Icons Garren

“So, when she would get home, I would brush it all out, teasing it all up to make a coiffure. Before long, all my mother’s girlfriends were asking her, ‘Who does your hair’?’ And she would say to them, ‘If I told Eventually, they would get it out of her, and everyone was shocked to find out it was her youngest son!”

From that point on, more and more of Garren’s mother’s friends would come to the house on Friday nights and Saturdays for Garren to do cuts and sets. Word got around his little town, and Garren’s clientele became so regular that his father built him his very own salon in the basement.

“When I was 16, it was time for me to go to the guidance counselor to discuss my college and career plan. I told him that I was going to be a hairdresser. He looked at me and said: ‘Well, no men are hairdressers; this is the '60s.’ So, the guidance counselor called my father in for a meeting. Mr. McLaughlin said to him, ‘Do you know what your son wants to be when he grows up?’ and my father said, ‘Yes, I do. He wants to be a hairdresser.’

The teacher was shocked. He said that wasn’t a man’s job, and I needed to go to college. My father stopped him and paused for a minute.

I’ll admit I was momentarily worried, but he said, 'My son is going to be a hairdresser. And one day, you’re going to read about him.'"

With his family’s support, he enrolled in beauty school, where he attended night and weekend classes while still in high school. Before long, Garren was entering his work into hair competitions and finished in second place on his first try. And the next, he won first place.

Garren explained: “It just so happened that the judge was the iconic Christiaan from New York. He invited me to have dinner with him, and I told him how much I wanted to move to New York. He said, ‘Well, when you come to New York, here’s my number. Look me up, and I’ll introduce you to some people.’ That was my first big break.” A first of many.

Garren confessed to ‘bothering Christiaan like crazy’ in the following months. When he finally made it to New York, he was introduced to the Finkelsteins, who owned Glemby International at the time. The company had roughly 1,800 salons globally, all based in major department stores and hotels, from Harvey Nichols to Harrods, to the Plaza Hotel. From these connections, Garren was offered a job under the condition that he spend two-years at one of their Buffalo salons.

“I built up my clientele there and really built out the salon. After two years, I was very ready to move to New York with my husband. At first, they didn’t want me to leave because I was bringing in so much money. But eventually, they caved and gave me a job at Bergdorf Goodman, and my husband a job at Henri Bendel.”

Garren was working in the salon, as well as for the creative department, under the Chadwicks and later

Roger Thompson, as one of their top educators and creators. And that’s when opportunities for editorial work started to flow in. Garren’s story truly is the epitome of the American Dream.

“It all happened within six months. I get to New York, I’m at Bergdorf Goodman, and I’m starting to work for Vogue, Glamour, Mademoiselle.”

The Makings of an Icon Garren became a favorite of the beauty editors at publications like Glamour Magazine and was booked regularly to do makeovers and cover shoots. Before you knew it, Garren was working with the likes of Polly Mellen (fashion editor for Vogue) and world-renowned fashion photographers, such as Irving Penn, Patrick Demarchelier, Richard Avedon, Bill King. Garren was then named Creative Director of Glemby, and in turn, Garren was offered his own salon at the Plaza Hotel, called Garren at the Plaza.

“It was 1976, and I was booked to do a Vogue shoot with Patrick Demarchelier, Polly Mellen, and Way Bandy – who was a terrific makeup artist –but they wouldn’t tell us who the model was. Way and I were waiting in the studio joking around about who we thought it could be, and I said: ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it was Farrah Fawcett?’ and Way asked why, and I said, ‘Well, my whole time in Buffalo, every woman in my chair brought in a picture of Farrah with her flips. And after a while, I was like, I am gonna lose it if I have to do this haircut one more time… ’” Garren laughed.

Lo and behold, who walks in the door, but Farrah Fawcett, feather winged hair and all. “We both immediately burst into laughter.”

