BY DESIGN : The Comforts of Home : What’s a woman to do when she’s too busy to schlep to the beauty shop? Ask for a house call. But she should know that in many cases, that’s illegal.
A house call from a beautician is a time-honored Hollywood tradition. In “Sunset Boulevard,” Norma Desmond was pampered and painted in the privacy of her mansion. And in real life, movie star Sharon Stone receives her hair colorist at home--not out of public shyness but convenience.
But as a growing number of career women with families become as pressed for time as any movie star, they’re paying for house calls as well--and raising concerns by the agency that licenses and monitors the profession.
According to state law (see boxed story), thousands of ordinary women are engaging in criminal activity in the name of good grooming. The reason: It is illegal to have a manicure, waxing, facial or hair appointment outside a licensed establishment.
Unless, that is, you’re rich and famous--i.e. employed by the entertainment industry, which is exempted from the law. (The rest of us can suffer--in traffic--to be beautiful.)
Another loophole allows house calls to the physically or mentally incapacitated.
Then there’s the exemption for off-site beauty services that are performed free of charge. (In our dreams.)
The law exists to protect consumers, said Denise Brown, deputy executive officer of the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology in Sacramento. A license to practice is good only at a salon, Brown said, and it needs to be posted.
“You can’t just take it with you and work outside a licensed establishment,” she explained, “because the entire point of the license is so that the board can monitor the health and safety practices of the employees and the sanitary conditions of the salon.”
Of course, to most women the concept of the house call is completely alien. And not only for financial reasons. What is a beauty salon if not a sanctuary from stress, a club room where nothing can touch them (at least for an hour)?
But women with more money than time may agree with manicurist Cindy Neal, who said, “A house call is at my inconvenience and your expense.”
The reality is that civilians who can afford house calls (which can be double the salon price) circumvent the law with little white lies. They phone their hairdressers and say: “I’m not feeling well. Please come and do my roots.”
One cosmetologist interviewed for this story said, “Of course I do house calls. We all do them, but don’t quote me”--and hung up. Several said the same thing.
Punishment for providing beauty services in a private home takes the form of a fine or citation. The board reviews violations on a case-by-case basis, after receipt of a written complaint, most of which are filed not by the public, Brown said, but by other licensees.
And they are vigilant: When some cosmetologists recently gave haircuts to underprivileged children at a public school, the board received complaints from competitors, asking for an investigation. Brown said the complainants were duly notified that the off-site haircuts were legal because they were free.
Meanwhile, the limited resources of the board had been diverted from what some say is a higher priority: keeping unlicensed barbers and cosmetologists off the streets.
The cosmetologists who spoke on the record grant house calls to the incapacitated (from skiers with broken legs to the homebound elderly) and to entertainment types (people who actually lose money when they have a bad hair day).
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The law puzzles cosmetologist Valerie Sarnelle, owner of the Valerie makeup salon in Beverly Hills. “The Avon ladies who come to your house aren’t even licensed cosmetologists,” Sarnelle said. “That’s safer?”
Although Senna Cosmetics, a makeup line with boutiques in Beverly Hills and Tarzana, has sent staffers to the homes of Bette Midler, Lesley Ann Warren and Suzanne Somers, most “out calls” are to corporate executives gearing up for an evening event or important business meeting.
“They don’t want show-stopping makeup, just a natural-looking, professional job,” said Lisa Casino, a Senna artist. “It’s funny, but makeup does make you feel prepared. It takes one bit of uncertainty out of the equation when you know you look your best.”
Beverly Hills locals make up the bulk of hairdresser Dusty Fleming’s house calls, “entertainment types who are so wealthy they only leave the house five minutes before an event,” Fleming said. One client asks him to bring along his salon’s colorist, manicurist and makeup artist.
The cost of this soup-to-nuts treatment (haircut, streaking, manicure, pedicure and makeup application) is $350--”which is the same as the salon price,” Fleming said, effectively discounting the house call. You know, with six you get egg roll.
Most triple-threat professionals (who cut, color and style) just bring themselves. Kevin Josephson of Giuseppe Franco in Beverly Hills said, “house calls usually involve simple maintenance--like a trim and a blow dry, or roots and a blow dry. Major repair work like color correction, which I’m known for, needs to be done in the salon.”
When he colors model-actress Janice Dickinson’s hair at home, Josephson calls on his powers of concentration. “It’s like a circus--her two beautiful kids are running around the whole time.
“Another client is an investment banker; (her) home is like a library. She sits there with her laptop, goin’ at it, while I’m doing her hair.”
“Be prepared” is Beverly Hills colorist Matthew Boger’s motto, which is why he keeps two pre-packed tote bags by the door of his home. They contain the respective hair-color formulas of Sharon Stone and Lauren Holly, he said, “so that if I’m sitting here Saturday night and one of them calls and asks me to come tomorrow morning, I’m ready.”
Holly requests weekend house calls if she’s worked late all week filming “Picket Fences,” while Stone’s film schedule makes house calls de rigueur: “I’ll color her hair while she answers phone calls, talks to her assistant, writes notes and signs photos.”
Joy Vella keeps a spare dryer and tray trolley in the trunk of her car for on-the-road hair color. She is adept at covering gray and covering her tracks, even packing up her trash (dye-stained aluminum foil strips) at the request of a certain male celebrity. (Housekeepers have been known to talk to the tabloids.)
