Martin Plesar shares his journey on starting a hair salon in Vinohrady
Martin Plesar is the founder of the hair salon HairMates in Vinohrady, Prague. I sat down with him to talk about his journey starting his own hair salon, how he views the current trends of hairstyles in Prague and what made him start his own podcast.
I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the hairdressing business?
“Thank you very much, first of all, for the invitation. I’m glad to be here. I’ve been a hairdresser for more than 15 years. I am currently living in Prague. Originally I was studying something totally different. I was studying mechanical electronics and programming. And in the last year, I saw some documentary on the TV that they were cutting hair of people in the street. I was surprised how much hair can change a person. I finished school and started to do a hairdressing course. That's how my career started.”
What inspired you to open your own salon here in Vinohrady?
“Well, first of all, it wasn't my dream from the beginning. My dream was just meeting cool people, getting nice haircuts and changing their life for the better. Hair is really part of the personality. And if you even just cut the fringe, you can directly see how much this changes the person.”
Why Vinohrady? Why did you choose the location?
“I chose Vinohrady because I first started to live in Vinohrady and I loved it. The area has its calm. There are not many tourists and I like the cafes around here. And I like the people. I was walking around the streets looking around for maybe four or six months. And suddenly I found something and brought my friend who’s an architect. He said the place could potentially be the one.”
You have quite a homey feeling in your salon. It used to be an apartment. So you re-renovated into a salon and you still cater for this homey feeling to your clients.
“Yes, exactly. The house is from 1920 I think. So it’s a really old house. It still has magic in it. You know, there’s like a soul. You can feel the house has some history. And that’s what I love about it. The ceilings are really high. The space is really spacious. I wanted to create something where people don’t feel like they are in the salon. I wanted to create something where they can feel comfortable and be themselves basically.”
I also know that you’ve spent a lot of time in various countries such as England or Japan, for example. What are the main differences you observed in the hairdressing business here in Prague?
“The first two years I started working in the Czech Republic and then I moved to London to study in Vidal Sassoon, which is a famous academy. And people there are really trendy, you know, what’s new, people try to do it whatever is the short fringe or bob style, whatever comes trendy, it suddenly pops up there. So it’s like a mecca for hairdressing.
"Then I was in Spain in Toni&Guy, which was also very inspiring. The hairdressing there is not a high level per say. People are more caring about their fashion. And then I was in Japan. Japan is like a totally different world in any aspect. What’s really interesting about the culture there, the people generally have really dark and straight hair. So what they do with their hair, they try to do it in the opposite way. So making the hair curly, making it blonde.”
Is there a difference though that you observed here in Prague specifically in the way people style their hair?
“I think generally in between London, Spain and Japan, we are not just geographically, but somehow mentally, we are somewhere in the middle. We are not so introverted like in the northern countries of Europe, but we are not so open and speaking to strangers like in Spain, for example, everyone is talking to you there. And I don’t see that we are super trendy in the hairdressing sense, but we are more or less having our own styles.”
What's a popular cut that is trending in Prague right now?
“Generally, I’m not into trends because I think people should have their own style. It’s my kind of philosophy. What I can see lately is that balayage is a type of lightening of the hair and doing color style has been popular for a long time. I think people are getting more into having gray hair. For example, it’s kind of a trend. I would say people are more okay to say - I have gray hair, it's okay. I’m getting a regrow. And it doesn't mean we don’t care about each other.”
I admire you because part of being a good hairdresser, it’s not only about making the person feel and look great, but it’s also about being a good conversationalist. I love the video series you came up with that is called Hair Mates Talks. Can you talk to us a little bit about how that works and who your guests are?
“Yeah. It’s called Hair Mates Talks and generally my point of view on hairdressing changed a lot during the time because I was studying NLP neuro-linguistic programming, which is a coaching program. And I wanted to learn more about psychology because I realized that it’s not just about hair. It’s about spending time with one person and talking to that person for one, two, three hours. And you find out when you’re touching people, they open up to you a little bit more, and they start talking about their life. So I realized there’s so much potential around those topics and I started to get interested in them.
"What affects us in a sense is that we could have better hair. Not just because of using some products for the hair, but also from the food we eat. Do we exercise or not? Are we sleeping well or not? Are we stressed? All these are aspects which affect the client’s hair, our hair. In the beginning, I was trying to find a concept which would work. I was thinking I’m going to be cutting their hair and doing the talk. But I found out it’s not possible because of some noises from the machine or clipper I use and so on. I found it’s good to do the haircut first and get connected with the person. We first have just a small talk about anything we want and then just move to the chair and have a proper talk, which is structured.”
And who are your guests that you bring on to talks?
“I bring people who generally are my clients because we already know each other and we are connected and we know what our subject is that we will talk about. And they are professionals in their field."
Who is the next guest we can look forward to seeing?
"I’m interested in food right now a lot. So I think it would be someone talking about food and nutrition and these kinds of areas."
Is there someone you have a dream of interviewing?
"I don’t have a problem talking to a gardener. I’m not having a problem talking to other hairdressers or lawyers or anyone. What I realized is; it’s a matter of how they approach life. I'm always kind of thinking if the guest is not just a professional in a career they are doing but also if they are humble and kind to themselves and their environment.”
For our last and final question, hair is such an important part of human life. Because you work with hair more than most people. What does hair mean to you specifically?
“When I’m touching the clients hair and I see they are losing their hair. I wonder how I can help them not just product wise but also guide them through this process of what they are eating, how do they sleep? What do they do? I want to help them generally not just with the hair aspect but also a personal one.”
You can find Martin at his location in Vinohrady or at Hairmates.cz.
