Tabatha Coffey: "Driven, Not the "B" Word"

Sassy salon guru Tabatha Coffey may put a snarl in many hairdressers' and salon owners' routines, but at the end of her show, she untangles the mess to reveal the secret to success.

The host of Bravo's "Tabatha's Salon Takeover" and the "Shear Genius" fan favorite in 2007 has been devoted to her craft for nearly 30 years. A top hairdresser working anywhere from the salon to the runway, Coffey takes over salons and remodels them to help create a more productive and successful business.

While many think she's too harsh, Coffey told viewers on the "The Nate Berkus Show," "I'm not a b-tch."

When the native Australian made her first TV appearance on "Shear Genius," she quickly became a target of criticism.

"And I kept looking at it thinking, 'I'm really not. I'm a nice person. I'm passionate about what I do, I really care about hairdressers, I really want to win this competition, I'm driven, I'm not the "B" word at all,'" Coffey explained. "So it was shocking to me, for probably five minutes and I was like, 'You know what? This is rubbish. This is absolute B.S. I am not going to let people define me being honest and strong and telling the truth, by calling me the b-tch.'"

But what if she were a man? Would she be praised for her approach?

"Oh, absolutely. If I was a man, people would have said 'He's a great guy, he's a go-getter, and he's strong and he's tough, my God, look how motivated he is.' I think people have a hard time with a woman that is really honest and really competitive," Coffey said.

She decided to put her own spin on the derogatory word, calling it "Brave Intelligent Tenacious Creative and Honest."

Coffey is very comfortable in her own skin, her ease came with a price - an unorthodox past.

She grew up around the transvestite strip clubs that her parents owned in Australia. It was there she first learned how to do hair by working with wigs, hair pieces and hot rollers. She even learned how to sew and bead costumes.

"Growing up in that environment... It really taught me that you have to be authentic. Here I was, dealing with men that wanted to be women, and truly believed that they were women. You can debate it all you want, but I believe it's a physiological thing, and that's the process they were going through. These transsexuals lived as women, so they were going through hormone replacements, some of them had operations, but they were just so incredibly authentic, and so real, and so honest about it and lived their life the way they truly wanted to live it, and how they felt and the person they wanted to be." Coffey explained.

"Being a really young child, that was such a huge lesson for me 'cause it taught me how incredibly important it is to be you…and to be OK with being you. That's the difference. Some people aren't OK with being who they are," she said.

Coffey will release a new memoir called, "It's Not Really About the Hair: The Honest Truth About Life, Love, and the Business of Beauty."

What do you think of Tabatha? Is she really nice after all? Be the judge for yourself from a clip from "The Nate Berkus Show."