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«To reach an important goal you have to give 110%, my motto has always been «work, work, work». In New York if you work hard you get results, you give 110% you will receive 120%, but it is a demanding city and you always have to be at the top. New York, even though I was born in France, is my city, it has given me everything, including my family”, this is how Julien Farel, one of the most famous hairstylists in the world, who counts stars among his clients, built his empire. like Salma Hayek, Carla Bruni, Catherine Deneuve, Barbra Streisand, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller, Audrey Tatou, Gwyneth Paltrow, but also Rafael Nadal – he is the one who added a touch of class to his cut by eliminating the ponytail -, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gere and others.
Not only has he been the official hairstylist of the US Open tennis for 15 years. He is president of the Julien Farel Group, a French-American company, together with his wife Suelyn, which produces anti-aging products for beauty and hair care. He has two salons: one in New York on Park Avenue, the Restore Salon & Spa at the Loews Regency hotel. A 10,000 square meter salon, where over 140 employees work and receive an average of 1,200 people per week, offering services ranging from hairstyling to pedi-manicures and massages and beauty treatments. The other salon, a 3,000 m2 space, was inaugurated last year in Palm Beach, Florida, on Via Flagler by The Breakers, a few steps from The Breakers Palm Beach Hotel, one of the chicest areas of the city.
Julien Farel’s hairstyling empire
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From France to New York, how did you start your career?
I started from Montfaucon, a small French village in Burgundy. I started working at 14, first in my grandmother’s kitchen, then in a ski resort where my father had an apartment and in the afternoon I worked as a hairdresser in a local salon. Here I was lucky enough to meet the wife of the great French hairdresser Jacques Dessange who introduced me to her husband. It was the turning point of my professional career, Dessange understood my potential, I still remember what he told me «you are not good as a hairdresser, but you can understand what women want», and he took me to work in one of his salons in Lyon. He taught me the job, in particular the technique of geometries to apply to the hair and for him I toured several salons as a trainer in France, until arriving in Paris. And then the big leap, in 1992 he had opened a school in New York on Park Avenue and asked me if I wanted to go and teach young hair stylists. I accepted immediately. Here I also worked for Frédéric Fekkai, where I entered into contracts with the Manhattan elite, saw the birth of deluxe hair care products, a new concept at the time (in 1995 Fekkai had the support of Chanel for launch her own hair care line, ed.). For Fekkai I followed several salons in New York and Los Angeles. And in 2001 I decided to open my salon in New York, when I opened there were four people, now I have 140 employees.
You have two salons, one in New York and the other in Palm Beach, what are the differences between the two areas?