Gary’s passion for hair was first apparent when he started practicing on his sister’s dolls as a young boy. He admits, as his sister will concur, that that practice didn’t always have a positive outcome.

Gary attended and graduated from the Churchland  Beauty Academy at just 17 years old, while still a student at Portsmouth’s Churchland High School. Just one day after his high school graduation, Gary began his career at Rudy & Kelly in Virginia Beach. At 18, he joined Thalhimers’ salon in Virginia Beach and was named style director at the age of 20. During his time at Thalhimers, Gary trained with beauty icons John and Suzanne Chadwick in NYC.

Gary joined Sally Perry’s Hair and Skin Care Clinic as a junior partner when he was 25 and became the salon’s sole owner in 1991 when he was 31, changing the name to Gary Allen Hair and Skin Care Centre. He moved the salon to its current location in 2001. 

When he’s not busy at the salon, Gary enjoys gym workouts, hot yoga, long walks, and spending time at home with his husband, Garry, and their two cats, Alfie and Doris.