Interview with Umberto Savone





MJ: Mr. Umberto Savone, thank you for joining us today.

US:  Thank you for coming.



MJ: We're here at your salon, and it's called Umberto's?

US: Yes, we have three Umberto's in Beverly Hills.



MJ: Tell us about them...this location?

US: Basically, it's a great place to be, happy. We make women feel

beautiful, and men looking good. You know, it's a great concept. I had a

vision when I was like twenty years old. I was stationed in Texas, and I

visualized big, so when I went back to New York, I came from Italy in 1957

as a child, I grew up in New York City, and right after high school I went

to beauty school. And I always had a vision like being in Italy, inside big

churches I wanted to have a big salon. And it's a dream that has come true,

and I'm very happy.



MJ: You have so many people This is a huge salon. I've never seen anything

like this. How many people do you have working here, and how many clients

at one time?

US: Well, in Beverly Hills, we have like I said, three salons. In this

salon we have 65 hairdressers, we have 15 manicurists, three facialists,

and we do an average of 500 clients a day. And plus we have 25 to 30

assistants. My top hairdressers all have assistants. And we do manicures,

pedicures. We do a tremendous amount of coloring. Our specialty is

coloring. Out of the 55 hairdressers, we have 15 colorists. That's all they

do all day long. Then  we have hairdressers that do body waves all day

long. Some of our hairdressers specialize, and the rest of them do

everything. you know it's a concept where you can come in and get anything

done, and 99 percent of the time you walk out of the salon feeling happy.



MJ: Now usually the owner is sitting in the back, drinking coffee or

whatever, but you're out here, usually working. Tell us about that.

US: Well, I do 10 to 15 clients a day. I only cut, but I drink cappuccino

at the same time. And then I have like seven hairdressers under me that do

all my blow drying, my highlighting, my coloring. Once they have become

educated, once they have familiarized the Umberto way, they go on their

own. Most of these hairdressers working for me have been under my wings.

After a year, after two years, sometimes it takes three months, they go on

their own, and they take on their own clientele.



MJ: What is the Umberto way?

US: Well, you have a situation where you walk into a beauty salon you have

to feel like a million dollars. When you walk out of there, you should look

like a million dollars. And basically you know, we have to listen to the

clients, what their demands are. What they want to look like, who they want

to represent, whether it's themselves, or a movie star, or an actress, you

know, to be able to listen, to be able to understand what their needs are.

To make them feel great, and they have hair that they can work with, when

they go home or either when they're traveling all over the country. And the

idea is to keep everybody happy. You know, the service business today,

service means to be serviced. to be happy. If you don't make a client, male

or female, happy when you're servicing them, you're not going to be

successful. And I teach all my hairdressers that they have to go out of

their way to make them happy.



MJ: You're in the top five, certainly the top three hairstylists on the

west coast, or the nation. Who are your competition, and do you keep tabs

on them, do you keep track of what they're doing?

US: Oh, absolutely. We have very good hairdressers, other salon owners,

like Christophe. He's got a very successful operation. Christophe is

wonderful. Jose Eber is good. And then there's a few other salons around

the L.A. area that are very successful.



MJ: Those are your main competitors.

US: Well, you know, my main competition actually is my own staff. You know,

we're very lucky. But you know, it's like anything else. Somebody likes

pasta with el dente, somebody likes pasta well done. You know, and you have

to be able to create your own atmosphere, your own image. The best thing in

life is competition. It keeps you on top. It keeps you on the edge. It

keeps you thinking. It keeps you motivated. If you have no competition,

then you take advantage. Basically the clients have  nowhere else to go, so

your work gets lazy.  You don't get creative. You know, Michelangelo,

Leonardo DaVinci, Botticelli, the reason they were successful is because

there was another artist on top of them, copying them, or doing better work

than them. So if Christophe does something wonderful today, I'm going to

copy it tomorrow. But I'm going to copy it in a better way, so that the

clients can relate to it, and vice versa. You know, we all work off of each

other.



MJ: How do you keep track of what one of your competitors is doing? Do you

send somebody over there to get a cut, or what's the process?

