Irving Vaughan

Life for Irving Vaughan began in Washington, DC. At the age of 4, Vaughan moved to Portsmouth, VA.
He would spend the school year in VA and the summers in NY, DC, Baltimore and NC. This gave Vaughan more exposure to diverse backgrounds, which would prove invaluable later in life. It was during this time that he would be introduced to the world of barbering, taught to him by his cousin Fred from Baltimore. He was drawn to this world of entrepreneurship and knew that he wanted to be his own boss.
After graduating from IC Norcom High School, Vaughan would go on to attend Howard University to study architecture engineering. Once he began to work in the field of his studies, he realized that it was not his dream. Soon Vaughan would attend Bennett Career Institute in Washington, DC to study cosmetology. During this time, he would be introduced to makeup artistry taught by Danessa Myricks and Kym Lee.
Upon completion of this course, Vaughan went on to become an apprentice for some of the biggest names in the beauty industry to grow as an artist. Vaughan studied under such greats as Derrick Ruthledge, Sam Fine, Nat Lewis, Bruce Johnson and Barry Fletcher to name a few. Working under such industry giants, it helped to further develop his work ethic, which he learned from his grandfather, Paul Briley.

Soon Vaughan would branch off to find his own path. He has experience in working in every aspect of the beauty field, and with all of the top brands in the makeup industry.
Such brands would be MAC, Makeupforever, YSL, Armani, Dior, and other prestige brands. Vaughan has worked on various TV shows and networks, i.e., Fox News, TNT, VH1, MTV, BET. He has worked on shows such as Love and HipHop NY, Black Ink Crew, and other reality shows. Vaughan has worked with political officials in the White House as well as officials in the District of Columbia.
After managing a salon, Cross Cuts, in DC, Vaughan decided to take his talents to NY.
Upon arriving in NY, Vaughan got a job as a counter manager at MAC Macys 34th st. While working there, Vaughan still managed to work with Love and Hip Hop and other shows.
Vaughan decided it was time to take the full plunge into freelance artistry.
Since leaving MAC 34th St, Vaughan began to work as a teacher of the craft at various schools, i.e. Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY as well as Chic Studios in Manhattan. Vaughan continues to have his influence in the field of makeup in numerous ways keeping his hand in the beauty field.
His work can be seen on runways during NY Fashion Week, working with many designers and models on set and still find time to work on TV sets.

Currently Vaughan has been working with the new Fashion Fair Cosmetics brand, A & E show, WWE: Most Wanted Treasures with such talents as Booker T, Lita, and Mick Foley. He is now one of the lead instructors at the new Southern Beauty Academy and contributors on Bloomberg TV and other news outlets.

It is my wish that after attending Southern Beauty Academy, that each student’s lives have been made the better. Our goal is to inspire everyone to tap into their inner artist and find that hidden talent and become great at their chosen craft. I desire that all students continue to challenge and push themselves each day. I hope that each artist will be comfortable with being uncomfortable so that they can maintain a standard
and raise the bar for the makeup artist and beauty community. One thing I want to do as an artist/instructor is to raise the next generation of artist to learn to work together, and always have a hand reaching back to bring up the next group of artist and keep the beauty community ever evolving to lead by example.