Andre Walker (born October 19, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois[1]) is a hairstylist from the United States who has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling for his work on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[2] [3] He is best known for being the personal hairstylist of Oprah Winfrey and for creating Halle Berry's signature short pixie haircut.[4] Other celebrity clients of Walker's have included Barbara Bush and Michelle Obama.[5]
Walker is the son of Woodrow Walker Sr. and Fannie Mae Walker. Walker attended Lindbloom Technical High School and later enrolled at Pivot Point Academy. After graduating from the Pivot Point Academy, Walker began working as a hairstylist and opened his own salon in downtown Chicago. In 1986, after watching The Oprah Winfrey Show, he wrote to Oprah Winfrey along with a dozen roses, offering to help style her hair. She responded and took up his offer, and he soon became her personal hairstylist.
For his work on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Walker won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling seven times in 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2003. He was also nominated for this award a further seven times (in 1987, 1988, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2006).[6] In 2008, Pivot Point International awarded Walker its inaugural L.E.O. Award, named for Pivot Point founder Leo Passage. Walker thanked Pivot Point for encouraging him to "do almost anything" in the field of hair design.[7] Walker received the Thurgood Marshall Fashion Icon Award in 2009.[8]
In the 1990s, he created the Andre Walker Hair Typing System to market his line of hair care products, which has since been widely adopted as a hair type classification system.[9]
Andre Walker has 4 sisters (Doris Thomas, Gwen Thomas, Pamela Walker, and Robbin Walker); and he has 2 brothers (Woodrow Walker Jr and Bernard Walker). Walker enjoys cooking and interior decorating.