Cheating on your hair stylist and other hair tales
Okay, admit it. Like
The Three Tomatoes, you too have cheated on your hair stylist. Yes, he’s been doing your hair forever,
but you were getting a little bored with the same old, same old. Looking for
a little more excitement, you venture out to find someone younger, and hipper. Ah,
the joy and passion of that first clip. You’re ready to light a cigarette except
you don’t smoke anymore. You leave on cloud nine, feeling great and looking like
a million bucks. The glow lasts until you have to wash your hair and blow it
out yourself, and you now realize it’s a really horrible haircut! So now you
have to figure out how to go back to your old hairdresser with some concocted
story about being coerced, practically at gun point, at your fourth cousin’s home
in Omaha and being dragged to her hair stylist for a girl’s afternoon and being
butchered! Ah, the price of cheating.
Or, you’re so loyal to your hair stylist that you’ve followed him or her to every
high-end salon in Manhattan. We once started with Penelope at
Frederic Fekkai, moved further uptown with her to John Frieda, then back to Frederic Fekkai
then on to the Avon Salon, then a little further south on Fifth to the now defunct Oribe
Salon, and then to a trendy little Japanese “boutique” salon which we really hated
where Penelope’s hair cuts were now up to $160. But we remained loyal. And then
what did Penelope do? She upped and moved to Canada!
Then there’s the scenario where you find a great colorist who’s been recommended
by your new stylist. But then you fall out of love with your stylist and start
cheating with someone new, and are now too embarrassed to continue going to your
great colorist because you’re afraid of running into your old stylist. You see
how complicated cheating gets?
So, here’s our latest salon strategy and our new favorites. First, we’ve decided
that we are NOT going to follow our favorite stylist from salon to salon no matter
how much celebrity gossip they share with us. So, even though we have somewhat
of a love/hate relationship, we have returned to
Frederic Fekkai. The main reason is that Frederic himself has extensively trained all of the
stylists and colorists and even if your favorite stylist happens to leave, you
will find a top rated replacement. We’ve even occasionally spotted Frederic himself.
The salon is beautiful, located on the tower floors above the Channel building
on 57 Street just West of Madison. They also offer full spa services and a decent
(but pricey) café menu.
Our three favorite people at FF's are Cedric, Lilia, and Francis. Cedric is
a wonderful stylist and we’ve actually had strangers stop and ask who cuts our
hair. He also has the dreamiest eyes and a great smile. Francis is our favorite
Frenchman and became our colorist hero when he corrected a color nightmare in
a single visit for one tomato. He does wonderful, natural highlights and knows
just how to cover the grey. Tomatoes with curly hair swear by Lilia who gives
great “wash and wear” cuts. Another plus is that they’ve all been with Frederic
for years, so hopefully they’ll stay a while.
So that’s the love side of Frederic’s but the flip side is that everyone has
an assistant and the assistant’s have assistants. So once you add the tipping
to the $150 haircuts and $225 dollar highlights it’s enough to break the Federal
Reserve. And they once charged a tomato $3.00 when she ordered an “herbal” tea.
Another tomato inadvertently got assigned a specialty “blow out stylist” who charged
$65 on top of the $150 hair cut! But those annoyances aside, when you walk out
the door and stroll down Madison or Fifth feeling like a million bucks, well as
the commercial says, that’s “priceless.”
