The Japanese cutting edge

The one time Shunji Matsuo worked on Madonna’s hair, he didn’t know who she was. The Japanese hairstylist was asked to attend a shoot not knowing whose hair he would be styling. “ ‘She arrived in a huge limo. We were in the elevator; we did not speak. I only noticed she had braided hair’,” he recounts in his biography , Mane Man. He soon realized that this “short twentysomething” woman who “ ‘looked so normal’ ” was the model and “his thoughts started to echo the title of the movie Who’s That Girl?” It was then that he was informed that he would be working on the Madonna, at that time already monikered the Material Girl. “ ‘I did not know who Madonna was!’ ”

It was the mid-’80s and Shunji Matsuo was an up-and-coming hairstylist in New York. It was a time of decadent fashion, Studio 54 and the melting pot beginnings of the fashion industry. Photographers, designers, models and hairstylists were coming to Manhattan from all over the world to make their mark. And Shunji, born in Kobe and trained in hairstyling in Osaka, was one of the lucky ones who found themselves working for and with the right people.

Shunji started his New York stint as assistant to Suga Yusuke, the celebrity Japanese hairstylist in the ‘70s and ‘80s who, for most of his career considered Jackie Onassis as one of his prized clients. After breaking away from Suga, Shunji developed his own celebrity clientele, working with the likes of Christie Brinkley, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Uma Thurman (she was 15 when they first worked together for a magazine shoot). Shunji also shared an agent and often worked together with Giles Bensimmon, filling up his portfolio with work for brands such as Elizabeth Arden, Cover Girl and Clarion, and for magazines such as American Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Italian Vogue, and New York Magazine.

After 20 years and two salons in New York, Shunji gave up the fast-paced, Big Apple lifestyle and moved back to Asia. Indonesia was his first stop but he eventually found himself settling down in Singapore, where he set up two different salon lines, Shunji Matsuo Hair Studio and ICON by Shunji Matsuo, and the Shunji Matsuo Hair Academy, a training institute providing professional hairdressing courses.

He soon expanded his business in Asia, opening salons in Kuala Lumpur and Vietnam. About a year ago, he put up his first salon in Manila, partnering with Dr. Boy Vasquez, the ob-gyne turned restauranteur, whose eclectic Café Juanita in the heart of Kapitloyo has become a favorite out-of-the-way must for those in search of tweaked comfort food amidst a very, uh, different ambiance.

The Shunji Matsuo salon, in fact, mirrors Café Juanita in both look and feel. It could have been a French courtesan’s abode with huge crystal chandeliers, a brass fountain with a Cupid hovering above it, and lots and lots of mirrors draped with colorful silk fabric. “I didn’t want the ambiance or feel of a regular salon,” says Dr. Vasquez.

As if purposely putting forward the most obvious of ironies, the hairstyling techniques offered at the Shunji Matsuo salon aren’t as flamboyant as its interiors. With a Japanese creative director at the helm, expect cuts that are sleeker and more contemporary. “The Japanese style is more structured and more defined. Most of the salons here offer the Western style of cutting. The Japanese style gives more texture and more volume to fine hair, which is how most Asian hair is,” explains William Wong, the salon’s Singaporean International Director.

Dr. Vasquez explains that Shunji tries to come to Manila at least once a year to train the staff. This year, however, the celebrity hairstylist couldn’t come and so instead sent his right-hand man Christopher Lim to “exchange ideas” and update the staff on the latest hairstyling trends.

Lim, a Singaporean who has been working with Shunji for eight years, has just come from training in Tokyo where the new techniques of hair structuring were revealed. He shows me a book and explains how hairstyles now are so edgy and geometric. I ask him about short hair and he tells me that the look now is very sharp and very definite. (Long hair, however, particularly in Singapore, still maintains a curl and are kept bouncy.)

“If you were to cut my hair, how would you do it?” I ask. I had just cut my pixie ‘do reshaped three weeks ago and wanted to know if there was still anyway he could update it.

“I will cut it very short but keep the bangs and the sideburns.”

“Will I look like a boy or will it still look feminine? Will it look sexy?”

“You will look very fashionable.”

I didn’t know exactly what he meant. In the style industry, fashionable meant anything from Lady Gaga glitzy to Sinead O’ Connor buff. I agree to put my hair in his hands anyway. I figured you never know a good haircut until you get it, anyway.

Christopher Lim does hair in a manner so careful and so precise that he’d make a marble statue fidget. He cuts my hair as if following along lines, circumspectly snipping away, mindful of every section, giving extra attention to every strand. He cuts it really short in the back, giving it a spunky height but keeps my bangs long and sharp. But it’s the sides that really do the cut justice. He cut it in such a way that my hair forms an arc over my ears. “It’s a very interesting style,” he says.

“How about blue for your hair color?” I nearly choke out a lung. At the same time, I was wondering what kind of brow shade would compliment that color. Apparently, blue — and green — are now the rage among the stylish set in Singapore. Lim explains that it’s a great midnight blue color that, if used as a highlight, wonderfully sets off black Asian hair

“I don’t think I am that fashionable yet,” I tell him. “Maybe something not as…scary?”

“OK, leave it to me.” And so I do. If he was willing to compromise, then so was I. In the end I get burnished copper highlights on my crown and even a subtle line down my sideburns. (A beauty editor friend told me it softens the cut and makes my skin glow.) I graciously compliment him on his work. Sometimes, it really pays to put all your trust in your hairstylist, especially a highly-trained one.

As a parting shot, I tell Christopher that I’ll try the blue color next time. And I find myself actually meaning it.

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The Shunji Matsuo salon is located at 17 West Capitol Drive, Kapitolyo, Pasig. For inquiries and appointments, call 631-9424.

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