US: Well, I don't think it's so much keeping track. You know, you see. It's

a small town. You know, you see people walking around. A lot of times you

hear other hairdressers talking about it. Plus, you know, basically being

in a small town, or even in a big city like Manhattan, word gets around.

When there's anything wonderful around, people copy it from each other, or

either adopt a new version or a new concept. There's no reason for me to

sneak in there and see what they're doing, because it's never the same.

Plus, that's his concept. I want to do something better. You know, I

started when I was 16 years old, working in a barber shop, doing men, and I

was doing sideburns with color in it, and I was doing the pompadour, so I

was creating my own little concept at the age of 16 years old. I was in the

11th grade. I started going to school in the morning, and working in the

barber shop in the afternoon. So I was creative, I always kept up, you

know, with the young generation. And I went to beauty school. I made sure

that all my friends, all my clients were able to adopt all the things I was

hoping to give to them. You know, when I do a color, I don't just do a

color because the color was designed by Sebastian. I take that color and

make it work a little bit better for me. I mix it with Sebastian and Redken

 You know, I like to mix around, play with it, just like a great chef. He

doesn't just do one recipe. He does one recipe today, but tomorrow he's

going to mix it with a different recipe. So you have to be creative. You

have to take a chance. You really... We don't take a chance on clients, but

we practice on ourselves. You know, once a month, we have classes here, and

all my hairdressers have to attend. Whether it's a hair cutting class with

scissors, or with a razor, you know, it's a mandatory class. And this is

what keeps us on top. On the edge.



MJ: Talk a bit about trends. Because you guys, you stay way ahead of the

trends. You're generally perfecting the next year . How does that process

work?

US:  Well, basically you take a client. She's in your chair. She has a head

of hair. Now, what do you do with it? You don't want to do what somebody

else has done to her. You want to create a new image for her. You want to

give her a different personality. You want her to smile and say, "God, I

love this." And this trend, and the client,the movie star or the model, is

going to take it and make it work for us. You know, our trends are only

designed for certain ladies, or certain men, and it's up to them to project

it out into the public.  You know, you got to be very careful who you do it

to. And today, the women have hair that is long, and piecey, and sexy. It's

not just the haircut, but it's also the color. It's a winning combination.

You go to have a piece of hair. If the color's not right, it's not going to

work. So we have to look at it two ways. We got to make your haircut work

with all your colors. So it's actually more exciting than it was ten years

ago, you know, when the hair was big. Now the hair is exciting.



MJ: So you are picking a trend that you like, you're giving it to clients,

and hoping it filter out from there into the culture.

US: Absolutely. That's the only way it's going to work.



MJ: So in terms of time frame. Let's say it's June.

US: Right.



MJ: You give one of your well known clients a look.

US: Right.



MJ: How long before it filters out?

US: It may take six months, it may take a year. It all depends how well

it's accepted. You know, sometimes it never takes off. Like the flip. I

tried to bring the flip back five years ago. Right? And basically, the

first two years, it was just the flip. But then what we did to it, we

changed it from the sixties and the seventies, you know, we took it out, we

removed all the weight, it didn't look like a valley. It looked more like

the peak of a mountain upside down. So that's why people loved it. It

represented softness. Just because it was in the sixties, it never comes

back the same way in the seventies, the eighties, or the nineties. You have

to modify it. You have to change it. And that's the flip now that we have

now, compared to the sixties, it's actually a flip that flopped. In the

sixties, if the flip had fallen down, it would have been a flip in the

nineties today.



MJ: Which of your clients has been the most effective in starting trends?

US: Well, we've been very lucky, you know. Michelle Pfeiffer is our client,

and the haircut that she's been wearing for the past two or three years.

And then we have also Lisa Dean Ryan. A very young girl. She has a series

called "Dead at 21" for MTV. I created that cut for her. Very piecey. It's

actually a shorter version than Jennifer Aniston.A year before Jennifer

Aniston had it. Then we, I do all the covers for all the hairdo magazines.

