FRENCH TOUCH
Frédéric Fekkai on culture shock and where he keeps his knight’s medal. By LESA HANNAH
($28)
IT SPEAKS TO THE WHIRL-
wind, jet-set life he leads that hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai has only flown in for a few hours to conduct interviews at Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton. Sitting on a couch, all suave hair and gleaming teeth, the 56-year-old Frenchman is reminiscing about the culture shock he experienced when he arrived in New York in 1982. “Women were extremely sophisticated but over-groomed and overdone,” he says. “The nails, the hair, the makeup—everything was too done, or athletic and too casual. There was nothing in the middle.” To bridge the gap, he approached hair with what he describes as a “casual, chic and elegant style.” He used this technique to famously free Hillary Clinton from her dowdy coif in the ’90s and built an elite clientele, including everyone from Manhattan doyennes (Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart) to supermodels (Heidi Klum, Claudia Schiffer).
For all his success—his brand, which includes nine salons and a luxury hair care line, is celebrating its 25th anniversary—he still retains an air of humility. Fekkai keeps the medal he received when he was made a knight of France’s National Order of Merit in 2010 in the closet with his cufflinks. “I’m happy to have it. I don’t have to display it,” he says.
And though his products have a huge following (Brilliant Glossing Crème is a top seller, and his now-discontinued Coiff Oceanique Tousled Wave Spray was one of the best texture enhancers out there), there is one he’s been working on for years that still eludes him: something that would transform the hair’s texture while simultaneously controlling it; a product that would enhance and hold a wave but also remove frizz and add shine. “I’d love to figure out how to do that,” he says.