Hair Fcker Punk Salon
Kirill Hairfcker- the artistic director and founder of independent hairdressing label Hair Fcker recently moved to Los Angeles to open here a unique hair salon - a space where people change not only their appearance but the way how they feel.
His professional career started in 2002 in Russia, but hair story goes back to early 90-s in his age of 5 when after watching Ninja Turtles he was inspired by the looks of BiBop and Rocksteady and the next day he requested a mohawk haircut from his barber but she refused and provided him the ordinary one. Sitting in the chair, the young kid's thoughts were about standing behind the chair instead of this adult lady and creating this haircut himself.
When he grew up he faced many challenges after he learned to cut and color hair - most significant was that people were not really open minded to changes of their appearance, despite somewhere inside they wanted it. The most common phrase he heard was - “ I wish to get something new, I’m afraid…” There were many fears he heard - losing a job, relationships, social condemnation, and the most popular fear was that changes wouldn’t fit the face shape.
Being an introvert Kirill spent most of his time learning the foundation of hairdressing and social relationships to find a solution. He wanted to bring people more liberty through his work with hair - this is how the Emotional Hairdressing System was born. But first he met Maria Klass, a young hairdresser with similar vision and in partnership with her they opened Hair Fcker - a multidisciplinary hub for creative people who work with people's appearance. Since 2010 they have collaborated with thousands of independent artists such as photographers, models, make-up artists, dancers, fashion designers, painters, performers and many more, developing their unique style and discovering the way to help people look more interesting.
Kirill says : our goal is to ruin the fear and match hairstyle with the inner sense of a person. It is not about creativity or craft - it is about the ability to see the personality, understand the client's lifestyle, aesthetic tastes and match hair with it, that creates harmony. We always use the archetypes system, first described by Carl Yung and then developed by psychologists, cinematographers and marketologists. Understanding the person’s archetype or combination of archetypes helps to choose the right hair shape, color and texture and create a well-balanced look. Performing your creativity or hairdressing skills is not as important as an ability to hear the client and interpret their words into the images. All people are different and we can't do the same style to all of our clients. A real stylist has a lot of skills and techniques in their repertoire to play around with a variety of styles. And emotional connection is a key to choosing the right one. It can’t be something more absurd than a perfectly done haircut that is beloved by a hairstylist but hated by a client.
Kirill and Maria started as a very small business with 100 $ investment as a challenge. The goal was to create a consistently growing model - earning money in the daytime and investing it in the evening, aligning with their own labor. This is how the first Hair Fcker was born, following the principles of DIY. They keep the same idea in a present time, that lets them stay independent, unique and vibrant. From the very beginning everything they have in their salon is handcrafted including furniture and interiors.
“We consider our clients and friends as co-creators. Each of them has an influence on the whole project - people share their moods, ideas, art-pieces, that makes a unique atmosphere. The process of creating hair involves the relationships of hands, heads and souls, in our opinion the process is never less important than a hairstyle itself. And this process doesn't end when a client leaves a hairdresser’s chair - it lasts longer - with a new hairstyle people act differently and other people perceive them differently, which can make significant changes in their life. Our responsibility is to provide the right hair design to make these changes positive.” - Kirill says - “And we take this responsibility, we don’t ask our clients to explain to us what kind of hair they want , we ask how they want to feel with a new hairstyle. And then we need to match this sense with a hair design - this is the main idea of our approach, it is not just to combine hair strands with a face shape.”
The next challenge was to bring the DIY method to the cosmetic products, and this was the reason why Kirill came to United States
“ Working with hair products is an integral part of hairdressing. We cannot work without shampoo, conditioners, dyes etc. And these processes are powered by the cosmetic brands - they buy successful stylists to be their ambassadors and they create trends for better sales, not for the better feelings. We always use products created for us but not by ourselves. They claim that products are created “for hairdressers by hairdressers” but in reality stylists just test and consult the manufacturers, they don’t create the product. Our goal was to make a product from scratch, and I had to learn the formulation process and set up my own lab, where I do my own hair care products. And I don’t sell it, I give it to my clients, not everything in this world is for sale.”
Kirill makes his own plant-based shampoos, conditioners and styling products and sometimes lets his clients participate and create their own formula. He says that even a bottle of shampoo can be a work of art.
Another concept that Hair Fcker develops is Digital Hairdressing - the content creation process where hair is not a final product - the goal is to create a cool image or video.
“We started working with photography when we realized that all great hairdressers left us a cultural heritage with the looks they created. Film is a tool to create this heritage. Since we found it out , photography has become an integral part of our work and we share with the world new inspiring looks. This concept is shown in our documentary - Dirty Art Hairdressing.”
Hair Fcker videos were multiple times awarded by a prestigious Hairbrained Video Award - the biggest contest for hair video creators. Despite their social media don’t have millions of followers, they are well known among the leaders of the hair industry.
“ Sometimes people are scared by the creative looks that we share, but everyone who is familiar with doing hair knows that to create these looks, hairstylists need to have a very strong foundation, and everyone in our team learns classic hair design first. You can’t do a good creative look without basic hairdresser knowledge and skills, that means all of us do regular haircuts and colors for those who need it.” - Maria Klass says - “ And we want to share something new and inspirational to people. Our favorite style is Ribbed Hair - the cutting technique developed by our team, that brings variety to short haircuts and creates a new, jewelry-looking texture. To make it perfect you need to cut this design hundreds, in our case thousands of times.”
When you walk in their LA studio in west Hollywood, it looks like you take a step into a different world - it doesn’t look like a regular hair salon. A one-chair private studio is built of concrete and full of unique art-pieces.
“We were inspired by architecture, design, music culture and modern art. Brutalism is one of my favorite styles, that is why I used a lot of concrete to design this space. I’ve created concrete stands and holders for my tools, each of them has a unique shape and they don’t repeat themselves, each piece is an independent sculpture that is impossible to recreate. Concrete is a cool material that gets stuck quickly, and you have just a few minutes to make the shape, it’s like expressionism - you put an emotion into the cement and then it comes firm. Also I combine hair with concrete to create sculptures.”
“ We didn’t buy ready interior solutions for the studio - all paintings and prints are made by our team, this place is a private art-gallery, where the client becomes co-creator and turns into art themselves. Although we have a big hair salon in Saint-Petersburg with a team of hairdressers, here we wanted to make a private cabin, where you can’t hear others chatting and they can’t hear you. I think it is very important, we can discuss controversial topics, and no one else is listening. It is a safe place.”
Yes, Hair Fcker is hidden from other’s eyes, it is located in Salon Republic - a big hub for beauty professionals, and this is the way for Kirill to cut off the unwanted clientele and work with selected ones, he says that each hairstylist has their own type of clients - he prefer to work with art-lovers, the open-minded people, most of them are creators themselves. To get the appointment you need to be referred by someone who has already been there. He doesn’t participate in marketing competitions, what really matters is to connect like-minded people where quality is over quantity.
“ To find a gold you need to dig - it is hard and long process, but finally you have your benefits”
You can find Kirill through social media or at art events where he often participates with his performances. To book an appointment - reach him on Instagram, and refer to this article. If it will work - you can get a unique experience powered by a rebellious DIY punk attitude with the highest quality of execution.
