Bangkok in Lyon in Sukhothai

They are young, beautiful and talented. Their names are Kris and Daï. Couple united to the city and to Sukhothai, the new hype salon in Lyon. Conversation with two nuts of beauty.

Christelle Pereira

The concept of the salon We wanted to do something unusual which show our personalities. We love Asia especially the south east part. We bought many objects there and a part of them is exposed in the salon. Regarding the technique, we mainly work on dry hair. This is the difference with others salons because we are very few in the region to master this technique.

Your career ? Daï : I cut my teeth in Paris, then I did several trainings in different Anglo-Saxon hairdressing schools. There, I learnt the haircut on dry hair. There, all the haircuts began on dry hair. The difference between dry hair and wet hair is that on dry hair we work really on the direction and the natural fall of the hair which enables to rectify, bring or remove volumes. In hairdressing, there are two professions: the one who cuts the hair and the colorist technician. During years, we separated these disciplines thinking in doing good but in the end we come back to the multipurpose way. This is very important, simply because we must highlight the reliefs: the haircut and the haircolor. The best is to combine the haircolor and the haircut. One cannot go without the other. Kris : I’ve been working in the hairdressing world for 20 years. I started in a high range and classical salon, in Courrèges, then in more contemporaneous salons which enable me to learn many techniques on wet hair. During these ten last years, I’ve been doing haircuts on dry hair, as Daï, my wife, trained me. I also worked in studio during photo shootings.

Have you always worked in Lyon ? Kris : mainly, yes. Dai : I first went in Paris, then I worked with Claude Juillard, a very influential person in the hairdressing world. Even if the word “visagisme” today is still abstract, Claude learnt me many things. Working with images, videos, understanding the gesture of persons who are completely inexperienced. Working the dialogue with clients enables to meet the expectations of the client. A client can express something, the hairdresser can interpret another thing and finally the result is not at all convergent ! The work with visual supports, the listening and the comprehension of the clients’ gesture enables to obtain a result very close to what is expecting the client. There is always a common denominator between the three of them. This confirms the choice of the client and the comprehension of the hairdresser. This experience with Claude Juillard make me learn a lot before travel the hexagon.

The expectations of your clients ? Kris : The time for the client and listening to them. On average, the time for a haircut/blow dry is about 1h/ 1h30. This is the timeslot reserved to clients. At Sukhothai, the time is 2 or 3 times higher than in a classical salon. Every appointment start with a conversation in the small waiting room. We work with books and we deal with the expectations of the clients in depth. Then, the technique on dry hair is something you don’t find a lot in other salons.
Daï : It’s like going to the doctor: we can find a remedy but we must talk about the symptoms ! And we find the solution listening to the clients. Automatically, a client who talks about his/her hair do a precise gesture. The gesture is a language. After, we have to decrypt it ! in a second phase, it is the adaptation in terms of aesthetics for the client but also in terms of hairstyle t home. That is to say that a client who doesn’t like really to do her hair at home, we will guide her toward something very practical without removing the aesthetic part. We take a lot into account the daily life of the clients. 80% of the persons today don’t like doing their hair, indeed we must control the placement of the volumes, the texturization of the hair, a gain in time and a comfort which is important for our clients. That explains the loyalty of the clients because we must work the material.

Regarding the tendencies, what do you think of the short hair coming back as well a intense haircolor like platinum or flamboyant red ? Daï : We are opened to everything ! And I think that the tendency anti-tendency, it’s even better ! As hairdressers, we must have a sharp eye because hairdressing is not only cutting the hair but it is also decrypting what is around it, capture an influence. The strength of the English hairdresser is innovation. They place on the market a tendency which doesn’t really work but which can take shape in the street before integrating other countries. Look at the success of the Tie & Dye ! Kris : The tendencies must not be followed but rather created !