New York:
It's been two years since Janna Levine has stepped into a salon. Her blowouts, cuts, highlights and even her Brazilian keratin frizz-reducing treatments are all done in the privacy of her Manhattan apartment.
She met her house call hairstylist, Gaetano Ruvio, at the Irene L. Salon on the Upper East Side where, at the time, he worked one or two days a week when he wasn't serving downtown clients at his full-time gig at the Miguel Lopez Salon and Spa in SoHo. Their memories differ a bit as to who asked whom first. Ruvio remembers being the one to suggest the arrangement; Levine thinks she initially broached the topic. Regardless, the negotiations were successful, and before long, cell phone numbers were exchanged, text messaging commenced and Ruvio started arriving at Levine's door with a backpack of supplies.
"I'll go to my clients' homes anytime before 11 a.m. or after 8 at night," he said. When Ruvio is not at the salon or the gym, he's open for business (excluding Sundays). His accommodating schedule, not to mention the reduced prices he charges, do not go unappreciated.
"When you're sitting and getting highlights in the salon for three hours, your life is on hold for three hours," said Levine, a real estate agent in New York. "Not only am I saving money, but I am also in my apartment, so I can sit in front of my computer and shoot out e-mails. I don't need to take time off work."
It's not uncommon for hairdressers to make house calls for events like weddings or bar mitzvahs. But a seemingly underground contingency of individuals book their regular beauty appointments directly through their hairstylists, eyebrow groomers, bikini waxers and facialists, often unbeknownst to the technician's or stylist's employing salon.
Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure magazine, has taken note of the phenomenon. House calls, she said, "started as something that were more expensive. It was a celebrity preparing for the Oscars kind of thing." But these days, "people are whispering to their stylists to come to their homes and a lot of the time it is less expensive," she said. "The client is paying in cash and not paying overhead. It can be sneaky."
While Levine saves only a nominal amount on her weekly blowouts, she estimates she pays less than half the price for other treatments than she would in a salon (approximately $150 for highlights instead of $350). And then there is the time saved traveling to and from the salon, "really the greatest luxury," she said.
Kevin Stamler, a law student at the University of Southern California, who also owns an event planning company and a promotions company, has an even more economical set-up with his hairstylist, Rian Heart, who works for Salon Sessions in Pasadena, Calif.
Stamler met Heart at a nightclub in Los Angeles. "She told me she's a hairstylist and said: 'I'll come to your house. I do it for people all the time.' "
She even offered to cut his wavy locks free in exchange for the clients she foresaw Stamler sending her way, thanks to his business connections.
Heart usually charges $100 for a house call, the same price Salon Sessions charges for her haircuts. But the cost can vary.
"Say a girl is having a bachelorette party and she wants all her girlfriends to come over and get their hair done," Heart said. "Most of the time, I'll do the organizer's hair for free if they get five or more people to come, because I've already made that money and some back."
It's no surprise that many people in the beauty industry are looking to make a side dollar or two. Marina Valmy de Haydu, director of the Christine Valmy International Schools, estimates that salons pay their employees around 40 percent to 60 percent commission on services rendered (excluding tips).
But there can be a lot of hands dipping into that pot. There is "one person washing you, another massaging your head, another towel-drying your hair," said Nicolle Cannone, a Westchester, N.Y.-based owner of a line of baby clothing, who gets at-home sessions with a stylist.
After Cannone's sister became friendly with a hairdresser at a pricey Manhattan hair salon (which Cannone did not want named as to not jeopardize her stylist's full-time job), a deal was arranged for the stylist to come to Cannone's home, where both sisters' hair is cut in the hallway at $60 a head (more than a 50 percent discount from the salon price). "The average person doesn't really know that they can do these side deals," said Ying Chu, the beauty and health director at Marie Claire.
Chu and Wells seem wary of forgoing the salon for most procedures. They both noted that a salon offers amenities such as lighting, proper chairs and the opportunity to escape the distractions of the home or office, not to mention legal liability if something goes wrong.
"On the upside, yes, they are coming to you," Wells said. "But do you really want a bikini wax in your bedroom?"
Still, Wells occasionally has her hair blown out at the office by River Lloyd of Serge Normant at John Frieda in downtown Manhattan. And once a month, an eyebrow specialist, Maribeth Madron, who works twice a week at the Pipino Salon at Spa Chakra on Fifth in Manhattan, comes to the Marie Claire offices to pluck and shape the brows of 10 to 15 employees.
While some salon owners interviewed stated that they would fire any employee who provided services to clients independently, Garren, the owner of Garren New York salon, says it all comes down to trust and respect.
"It's a topic where you sort of turn a blind eye," Garren said. "As long as they're doing what they need to do us for us during the hours they're working for the Garren salon, I don't have a problem with it."
In Ruvio's case, the Miguel Lopez Salon and Spa understands that his house-call clients aren't taking away from business, as most of his personal clients are Upper East Side mothers who wouldn't make the trek downtown, Ruvio said.
He had one warning for those considering home haircuts.
"It can get messy," Ruvio said, "but fortunately they have housekeepers, so somebody is there to clean up after."