Young Italian Hairstylists: do you wake up or let others put their feet on your head?
By Max Randi, Director of MdP
I read the article in La Repubblica…
Yesterday I happened to read a piece in Repubblica that talked about young international hairstylists. Taiwan, Mexico, Los Angeles: young people under thirty who use their hair as a canvas, who mix culture, avant-garde, queer identity and street style to invent new languages.
Their hairstyles are sculptures, statements, visions. They don’t copy: they create. And in fact they end up on catwalks, magazines and social feeds halfway around the world.
And us?
Here comes the question that bothers but must be asked: what do young Italian hairstylists do?
Too often it seems to me that they stand still and watch. Balayage on balayage, replicated blondes, trends already seen a thousand times. Impeccable technique, of course, but where is the soul? Where are the Italian roots reinterpreted in a contemporary key?
We have a unique cultural heritage: fashion, art, cinema, design. The world recognizes us as the homeland of beauty. Yet we seem to have lost the hunger to break the mold, to launch something of our own.
We risk remaining spectators
The danger is real: while abroad they invent, here they are executed. Others decide the direction, we just follow it. But in this way we lose ground, visibility, credibility. It is not enough to “do your hair right”. Vision is needed.
The courage it takes
The real strength of a young hairstylist is not to make yet another perfect blonde, but to have the courage to create. Using the Italian tradition, our history, our roots, and transforming them into a language that the world can recognize as unique.
My provocation
So I’ll throw it out there: young Italian hairstylists, do you wake up or not?
Do you want to continue to be spectators, to be put on your head by those on the other side of the world who dare and create, or do you want to finally raise your head and impose your vision?
Because the future does not wait. Either you lead it, or others will guide it.
By Max Randi, Director of MdP
