Meet Irene Jones, July Educator of the Month

Noted by TimeOut Magazine Chicago as one of the Best Hair Stylists in 2011, Irene is constantly seeking new ways to further advance her technique, delivering precise, long-lasting colors and cuts.

Irene loves to bring out each client’s natural beauty while putting them at ease with her fun personality, going “as easy or as far with your look as you’d like while always respecting and paying attention to what’s best for your face, your style and your life.” Her strong points? Dimensional, reflective colors, detailed razor and scissor haircuts and gorgeous, creative styling.

Irene’s 13+ years of industry experience coupled with her creative drive also has her wearing many hats, most recently as a Color.Me by Kevin.Murphy Colour Educator for Premier Beauty Supply in the Midwest. Irene has also been a Kevin.Murphy Gold Key Educator, the Director of Education for one of Chicago’s top salons, a certified Davines Color Master and a Bumble and Bumble Educator.

She has also styled for different editorial fashion shoots and her work has landed on the cover of some of Chicago’s top magazines. A bit of an adventure seeker, Irene loves to travel, immerse herself in different cultures, indulge her inner foodie and engross herself in all things beautiful. In her spare time, Irene enjoys singing karaoke and writing about herself in the third person.

How do you balance your career and home life?
I'm not sure if I do! Being a new mom and helping take care of my much younger sister all in this past year has been a huge shift for me from just being able to focus 100 percent on my career like in years past.

My husband, being a chef with his own business, really understands and respects my dedication for my craft and my passion for one day owning my own salon. We team up to make sure at least one of us is with our little guy most days of the week and we constantly are working on different ways for us to spend as much quality time together.

With time being so scarce these days, it's been so great to have access to so many amazing local classes through Premier. They make it easy to take a few hours for myself, get inspired and learn something new that I can then share with my clients.

How have you grown with Kevin.Murphy and Color.Me?
I am so grateful to be a part of the Kevin.Murphy family and to be surrounded by others who simply love what they do. Working with Kevin's new color line, Color.Me by KM, has been fantastic! I now get with my color line all of the things that I love so much with the KM products: environmental awareness, highest of quality ingredients and performance-driven results, just to name a few. It's exciting being at the grassroots level of such an amazing fashion forward company. I am constantly in awe of the work they produce. As a Color.Me Educator, I am able to stay ahead of the trends and love being able to share my passion with the Chicagoland hair community.