CITYSCAPES / MILES CORWIN : Why Is a Haircut by Jose Worth $200? ‘I Have Zee Great Eye’
Despite the longest recession since World War II, widespread layoffs, plant closings and the real estate slump, people are still lining up for $200 haircuts. So many people want $200 haircuts that the man who made them famous will not take any more new customers.
Jose Eber paces the terrazzo floor of his Rodeo Drive salon and ponders the mystery of the $200 haircut. He tries to explain why his haircuts cost more than an office visit to a neurosurgeon.
Eber, a Frenchman who pronounces his first name Joe-zay, discusses lines and structure and breaks and form until he stops mid-sentence and throws up his hands. He turns to Pia Zadora, whose bangs he is cutting, and says: “Can you explain how I create zee perfect look?”
Zadora pats her bangs and says: “Jose doesn’t just cut the hair, he sculpts it.”
Those who come to the salon for a $200 haircut rarely pay only $200. If they also get the hair treatment with collagen, the pre-permanent treatment and the permanent, the pre-color treatment and the double color job, the bill will be $550.
In a city where style often is more important than substance, where the perfect haircut is the Holy Grail, the hair stylist has long been deified. Eber cuts the hair of the famous--Cher and Elizabeth Taylor, the marginally famous and those who are famous for being famous, such as George Hamilton.
Five years ago, Eber was considered responsible for the first three digit haircut in Beverly Hills, when he broke the $100 barrier. Now he is one of the few stylists on the West Coast to charge both men and women $200. The price increase has greatly outpaced the rate of inflation.
“A haircut by Jose is a necessity for me,” said Mary Downey, a casting director, as Eber was snipping a rogue curl. “In Hollywood, how you look can determine how successful you’re going to be.”
Cristophe, a Beverly Hills hair stylist so exalted he uses only his first name, also has many celebrity clients. He charges $200, but that is only for a first cut; he charges a mere $150 after that.
In another part of town, another stylist named Jose has a decidedly different approach. Jose (pronounced Ho-se) Navarro, owner of Joe’s Barber Shop in downtown Los Angeles, charges $8 for a haircut, for both men and women, although female customers have been scarce lately. Most customers give him a 50-cent tip.
“For $200, they should put the hair back on your head,” said one of Navarro’s balding customers, waiting for a haircut.
“For $200, they should do your tax returns too,” said another customer as Navarro trimmed the nape of his neck with electric clippers.
On a recent afternoon, at Eber’s Rodeo Drive salon, people were clamoring for $200 haircuts. They called on the telephone for appointments. They showed up unannounced. They had their agents call the salon. But unless Eber had seen them before, he would not grant them an audience.
And the chosen few he did see received a haircut and only a haircut. He fobbed off the blow-drying and final styling on one of his employees.
Some skeptics contend that if you have a French accent, dress outlandishly and have some celebrity clients, you can charge a few hundred dollars for a haircut. But Eber, who is wearing white snakeskin boots, silver rayon pants with zippers at the ankles, a green silk double-breasted sport coat and a T-shirt, contends that what sets him apart is: “I have zee great eye.”
While Eber will not take new customers, he will do “consultations” for $75 where he takes between five and 10 minutes to evaluate the hair and recommend the proper color and cut. He runs his fingers through a woman’s hair, leans over and murmurs, like a psychiatrist seeing a patient for the first time: “Tell me about your hair.”
One woman says: “I hate my hair; I hate my hair; I hate my hair. This is what I think of my hair.” She turns her head and spits.
Eber studies his clients from various angles and pokes and prods and massages their hair with a comb. Then he barks out the name of a stylist and a colorist to his assistant--”who can best interpret the cut.” Eber announces his diagnosis and moves on to the next woman.
“The other day a woman was totally insulted because I only spent five minutes on her consultation.” He pauses to walk across the salon and say goodby to Farrah Fawcett and then continues. “But it’s not about time,” Eber said, tapping his Cartier watch.
Eber does consultations at all five of his salons, but he only cuts hair at his new Rodeo Drive studio, a lavish salon that has a private elevator and large cutting room being constructed for celebrities. This will “prevent scenes like the one yesterday,” Eber said, when Tom Selleck was pestered continually by women customers during his haircut.
While his customers flaunt their hairstyles on television, on movies of the week, on situation comedies and on “Oprah,” nobody has ever seen the cut Eber has chosen for himself. He never appears in public without his trademark--a straw cowboy hat.
