JP/ Dian Kuswandini
Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
| Fri, 01/29/2010 1:32 PM | Life
Think of Indonesia’s famous hairdressers. What do they all have in common? Well, they all learned their skills from the same person — hair maestro Rudy Hadisuwarno.
A living legend in Indonesia’s hairstyling world, Rudy has mentored many of the industry’s prominent figures we know today, from the more established Johnny Andrean and Peter F. Saerang to the up-and-coming Yoppie, Jonki Pitoi and Michael Zimbalist.
“The only [famous] hairdresser who wasn’t my student, as far as I remember, is Alfons,” Rudy says, referring to Alfons Antonius Susanto.
Of course, with a solid career spanning more than four decades, Rudy is more than just a guru — he’s the man behind the hype in the hair industry.
Have you ever thought the famous “creambath” treatment came from somewhere like Europe or America? If you have, then you’re wrong. It was Rudy, in fact, who invented that scalp-massage treatment in the 1970s.
At that time, Rudy says, he noticed how Indonesian women loved using the traditional cem-ceman and kemiri oils to treat their hair, and having their hair done at the salon.
“The oil made [my clients’] hair sticky… that gave me trouble while blow-drying [my clients’] hair,” says Rudy, who was born in Pekalongan, Central Java in 1948.
So Rudy brainstormed ideas to replace oil while still keeping his clients’ hair healthy and allowing them to have beautiful hair-dos. He found the answer at home, from his own father who was a chemist.
“So, I said, ‘Dad, is there any way we can invent a water-soluble treatment that can also nourish the
scalp and hair?’” Rudy recalls when he asked his father for help. “My dad came up with the cream [product], and I developed the massage technique.”
Now that you know you have Rudy to blame for your addiction to creambaths, wait until you find out another guilty-yet-healthy pleasure he also introduced to your life. Remember the “hair-mask trend”
that stormed our salons world five years ago? Yes, once again, Rudy was the brain behind the treatment, which has now gained a reputation worldwide.
“I noticed creambaths caused more hair loss for those already prone to losing hair,” he says. “So I looked into a treatment that didn’t require massaging.
“Then I thought to myself, if we can have a mask treatment for the face, then why not for the hair? So I developed the hair-mask treatment.”
Innovations, however, aren’t the only things behind Rudy’s success and fame. His strong passion has undeniably made him what he is today. With around 14 hair schools and 160 salon branches across Indonesia — under the brands Rudy Hadisuwarno, Rudy, Brown, Kiddy Cut and the newest one Max dedicated to male customers — it is hard to believe that he actually started his business with just one chair and one table.
“With that one table and chair, I started offering my hairstyling services door-to-door,” Rudy says, as he recalls the time he started his career in 1968, the same year he enrolled in architecture at the Trisakti University in Jakarta. “At that time, I needed money to pay for my studies at university as my parents could not help me out financially.”
Hairdressing was Rudy’s first choice. His mother once owned a salon, so cutting and styling hair was definitely something he was already familiar with. Because he had also learned from one of Jakarta’s most famous hairstylists at the time, he was confident enough to start a door-to-door business.
His business venture enabled him to pay his student fees and save money he later used to pay for his hair courses abroad — Vidal Sassoon School of hairdressing in Britain and other schools in France, the United States and Japan.
“I’m not saying that [studying] abroad is the best — but it allows us to compare and learn from others,” he says. “I learned about the differences in hair trends and people’s characters in different countries.”
And that’s not all. From his country-to-country journey, Rudy also learned about franchising, a business model he brought to Indonesia — for the very first time in the late 1970s. Yes, once again, we have Rudy to thank for the introduction of franchising in Indonesia.
“I learned about franchising and started my own [franchise] business here,” he says. “I later shared my knowledge about that new business model with my friends.”
Friends, indeed, are also behind Rudy’s success. His veteran actress friend Christine Hakim, for example, helped him gain recognition. Backs in the 1970s, Rudy transformed young Christine’s look, cutting her long hair into a boyish style.
“She ended up on the cover of a magazine,” he says. “And suddenly, it became the talk of the town,” Rudy laughs, adding he became famous from that moment on.
Not only did he later secure a number of A-list clients, Rudy also evolved into an icon in the hair industry. He has developed his own brand of hair products and continues to mentor new hairstylists, aside from creating trends. Rudy has also polished the once-gloomy image of the hairdresser, making it a more glamorous career. And he did it all simply because he felt he owed the hairdressing world.
“I really love the hairstyling world,” Rudy says. “I make my living from it, and I would die for it. I want to contribute to this profession.”
And for this love of his life, Rudy keeps encouraging healthy competition among hairstylists.
“Without competition, a business will gradually die because we don’t feel challenged and driven anymore,” he says. “Competition forces us to improve, and this will help develop the [hair] industry in general, so we won’t be left behind other countries.”
It’s obvious Rudy just loves challenges. So, what would be the biggest challenge for a hair guru
like him?
“Regeneration,” he pauses and continues, with a smile, “I want to generate more Rudys.”