In fact, I can show you the covers in the back. You know, and we're talking

about models, also. Models are a little more touchy. You know, you got to

be very careful with a model. You can't take her over the edge. Otherwise

they won't hire her. So you've got to take an actress. Like we have done

Jodi Foster's hair for the Academy Awards last year. It was one of the best

haircuts on tv. And basically right now the same haircut is being adopted

for a lot of different people. Right? Is it going to make it big, we don't

know. 'Cause you know, Jodi Foster changes, which is good. You know, so

much today, the stars are not like the old fashioned days. Where they stuck

with it for two or three years. You know, they want to change all the time,

that's why they're successful. So there's no such thing today as another

Farrah Fawcett, that's going to last for four or five years. You know. And

also hair is a lot easier than it was years ago. We are a lot more

educated. Cause you can do anything with it. Basically we can do more, I

personally can do more with a pair of scissors than a painter can do with a

brush.



MJ: You've said that, you've said that you do what a painter does with

paint brush.

US: Absolutely.



MJ: Can you explain that?

US: Well, basically you've got hair, you've got to be very careful when you

cut it, how much you remove. You remove too much, you can't put it back,

but you can always shorten it. So you've got a lot of different options.

You got to think about, whenever you cut one piece of hair, what is it...

what it's going to do. Is it going to come down on the forehead, is it

going to go back, is it going to go to the side? For every piece you cut,

you should have a direction. So it's not like the old days. You cut cut

cut, and talk. You know, today, you've got to cut, and concentrate.



MJ: So as you look to the summer and the fall of '96, what do you see? What

do you see as the next trends?

US: We're going back a lot longer. Yeah. Longer hair is very sexy. Longer

around the face. Shorter in the mid shoulder. So you have a combination of

three haircuts all working together. Long pieces, short pieces, long

pieces. And you got to think about this, what will this do for me? If you

pull your hair up, you have one look. If you wear your hair back, you have

another look.



MJ: Versatility.

US: Absolutely. If you wear hair up this way, you get three different

looks. You know, today you got to think about all three of them. You have

three different sections that show in front of the mirror. So you go to

make all those three pieces work together differently.



MJ: Is this for men or women or both?

US: Well, men is a lot easier. You know, men, the look is basically what

you have, slicked back, or either fullness or either wispy coming forward,

you know, a little more shorter side for men. Men have gone a lot shorter.

Men should never be cut blunt. Should be layered. A man's hair should

always go with his body. It should move up and down. It should never be one

straight edge. It should have a lot more layers. A lot more movement. Also,

man, since  he's got very strong features, should have hair around the

face, to push their hair away from the face.



MJ: So you're not a fan of the military cut.

US: I was in the army. I loved it.



MJ: You were.

US: It was easy. Two years. No, the military cut could work, but in never

the same way. A little bit longer. Perhaps a little more definition. You

know, in the old days there was no lines. Now,you could do a great military

cut, but you have to have a little more thickness here, whether... if your

sideburns are a little bit shorter, you have to have a line. As long as you

have some kind of direction, and some kind of line. And a shape to it. It

works.



MJ: Is there a style, either for men or women, that is just constant,

always will be in fashion, in style?

US: There was a style for women like that, a pageboy. But now it's become

very boring. You know, what we call  boring pageboy. You know, what we call

the boring pageboy. And we have taken it, and taken some of the layers into

it. And that has created a combination of softness on the bottom, not so

round, a combination of a flip, a lot of different directions. You know,

today, no, there is no such thing anymore. In the last five years, the

woman has experienced that hair is very easy to take care of. As long as

you pay attention to it,  you put a little time and effort into it, it can

be very flexible and very easy for a client to take care of her own hair.



MJ: Now, when you meet a client for the first time, and you stand next to

her or in front of her, what are you thinking? What's going through your

mind?

US: The image that she wants to portray. 



MJ: Such as?

US: We all relate to an actor or an actress, or either somebody that we are

close to. You know,  most of the time they bring in a photo. A lot of time

they think about maintenance. How much upkeep. These are all the questions

we ask. How much time do you want to spend? You know, what do you want your

hair to do for you? What you want your hair to look like when you get up in

the morning. You know, you got to take all these things in consideration.

