Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Hairstylist Steven Noss, wearing white gold grills, jokes with Bobbi Tucker while doing her hair at Domenique's on Forbes Avenue and Wood Street, Downtown. Noss will be appearing on a Style Network show on Saturday.

By Monica Haynes
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Pittsburgh hairstylist Steven Noss took his blinged-out teeth and his "whatever" attitude to a hair salon in Nashville, Tenn., there was almost as much big hair and drama as an '80s prime-time soap.

Not that his episode of the Style Network show "Split Ends," scheduled to air 6 p.m. Saturday, reached anything near "Krystle vs. Alexis" proportions -- even after what he did to Johnny Cash's sister (let's just say, it didn't work).

Like these campy television divas from "Dynasty,'' however, Mr. Noss is an unforgettable character.

Welcome to the next frontier of reality TV, where shows set in the world of hair salons are the new black.

The Style Network currently is airing the second season of its hit "Split Ends," in which stylists swap salons; Bravo's, "Shear Genius" hosted by Jaclyn Smith, recently ended its first season; and the WE Network's "Hair Trauma," which focuses on the salon of celebrity stylist Ellin LeVar, will air its second season sometime this fall.

"I think people who are hairdressers are very interesting and colorful people, and I think that makes interesting television," said Renee Simon, executive director of current programming for the Style Network.

She said people spend a lot of time with their stylists, often discussing things they won't discuss with friends or significant others.

"As a result, you become invested in their lives and they become invested in yours," she said. "We've done chefs, clothing designers, stylists -- why not hairdressers."

Indeed, why not? Especially, if the stylist has a personality as big as a '50s beehive.

Steven Noss, a k a Weaven Steven, certainly fits the bill. He's a white guy with gold grills and the kind of neck-rocking attitude generally associated with sassy black women.

The 39-year-old Latrobe resident is a graduate of the Institute of Black Hair Studies, part of the now defunct Pittsburgh Beauty Academy and the Dudley Cosmetology University in North Carolina.

"Once I started doing hair as a professional, I heard about some hair venue in Detroit called Hair Wars," he said. It's a hair design showcase for everything from everyday to fantasy styles.

"I was just amazed what they were doing with weaves and I basically achieved celebrity status as a hairstylist all over the world."

Today, he plies his trade at Domenique's Hair Studio, which has anchored the corner of Forbes and Wood, Downtown, for 30 years. The salon caters to business professionals, who tend to go for conservative coifs.

But it's the over-the-top milieu of fantasy hair for which Mr. Noss, whose mostly African-American clientele come to him for his hair-weaving expertise, has made a name for himself.

His signature work is a design he calls the "hairycopter," which he said actually flies.

"I'm also the first person who ever created a fantasy hair design that went down the 'Soul Train' line," he boasts.

It doesn't take any great insight to figure out that sending the nonconforming Mr. Noss to an upscale, by-the-employee-handbook salon in Nashville would produce anything other than entertaining television.

"That was definitely a real interesting swap for us," said Ms. Simon. "He's actually quite talented and very funny and very interesting."

For Mr. Noss, it was the classic fish-out-of-water scenario.

"I was surprised about how stuffy they were and how strict they were," Mr. Noss said of the staff at Trim Classic Barber & Legendary Beauty in Nashville. "I think they should have focused more on hair than their rules.

"There was no eating or drinking or anything like that at the stations. If I need a drink of water, I need a drink of water, you know what I mean?"

In exchange, Domenique's got Melanie Shelly, owner of the Nashville salon and stylist for country stars such as Trisha Yearwood and Faith Hill.

Mary Marchese had just inherited Domenique's from longtime owner Domenique Cardamone, who had died. She wasn't sure she was emotionally prepared to be part of a television show.

"I was debating whether to do it or turn it down. I thought I'm not ready for it, I don't feel up to it, but maybe it's just the thing I need to move me on to something else."

For her part, Ms. Shelley flopped about a bit, too.

Admitting in the episode that she had not done much "ethnic hair," Ms. Shelley seemed to take all day to sew in a weave. Despite the amount of time it took, the client was pleased with the result.

During a visit to Primanti Bros., Ms. Shelley offered Ms. Marchese some suggestions on improving her salon, one of which was to bring in a few more young stylists.

"I thought that was fine. They had mentioned to me they were going to bring in somebody that would give me some ideas," Ms. Marchese said. "I thought the state I was in that was a good direction to go."

And what direction does Mr. Noss want to go, eventually?

"I enjoy the entertainment aspect of what I'm doing with the hair industry, and I basically would like to pursue that," he said.

During a recent trip to Los Angeles, he was able to snag a much-coveted invite to the reunion show for VH1's reality super hit, "Mo'Nique's Charm School."

"I got VIP treatment," Mr. Noss said. "They took me to the front of the line."

He sees reality shows and the hair industry as a perfect fit "because with hair, you can never run out of ideas."