Expats face challenge of finding a good hairdresser

Blond is the hair colour of female fashionistas this season, says the Swiss hairdressing association Coiffure Suisse, which has just issued its selection of spring and summer trends.

Shades are monochrome or multi-tone, and span a palette of platinum, copper and gold. Women’s hair is short with a long asymmetrical fringe or long with a centre parting and plenty of movement at the ends. Men’s hair is brown, short at the sides and neck, with longer hair on the top teased upwards.

All well and good, but is your hairdresser up to it?

Whether you slavishly follow hair trends or ignore them completely, everybody needs a good hairdresser. Interior beauty may be what matters most, but seething over a stylist who has temporarily wrecked your life can radically dim that inner radiance.

Monique, 44, grew up in the US, then lived in Vancouver and Paris. Since arriving in Switzerland 23 years ago, she has had some “disastrous” hairdressing experiences, which she blames on “hairdressers waltzing around doing several heads at the same time and delegating most of the work to apprentices”.

My own head has never been delegated, but the discovery that I come from London – the city that simultaneously spawned punk rock and some of the daftest haircuts in history – has prompted some stylists to use my hair as a laboratory for Great Creative Experiments. I have frequently emerged from salons with cuts my friends have tactfully ignored.

But I have also had my best haircuts here and just wish I could have sidestepped the trial and massive error stage.

Maïté Lopez, a hairdresser at Concept Création in La Tour-de-Peilz, believes stylists often disappoint clients because they don’t have the necessary technical know-how. “Many don’t bother to go on courses to update their skills,” she says.

Barbara Müller Moreno, editor-in-chief of Coiffure Suisse, the magazine published by the Swiss hairdressing association, agrees that further training is essential.

“A hairdresser who wants to follow fashion can’t stop taking classes to learn new techniques,” she says. “Someone who did an apprenticeship 30 years ago didn’t learn the techniques that are used today.”

Swiss hairdressers qualify after a three-year apprenticeship, combined with day release at college. But Pietro Gullifa, head tutor of the hairdressing department at the EPSIC, Lausanne’s professional training school, says having the qualification is “not sufficient” to be a good hairdresser.

“Hairdressers must follow new trends, products and technology and should do some training abroad,” he tells Swisster.

He says cities like Paris, London, Barcelona, Milan and Florence have the necessary infrastructures for further training and provide insight into different approaches to hair fashion.

Gullifa’s own experience of training abroad was more useful to him than his maîtrise fédérale, the highest level qualification for Swiss hairdressers.

Salons often display signs saying the owners have the maïtrise, yet Gullifa says: “It doesn’t make you a better hairdresser. You learn better techniques for training your apprentices; it makes you a good teacher.” He believes the best way of finding a good hairdresser is simply to “ask around”.

But if you’re unimpressed by the styles you see, Barbara Müller Moreno says it is worth “peeking inside salons” to watch how hairdressers work. She also suggests looking out for Coiffure Suisse membership stickers on salon doors.

“The stickers are usually indicative of good quality, as members of the association are likely to be interested in further training,” she says.

Coiffure Suisse offers its 4,000 members technique-focused further training and provides information on courses run by haircare product manufacturers.

Although Müller Moreno says “every city has its stars”, Switzerland has no real tradition of celebrity hairdressers. However, in 2007, Schwarzkopf Professional and the Swiss edition of the magazine Top Hair International launched the Swiss Hairdressing Award, which is open to all qualified hairdressers.

Christa Honsell, who is in charge of the Swiss Hairdressing Award’s public relations, recommends consulting the list of winners in the eight categories on the event’s website.

“Looking through the magazines Top Hair Suisse and Coiffure Suisse to see who is being written about is another way of finding a hairdresser,” Honsell says. “And the good ones are not all in city centres.”

The location of salons is likely to affect prices, which vary considerably but must be clearly displayed to comply with the federal law on consumer information.

If you’re not immediately as fortunate as Natasha, a Canadian in canton Vaud, who says she has a “fabulous hairdresser” and doesn’t mind paying a relatively high price for “a great cut and colour”, grit your teeth and be patient: hair grows half a millimetre per day on average so, hopefully, by the time your cut grows out, you’ll have found the right address.

Some expat-recommended hairdressers around Switzerland:

Bern

Bernd at Moving Hair, Marktgasse 9 Tel: 031 312 34 74

Agrippino at Coiff Your Success, Marktgasse 35 Tel: 031 311 57 07

Bienne

Sandro at Double Face, Aarbergstrasse 107b Tel : 032 322 99 09

Blonay (VD)

Carol at Koutchy’s, Route du village 26, Tel: 079 518 2218

Geneva

Ghislaine styles your hair in your home, even if you live in neighbouring France, and should be contacted by e-mail. ghislainea4@hotmail.com

La Tour-de-Peilz (VD)

Maïté at Concept Création, Grand-Rue 2, Tel: 021 944 62 33

Montreux

Salvatore at Moving Hair, Quai 1, Tel: 021 963 18 37

Patrizia at Jean-Louis David, Centre commercial Forum, Tel : 021 965 12 46

Lausanne

Roberto at 1^er Acte, rue des Terreaux 3, Tel: 021 312 66 09

Lucerne

Daniela at Fuchs Hairteam, Pilatusstrasse 6  Tel: 041/ 210 10 60

Nyon (VD)

Claire at Art-Tif, Av. Viollier 11, Tel. 022 361 2345

Zurich

Badia at Federleicht, Stampfenbachstrasse 155, Tel:  043 542 91 49