La buena Vida- Fashion- hair to the throne
Hairstylist Rodolfo Valentin has mastered the art of real-hair extensions, and found a way to do some good with it.
By Idy Fernandez
Fresh from dropping out of college, Rodolfo Valentin saw an ad in the paper seeking a professional hairstylist. Wanting to find a job before his mother found out he wasn’t going to become a doctor, Valentin begged his aunt to teach him everything she had learned at a cosmetology school in his native Argentina.
Valentin landed the job. Little did he know it would lead to a life-long career in hairstyling. A year later, Valentin opened a salon in Argentina and then went off to Paris to continue his training. Eventually he moved to New York and opened Rodolfo Valentin Atelier for Hair. The Mediterranean inspired salon/spas are based in Long Island and Madison Avenue, where his clientele has included actress Brooke Shields and Madonna.
“I have a passion for creation and design, [and] hair is one of the elements with which I express it,” says Valentin. “People focus plastic surgery on their face; I do plastic surgery on hair.”
To do so, he has pioneered a hair extension technique called “hair infusion.” Using 100 percent human hair, he promises to add color, volume and length without damaging the natural hair like conventional extensions do by weighing it down and tearing it.
He now has plans to open another salon in New York City and make his hair accessories and hairpieces available nationally.
“A woman can have a Valentino dress on, the most impressive makeup and jewelry but if she has a horrible hairdo, then she’s not dressed,” says Valentin. “A nude woman with a good hair do is completely dressed.”
Sofia’s Hair for Health
What started off as a promise to his dying mother has become hope to thousands of cancer survivors who say they get their femininity back with a single brush stroke.
Valentin founded Sofia’s Hair for Health in 2002 after promising his mother Sofia that he would create and donate hair wigs for cancer survivors the way that he created them for her during her battle with breast cancer.
“She was diagnosed when she was 42 and died at 45,” says Valentin. “Back then I created hairpieces for her that were very rustic, but it was important [for her] because she used to say cancer had mutilated her and that when she would look in the mirror, the hair loss would remind her [of her ailment].”
Inspired by that, Rodolfo learned to weave natural-looking hairpieces and developed his own line of “cranial hair prostheses”—hairpieces and wigs made from 100 percent human hair and customized for each woman. His wigs, which start at around $5,000, are donated to women who do not make more than $30,000 a year and who are either going through chemotherapy or suffer from other hair loss ailments.
In addition, Valentin is encouraging early detection of breast cancer by offering a 50-percent discount on any spa service at his salons with proof of a mammogram visit.
To learn more about Valentin’s foundation or download an application visit
www.rodolfovalentin.com.
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