and go, 'I am going to do her hair some day.' And then I did!" She laughs, but it is precisely this charming blend of drive and faith that has gotten Roche to where she is today: namely, at the top of her game.

But being at the top doesn't come without caveats, and for Roche, it's that her gender is inevitably included in any description of her success. "Why is it that someone will call me the best girl in the industry?" she asks, sounding slightly annoyed. Still, her career has proven a model for young women entering the business, many of whom recognize that though 80% of all hairstylists are female, the vast majority of those reaching the level of household recognition are male (Oscar Blandi and John Frieda are two such examples). Roche suggests that female clients often prefer male hairstylists, because "there's a different energy between a man and a woman." Coyly, however, she assures me, "I can still make my female clients feel hot and sexy."

So, what's next for Ruth Roche? "I want to have my own TV show!" she declares with a laugh, followed by quick assurances that she's only kidding. But with a product line in its conceptual stages, and classes booked 9 months in advance at the Rare NYC Academy, Roche has no shortage of projects. And her goals remain focused and grounded: "My whole thing has always been about being down to earth - being really good at what I do. I know that I'm not saving lives, but I am contributing to making people feel good and seeing themselves as beautiful." Which, when you think about it, is probably more than most mechanical engineers can say.

-- Sarah Cantin