Garren explained that for the first day of shooting, he went along with her iconic flippy style. But the second day, Garren arrived at the studio early and said to Polly: “I would love to do her hair straight, in a pageboy style.” And Polly got all the men’s-style suiting together to match the new hair. When Farrah came in, Garren explained his plan as she nervously said: “Well, I’ve never worn my hair like that….”

But Garren reassured her that if she didn’t like it, we could go back to her regular style.

“I blew her hair all out, and then I pressed it on an ironing board – with a real iron.

(Many of today’s tools hadn’t been invented as yet.)

When she saw the result, she thought it looked so cool that she actually let me cut her hair to fit the style. We did the second half of the shoot like that.”

That night, Farrah was heading to an event at Studio 54 to announce her haircare line. And she showed up with her new straight hair.

“I remember that night there was a huge blizzard in New York City. And the next morning, I walked down to my local bodega to pick up some breakfast, and I looked down at the newspaper, and there was a huge picture of Farrah Fawcett on the front cover of every newspaper, with headlines that read: ‘FAMILIAR FACE, NEW LOOK.’” Farrah remained a lifelong client and close friend to Garren.

Garren also told us about the time that he turned popstar Posh Spice into designer Victoria Beckham.

“Victoria had told her friends, Naomi (Campbell), Amber (Valletta) and Linda (Evangelista), that she was looking for a new look, and they all suggested me. Victoria called and we talked for a while about what her vision was. She was quite nervous, but she wanted a new look as she was making her debut as a fashion designer. I told her if she wanted a change, we needed to start fresh. No more severe haircuts, no more extensions (she was all about the extensions in those days).

"I told her that I would get a portfolio of pictures together, and she could come into the salon, and we could talk through them. I pulled images of Mia Farrow and Jean Seberg, and knew that this short haircut would really show off her natural features. She came into the salon on a Thursday night, and we took out all of her extensions. I said, I’m just going to start cutting, and we will stop when we hit the right note. I started with a longer shape but went shorter and shorter. She was watching the transformation, and you could see how, as you took away more and more hair, how much of her natural beauty shone through. She put her hand over her mouth and started giggling! I told her, take your hand away from your face; you’re going to need to smile more now!” 

When Victoria emerged at the Marc Jacobs fashion show the following Monday with her brandnew look, Jennifer Lopez arrived at the hotel to pick her up. When she opened the door, Jennifer said, ‘Oh my God! You look amazing. Who did this?’

Victoria said: ‘Garren.’ To which Jen replied: ‘Figures. He’s the right guy for a transformation.”

Garren has also collaborated with Madonna on many projects for over 30 years. It all started in 1991 for the cover of Vogue Italia with Steven Meisel and continued on throughout the years.

Some highlights were covers of Vogue, Vanity Fair, campaigns for Versace, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, as well as working on her SEX Book. You know that iconic image of Madonna as Marilyn Monroe? You guessed it, that was Garren too.

Icons Going Rogue

Over the course of his career, Garren has worked with countless iconic clients and iconic magazines and created iconic styles. So when Garren was offered the opportunity to team up with other iconic hairdressers, including Howard McLaren, he felt it was time to go rogue. Ever wondered what the ‘R’ in R+Co stands for?

Following the enormous success of R+Co, Garren was then inspired to create an offshoot of the brand, something that was a little more luxurious and editorial inspired. He said: “I wanted to create something that was like the Bentley of haircare. So, that’s when R+Co BLEU was born.”

Since launching R+Co BLEU in 2020, the brand has established itself in luxury salons and stores around the world, and Garren is excited about growing the brand and the product range more and more in the future.

Garren said: “The whole R+Co journey has been pretty amazing so far.”

The R+Co brand is known not only for its highperformance, sustainable, and vegan products but for the education and wisdom behind the brand. From its non-toxic ingredients to its 100% recyclable packaging, it is clear that every aspect of the line has been carefully crafted to reflect R + Co’s commitment to sustainability.

Garren and the team are busy traveling around the world educating stylists, colorists, and salon owners not only about the product range but imparting a little bit of their infinite wisdom too. •