It’s Friday afternoon in one of the most popular Cerini stores, Alcorta Shopping. You can hear the noise of the hair dryer and the murmurs of hairdresser chatter. In the men’s salon, a concept created to supply the growing demand of men in the aesthetics and cosmetics market, Claudio Cerini receive NEWS.
This year his chain of hair salons turned 40 years old, but the brand is younger than ever. Throughout these four decades, Cerini saw all the cuts, the fashions, knew how to say no and established himself as the hairdresser of the top celebrities in the country and also styled top international models such as Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell.
From that August 20, 1985, when he started with four or five people until today, which is almost 700, he set trends, broke patterns and achieved sustained growth that led him to survive all the crises and emerge stronger from each one of them, always faithful to himself: “Not everyone has to like me, but when I do something, first I have to be in love with what I’m doing,” he maintains.
News: How did you receive this anniversary?
Claudio Cerini: It was 40 years that have passed very quickly, I have not become aware. These last 15 years I entered the dynamics of shopping malls, which generated an intensity of work that I did not have with the stores on the street. I spent my time doing things. Recently I started to look at photos to put together the album for the 40 years, I started to remember the campaigns, the models, there I began to become a little aware of what we have done as a brand and I as a stylist. The celebration was in August and I’m just now landing again. We had parties in all the salons for all the clients. We throw the house out the window. It is a pride to have a company for 40 years, especially in Argentina, which is no less, with the instability that the country has.
News: What was it like to go through each crisis in these 40 years?
Cerini: Crises were always economic. We have known how to adapt to each crisis by making decisions, sometimes working at a loss, as was the case with quasi-currencies, so as not to lose the volume of clientele, or the absolute loss of clientele due to the stoppage of the pandemic, when we had to seduce clients and staff to return to the salons. I stayed in Buenos Aires so that my speech would be closer. I gave notes, I went to the banks to help us, I felt that my place in the world as a leader of the 700 people who work in the company was here. Crises are always coming back permanently. We have been adapting and growing, betting on the quality of service and training. I created my school because I believe that growth comes hand in hand with the training of new professionals; We have developed a hairdressing line with a lot of content behind it, education, and a vision of the future. Despite being 40 years old, I feel that the brand is very fresh and very young. We are at the forefront in trends, cut, color, hairstyle, but also in service, that bonus track.
News: Having so many premises and staff, it is very important to be able to delegate. What is that process of transmitting knowledge like?
Cerini: The school. I have a manager in each location, I have a team of professionals highly trained in our DNA, a team of human capital that contributes a lot to development and training.
News: What does the concept of scissors as a key that you mention in your speech to young hairdressers mean?
Cerini: It occurred to me in the context of some master classes, I wanted to open the talk to the audience by saying something that had nothing to do with cutting hair, but with what happened to me in my career. I showed them a pair of scissors and invited them to see it as a key that can open the doors to all their dreams, as it opened mine.
News: Do you remember the first time you picked up scissors?
Cerini: Yes, it was very safe. I have been self-taught. When I gained respect for the activity, I went to continue studying. I had the gift and I managed to put it together with a lot of sacrifice and training to polish it. I’ve cut hair in Las Vegas, in Chicago, I’ve gone to seminars all over the world. I did it as the first things are done, with irreverence and even arrogance. It came out, but I didn’t stay in it, I gave it the seriousness it required, I went to London to the Vidal Sassoon Academy, he was still at school, it was very disruptive, they invited me to stay, but at that time I had my grandmother with a somewhat complicated health situation and since my grandmother raised me, I decided to return to Argentina and opened Cerini.
News: How do the famous people, the parades, the glamor begin to arrive?
Cerini: Also a little thanks to that good arrogance, of saying: “I’m not going to wait, I’m going to go out and search.” Life crossed my path with Pancho Dotto, whom I will always thank for the trust he had in me. Pancho saw something, believed something, he sent me some of his girls and among them Deborah de Corral appeared, I cut her hair, Carolina Peleritti, and there I began to show that I came to do something different, if it was good or bad I don’t know, but I had a different head. I made my way, I went from a 150 square meter hair salon in Marcelo T. to a 700 square meter premises. Then they all fell, even Máxima Zorreguieta. I found an opportunity and I took advantage of it, I gave up a lot of my personal life knowing that I wanted to build a brand in good companies. I feel like I’m just starting out, I’m still projecting, but in a measured way, I know what my brand and my audience are worth. I listen a lot to clients, what is wrong and what is right.
News: What do you see about Argentine women when choosing a style? Is it conservative?
Cerini: Not anymore. It was conservative in the 90s, they didn’t go beyond blonde and long hair. Now with social networks, communication, travel, what happens in Paris or on a red carpet, there is more openness to knowing more styles. The market has grown a lot. It’s not that expensive, you can live a hairdressing experience, a cut, a hairstyle, and you already look good, renewed, we are not in the hairdressing business, but in the business of happiness. We can make someone happy through a color, a cut, a treatment. We want to create a satisfying experience.
News: Many stages of life are reflected in hair…
Cerini: Hair is very decisive for moods. We have developed strategies for that. We are very cautious when deciding whether or not to make dramatic changes. I can live without doing explosive work and wait for the client to come back with the most processed idea. I try to avoid impulsive changes because they are not happy changes.
News: Regarding those emblematic cuts like that of Carolina Peleritti or Deborah de Corral, what was the reception from the public and the industry?
Cerini: I was younger, they criticized me a lot, I was very English, very radical, fashion was not ready, but I was sure of what I did, I never doubted. With Deborah there was a long line at the hair salon to get a haircut like her.
News: If you had to define each decade with a style, what would you say?
Cerini: The 90s had a hellish aesthetic connotation. The 80s were with curlers, “Flashdance”, but the 90s were aesthetically brilliant in every aspect. The top models who led the image made them very glamorous, there was a lot of creativity, anything could happen. The 2000s had something more classic, less “shock”, after the explosion of the ’90s the models became more common, more human. In the ’90s the supermodels were stronger than the brand, but in the 2000s they put more unknown models so that the brand could regain preponderance, which meant that the hair in the shows was not such a protagonist either.
News: What’s coming for next summer?
Cerini: Voluminous lengths are back, hair falling in layers. If you like the length, the essential thing is that it be worn with grace, with volume, more sexy. For each person there is a style.
News: Do men pay attention to aesthetics?
Cerini: We found a niche in men, in recent years there has been an explosion in fashion and cosmetics. We set up the gentlemen’s clubs; Men entered the fashion market furiously.
News: Is it the same to cut the hair of Kate Moss or an everyday client?
Cerini: My career was not made by Kate Moss, my career was made by my clients of many years who follow me with great devotion. I thank you a lot. My ego is that my business grows, that the people who accompany me live better. Combing Naomi Campbell or Kate Moss’s hair is a bonus track. But my ego never played tricks on me.
News: The next step for Cerini?
Cerini: Hopefully the stability of the country will help me continue generating employment. I want to continue growing. I need to make an introspective entry, stop a little, review my study programs, I have to nourish myself, but there is no doubt that we are going to continue growing.
