Hair highness: Alex
Carbonell
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| Alex Carbonel is not only the brains behind Studio Fix, the high-end salon of the Bench Fix franchise, he is also the creative learning director of its whole training center meaning every single staff member of the 62 branches of Bench Fix in the country was trained by him. |
It is said that every woman should have a trusted
manicurist, waxer and hairdresser. My longest relationship ever (aside from
family, of course) is the one I have had with my hairdresser, 12 years and
counting! Little did I know when our relationship started that he would be
named the first Filipino Sebastian Design Artist and the first Filipino
ambassador of renowned brand Schwarzkopf. He is not only the brains behind
Studio Fix, the high-end salon of the Bench Fix franchise, he is also the
creative learning director of its whole training center meaning every single
staff member of the 62 branches of Bench Fix in the country was trained by him.
Here are 10 things you should know about Alex Carbonell.
1. Alex believes
there is no such thing anymore as that old school rule that only certain face
shapes can carry certain haircuts.
“Before, they said that inverted triangle shapes can’t wear
cropped bob cuts, but look at Reese Witherspoon. Before, they said only ovals
could wear bangs, but look at Sandra Bullock.” He confidently says, “Nasa
nagdadala yan!” Alex is responsible for Hindy Weber-Tantoco’s matte blonde
hair, Debbie Yabut’s pixie cut, Toni Gonzaga’s voluminous layers and mild
streaks, Daphne Osena-Paez’s soft set curls, (all of my bangs from full to sideswept!)
and many more hair styles. For Alex, hair is much more than “just hair”; he
says hairdressers are somewhat like psychiatrists in that they can help a
person transform. “Hair can uplift your soul because of the confidence it gives
you.”
2. He says that the
most fulfilling part about his being a teacher is when he sees his students go
from zero to something. “I get really emotional when I see them buying their
own house, out of their hard work.”
He shares that a lot of the Bench Fix trainees are not
conscious of grooming when they go for their interviews, and it is so
fulfilling to see them transform into good-looking, well-groomed men and women
in time. He says that the numbers can explain best how the salons progress —
that from salon sales of P20,000, it has gone up to P700,000. “That’s success,
700,000 means a lot of people trusted them to have their hair cut at P250!” He
has grown very close to a lot of them and in fact their term of endearment for
him is “Dyosa” (“Ayaw ko ng ‘nanay’ at ‘inang’ so eventually it became
‘Dyosa.’”) The most important thing he has learned from his students is “no
matter how advanced the problem is, you can always go back to the basics.”
3. In his 13 years as
a salon owner, he has never fired any staff member. “Teach, teach, teach pa rin
ako, ipapasok ko sa isip nila.”
“Its all in the eyes, the more calm my voice is, the more
sila natatakot,” he says of the unique way he reprimands his staff. When asked
if he’s ever made any of them cry, he jokingly says, “Every day.” “They cry not
because inapi sila, but because they feel bad that they were wrong.” He says
the way to make up for it is not to just apologize but to do better, and that
the worst thing anyone can do is to not improve. (“If you make the same mistake
10 times, I feel that’s disrespectful.”) He does not have the heart to fire
anyone and is a teacher at heart, which is why he chooses improvement over
termination. When asked if he ever cries, he says: “I never cry, even when my
dad died or after a breakup. It’s really about faith. Things happen, accept it,
then you have to move on.”
4. Alex Carbonell in
numbers: 2,190: Total number of students he has taught in the training center
of Bench Fix salon. They are currently on their 73rd batch, with 30 students
per batch, and each course as long as six to 10 months.
5: Number of nieces and nephews he has from his two younger
brothers. “Haven’t really thought of adopting because my love is already for
them.”
3: Times he changes his haircut a year, and he changes hair
color as often as six times a year.
35: Number of pesos charged for a haircut from Alex when he
started his career. (Today, a haircut from Alex is P1,200.)
5. He was a part of
the team behind the iconic salon Propaganda, and says this about he and former
business partner Jing Monis’s parting ways: “It was one way of telling us both
that we are our own brands, we’re both strong brands so why not have our own?”
His first salon experience was when he was 20 years old when
he was a senior stylist at Mane Cut, where he learned the art of working fast.
The salon was beside Broadway Centrum and the That’s Entertainment stars would
always pass by for a cut, blow dry, or curl right before the show. Eight months
after, he was pirated by Head Zone in Makati
where he learned all about the paying power of the corporate world. Three years
after that he decided to put up his own salon, Cutting Crew, with his banker
business partner. Eight years after was when he merged with the Propaganda
group, whose vision was to be the expert in both hair and make up, at a time
when salons only focused on one.