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/29/rudy-hadisuwarno-looking-next-%E2%80%98rudy%E2%80%99.html
| Fri, 01/29/2010 1:32 PM | Life
Think of Indonesia’s famous hairdressers. What do they all have in common? Well, they all learned their skills from the same person — hair maestro Rudy Hadisuwarno.
A living legend in Indonesia’s hairstyling world, Rudy has mentored many of the industry’s prominent figures we know today, from the more established Johnny Andrean and Peter F. Saerang to the up-and-coming Yoppie, Jonki Pitoi and Michael Zimbalist.
“The only [famous] hairdresser who wasn’t my student, as far as I remember, is Alfons,” Rudy says, referring to Alfons Antonius Susanto.
Of course, with a solid career spanning more than four decades, Rudy is more than just a guru — he’s the man behind the hype in the hair industry.
Have you ever thought the famous “creambath” treatment came from somewhere like Europe or America? If you have, then you’re wrong. It was Rudy, in fact, who invented that scalp-massage treatment in the 1970s.
At that time, Rudy says, he noticed how Indonesian women loved using the traditional cem-ceman and kemiri oils to treat their hair, and having their hair done at the salon.
“The oil made [my clients’] hair sticky… that gave me trouble while blow-drying [my clients’] hair,” says Rudy, who was born in Pekalongan, Central Java in 1948.
So Rudy brainstormed ideas to replace oil while still keeping his clients’ hair healthy and allowing them to have beautiful hair-dos. He found the answer at home, from his own father who was a chemist.
“So, I said, ‘Dad, is there any way we can invent a water-soluble treatment that can also nourish the
scalp and hair?’” Rudy recalls when he asked his father for help. “My dad came up with the cream [product], and I developed the massage technique.”
Now that you know you have Rudy to blame for your addiction to creambaths, wait until you find out another guilty-yet-healthy pleasure he also introduced to your life. Remember the “hair-mask trend”
that stormed our salons world five years ago? Yes, once again, Rudy was the brain behind the treatment, which has now gained a reputation worldwide.
“I noticed creambaths caused more hair loss for those already prone to losing hair,” he says. “So I looked into a treatment that didn’t require massaging.
“Then I thought to myself, if we can have a mask treatment for the face, then why not for the hair? So I developed the hair-mask treatment.”
Innovations, however, aren’t the only things behind Rudy’s success and fame. His strong passion has undeniably made him what he is today. With around 14 hair schools and 160 salon branches across Indonesia — under the brands Rudy Hadisuwarno, Rudy, Brown, Kiddy Cut and the newest one Max dedicated to male customers — it is hard to believe that he actually started his business with just one chair and one table.
“With that one table and chair, I started offering my hairstyling services door-to-door,” Rudy says, as he recalls the time he started his career in 1968, the same year he enrolled in architecture at the Trisakti University in Jakarta. “At that time, I needed money to pay for my studies at university as my parents could not help me out financially.”
Hairdressing was Rudy’s first choice. His mother once owned a salon, so cutting and styling hair was definitely something he was already familiar with. Because he had also learned from one of Jakarta’s most famous hairstylists at the time, he was confident enough to start a door-to-door business.
His business venture enabled him to pay his student fees and save money he later used to pay for his hair courses abroad — Vidal Sassoon School of hairdressing in Britain and other schools in France, the United States and Japan.
“I’m not saying that [studying] abroad is the best — but it allows us to compare and learn from others,” he says. “I learned about the differences in hair trends and people’s characters in different countries.”
And that’s not all. From his country-to-country journey, Rudy also learned about franchising, a business model he brought to Indonesia — for the very first time in the late 1970s. Yes, once again, we have Rudy to thank for the introduction of franchising in Indonesia.
“I learned about franchising and started my own [franchise] business here,” he says. “I later shared my knowledge about that new business model with my friends.”
Friends, indeed, are also behind Rudy’s success. His veteran actress friend Christine Hakim, for example, helped him gain recognition. Backs in the 1970s, Rudy transformed young Christine’s look, cutting her long hair into a boyish style.
“She ended up on the cover of a magazine,” he says. “And suddenly, it became the talk of the town,” Rudy laughs, adding he became famous from that moment on.
Not only did he later secure a number of A-list clients, Rudy also evolved into an icon in the hair industry. He has developed his own brand of hair products and continues to mentor new hairstylists, aside from creating trends. Rudy has also polished the once-gloomy image of the hairdresser, making it a more glamorous career. And he did it all simply because he felt he owed the hairdressing world.
“I really love the hairstyling world,” Rudy says. “I make my living from it, and I would die for it. I want to contribute to this profession.”
And for this love of his life, Rudy keeps encouraging healthy competition among hairstylists.
“Without competition, a business will gradually die because we don’t feel challenged and driven anymore,” he says. “Competition forces us to improve, and this will help develop the [hair] industry in general, so we won’t be left behind other countries.”
It’s obvious Rudy just loves challenges. So, what would be the biggest challenge for a hair guru
like him?
“Regeneration,” he pauses and continues, with a smile, “I want to generate more Rudys.”
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/29/rudy-hadisuwarno-looking-next-%E2%80%98rudy%E2%80%99.html
