The constant question in Carmen DePasquale’s life has been “What’s next?”
Carmen DePasquale got into the beauty
business after walking into a beauty
school and “there were all these girls.”
It’s the question that pushed him from his first venture styling models’ hair in a rented room in Edgewater to his own salons in Fort Lee and Parsippany. He is now chief executive officer of DePasquale Cos. He heads a cosmetics and beauty conglomerate that includes a Fair Lawn-based beauty-products manufacturing and distribution company with annual sales of more than $40 million; a 26,000-square-foot salon in Morris Plains with 177 employees serving 2,200 clients a week; and a beauty school, Artistic Academy, also in Morris Plains.
DePasquale, 65, produces several beauty-products lines, including ECRU New York, Beauty Addicts and Cures by Avancé. He is working on a line of eco-friendly, all-natural and organic beauty products. (Interview edited and condensed for space.)
Q. You went from a stint with the Air Force to becoming a hairstylist?
You know, it’s not an inspiring story how I started in this industry. It’s actually a very silly one. My sister was a beautician and my sister-in-law was also in the profession. I went to have lunch with my sister-in-law in this luncheonette in Paterson and the luncheonette was filled with young girls in white uniforms, from the beauty school. I was just out of the Air Force, didn’t have a clue as to what I was going to do, and I followed her back to the beauty school after lunch because there were all these girls, and I signed up.
Q. Back then — in 1966 — were there a lot of male hairstylists?
There were more men that owned hair salons, but the ratio of women in the profession was more than 95 percent. Today, the ratio of women in hair in the United States is probably 80 percent. The industry is opening up to more and more men, but back then there was the stigma of beauty school. If you came home and told your parents you were going to go to beauty school, they looked at you like “what was wrong with you?” They thought it was a dead-end profession. But today — both my sons are in the profession — there is more opportunity in this profession than in being a lawyer or a doctor. There are young people today who make between $40,000 and $60,000 a year. And at the very high end they make between $80,000 and $120,000 a year. Many owners at the top end of the industry are running million-dollar salons. When I started, a wash and set was $2.50 and a haircut was $5. Now you can get $60, $70, $140 a haircut.
Q. What made you want to open your first hair salon, Carmen’s Hair Center in Fort Lee?
What has always driven me is once I have done something, I’m always asking “What’s next?” What’s next is what drives me.
Q. What’s your “what’s next” now?
I’m working on three green collections. Today we can see the industry going green, but the products coming out are addressing only one aspect. They’re called green, meaning they’re safe for the environment. Or they’re called natural, even though nobody really understands natural. Arsenic is natural. Then there’s organic, but who’s certifying these people? Everybody is trying to be one of those. But I’ve been working for a year on something that will combine all of those. It’s not just about being good for the Earth; it’s also got to be good for the person. The big problem we have with products today is the more earth-friendly and organic they are, the less they perform. The greener the shampoo, the less it foams. It may be cleaning your hair, but unless it foams you don’t feel it’s cleaning your hair.
Q. How is the economy affecting your businesses?
We all feel it in one way or the other, but I do see good in it. The companies that have real value to offer to clients are going to be those that survive and flourish when the economy turns. My spa business is growing. For the first quarter this year we’re up 13 percent.
Q. Really? A lot of salons are complaining women aren’t getting their hair done as much, or canceling massages.
The difference in my salon and spa is we set it apart from what is average. You can’t jump in the middle pool with everybody. In my first salon in a shopping strip — it was 1,100 square feet — I can remember in the winter pressing my nose up against the front door, looking outside, hoping a client was going to come in.
Q. How did you make the client come in?
I was very outgoing. I was not afraid to talk to people. I went around doing all these women’s clubs. I used to go out, take a couple of models, and I would do hair for them. I would go to the fashion shows, where all the top hair artists were working, and I would sneak backstage and I would hold bobby pins for them. And one day they would start talking to you. I was always looking to be better than I was.
Q. Do you still cut hair?
I’ll fool around once in a while. I do my grandkids. I think the last person’s hair I cut was [former Dodgers manager] Tommy Lasorda.
Q. How did you come to cut his hair?
I do shows all over the country and he was speaking at one.
Q. You look like you have a pretty good head of hair. Do you have any hair tips?
Yes. Use ECRU New York products. Trust me, they are the healthiest products around. And about to become even healthier next year.
