Want to go behind the scenes of our latest GDY Creator Color photoshoot? GDY Co-Founder & Creative Innovation Officer Brian O’Connor sits down with celebrity hairstylist and GDY Pro Tyla Thomas to talk artistry, their journeys as hair professionals, and (of course) what it’s like working with mosh pit queen and vivid hair icon Rico Nasty, the collaborator behind our newest Creator Color, NASTY.

Brian: How did you start doing hair, and when in your career did Rico come into play?

Tyla: I’ve been doing hair since I was 11 or 12. I started off doing my mom’s hair before she would go out to the club, and she would start bringing me her friends to try out looks I saw in magazines. So I kept on trying and trying through high school. Then, I met Rico in 2018. I was super obsessed with her because I feel like she really birthed the aesthetic for alt girls when I was in high school. When I was 19, I really just went for it one day… I always watched her videos when she would go live on social media so I wrote to her during one of her lives, “I can do your hair!” I wasn’t sure if she saw me, so I sent her a DM saying “Queen, I love you, let me hook you up!” And then it really just started from there, I felt like we were immediately on the same page from our first phone call.

Brian: That is crazy! I’m not that brave to put myself out there. I knew since I was 12 that I wanted to do hair. Growing up, my best friend’s mom was a hair stylist so I was constantly in that environment. Do you remember the first time you did your mom’s hair or the first hair style you ever did?

Tyla: Yes! It was this wig, like a shake ’n go Milky Way wig. My mom was very good at showing me costuming from movies. I can’t remember the movie, but I remember seeing Zsa Zsa Gabor with this real really fun up-do and I LOVED my mom in an up-do, so I told her she just HAD to go to work in that up-do. She told me she didn’t have anything but I played with the wig — a little swoop here, swoop there — and I got that wig on! It did look a little crazy when I look back at the photos, but I remember my mom being so gagged. I used to carry a photo of this look in my book bag, I was OBSESSED with this up-do!

Brian: Same! I would spend hours doing up-dos just to take them back down again, like the twisty butterfly clip looks from the early 2000s (kinda like the look you’re rocking right now!). One of the biggest things when I was in hair school was nailing a blow out with a round brush. I was the only white boy in an all-black hair school in Nashville, and I learned everything I know today from amazing black women like Miss Connie, my teacher.  

I have personally been a fan of your work ever since I was first introduced to your artistry through Rico. Luckily for us, you have used a lot of Good Dye Young to create many of Rico’s looks and we’ve been fortunate to repost so much of your amazing work… I would just love to know how you found Good Dye Young and why you keep using it?

Tyla: Of course, the queen! I feel like I’ve been a fan of Hayley for a looooong time. Post-COVID, I was really looking for products that were more dependable. I was mixing a lot of shades from a bunch of different brands. One day, this stylist Lindsey was on set and she saw me going crazy in the back touching up stuff — just a little bit of this, and a little bit of that — and she told me she had something better for me.

 I was going to Europe with Rico and we bought soooooo many colors, so I was showing her some different swatches. Sometimes it takes her a few minutes to warm up to new things, but I feel like immediately when she saw the range, it was like, “THIS is what we’ve been looking for.” Sometimes, we need that yellow with a muted gold undertone and sometimes, we do want the neon yellow… but we want the option! And you had EVERYTHING, we were so gagged. 

But the color that really got her was that blue-ish green shade, Move Mountains. We had this pixie, but it just looked a bit plain. We were going to dinner in London, and I literally put it on there so quick. I told her, “I know you don’t have any glam, but this and some sunglasses? You’re finna eat. This is gonna be the whole look.” 

She put on the pixie, did her little adjustments, and threw on her big Balmain glasses… and it just ate. It was everything.

Brian: Because of that moment, we were fortunate to get to know you! I have been a really big champion of the Pro Team initiative for Good Dye Young, and the development of our Creator Colors. It was really important to me to showcase artists like yourself, and me, who are a key part of that team effort. I really wanted to show that there are other artists behind the artist that make this all move forward!

Of course, you are part of our GDY Pro Team and it’s this really amazing community of inspiring creatives… what does this mean for you and what do you hope to get out of this experience?

Tyla: I feel like you really hit the nail on the head of what I felt immediately when I received your email. I was in this season of my life where I knew I wanted to be seen as an artist — and not always the artist behind the artist. Being part of this Pro team, I feel really seen by my peers and I feel like I have the community I’ve longed for and I’m so excited to see what comes next.

Brian: That makes me so happy! The biggest thing for me is that I am not behind the chair as much as I used to be, since I’ve been touring more and working with Good Dye Young — which I’m very thankful for! But that used to be a really big part of my life and a way of staying connected to creatives who do what I do. I get so much creative from other creatives. I’ve been doing this for two decades and I continue to learn so much from other people, even if they’ve only been doing hair for a year. It really excites me to have a space to hopefully connect creatively with others, feed off one another, and inspire each other!

What I love the most is that you take risks and I know your work when I see it, and that’s a gift! It’s really important to have this Pro team and to develop Creator Colors like Nasty because it’s more than just the color. It’s what it means for the community! It’s for Rico and her community and her fans and her relationship with you. All I’ve ever wanted from this was to inspire twelve-year-old me.

 I grew up in a trailer in nowhere Michigan and never thought my career would take me to where I am today, and it’s all because of hair dye. 

Tyla: I’ve definitely elevated in my career. Once I did start using Good Dye Young, I was so glad to get something so dependable so if I wrote down my formula for which colors I used, I could get the look I was going for every single time. I saw it elevate the quality of my work for sure, like the pigments were there! Even when we’re shooting or when Rico is in big movement, that was a real struggle of mine before. Hair quality is one thing but the products you use are equally important. This changed my life!

Brian: Tyla, thank you so much for being here today! Hayley started the Creator Color series, but Rico and you are really our first creatives from our GDY community. The relationship you and Rico have is really beautiful, it really reminds me of Hayley and myself and I think that is so special.

Tyla: It’s been a pleasure, I’m so obsessed. This color… I’m gagged. I’m so ready for the world to see it.