$1,000 A Haircut: Most Expensive Hairdresser

Rossano Ferretti could be the world's most expensive hairdresser

 

Rossano Ferretti

In the world of costly cuts where a barber is a hairstylist, the $1,000 price tag is certainly hair raising but not unheard of. For some time now, stylists in the West have demanded, and got, anything upwards of $500 for a haircut. Names like Sally Hershberger, Fredereic Fekkai are almost as famous as the heads they tend to. Add Rossano Ferretti ahead of the pack as he set the bar high at $1,000.

In your world, Rs 50,000 could have fetched you an F1 premium seat last week or a laptop, three months' grocery or a sharply tailored designer suit. But in the world of affluence, it is barely a percentage of the latest de la Renta gown or a vintage bottle of French wine. Ferretti, who has styled Lady Gaga, Salma Hayek and even Princess Diana, is unapologetic about his price tag.

In India to launch his second salon at The Oberoi in Gurgaon, the first being at the Four Seasons in Mumbai, Ferretti doesn't cut hair here. He instead lends his name to L'Oreal and its premium hair-care brand Kerastase with which he's been associated for four years now. The staff at the salons is trained by the 51-year-old Ferretti himself with the salon director, Dimitri Lafiandra in this case, having worked with the Italian haircutting honcho for six years.

Today the man, a humble barber from Parma (a place he still calls home "where my wine and whisky cellars are") in Italy, runs 20 salons globally, including Milan, Paris, Madrid, New York and Los Angeles.

The Man, the Method
Buzz has it that it's 'the method' that lets Ferretti set his bar high. 'The method' is the patented haircutting technique - Metodo Rossano Ferretti - that he developed to cut hair.

How can one patent haircutting, you ask. Well, you think of a method that fits the madness, says Ferretti. Working as the stylist for Armani in his early days, he loved the way he could change people's lives through their haircut. For the record, it was he who gave supermodels Linda Evangelista her iconic bob and Christy Turlington her first bangs. The Metodo represents Ferretti's "philosophy and respect for the natural movement of hair".

"It (Metodo) respects hair, the beauty of the person and is all about the natural fall of the hair," he says. Each strand of hair has its own structure and movement: Metodo is based on this fundamental principle. When Ferretti cuts hair, he lets them dry naturally, so that the fall of the hair is wash and go.

According to him, a haircut should have more value than a suit, after all you wear it all the time. But why a haircutting technique patent, you ask again? To gain respect for the profession.

India Uncut

It's been three years since Ferretti cut the ribbon of his Mumbai salon and has been travelling to India every six months. "It's a new country every time," he exclaims. The changes he has noticed: the fascination for long hair is diminishing, there's trust in colour and there's global exposure that's shaping their choices. The haircut at the salon in Oberoi will start at Rs 2,000 for men. The maximum is Rs 6,500 for a style change for women and from a senior stylist.

It's better priced than Kim Robinson India at The Aman in New Delhi where chief stylist Rod Anker charges Rs 10,000 for a cut. The Ferretti salon in Mumbai has already developed a faithful clientele of Bollywood names, politicians and industrialists. Tanya Dubash, Lara Dutta and Jacqueline Fernandes are regulars now.

Now, the Men
Like all Ferretti salons, this salon too has a private room for one-on-one consultations. The Beverly Hills property in the US is built like an apartment with a separate entrance and parking for the celebrity client where no paparazzi can enter. But Ferretti doesn't like talking about his celebrity clients. "I can't mention one without offending the other by not talking about her," he says, maybe alluding to frail celebrity egos.

But as he insists, every woman he styles (and he only styles women except when he shaved the head of his two boys as kids) is a celebrity for him. And now the men are catching up too. "Nearly 25% of my income from Mumbai salon comes from men's styling," he says.

And worldwide too, Ferretti says men are the key drivers of growth contributing nearly 30% towards his earnings, making him wonder if he should start styling men. "This is the fastest growing segment. And once, men have been to a stylist, they will never go back to a barbershop."