Max Lamparter: “I must like my client!”

The article was first published in the magazine “Makeup&YOU Professional”.

– How did your passion for the world of beauty begin? – When I was twenty and working in a bank, my hairdresser friend invited me to the salon. That’s how I discovered hairdressing and have been working in this field for twenty-seven years now, and I really like it. First, I went to the academy of a well-known company that has salons in Argentina, passed all the tests and already in 1994 became a hairdresser. Worked in Argentina until 1999. Then I took a break from work and traveled. Returning, he continued his career in London, joining the company Toni & Guy. At first he worked as a hairdresser, then became a salon manager. When the label.m brand appeared, I started collaborating with it. This gave me the opportunity to visit twenty-five countries in a year! – Which countries impressed you the most? – After South America, London seemed to me a place of great opportunity. There was a completely different understanding of hairdressing here. Here in South America, we have an outdated approach to hairdressing compared to Europe. This applies to marketing, technology, product quality. – Latin American girls have a completely different type of appearance, a different hair structure. Has this left its mark on trends and fashion in Latin America? – Every continent, every country has its own approach to fashion. For Argentines, long hair is very important - voluminous, curly, in good condition. South Americans are more conservative in their style, while Europeans can do more extraordinary things with their hair. – Do you like experiments yourself? – When conducting various seminars and master classes, you simply have to do some kind of transformation. If you want to surprise, you need to try something new all the time. Since we are hairdressers, we love to transform people. But after such a transformation a person should feel like himself. Even if you have green hair, you should see yourself in the mirror, not some alien. – That is, integrity is needed in any image? - Yes, sure. If twenty-five years ago a client sat in a chair and completely agreed with the opinion of the hairdresser, now each client has his own vision of how he wants to get out of the chair. Then the client came to the salon, looked at magazines, photographs, and chose what he liked. Now people themselves bring photographs, drawings, showing what they would like to get as a result. I get more information from my clients than from magazines. – Have you often had to dissuade clients from their ideas, when you, as a professional, realized that the client had a completely different structure, thickness, and quality of hair than in the picture, and the result would be completely different? – This is a very important point. This requires mastery of communication, through which I need to convey my vision to the client so that the client believes that this will really be better. This comes with experience, when you listen to the client more than you speak yourself. That is, my tactics are to ask questions and hear the client, and not speak myself. The client should think that he chose the haircut, he decided everything. When you decorate your home, you decide for yourself what the color of the walls should be, what decorations should be on the shelves. In the same way, when a person goes to a salon, he must decide what color his hair will be. And when the client likes the result, he will feel part of this process. If the result is not what the client expected, then you need to ask both of them who is to blame for this. – Do you have personal preferences, which haircuts and hairstyles are more interesting for you to work with? - No! I love beautiful hair, I love a beautiful smile. I have to like the hair I work with, but even more I have to like the client himself. – What inspires you, besides studying fashion trends? – I’m not a fan of fashion shows, I watch them, but I don’t get inspiration from them. I don't want my haircuts to look like dresses on the red carpet, I want my haircuts to look like jeans - simple, cool and affordable. My inspiration comes from indie music. I like festivals and concerts. In my younger years I sang myself. First there was punk, then rock and roll. – If not hairdressing, what else could you do? - I would be a cook. I would open my own restaurant. My favorite cuisine is Peruvian. This is a mix of Japanese, Pacific, Indian, African and Vietnamese cuisine. – Do you cook for yourself, for friends? Do you find time for this? – I’m just like a rock musician – I also travel a lot. But when I return home, I find time for myself. I live alone. It happens that I get into a frenzy and cook a lot of things, and then treat everyone. – When you are looking for models for your shows, do you first look at the quality, type, structure, required length of hair, or do you pay attention to how charming the girl is, how well she can present herself and her hairstyle? – If we take our brand label.m, then everything here is designed for young, pretty girls. I first of all think about what my audience wants to see. But if I choose between a beautiful girl who will not allow me to do what I need with my hair, and a not very beautiful girl, but positive and open to experiments, I will choose the second one. Each show is also the work of scriptwriters, photographers and many other people. When I start making a show, I immediately decide into whose hands I am putting it. Working on a show is a journey from creativity to results. As with food: if you remove an ingredient from a recipe, the dish will no longer be the same as it should be. So it is here. For a good result, everything is important: the quality of the hair and the model’s willingness to work.