teenage.me

On a Wednesday evening late last November, a flock of socialites, actresses, and beauty insiders braved the chilly temps and packed into a posh Madison Avenue hair salon to toast the star of the night: the space’s owner and famed colorist Rita Hazan. “I can’t believe the past few years went by so fast!” exclaims Hazan. “And the funny thing is, I never originally planned on opening my own place.”
 
While Hazan lives a demanding jet-set lifestyle these days–traveling the world to accommodate her Hollywood clients wherever they may be–her early experiences with color was solely a family affair. “My grandma was really good at doing beauty stuff. She even used to make her own wax and do all the girls in my family! When I was a young kid, she would ask me to help her color her hair, and I really got into it,” remembers Hazan. After high school, she developed her skills further in beauty school and realized that color was her calling in life. Legendary fashion hairstylist Oribe spotted the young talent and hired her to join the team at his renowned NYC salon, where she ended up assisting none other than superstar colorist Brad Johns. She credits this big-break experience with being a major influence on her coloring philosophy. “[Johns] respected color and wasn’t afraid to do anything. He taught me to step out of the box, figure it out on your own, and color became more artistic than technical. Not everyone can do that, because color can definitely be scary. After all, you’re using chemicals!” she says. “I trained for about six years, which is longer than normal, because I was initially so afraid of color.”
 
Once Hazan became confident in her own abilities, nothing could stop her. Her sharp eye for color and no-nonsense personality helped catapult her into the inner circle of many Hollywood heavyweights, including Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Michelle Williams, and Renee Zellweger. But make no mistake, her job is not all glitz and glamour. “I don’t have much spare time, because I work so much. That’s the biggest sacrifice you have to make in this job,” she reveals. “You have to be willing to miss dinner with your friends in order to work on a client. You can’t get to this point in your career unless you put in the hard work. For me, my love for the job outweighed those sacrifices.”
 
With her mind always swimming in new projects and ideas, it looks like things won’t be calming down for Hazan anytime soon. “I’ve been working on my own product line for almost two years and it’ll hopefully be ready late next year. I’d also like to open salons in other countries–maybe one in London, one in Japan, one in Moscow…” As someone whose career led her from grandma’s kitchen to Madison Avenue knows, anything is possible.
 
Rita’s #1 hair tip: “We’re doing more subtle tone-on-tone color right now, because the fashion trends are so bright and patterned. Say no to stripe-y or streak-y color and go for a more natural looking effect.”

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