Top stylists (12)
I believe the answer is:
hairdressers
'stylists' is the definition.
('hairdresser' can be a synonym of 'stylist')
'top' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'top' could be 'ai' (resembles A1, term for excellent) and 'ai' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hairdressers that I've seen before include "Salon workers" , "Shears, driers (anag)" , "Coiffeurs" .)