Tim Rogers, hairstylist to the stars and moguls, dies at the age of 51

Tim Rogers, a sought-after New York hairstylist who created gold standard looks for a long list of notables, including Adele, Yoko Ono and Roger Federer, and commissioned gold standard awards to match, died Nov. 3 at his home in Gaylordsville, Conn. He was 51.

His father, Ian Rogers, said death came after a brief illness, which he did not specify.

Known for his effervescent charm, his encyclopedic knowledge of disco and his sculptor’s eye when it came to creating striking looks, Mr. Rogers was born in Britain but spent most of his career in New York. He worked with the renowned hairstylist Garren at his salon in the Henri Bendel department store on Fifth Avenue, and at the Sharon Dorram Color in the Sally Hershberger salon on the Upper East Side, before working with Ms. Hershberger, another high-profile hairstylist, at a salon on West 26th Street in Manhattan in 2016.

“Tim was able to sit down with clients and determine exactly what would work best for their style,” Ms. Hershberger wrote in an email. “His overall style was very polished and classic and stylish, with a bit of playfulness – a prototypical British hairstylist, which was unique in New York.

Mr. Rogers became a fixture in the fashion world. He styled the hair of top photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Norman Jean Roy and Patrick Demarchelier and his work appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Town & Country. Along the way, he created camera-ready looks for Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista and other models, as well as celebrities including Diane Sawyer, Carey Mulligan and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

He also attended New York Fashion Week, covering runway shows for designers including Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui and Badgley Mischka. When he wasn’t cutting locks, he served as a style maven, regularly dishing out beauty and makeover tips for Redbook. In a 2014 beauty advice column, he advised readers not to use too much shampoo, which can “strip hair of its protective oils, leaving it dry and dull.”

“Use just a nickel-sized drop of shampoo on short to medium lengths and a quarter-sized dollop for long hair,” he added. “Emulsify it with water in your palm first, then rub it only on your scalp, where the hair is the oiliest.”

Along with his haircuts for famous women, Mr. Rogers had a thriving clientele among the male power elite, including Mr. Federer, the Swiss tennis star, and Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy. In a 2016 interview with The New York Times, he said he regularly rushed to the Hamptons by helicopter to make cuts to hedge fund managers and investment bankers.

For male clients, “consistency is the name of the game,” he said, adding that he was essentially on call 24 hours a day for heavy hitters. “You have to be available anytime, anywhere,” he says. “There’s never a bad time for them.”

No wonder his styles and cuts, according to the article, could cost as much as $800. “Everything,” he said, “has a price.”

Timothy Charles Rogers was born on August 11, 1972 in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England. He was the younger of two sons of Ian and Barbara (Walsh) Rogers, both of whom worked for the Ministry of Defense in Great Britain.

After graduating from nearby Crofton School in 1988, he studied business at a local college before deciding office life wasn’t for him, his father said. Instead, he trained as a hairstylist and took a job at a Toni & Guy salon in Winchester before moving to the United States in 1998. He worked at the Adam Broderick salon in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and settled in New York around 2000.

In 2012, Mr. Rogers was appointed the creative director for the beauty brand Living Proof, boosting his public profile as a pitchman for his products on the QVC shopping network.

In addition to his father, his survivors include his mother and his brother Simon.

Despite being at the top of his company, Mr. Rogers “treated everyone like a star, whether they were a celebrity, a model, a CEO or an ordinary person,” says Chris Holdren, his former longtime romantic partner. “He believed that anyone could be stylish and beautiful.”