The Open Eye with Robert Masciave

Hair Biz are proud to be the host of Robert Masciave's journey as he interviews fellow connoisseurs of the avantgarde in a series of features – in this issue he meets the award winning...

Sylvestre Finold.

Sylvestre Finold

Rolling back the years, when did you first take a walk on the wild side and enter the world that is avantgarde?

I first discovered Avant Garde when I joined TONI&GUY 9 years ago. I was going to the TONI&GUY Academy every Tuesday as a member of the TONI&GUY Art Team and one day Chie and Indira were looking for assistants. I put my hand up without any clue of the merits of avantgarde and that’s when my love for avantgarde began.

What made you delve into this creative side of hairdressing?

As soon as I started assisting Chie and Indira, I was surrounded by all these hugely creative, (weird) and wonderful hairstyles and I just felt connected straight away. I was fascinated, intrigued, and became really interested in this aspect of hairdressing. I guess it was my curiosity that made me delve more.

What do you think Avant Garde has taught you?

Patience. How to look at things differently. To be able to make a judgement.

Who do you most feel inspired by – hairdressing wise?

felt truly inspired by Chie and Indiras’ work because they are the two people responsible for opening up my eyes into this whole new world.

Where do you get your inspiration outside of hairdressing?

I get all my inspiration from social media to be honest. It’s a free tool where you can see what is happening anywhere in the world. You can find some incredible artists like wood carvers, paper cutting artists, painters, digital artists, its’ endless. My phone has a very extensive library of images where I save every interesting image I find!

Do you think it’s an invaluable asset to have?

Avant Garde is something that it will take years to perfect and to develop your own taste. I always compare it to boxing – to become a great boxer you must train all the time and do all types of exercises, it’s an investment. I am so happy that I got into Avant Garde as it’s different from anything else in hairdressing and so it is an invaluable asset to have because of the manner of investment you put into it.

I personally feel that my job as visagiste really does come into play with Avant Garde hairdressing – is this the same for you? I agree one hundred percent! Not everybody can carry an Avant Garde look and it’s not even that simple as to find the prettiest girl. You need a model with great features, great character, also someone that feels comfortable with the look – and that’s when you can apply your visagiste skills.

How important is it to teach Avant Garde and what role does it play in the national curriculum?

Avant Garde is definitely something people should learn if they can. Yes of course it’s something you will not do in the salon but the opportunities you can get as an Avant Garde artist are unbelievable. It opens so many doors. Thanks to Avant Garde I’ve been working on music videos, films and have travelled to some amazing countries getting paid to do something I love. I think it’s a really important that people stay creative and push themselves to learn different skills otherwise everything becomes too formal.

If you had to choose, what is it that you most like about avantgarde hairdressing?

The part I love most about Avant Garde is when you’ve been spending so much time mastering a specific technique and you nail it! That feeling is incomparable! Also, I love the discoveries you make during that journey, how you become more open to different techniques – the more you create – the more you discover.

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 earned ROBERT MASCIAVE 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 like-minded 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.”