Alex fondly calls the Propaganda team “unbeatable,” with
partners Juan Sarte (“his forte is clean makeup that lasts”), Cristine Duque
(“he creates beautiful, dramatic eyes”), Marlon Rivera (“the Jack of all trades
and master of all”), Jay Lozad1a (“he has a philosophical approach to make up,
everything has a reason”), and Jing Monis (“he has balanced life, after a whole
day of work he still has the energy to party”). After around 10 years of
Propaganda, both Alex and Jing now have their own salons (Studio Fix and Jing
Monis Salon respectively) and both are doing extremely well.
6. Alex earned his
degree in philosophy at UST before becoming a professional hairdresser. He
discovered his passion while fixing up classmates in school productions and
hanging out in salons after class.
His interest in the beauty industry began during his days in
Lourdes High School. He bashfully laughs and
says, “We were doing our own makeup, and that was an exclusive school for
boys!” He shares that he and other gay classmates were never bullied in school
because the boys were actually very fond of them. “We were 12 beckies in our
batch, we made them laugh, we lent them our notebooks and gave them
intermediate papers, and they took care of us,” he recalls. Thinking he wanted
to become a lawyer like his dad, he took up philosophy as a pre-law course. “Every
year my professors would call my attention to the violet or pink streaks in my
hair,” as he was a regular client at Rading Carlos Salon (the only place that
offered colored streaks then).
7. On homosexuality:
“I believe it’s not behavioral or environmental, you’re born with it as a
preference.”
“When you’re young, its either blue or pink, and I wanted
pink. It’s either you draw a car or a flower and I drew flowers,” he explains.
His parents knew of his preference at an early age because he always liked more
colorful, feminine things. What about those who come out of the closet later in
life? “They just hide their homosexuality because of social pressure, whether
or not they’re aware of it yet.”
8. Alex strongly
advocates that men must also have their own grooming routines.
1. What you wear begins with your hair, no matter how nice
your tie or shoes are, if your hair is lousy, wala.
2. You have to have a range of products to achiever either
spiky or flat hair: clay, wax or hairspray.
3. Please shampoo well, if you don’t, you’ll have oily
scalps that’ll lead to dandruff and even baldness.
4. You can color you hair but go tonal, meaning close to
your natural hair color and complements your skin tone.
5. The 9 o’clock shadow can also be sexy, you need not be
clean-shaven all the time.
9. Some of the best
cities in the world for unique beauty buys:
1. Tokyo:
“There’s a notion na akala natin mahal, but even in their version of a
sari-sari store, you’ll find good eyebrow tattoo pens or liquid eyeliners for
only around P150.”
2. Paris:
“In the middle of Rue La Fayette you’ll find this bronzer that looks like a
loaf of bread, and its only P400.”
3. Hong Kong: “In Sasa,
give yourself two hours, and tell the saleslady ‘Don’t mind me,’” he says
laughing.
4. Guanzhou: “There’s a whole building there all for hair
and skin, Beauty Exchange Center.
But they hardly speak English so bring pictures.”
10. On where the
Philippine beauty industry is headed: “To being more professional. Now, more
and more artists are becoming business-minded.”
He differentiates the notion of the parloristas of old, to
salon professionals today. “In the parlor, kakalabitin mo lang yung gugupit and
you’ll ask ‘Ako na ba?’ In the salon, you professionalize it and that starts
from booking an appointment,” he explains. He goes on to say that in a salon,
there is technical expertise, computations, and measurements. He says that before,
hairstylists would just cut hair and go home at the end of the day, but now,
they check on inventory and sales as well. “Now, we know our value. A lot of my
trainees who grew their own client base now have their own salons,” he proudly
shares.
What is his secret to sustaining a business for over a
decade? “I call it the Five S’s”: Standards (“Set your standards and control
the quality”), System (“You have to have an organization, there should be one
leader”), Skills (“You must have the skills, technical expertise, and you must
work hard”), Solution (“There will always be problems, but there will also
always be solutions”), and finally the result, Success. I curiously ask him
about “always” having a solution and he explains: “Kunyari nagnakaw ng maliit
na treatment, the next day you do bag check. May laging nagpapaalam to attend a
fiesta, then you develop a leave form.”
His ultimate dream is not to have his own line of products
like other hairdressers, instead it is to put up his own training center, not
just for potential employees but for anyone from housewives to college students
who want to learn.
* * *
Alex may hold an “11-to-8 job,” but he says his work is anything but
routine or ordinary. He once had at the same time in his salon the real wife
and the mistress of one other client, but they didn’t know about each other. He
once cut the hair of a gay client preparing for a special night, only to
discover that right beside him was another gay client who was the other half of
this set up blind date. He is known to take care of clients from grandmother to
daughter to another daughter to granddaughter, and he attributes this to his
salon’s high regard for quality customer service. “We want to make you happy
and we won’t close the salon until we get the look that you want,” he boldly
claims. I ask Alex how much longer he sees himself cutting hair, and he says
“’Til I can’t bend my knee!” Referring to his personal style of cutting hair
with one knee (on a pillow) on the ground. And it is also until then that Alex
will continue to nurture relationships and beautiful heads of hair to give
women and men confidence from generation to generation.
