Marie Ferro is a celebrity stylist whose client list reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood. Her work has been featured in Vanity Fair and InStyle and graced the cover of Malibu Times magazine on numerous occasions, not to mention the cover of American Salon. She’s also a beauty consultant for New Beauty. So after 25 years behind the chair and numerous accolades, you’d think she’d sit back and rest on her laurels, right? That there’s nothing more you could teach her? Well, Ferro doesn’t see it that way. “It’s even more important to stay ahead of my clients than ever before,” she says. “Because of the Internet, they see the latest trends sometimes before I do.” Ferro is convinced that advanced education has kept her on top of her game, which is why she takes a class at the Goldwell KMS California Academy in Santa Monica, CA, every other month. “I’ve even taken the same course more than once because trends tend to come back around again, but each time they’re slightly different,” says Ferro, who booked a flight to New York City last year to take the “On Set” makeover workshop at the Goldwell KMS California Academy in Manhattan even though she’s done countless photo shoots over the years. To refine her dressing and finishing skills, she took a class with Orlando Pita at the Phyto Institute in New York City. The one-day workshop was limited to seven participants and cost $700, but Ferro says it was worth every penny. “He focused on new curl trends such as the S curl,” she says. “You’ve got to loop the hair around an iron in different directions to create an S shape. It’s more of an undone, beachy look.” A few years ago she signed up for a four-day “boot camp” with Sharon Blain, the master of long hair education, that set her back $2,500. Again, worth every penny because of all the tricks of the trade she picked up that have enabled her to work faster and smarter. For Ferro, investing in education is part of the cost of doing business, and what she’s learned from world-class hairdressers like Pita and Blain, who come from different stylistic backgrounds, has helped her to become a more versatile hairdresser.