Master Hairstylist Alexis Ferrer On Breaking The Mold With His Creative Freedom
Master hairstylist Alexis Ferrer creates otherworldly hairdos like no other. His work has pushed the boundaries of what he can create with it, crossing the limits of beauty with various techniques and transforming hair to feathers or flowers.
“You have to look for big challenges and to bring new ideas to the hair industry. And even if it’s the hard way of working it’s the most excitement and rewarding one,” he says.
His work has secured him projects with well-known celebrities such as super models Helena Christensen, Alek Wek, Daiane Conterato, Irina Kravchenko or Andrea Gutierrez. He also had the honor of sharing share the stage with some haidressers icons, notably Darren Ambrose, Akin Konizi, Vidal Sassoon team, Dmitriy Vinokurov, and Renya Xydis.
His career dates back to when the Wella Professionals global creative grew up very close to his mother who was a passionate hairdresser.
“Being a child, I was spending most of my time in the salon after the school, learning the basics of hairdressing. After my studies I started to work all day in the salon where I developed my skills of hairdressing,” he said. “I studied in Vidal Sassoon in London and in parallel I started to work in the fashion industry for several fashion shows in Barcelona, Paris, Milan and London.”
Ferrer has been working for Wella for the last 20 years and is also a member of the Wella Global Creative Team since its establishment in 2014, developing collections with new ideas for the hair industry.
He managed to get the opportunity to work with designers like the likes of Txell Miras, Manuel Bolaño or Josep Font at the Haute Couture in Paris several times. “Working on different artistic fields, I decided to develop my knowledge based on the conceptual and experimental style.”
La FAVORITE
On finding inspiration
Ferrer is known for challenging the regular realms of beauty with his creations and adding his culture and roots to his creativity. When it comes to ideas, Ferrer tries to take inspiration from everywhere.
“You just need to open your eyes and to take the attention with the things that happen in front of you. I am interested in the things that I don’t know. And I take a lot of inspiration from other artistic fields like architecture, street art, exhibitions and technology,” he explains. “Growing up and living in Barcelona you have the old style like Modernism, Cubism and Surrealism and alternative platforms like the music festival Sonar, Pop Up Design market and fashion shows and that’s why it is the perfect scene for the creativity. I think that all the collections are somewhere a biography of you.”
On his new collection
Ferrer’s newest collection La Favorite includes intricate flower patterns printed in the hair.
“New technology and techniques allow us to recreate those wonderful patters on the hair and give a sense of decoration to our beauty with natural motifs. It allows us to dream, to create, to fly and to dream,” he says. “Mixing it with our knowledge of crafts, it opens us a world of infinite possibilities for the future.”
Yet with creations comes challenges. For this collection, he says using the print technique was a huge challenge because of the complexity to print a picture and have a perfect resolution on it.
The hardest part of any technique is to interpret what it is you are trying to achieve. To the hairdresser, he says that one of the common mistakes is work quickly on hair before creating a solid storyboard as well as having a clear idea of what you tell with your collection. “Going on the deeper aspects of the process will help you to have inspiration on other artistic fields and to find new techniques to use in your creations. “
On jet setting across the world
Feller has taken his talent worldwide, training various salons and working on seminars and shows. “Working for my customers and learning of their needs, helps me to reach the next level to create most consistent fashion collection for the hairdressers.”
But with the coronavirus pandemic, he says pushed hairdressers further to find out more solutions based on the technology and also new creations and inspirations.
On role and responsibilities of a contemporary hairdresser
I think the hairdresser role in today’s society is to bring dreams of beauty to reality, given the current world is dark we can bring light and colors to our customers. We saw recently during the lockdown how essential the beauty is to feel alive and the need for the contemporary hairdressers to be innovative and essential for the balance in the life of people. Giving the best in the hairdresser world is giving the best to people in the street who are always willing to change to renew style and this is a kind of rebirth when you are here for your customers. In addition to this our mission is create new trends and keep the dynamic of the fashion in the daily life , bringing always new high standard and sophisticated techniques for the future generation of hairdressers.
Has Dubai been a country where education and training was given? What are your thoughts on Middle Eastern hair compared to European hair in terms of creativity on hair?
Being in Dubai was an incredible experience because the fashion is perfectly balanced with quality. There is always the perfect combination between a sophisticated color, delicate and healthy hair and soft styling that magnify the beauty. Working for Middle Eastern I learned how important is the culture and how much it can be a real source of inspiration for your future creations.
What advice can you give to hairdressers that want to follow in your footsteps?
The team spirit is the best way to go further and to develop together better ideas. It takes time to teach to a team, to support them and to make them work as a real team sharing the same level of knowledge passion and creativity . As a leader you have show to lead by example to help them to develop their skills because they will learn from you like you will learn from them. This is a reciprocity.
If you were to create one thing in the hairdressing industry, what would it be?
Well, I have so many ideas to bring to hair industry. But as soon as I will know how to develop them, I will make them concrete. I try to develop new concepts every year for the big shows that I prepare for Wella. Currently, my collection is based on pictures printed on the hair to give an ornamentation to balance with the patterns of the clothes.
What memorable moments from your career so far would you say has been the most pivotal for you?
Working at the Haute Couture Fashion Week brought to my creativity a sense of elegance and refined style. I have beautiful memories working for the Haute Couture in Paris. Specially one show that we did for Josep Font in the Moulin Rouge. The models were walking on the stage of the theatre with incredible dresses and a magical atmosphere. One of my memorable moments of my career was my first International Trend Vision Award in 2012 where we represent the Echo Collection on stage in front of four thousand people. The collection impact so much to the audience because was the first time we use the pictures printed on the hair in black and white.
Who would be your ideal person to style, color or give a complete change, who would it be and why?
One of the actresses I would like to perform a complete change of look would be Millie Bobby Brown because during her first interpretation in the serial « Stranger Things » she was still a teenager and now that she is becoming an adult I would like to bring her to another step performing a personalized look.
