"Celebrity’s taken over – sport, It girls, actresses, singers – much more so than the supermodel," says Anthony Mascolo, international creative director of TIGI Haircare. "Ten years ago the supermodel was what you would aspire to, like Linda Evangelista. Now it’s more the real culture of what people are about."
We’re at the Bed Head Studios in Battersea, South London. It’s from this creative epicenter that all of TIGI’s ad campaigns originate. Mascolo, who’s trained his own creative team of hairdressers and image-makers, photographs all those hip dudes and chicks with fierce makeup and even fiercer hair, styled with Bed Head and Catwalk products, of course.
Upstairs you have the offices of Simon Fuller, the pop impresario who managed the Spice Girls and created American Idol. Hang out long enough and you might also be able to spot David and Victoria Beckham. "It’s a great little area," says Mascolo. "We’ve created, like, an Andy Warhol Factory."
This week is an important one for Mascolo. In London history it’ll go down as the week the Northern bottle-nosed whale was sighted in the Thames. Disoriented and far from its Atlantic home, the whale is swimming down-river in Battersea as we speak. In the annals of hair care, it’ll go down as the week TIGI launched its new line S-Factor and made its fashion forecast for 2006.
TIGI doesn’t follow the trends; it makes them. The name TIGI ("teejee"), after all, was derived from Toni & Guy, the popular salon chain founded by the four Mascolo brothers in ’70s England: Toni, Guy, Bruno, and Anthony. Trained by his Italian immigrant father, who was a barber at 9, youngest son Anthony started cutting hair in earnest at 15, and has been named British Hairdresser of the Year three times and earned a lifetime achievement award in the field.
Known for their trademark touchable hair, the stylists at Toni & Guy needed a range of professional products that would mold, shape and finish their strong, statement cuts. Thus, TIGI was born.
Today, while Toni – with daughter Sasha and son Christian – own Toni & Guy everywhere except the Americas, Anthony, Guy (who is chairman) and Bruno (CEO) own Toni & Guy in the Americas and form the core of TIGI Worldwide.
TIGI is famous for popularizing the sexy, messy "bedhead" look, and marketing an extensive product range that now includes makeup, body care, accessories and even education. (The company has one hairdressing school in Italy and many in the United States.)
I personally love TIGI for its cool, edgy image and fun-to-use hair care that really works. Their organic products have tell-it-like-it-is names like Dumb Blonde, Ego Boost, Shine Junkie and Control Freak, and come in brightly colored, attention-grabbing packaging. One best-seller, Bed Head After-Party, a cream that smoothes hungover hair, comes in a hot-pink can that notoriously resembles a vibrator.
But it is this bold fearlessness that sets TIGI apart from its rivals. In a conference-cum-show at London’s Hilton Metropole hotel – easily the best fashion show I’ve ever seen with a whole segment based on the film Sin City – Mascolo, his TIGI Creative Team, up-and-comers Rush, and hair maestro Eugene Souleiman presented a daring mix of couture and commercial styles. Here, a survey of the trends:
• Curl is coming back. "But is it really?" counters Mascolo. "In the magazines it is, but people like to have that individuality."
• People want to make a statement with their hair again. There’s more attitude in the shape, and piecey, disconnected cuts (meaning one part of the cut is detached from another) are popular. "It shows that they’re different from everyone else. You’re getting short fringes, a few pieces cut here and there so there’s a harder edge, as in it looks harder but it’s still quite soft in areas."
• Going really, really short is in. One TIGI stylist did an A-line bob to match a skirt’s A-line silhouette. "There is a mood of hair fitting in with clothes,"says Mascolo.
• The "hair without product" look is extremely sexy. Especially with TIGI’s newly launched S-Factor, an upmarket line created for that purpose. You get "shiny hair that doesn’t look like you’ve put a lot of stuff in: it’s loose, free, feels like your hair." Since S-Factor won’t be available in the Philippines till next year, you can achieve the same effect now with a TIGI Bed Head or Catwalk shampoo and conditioner, followed by a smoothing cream or anti-frizz serum. Blowdry, finish with a shine product and voila.
• Hair for men is influenced purely by the music scene. "You’ve still got that kind of English, Northern-music forward hair or short and textured," notes Mascolo. "I haven’t seen long hair. I personally like it spiky."
• Black is back. Best seen in the show’s ultracool black segment, where black clothes, Blade Runner Replicant makeup and hair reigned. "It’s almost gothic-y – gothic chic. It’s a bit more exaggerated – you have a strong fringe, then wear black."
• In terms of color, "contrast" is the word. For brunettes, flat browns are mixed with chestnut browns. For blondes, baby doll goes with biscuit blonde (i.e., gold mixed with ash tones).
"A hairdresser must be half investigative journalist, half artist," says Anthony, who creates all of TIGI’s ad campaigns, editorials and hair collections in collaboration with his wife, makeup artist Pat Mascolo. The brothers are, in fact, quite collaborative: Kyara Mascolo, Bruno’s wife, is the brains behind TIGI’s witty product lines and packaging.
In this age of corporations without consciences, it’s good to know that TIGI actively gives back to the community. Through Bed Head Studios and various youth programs, the Mascolos take aspiring hairdressers under their wing and help them hone their skills. That, plus their dedication to supplying the market with high-tech, cutting-edge products, make them the Godfathers of Grooming in my book. After all, says Bruno, "You can’t do today’s hairdressing with yesterday’s products."