From Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow to Amélie Poulain’s raven bob, hairstylist John Nollet has created some of film’s most memorable looks.
“It’s all about the story,” he said. Indeed, Nollet has been tapping into the transformational properties of hair since age 8, when he knew he wanted to become a hairstylist. By 11, he was working as one during school holidays part-time. After earning a hairdressing diploma, Nollet plied his craft for the Dominique Bagouet dance company, then made wigs for a film set in the 18th century.
“I began to see — oh my God — we can create something more amazing than reality,” he said.
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He quickly became embedded in the world of French cinema, meeting Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, who were preparing to direct the fantasy drama “The City of Lost Children.” As Nollet read its script, he sketched characters’ hair. His passion won him the chief hairdresser’s role. Jean Paul Gaultier made the costumes. Nollet met Monica Bellucci, who told told him: “You have something — you should continue,” he recounted. “She gave me so much power and confidence.”
Top-tier photographers and magazines knocked, and the films kept coming. Discussing the Jack Sparrow character with Johnny Depp, Nollet reasoned a pirate wouldn’t brush his hair. Its ends might be blonder, due to the sun and other seafaring conditions.
“In my mind, I began to see the hair was darker around the face,” said Nollet, who fulfilled Depp’s dream of wearing a Keith Richards-like bandana. The hairstylist imagined Sparrow would find small treasures from the sea to hide in his hair, then make a wish.
Such fantastic scenarios were life-changing — and don’t stop. “I just have to thank all the good people I met on my path, because I couldn’t do anything alone,” said Nollet.
Other dreams became reality. He’s running salons at tony hotels Cheval Blanc Courchevel and Park Hyatt-Vendôme. “We are doing like couture, very artisanal work,” said Nollet.
Circles keep looping. At 9 — at his behest — Nollet visited La Maison de Beauté Carita with his grandmother. “On the last floor I couldn’t go in, because it was for VIPs,” he said. “Catherine Deneuve was doing her hair. Thirty years later, I have begun working with Catherine Deneuve. And now I’m the artistic director of Carita.”
Nollet was mentored and has mentored many. For him, teamwork is everything. So Nollet has just created his own talent management agency, starting mainly with hairstylists who have grown up with him and share his vision. But eschewing tradition, they are not exclusive to the agency.
“I love the idea to little-by-little create something with passionate people around my agency — with a beautiful heart — that are just involved in giving power to others through hair,” said Nollet.
“I always said hair is the ultimate fashion accessory, because at the end of the day, you could have the best bag, the most beautiful coat that you buy from an incredible brand,” he continued. “But the only accessory that you’re going to sleep with and you’re intimate with is your hair.”
When he works with a client, they talk in front of a mirror. “I see how she is moving,” said Nollet. “You have to listen, and to see the body language, the eyes’ language of the person. At this time, you’re beginning to be a team, because I cannot work alone.”
Empathy is everything. “When you give me a little attention, a little eye in the mirror, I can see if I’m in the right direction, the wrong direction,” he said. “When she sees something that is beautiful, she has a little smile in the eyes for herself — not for me.”
Nollet has plans to grow the agency, which has three hairstylists, to include makeup artists. They work in Forty-One Studio, a hybrid creative space off a leafy courtyard on Rue du Poteau in Paris’ 18th arrondissement. Nollet rehabilitated the 4,350-square-foot former textile factory space, which was completely ramshackle.
Now, it’s elegant, like a luxurious boutique hotel. On the ground floor is a 1,615-square-foot streamlined studio with natural light, which can be rented out for photo shoots, filming or fashion shows. Overlooking that is a 380-square-foot wood-paneled mezzanine, boasting modular spaces and drawers filled with everything Nollet needs to craft a trade.
Its mezzanine can second as an office, private dressing room and filming control space. Upstairs is the 1,290-square-foot beam-filled showroom. That is a multipurpose space, with a kitchen, dining room, living room and fireplace, which can be used for meals, interviews or lifestyle shoots. The mezzanine off that has a suite with a bedroom and bathroom. It was to be made to be like his own house.
“We have an amazing job — working in beauty,” said Nollet. “We are the creators of dreams.”
