Steven Norton was a big kid. At 6’5”, his father had high hopes he’d be the family’s football star. To be sure, Steven always had stars in his eyes, but his dreams were too big for the muddy fields of Laurinburg, North Carolina. He has been a professional hairdresser for the last 19 years in North Carolina, with a three-year stint in New York City, where he trained with the best stylists in the country and learned to play ball with the fashion elite and highfalutin ladies of New York society.

As a hairdresser, he has been listening to both good and bad stories for a long time…Southern stories…NY stories…tongue wagging stories…stories your mama doesn’t want you to tell. Fly Away Days, is the result of a lifetime of listening and creating the illusion of beauty. Beauty is what Steven’s after and there is true beauty in the muck. In 2000, he opened his first salon, Fly, and hit the ground running at the age of 25. 

He’s still running…and listening.

 

“A hairdresser is like a mistress. There are things you would tell your mistress that you would never tell your wife.”

“I’ve heard it all. My mental capacity was nearing full before this endeavor began. I come in contact with anywhere from seven to ten clients a day in the salon, and my mind is blown every single day. I was raised a good ol’ Christian boy, but you have to do a lot of sinning to write this kind of book. To be a great hairdresser, you have to earn your client’s trust. After all, touching a person’s hair is a very intimate gesture. I take great care with my clients and I have been equally careful with their stories, sifting through the good ones, and changing the names to protect the not so innocent. These stories have shaped, changed and inspired me to become the person I am today.”