Most of the women today want to look very sexy, they want have the

versatility, they want to have easy maintenance. You know, they all want a

miracle. You know, there is  no such thing.



MJ: And you're the miracle man.

US: I may be the miracle man, but miracles don't come that easy. You know,

so we have a situation where we have to compromise. We have to work with

that. It's not just cut and snip, and "thank you." You know, it's

educational, it's psychiatrist, psychiatry, working together, and also

understanding what their desires are.



MJ: So you started when you were sixteen?

US: Sixteen, yeah. I did an internship, because I came from Italy.



MJ: How old were you when you came from Italy?

US: I was thirteen.



MJ: Thirteen.

US: So my grades were not... Like, in New York we had the Regents and

non-Regents, you know, they weren't too great to go to college.  So my

principal told me, he actually offered me an internship in a barbershop, an

internship in a mechanic school, you know, and an internship in a cabinet

shop. This was in Westchester, New York. The schools were a little more

advanced. They had this program in the sixties, because there were so many

people coming in from all over the country. So I took up barbering.



MJ: So you could have been a mechanic then.

US: Oh no. No thanks. You know, but I liked doing hair, because it was

easy, it was clean, and I saw basically a concept. It was a training ground

to become... and do hair. As soon as I got out of high school, I went to

beauty school.



MJ: In New York.

US: New York. Yeah.



MJ: Then you went to the army after that?

US: Then I got drafted about a year later. I served in the army for two

years. After the army , I went back to New York, and worked in New York for

seven years. And I moved out here in 1978. 



MJ: And when did this salon open right here?

US: This salon opened in 1983, this was the first salon. In '83, yeah.



MJ: What are your duties here, besides the hairstylist work. Do you have

other managerial duties?

US: Well, you know, basically I keep an eye on all my hairdressers, what

kind of work they put out. I interview all my hairdressers. They have to

come in and prove to me that they are great hairdressers. They have to

bring their own models. I supervise most of the people that cut all day and

color all day. All the new clients that come in, I meet, one on one, and

then before they leave, they come up and show me their work.  Make sure

they're happy. And I basically pay attention to my haircuts. That's what

draws most of the clients in my salon. My cutting ability. Not only mine,

but the rest of my hairdressers. I have an incredible staff. I have 55, 56

hairdressers, who are well disciplined to make everybody happy. So there's

no reason for me to be on top of them. You know, they have their own little

station, their own little room. They're very successful. So my job is done.

You know, they're on their own. As long as their client is happy, they're

happy, I'm happy. 



MJ: Why did you choose to name the salon after your first name instead of

your last name?

US: Well, I think it was something that happened in the sixties. You know,

Umberto. Nobody could say Umberto. You know, I was known as Bob Savone.

Cause you know, coming from Italy, going to a nice neighborhood, nobody

knew how to say Umberto. So I went to school as Bob Savone. And Savone was

just not really happening.  Then one day I was working in a shop, and the

manager, actually it was an Elizabeth Arden salon, said, "We just found out

that your name is Umberto," you know. And I said, "Yeah." And she said,

"Because social security wrote a letter. There was no such thing as Bob

Savone, it's Umberto Savone." So I said, "Yeah, that's me." She said,

"Well, we're going to change your name to Umberto. It's got a good ring to

it." You know, and being in New York, with the name Umberto, it worked. She

was right. So I've stuck with Umberto since.



MJ: Sounds a little bit better than Bob.

US: Yeah, it is. You know, it's a little more Italiano.



MJ: What are prices for... an average sort of price for a man or for women?

US: Men, actually, right now, we have to change, because of the law. They

range the same as a woman's. Our prices are from forty, all the way up to a

hundred.



MJ: So the law changed?

US: Yeah. Yeah.



MJ: What law?

US: The State of California just passed a law, you cannot discriminated a

price between a man or a woman. So, usually, we used to run a price for men

from thirty to fifty. And women were from forty to a hundred. Ok? So

basically, the state said, "What is the difference?" If a lady comes in

with short hair, why should she pay forty? 



