Nationality American Education University of Missouri Name Karen Shelton | Known for Long Hair, Hair Expert Occupation CEO HairBoutique.com | |
Born June 23, 1951 (age 73) ( 1951-06-23 ) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Other names Karen Marie O'Connor (birth name) | ||
Janine Jarman chats with HairBoutique.com at the Hairroin Red Carpet Event
Karen Marie Shelton (née O'Connor; born June 23, 1951) is an Internet-based entrepreneur, the CEO and founder of Hairboutique.com, one of the oldest and largest consumer hair portals on the Web. She is also the CEO and co-founder of T&S Software, a telephony software provider of award winning software in the VOIP arena. She has authored more than 2,500 original articles on consumer hair care topics.
Contents
- Janine Jarman chats with HairBoutiquecom at the Hairroin Red Carpet Event
- Background
- Education
- Career
- Awards
- Published works
- References
Background
Shelton was born and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri where she attended Our Lady of Sorrows grade school and Bishop DuBourg High School.
In August 1971, she married Jerry Lee Shelton and moved with him to Triangle, Virginia, near where he was stationed at Fort Belvoir; the couple divorced in 1979.
Education
In December 1971, Shelton moved back to St. Louis with her husband and resumed her interrupted studies at the University of Missouri where she was a member of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.
Shelton graduated with a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration on industrial and business sociological topics. Upon graduation she began a career in the software industry focusing on systems engineering and management. She earned an M.A. in Public Policy with a focus on business and economics from St. Louis University in 1975. She completed post-graduate work at Washington University and St. Louis University in Public Policy and Business.
Career
In 1983, she remarried, in St. Louis, to Michael Thayer. Two years later they moved to Dallas, Texas to pursue business and professional opportunities. Ten years later they founded T&S Software (Telephony & Speech), working closely together until Thayer’s death in 2005. On August 15, 1997, Shelton founded Hairboutique.com to provide consumers with comprehensive hair care information.
Awards
Published works
In addition to the thousands of original articles authored by Karen Shelton on Hairboutique.com, Shelton’s writings on consumer hair care issues are included in Peter Lamas' Dying To Be Beautiful and Hair Profiling.