He's the Man Behind His Woman In Amy Head Success Story

Harold Head started in the commercial and advertising  photography business. His wife, Amy, was a former model and image consultant. When they blended their creative powers they came up with Amy Head Cosmetics.
HottyToddy.com previously covered the Amy Head story in a March 21 post.
But Harold’s role in building the brand is really the love story of two people discovering their true gifts through each other.
“I came from a family of entrepreneurs,” Harold said, during an interview at the beautiful and functionally elegant Oxford Amy Head store. “I started out in social work and rehabilitation services after graduating from Southern Mississippi, but I quickly realized that wasn’t for me. I toiled along in sales and marketing for eight years until my wife said to me, ‘You’re not happy. Why don’t you do what you love?’ I followed her advice and hung a shingle on my own photography business in 1984.”
Meanwhile, Amy Head was helping women look their best with her image consulting work. She told Harold if she was going to teach ladies how to apply makeup, she wanted to do it with her own product line. “She wanted her own paints,” Harold added, smiling at the memory.

Harold’s creative and business expertise combined with Amy’s beauty and makeup knowledge proved a natural fit — just like the long-married couple, who live in Madison County, Miss. with their daughter, MacKenzie, and their two dogs.
‘We met with manufacturers to come up with our own line of makeup,” Harold explained. “At first we offered our products in other people’s stores but we decided to open up our own studios.”
In addition to the Oxford location, Amy Head stores are located in Ridgeland, Miss., and Birmingham, Ala.
But Harold wasn’t content to merely open up stores, he chose to design them from the ground up, creating floor plans, imagining work stations, product layout and even designing the furniture in the stories.
It’s not that he’s a control freak. Harold and Amy believe every element of the store should reflect their commitment to brining out the inner beauty in people and nature and presenting that beauty to the outside world.
“Our business is simply not just about selling cosmetics, but it’s really about teaching our clients to display the beauty that is within,” Harold said.
Harold has given up most of his photography work as the cosmetic business grows and his duties with the business expand. But he hasn’t lost his creative eye and he has even evolved into a home designer.
If you’re looking for that kind of sophisticated but down-home touch, step into the the inviting, transforming world of the Amy Head Studio just down the street from Proud Larry’s near the Square.
Andy Knef is editor of HottyToddy.com. Contact Andy about this story at Andy.Knef@HottyToddy.com