MJ: Can you discriminate based on length of hair?

US: No. There is no such thing. They said, "You have to charge the same."

So we had to change our prices. Now our prices range from forty to a

hundred. So we're all covered. Basically, we could say that the woman that

paid sixty, maybe we used a round brush, the man just got a haircut and

walked out. But as long as we have our price covered, the men and women,

it's the same, we're ok. We're complying.



MJ: What are your typical clients like? Is there such a thing as a typical

client? Or who do you think your clientele is mainly?

US: We have everybody, you know, from movie stars, to businesswomen, very

successful businesswomen. I would say probably 30 percent of my people are

successful business people in the area, that come in to Umberto, in and

out, you know, quick service, one hour, they're out of here. Manicure,

pedicure, we do everything together. As you can see, if you go downstairs,

you'll see a lady getting a manicure done, a pedicure, and a haircut. It

works well. You know, my hairdressers are not prima donna.s They are

willing to work with the client. Then we have an incredible clientele under

25, the teenagers. We do tremendous amounts of teenagers. Once we make the

teenager happy, we get the mother and the grandmother. So that works well

for us. Businessmen, a lot of businessmen early in the morning, and late at

night. We have flexible hours. You know, we're open five days a week, we're

open from 8 o'clock in the morning till seven at night. My hairdressers

want to get basically Sunday and Monday off. Sot it doesn't warrant for me

to be open Monday. Because none of my top hairdressers would come in and

work. So the work that would be going out of her on Monday would not be

according to the Umberto standard.



MJ: So what are you doing on Sundays and Mondays?

US: I'm a golfer.



MJ: You play golf.

US: I play golf, yeah. I used to be a professional caddy during the

summertime, you know, in New York, at Wingfoot. So that's my number one

love, is golf, yeah.



MJ: I heard that your number two love is food.

US: Well, all the Italians love food.



MJ: Do you cook?

US: Yeah, I'm a great cook. Yeah, a great cook.



MJ: What's your specialty?

US: Anything. You know, as long as it's got something to do with eating, I

can create it. It's fun to create, yeah.



MJ: Not everybody has a successful hair salon in Beverly Hills, let alone

three. What's your secret? What's the secret of your success in this

business?

US: Well, my hairdressers is my secret. I think you attract what you are. I

attract the incredible hairdressers. I motivate them, I give them a

concept, I give them a chair, and they create. You know, there is a limit

on creating. You've got to be careful, and that's where I step in. You

know, make sure they do something different, something new on the right

person. Not everybody can be adopted to a new style or a new color. Also

spending time. You know, my hours alone. I work from 8 o'clock in the

morning to 8 o'clock at night. And that's the beauty of my... I love it, so

I don't consider it work. I enjoy it. I'm always here. I walk to my other

salon, and make sure everybody is happy. You know, I don't know if it's a

secret, or it's hard work. Maybe it's a combination of both.



MJ: Have you ever had any stylists that you've trained go on to start their

own.

US: Oh, absolutely, yeah.



MJ: Is that a problem for you?

US: No, no. Because, you know, I did it. And my salon in New York that let

me go became successful and stayed successful. I've become successful.

There's plenty of room here for everybody. You know, if one leaves, two

come. I always feel, you know, you should always let your children go out

on their own. No, I don't regret one moment. And I keep in touch with all

of them. Some of them have made it, others have come back. You know, my

doors swing both ways. And basically, there's nothing wrong with it. You

know, and whenever they leave, I refer all their clients to them.



MJ: Do you ever walk down the street, and look at somebody, and say, "Aah,

how can you do that to your hair?" Do you analyze and criticize people in

your head?

US: No, you know why? Because maybe that's what they wanted. You know, I

don't do that at all. I used to, you know, when I was younger because I

knew I think I could do better. Then I realized maybe that's what she

wanted, and that's what makes her happy. So I don't do that, no. I think

it's fun. You know, you go on Melrose, and it's like a different world. But

don't forget, this was happening ten years ago. The punkers. But look

what's happened today. Most of the successful, most of the rich people in

America have adopted that look. So whenever I see something like that, I

look at it, what  can I do to tone it down?  I learn from that. I never put

any other work down. I never put any other look down. But I look and see

how I can make it work for me and my clients.



