Hair Raisers: Eric Constantino, founder of Eric Paris Salon
Hair’s a big deal to most people. (That’s what our balding friends tell us.) The problem in Beijing is that hair care, with its myriad local providers and the language barrier, is just another reason to pull your hair out. We rounded up some of the city’s most respected friends of the follicle and asked them everything you’d ever wanted to know about getting a good haircut. Here's what Eric Constantino had to say about some hairy topics.
To evaluate another stylist’s ability, I would ask him how long he has been a hairstylist and give him a complicated technical case to solve. I would also look at the cleanliness of his working tools.
Do I ever cut my own hair? Never.
I really like working with different kinds of characters and that I have to understand people’s minds. I do not like when people do not have a clear idea of what they want. If they are confused, they cannot give clear guidelines and sometimes misunderstandings can happen.
You must understand why the customer has come to the salon – if she just needs a haircut for hygiene reasons or if there is a psychological reason behind it. In both cases, you have to make the customer walk out feeling happy and beautiful.
The biggest mistake customers make is washing their hair too often.
The most challenging thing I’ve ever done for a client was completely changing the customer’s hairstyle by working on the color, highlights and shape. And in the end, having the customer realize that it was exactly what he or she has been his or her whole life.
Hairstyling is not an art exercise, it is about satisfying the customer.
I was trained in France, then in London and New York. Actually, it took me three years to be a hairstylist, then two more years to get the certification to open my own salon. After that, I studied two more years to pass my master in technical services (color, perm, etc.) and finally I had 18 months as a salon manager in Paris. I also ran for different competitions, such as the World’s Best Stylist – which I won.
The largest length of hair I’ve ever cut off is about 1.2 meters.
In China, hairstyling is based on Anglo-Saxon techniques, which are quite different from the French ones. Indeed, for them, the cut is the most important while for the French it is the customer who is more important. The problem is that an amazing cut from a technical point of view is not a good one if it does not fit the customer.
Eric Paris Salon 爱丽克美容美发
1) Daily 10am-8pm. 43 Sanlitun Houjie, Chaoyang District (135 0137 2971) 朝阳区三里屯后街43号 2) Daily 10am-8pm. Lido Hotel, 112 Jichang Lu, Chaoyang District (135 0107 5843) 朝阳区机场路112号丽都饭店 3) 5/F, Westin Beijing Financial Street, 9B Jinrong Jie (Financial Street), Xicheng District (139 1162 6051) 西城区西城区金融大街乙9号威斯汀大酒店5层
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