Sales at Salons Surge on Brunette Boom
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The days of Marilyn Monroe are long gone.
One of the hottest — and most profitable — developments in women’s hair is a shift to brunette from blonde at some of the city’s ultra-busy and predominantly appointment-only hair salons.
That’s what I hear from the prestigious hair salon Frederic Fekkai, as well the fast-growing Cutler Salon, a more modestly priced business that generates $5 million annually with two unisex stores on the Upper East Side and in SoHo.
Why the big switch to brunette from blonde? The owner of the Cutler Salon, Rodney Cutler, attributes the surge largely to the hair coloring change by such closely tracked celebrities as Cameron Diaz and Jessica Simpson, who recently went to dark from blonde. Likewise, Mr. Cutler says, there has been a change on the runway, with a similar coloring switch made by some trend-setting models at the leading fashion shows.
Fekkai’s senior colorist, A.J. Lordet, describes the decided swing to brunette from blonde styles as a “significant trend.” Customers, she notes, are coming in with pictures of Ms. Diaz as a brunette and seeking a similar hairstyle. Located in Henri Bendel, the Fekkai salon charges between $150 and $300 for the color alteration.
The two Cutler salons, a haven for the city’s top fashion-dictating models and a weekly must for a number of celebrities, including TV’s Rachel Ray, are turning a rising number of blondes, at least 10 a day, into brunettes, Mr. Cutler tells me. “I know it’s hard for women to give up the idea that blondes have more fun, but the fact is more and more of them are doing just that and reinventing themselves,” he says.
The price of such a transformation at Cutler ranges between $90 and $150. Figure an average charge of about $120 and that’s an additional $1,200 in daily volume over a six-day period, or nearly $3,000 a month.
Noting that the hair shift to brunette from blonde is a citywide trend that’s also spreading nationally, Mr. Cutler is quick to note: “Blondes are not going to become extinct, but I think there is going to be a lot fewer of them around.”
Economically, a change to brunette from blonde will add up to savings at a hair salon, as a treatment for a brunette only requires a single process, versus a more costly and a more frequent highlighting process for a blonde. On an annual basis, the now-brunette will spend 20% to 30% less than she did as a blonde, Mr. Cutler says.
One of the Cutler Salon’s top hair colorists, Emily Thomas, went to brunette from blonde herself about two years ago and says it has had a profound effect on her life, with men taking her more seriously. “I’m getting more attention from them,” she says.
Ms. Thomas notes that not every blonde-turned-brunette stays that way. She figures that of every 10 such transformations, two customers go back to being blondes, usually because their husbands or boyfriends prefer the lighter hair.
Mr. Cutler, a 40-year-old hairstylist turning capitalist, says there’s no question that the swing to brunette from blonde is stimulating current sales. He estimates that sales at his two salons — a third is planned for South Beach, Fla. — will rise about 20% this year to roughly $6 million. His salons, which handle in aggregate more than 1,100 customers a week, provide haircutting, styling, and coloring services, and offer a line of beauty products.
Nationally, about 30 million women color their hair, and they’re currently spending about $1 billion a year to do it, the president of the American Board of Certified Hair Colorists, Andre Nizetich, tells me. He describes it as a fast-growing market, with the number of women coloring their hair rising in recent years at a double-digit annual rate. He further notes that the number of manufacturers of hair colors, given the industry’s strong growth, will likely double this year to about 80.
As for the shift to brunette from blonde, Mr. Nizetich says it’s definitely getting stronger on a national scale, but he believes it’s a short-term phenomenon. By year-end, he says, “I think blondes will be back, with the emphasis on lighter hair and a more natural look.”