MJ: What about your own hair? How has it changed over the years?

US: Well, it's gotten a lot grayer. No, I've taken it from different

lengths. You know, I'm always changing. You know, I've been blessed. I have

a great head of hair. And every three weeks I get a haircut. So whenever I

wake up in the morning, if I use gel, or mousse, or hair spray, you know, I

always try something new. I'm always trying the new products on my hair.

And this is what's great about hair. You can always try something new. So

you should never be afraid to go short, or let it grow. You can always

change it. Within one hour, you've got a whole new look.



MJ: You come... you have some hard working Italian parents who came over.

What do they think of what you do?

US: Well, you know, it's like all of us. I think we either survive, or we

live

 on this earth either to make our children happy or our parents happy. You

know, my parents are very proud, and I'm so proud that they brought me to

America. You know, we struggled in Italy. And we were very poor. And we

came to America, and my father, when he retired, he was only making like

ten thousand dollars a year. And they struggled all over again, living in

New York. The taxes are high, the high cost of living is high. Now I can

reach into my pockets and help them. And this is my biggest satisfaction in

life, that I can help my parents.



MJ: How did you help them?

US: Just give them a little money so they can buy better food. How can you

help your parents? You know, they have a house, they have bread, they have

pasta, but they could use a little more meat, you know. You know, like old

folks worry about their dollar, because once you retire, you worry about

money coming in. But I make sure that they're very comfortable, that they

don't have to worry about money any more.



MJ: Do you have family here in California?

US: Yeah, I have three children. I have two daughters and one son. Very

successful. My son is a builder, my daughter's a painter, she does most of

this work, you know she's a full finisher, and I have my youngest child,

she's a second AD. She graduated from Syracuse University, and now she's

working on movies.  



MJ: Now, do they let Pop cut their hair?

US: You know, on and off. It all depends on my mood swing. It all depends

how busy I am. But you know, yeah, we get along beautifully, you know, it's

fun.



MJ: What is the feeling you've tried to create in here in the atmosphere

with the paintings you've chosen, and the decor. What are you trying to

communicate?

US: Well, you know, I think I'm trying to communicate my upbringing. You

know my lifestyle as a child, going to church, and seeing serenity, and

peace, and tranquility. And also visiting museums. When you went... When I

went to school in Italy, basically you went to church, or museums, that's

it. You know, there was no soccer games to go to, there was not really that

much recreation. You know, the Catholic school opened up from seven in the

morning till six at night. My mother and father worked, so we spent the

afternoon in the church, or in the surrounding of the church. So we spent

most of my life around the school and the church. So I visualized all those

wonderful times being there. And I didn't really try to create another

church here...



MJ: A museum...

US: Yeah, but you know, a concept of serenity. You know, and happiness. You

know, it brought me a lot of joy as a child, with hardly any money,  I was

still happy, because I didn't know any better. So I tried to create the

same thing in the last three years in this salon. This salon has taken a

whole different change in the last three years. We changed everything. You

know, I brought in, that's from my hometown, my saint, from my hometown. I

had a photo, and we had it reproduced, and put up there. Over there it's my

hometown, Voville which is the third oldest city in Italy. And there's one

of my church, Santo Pietro, is an original Gioto. Gioto was one of the most

famous artists in Italy, that lived in the 13th century. And there's a

mosaic piece in one of our church, and that's Voville there. And so you

know, I brought in some of the history that I grew up with, and I wanted to

share with some of my friends, and some of my clients. So it's exciting.

You know, I think in life you are put here for a purpose, whether to

educate others or teach others, but when I leave here, I feel I'm going to

be a very happy man, because I feel that I have accomplished something.



MJ: Thanks for joining us today.

US: Oh, my pleasure.



MJ: Appreciate your time.

US: Sure, any time.