I've known Meg Harpe for years and somehow still never really know what the hell she’s doing.

She’ll disappear, randomly pop up in another country, show up to dinner with a pack of hot women, cut some hair, smoke a cigarette and then casually drop one of the most profound things you’ve heard all week.

So obviously I needed her on Basecoat.

Meg and I get into a LOT in this one.

She talks about growing up an athlete, coming out young, moving to Florida her senior year and going from feeling completely confident in who she was to eating lunch alone in a bathroom. Then, because apparently one life wasn’t enough, she walked away from soccer scholarships, joined the Army at 17, broke her neck, got medically discharged and eventually found her way into the hair industry.

Normal trajectory.

We also get into why her phone basically lives on Do Not Disturb, why she’s intentionally mysterious on social media, dating, her ex-fiancée, loving someone privately, and why she refuses to build a relationship around somebody’s potential.

And then we get into the shit that I think anyone in the beauty industry will understand immediately.

When someone sits in your chair, it is almost never just hair. Or nails. Or tattoos. Or whatever service you're doing.

People tell us EVERYTHING.

Pregnancies. Affairs. Divorces. Insecurities. Career changes. Family drama. The best day of their life. The worst day of their life.

And then they leave and your next client walks in 30 seconds later.

Meg sees 17–21 people a day. I tattoo people for hours at a time. We talk about what it means to absorb that much human energy, still show up as yourself, and somehow not lose your damn mind.

We also somehow cover men being in their soft era, Korean skincare, Dolly Parton, hot friends, tequila, dating hairstylists, Instagram stalking and the realization that none of us have technically ever seen our own face.

That one fucked me up a little.

This episode is funny, a little chaotic and then randomly gets deep as hell — which is pretty much exactly what happens anytime Meg and I hang out.

Welcome back to Basecoat.