LES ECORCHES
SEMPER EADEM
RANGO
THE WITH OPEN EYE ROBERT MASCIAVE,UK Founder of Metropolis Hairdressing and Inventor of Eblade Hairdressing Tools
If anyone has the key to the door of their salon it’s Robert Masciave, celebrating 21 years as founder of Metropolis Hairdressing – a true destination for their 3,000 clients. It is his love and passion for the avantgarde however that has put has earned him international acclaim. “Outside of the salon I have always used hair as a form of expression that in turn makes sense of what I do with hair. Over the course of the next few months, I will be speaking with likeminded people and asking them to share their experiences. I am curious to see what their point of view is, what they have learned from it – did it notice the way that they see things? Does it make them think outside the box? Does it increase your problem-solving skills? Does it make you more creative? I know what it did for me, I know what it does to me, I know the benefit I just want to find out if it is the same for everyone.” Hair Biz are proud to be the host of Roberts’ journey as he interviews fellow connoisseurs of the avantgarde in a series of features. Robert’s curiosity and creativity found an outlet as he began to explore more experimental ways to interpret the ever-wilder hair visions he was imagining. ‘I started doing the hair for club nights,’ explains Robert. ‘The clothes were weird and outrageous, but the hair didn’t reflect that.’ Before long, he was catching the eye of photographers who wanted to collaborate with someone who wasn’t afraid to push boundaries. Again, this was a passion he wasn’t pursuing for financial gain, but just as a means to explore the possibilities of the craft he loved. In fact, he 64
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says himself it was a way of challenging himself. He also wanted to gauge the emotional reaction of the public and perhaps unlock a deeper significance in what he was doing. Arguably, it was here that a love of Avant-Garde, which would become his trademark style, was born. When reflecting on what it is that makes this style so appealing, Robert says, ‘AvantGarde is a form of expression to me. I view hair as a material, and it has limitless possibilities.’ In Robert’s eyes, hairdressing has two aspects, which mirror fashion in many ways – haute couture and ready to wear. It’s his commitment to learning the fundamentals that has allowed him throughout his career to take the risks that have made him stand out above so many of his peers. ‘It’s all very well having ideas, but without technique you’ll never be able to express them,’ Robert justifiably says. As well as gathering all the skills he needed to shine, another shrewd move was embracing technology and becoming one of the first hairdressers to have an online presence. ‘Truth is, I’ve always been an innovator and I believe that creativity and technology should be in tune with each other,’ Robert confides. ‘But I was also worried about losing all my images, and I wanted a place where they would exist forever.’ Initially I started experimenting with avantgarde
as a form of expression. I was creating looks and realised that when I was doing them, they challenged me, so I would invent techniques and I practice again and again to the point where it all became quite simple. The joy for me was I was creating problems and overcoming them with a technique that I was personally inventing. I was thinking outside the box, I was problem solving. It soon became an integral part of my creativity, and I became better at it. It is like a muscle, the more you exercise it the stronger you become. Like life you have a challenge, you find a solution. I started creating avantgarde non-stop in every spare moment, and I had to ask myself why I was doing it. I was also criticised heavily and although I don’t applaud or even like Lady Gaga – she did me the power of good in making avantgarde cool. Alexander McQueen was introducing avantgarde
