Steven Lai

Steven Lai works as a hairdresser and Imagemaker at Steven Lai Imagemaker in Minnetonka. He also serves as Director of Continued Education at Sakada Studios and sits on the Board of Directors of the Beauty Certified Education Association (BCEA). He has held a cosmetology license since age 21 and brings more than three decades of work with a broad range of clients. His approach focuses on precise cutting and coloring shaped around each client, with the color designed alongside the cut. Competition has been a major part of his career: he has taken part in, prepared for and judged global hairdressing events, among them the Americas Cup, World Supreme, National Coiffure Championship, European Hairdressing Championships and World Hairdressing Championship Open. He has delivered platform presentations in Taiwan, Japan, Canada and the USA, and represented the USA in the Ladies Hair Section for the Organisation Modiale Coiffure (OMC). His work has been featured in hair fashion publications across North and South America, Asia and Europe. With the National Cosmetology Association (NCA), he has led design work as the organization's Design Team Director and as its Ladies Hair Designer, producing design collections along the way. He is a past president of the NCA of Minnesota and a past member of the NCA Board of Directors, and he has also been a past Chairman of the Minnesota Cosmetology Advisory Council. He received the BCEA Advanced Education Scholarship.