Afterwards he became a hairdresser by trade, and while in England he was reported to have cut Winston Churchill's hair. He also became a hairdresser to the Court of St. James's. He emigrated to Canada, but afterwards moved to the United States. He first lived in Los Angeles, and subsequently worked in beauty parlours in St. Louis, Cleveland, San Antonio and New Orleans. He returned to Los Angeles to retire where he noted that actors did their own makeup−and weren't very good at it−so in 1917 he set up the first movie make-up department at the Selig Polyscope Company, while at the same time, he made wigs, and invented the hair-lace wig. He also worked for the Triangle Film Corporation and freelance. He was responsible for creating Mary Pickford's signature curls, and fake ones so that she didn't need to curl them each morning, which became a popular style and was imitated by Shirley Temple among others.