Germaine Morgan adjusts the price on bulk orders. “I charge $100 an hour for house calls,” she said, “plus travel time. But if I’m booked with a client for five hours, you can bet I won’t charge for the drive, no matter how long it takes.”
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Neatness counts. Stewart Gavert does only two or three house calls a month (usually on weekday evenings or on Mondays, when Umberto, the salon where he works, is closed), because “as a colorist, it’s difficult to avoid making a mess,” he said. “And someone who can afford a house call usually has about 4 billion dollars’ worth of limestone in their bathroom that stains very well.”
Facials are the rarest form of house call, because few facialists want to haul all that heavy equipment around (long-necked steamer, magnifying lamp, electric facial-brush machine). In fact, Westside facialist Mitra Mansouri said that most of her clients own their own steamers: “It’s $300 but lasts a lifetime.”
She comes to the house with portable machines, alcohol, face creams, sheets and towels. All she asks of the client is a clean, well-lighted place, access to hot and cold water, a reclining chair and undivided attention. “Some of my clients, whenever the phone rings, have to pick it up,” Mansouri said.
She never returns to such a house: “As part of my facial, I give a neck, shoulder, hand and foot massage, which I enjoy as much as the client. But if I can’t relax the client, I don’t feel right about taking her money.”
Because a deep-cleansing facial requires a steamer, Louise Bianco offers only a “contouring facial” outside her skin-care salon in Westwood. “That way all I need to carry is my massage table and my creams,” she said, claiming that her hourlong manipulations help maintain the sharp contours of the cheekbones and jawline.
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The bottom line is, if you want a treatment at home, you can request it from a salon--but you’ll have to say you are incapacitated. Then it’s up to the salon whether to come.
“Sometimes, if you’re a regular client, you can make some sort of arrangement with your cosmetologist,” said Jane Martin, head of the International Dermal Institute, a skin-care training center in Torrance. “She may book your house call at the end of her day on the way home, or she may visit you on her day off.
Whether an appointment is taken inside or outside a salon, “the consumer should feel completely comfortable asking questions about credentials, qualifications and sterilization practices,” Martin said. “A professionally licensed person is only too happy and proud to discuss those things with a client.”
Consumers shouldn’t hesitate to verify anyone’s license with the state board, she said. (To do so, call (916) 445-0713.) Martin warns that “if you invite someone into your home who’s not licensed, or who has had it revoked for some reason, you are not protected. So it’s very important to check their credentials.”
Indeed, “unlicensed activity is rampant,” said Brown of the state board, “and one of our biggest areas of concern.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Who Does What and Where
FACIALS
* Mitra Mansouri (also does waxing) at C’est Tout in Brentwood, (310) 476-4233. Out calls: $75 an hour, plus travel time.
* Louise Bianco, by appointment only, (818) 786-2700. Out calls: contouring facial, $140.
* Dermalogica (for out calls from the nearest salon, call (800) 831-5150). Prices vary.
* A Sense of Self Day Spa in Brentwood, (310) 207-2443. Out calls: $130.
MANICURES AND PEDICURES
* Dorita (who won’t confirm or deny the rumor that she does Barbra Streisand’s nails), (818) 766-6879. Out calls: $50.
* Cindy Neal (also does celebrities, also mum on which ones), at the Morgan Hoskins Salon in Studio City, (818) 508-5501. Out calls: $65 for manicure, $100 for manicure and pedicure.
* Mira Gralnak (available Sundays and Mondays, her days off from the Ole Henriksen of Denmark Skin Care Salon West Hollywood), (310) 657-7808. Out calls: $30 for manicure, $40 for French manicure, $50 for pedicure.
* Manicure staff at Joseph Martin in Beverly Hills, (310) 274-0100. Out calls: $60-$70 (for manicure and pedicure).
* A Sense of Self Day Spa, (310) 207-2443. Out calls: $80 (for manicure and pedicure).
HAIRCUTTING AND STYLING
* Joseph Kendall and Steven Shames of the Joseph Martin Salon in Beverly Hills, (310) 274-0100. Out calls: $75-$150.
* Dusty Fleming in Beverly Hills, (310) 273-5313. Out calls: $150.
* Estilo Salon in the Fairfax area, (213) 936-6775. Out calls: starting at $100 for a blow-dry.
THEY DO IT ALL
(CUT, COLOR, STYLING, SOMETIMES PERMS)
* Germaine Morgan at the Morgan Hoskins Salon in Studio City, (818) 508-5501. Out calls: $100 an hour.
* Kevin Josephson at Giuseppe Franco in Beverly Hills, (310) 274-8967. Out calls: starting at $100 for a blow-dry.
* Martin Morgan at Philip B. Botanical Hair Care Products in Los Angeles (scalp treatments a specialty), (310) 657-0672 or (800) 643-5556. Out calls: $65-$155.
* Cody Kusakabe at Rococo in Los Angeles, (310) 788-8441. Out calls: starting at $50 for a blow-dry.
HAIR COLORING
* Joy Vella of the Aniko (formerly Elle) Salon in Los Angeles, (310) 550-1140. Out calls: $250.
* Stewart Gavert at Umberto in Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6395. Out calls: $150 plus.
* Matthew Boger at the Tova Salon in Beverly Hills, (310) 205-0511. Out calls: $120 plus.
MAKEUP APPLICATION
* Senna Cosmetics, (310) 274-1028 or (818) 881-4911. Out calls: $150 plus.
* Valerie salon, (310) 274-7348. Out calls: $250.
