Tomek Pyza has been running FIGARO SALON since 1988. He has worked on photo shoots for many women’s press titles, advertising campaigns, and collaborated with directors on feature films, TV series and theater performances.
Tomek, you know you are one of the people I most trust, don’t you? Like we all do, I want to look nice and that largely depends on you. Do you view it that way too?
Kasia, you have to be an aesthete in this profession, so there is no way that I don’t want my clients to look their best – they are also my showpiece. And hair can change a lot, improve the appearance of both the face and the entire figure, if the hairstyle is well chosen.
When did you decide hairdressing was your vocation in life?
I never really thought that I wanted to become a hairdresser. It turned out that way somehow and I don’t even know if I am now. I just like to change people’s appearance.
I wanted to design clothes, so I dropped out of high school and went to a clothing technical college to learn the process of creating clothes from the beginning, from design, pattern construction and model sewing. After graduating from high school with a diploma, I decided to take a year off to prepare a portfolio (oil paintings, watercolors, drawings) to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts. But in the meantime, I got into the POLISH FASHION design center where fashion gurus of that era, MAGDA IGNAR, KRYSIA WASYLKOWSKA and JUREK ANTKOWIAK, worked. I worked there for two years as a constructor and forgot to go to college, because I was doing what I wanted.
Unfortunately, obligatory military service beckoned and I had to do something not to go into the army. When I was graduating from technical school, the headmaster offered me a job as a teacher of clothing technology at school, giving me the opportunity to avoid the call up and that is what happened.
Near the school, my mother had a hairdressing salon and I was already designing and sewing clothes for Polish models and actresses who asked me about their hair.
I would take them to my mother’s salon and tell the hairdressers what I would like them to do. One day one of them got angry and said: do it yourself. So I did it and it turned out that it is simple, easy and faster than designing and sewing clothes and you can change women and men nicely. Then I started to play with hairdressing and I still have fun today because I like to do it.
I know you have worked with a lot of celebrities. They trusted you too. Does it give you any stress?
With celebrities it is different than with most people, we often understand each other without words and everything comes out on its own or we have to break up, but for the most part I meet very cool people.
You probably have many interesting stories related to your work and the art you do. Could you share some nice stories with us?
I remember when I was designing, I was sewing dresses for a Polish actress who was shooting a film in Rome, and years later the producers of PAN TADEUSZ asked me to make hairstyles for the same actress 🙂
I know you love France and you are there a lot. What attracts you to France?
I am a francophile because I love everything that is French: music, cinema, food, wine, landscapes, city architecture, non-obtrusive style of dress, so that they can perfectly combine clothes from chain stores with designer clothes and hair must look like it was arranged by the wind, not by a hairdresser.
What inspires you the most in life?
Art in my life evolves a lot. When I was younger I was definitely more interested in antiquity, the Middle Ages, then the Baroque, then the Renaissance, then I fell in love with the functionality of modernism and now I really like the art of contemporary artists. The art history classes I took for five years helped me with that. But what I like most about art is that you can mix styles and express yourself this way.
And finally, I would like to ask you for a proven way to always have beautiful hair.
Kasia, the best way to have beautiful hair is a rested body, holidays, wonderful people around us, delicious healthy food, exercise and no stress – and maybe a glass of champagne.
