Hairstylist Weaves Truth Into His Tales

When hair falls, emotions flow. Each snip of the scissors cuts away another layer of defense--and before you know it, your hairdresser is hearing your deepest, darkest secrets.

Those tales are the basis for the new book “What My Hairdresser Knows” (Writers Club Press).

New York hairstylist and first-time author Steven Gorrie says he couched the stories in fiction, using fake names and the like, but the sagas could belong to a number of real-life customers.

There’s Jim, a movie-star wannabe who is unsure if he should pursue his dream or find a more stable career path; Pam, a shopaholic who puts herself in debt for a $3,000 Dolce & Gabbana suit; and Arleen, a small-town girl who wonders whether the city’s bright lights are worth it.

“You will see a little of yourself in this book.” That’s a promise, says Gorrie, who explains that he wrote it as a novel to protect his clients--and to make sure they remain clients.

Gorrie, who hangs his shears at the salon at the Reebok Sports Club, says his job is about more than beauty. It’s also therapy.

“You have to leave me feeling good, so you’ll come back,” he says. “That’s feeling good and looking good. That’s a big responsibility.”

When he first became a hairdresser almost two decades ago in London, Gorrie had no idea that his resume would expand to include counselor, advisor and sympathetic listener.

“I thought it would be a job where I’d wear hip clothes and hang with cool people. I later learned that so much about this job is communication.”

He adds: “I’ve developed a broad range of knowledge. Politics, literature, news, fashion. I talk about them even if I’m bored.”

Sitting in a hairdresser’s chair, a client has nothing to do but decompress and chat up his day--an exercise that often turns into a gripe session.

“It’s an intimate setting because it’s one-on-one,” he says. “The dialogue is so personal, and I already know some secrets--like real hair color.”

At first, Gorrie explains, he envisioned his daily dramas with his customers as a TV show. (“I always had this idea to put a camera at my station.”) But, he says, he likes his customers and is flattered that they seek his opinions, so he wouldn’t want to take advantage of their vulnerable bad-hair moments.

A good haircut is, of course, crucial to a successful relationship between Gorrie and his customers. But, he insists, the relationship must work both ways. Clients must completely surrender their tresses and they must “click” with his upfront, no-holds-barred personality.

“I will tell them if I think something will look bad, and they should trust my advice.”

Within moments of their first meeting, Gorrie says he can sense if the collaboration will work. If he gets a bad feeling, he gives the best haircut he can and then suggests a colleague for future appointments.

Gorrie says sometimes he can sense that a brand-new hairstyle would lift a client’s mood and instill enough confidence that can be applied in other areas of life. But a new hairstyle is “a very powerful tool,” and drastic changes shouldn’t made at a drastic point in someone’s life.

“I’m really good at reading people, and I can tell whether they’re loving [the haircut] or not.”

Gorrie says he mostly discusses hair and beauty tips with clients during their first few meetings. Then he begins to drop tidbits about his own life. That opens the floodgates, unleashing customers’ crises, big and small.

Gorrie suspects clients ask for his opinion because it will be honest, unbiased and unaffected by the other characters in the drama. “I’m never afraid to give advice, but sometimes it’s hard to keep my mouth shut.”

That sounds a lot like Joe, the hair-styling protagonist of Gorrie’s book, who is always doling out guidance to others--on hair and every other topic imaginable--while looking for meaning in his own life.

But at the end of the day (or 120 pages later in Joe’s case), they both realize that their lives are OK after all.

“I can say I’m glad I’m me,” says Gorrie--and that’s even with the spur-of-the-moment crew cut he’s now sporting that he insists he would have talked any of his clients out of.