Marco Pelusi
For women looking to redefine their hair as fall approaches, they need only remind themselves “There’s no place like West Hollywood”, as renowned stylist and color Marco Pelusi’s thriving West Hollywood locale (www.marcopelusi.com) has all the answers. He’s literally devoted his entire life to hair and now the denizens of Los Angeles are benefiting from the fruits of his labor.
A Family Affair
Marco’s passion for hair and style is his birthright, having grown up in a family of stylists with a chain of more than 15 salons on the east coast. As a child, dinner table conversations often revolved around the family business, with his uncle a premier stylist and his father’s acumen for the hair care industry. Even in his youth, Marco’s female friends learned to trust only him with their hair.
Marco The Colorist
As a professional stylist, Marco observed the teachings of color trainers and quickly realized he wanted to become a color trainer. It was a wonderful courtship; Marco fell in love with how fascinating and technical the color chemistry was. He learned the ways the four seasons affect fashion, hair color and styles while gaining an appreciation for how the very basic artist’s color wheel is implemented and literally affects a woman’s appearance when she selects her hair color.
Marco immediately immersed himself in the world of hair color and learned everything he could, working in the lab at one of the world’s leading hair color companies based in Milan with a US headquarters in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Marco also travelled to Milan and worked closely with the master colorists and chemists. Ultimately, Marco was awarded the prestigious position as the company’s regional educator.
Marco Pelusi Hair Studio
Every mad scientist needs a secret lair for experimenting and luckily the secret is out about Marco’s laboratory. The buzz you hear from LA’s style community points directly to the chic corner of Robertson and Melrose, where the Marco Pelusi Hair Studio offers elite hair color and style services at an almost spa-like facility. Named “Best Hair Color in Los Angeles 2007” by Fox11’s MyFoxLA, the exclusive studio located in the heart of West Hollywood offers a wide range of services for women and men.
Collagen Color Guard
Known for the Marco Collagen Color Guard HairCare System, Marco is the choice of celebrities like Stacy Keibler and Carol Alt as Marco Collagen Color Guard is the first collagen for the hair that’s specifically formulated to prevent premature color fade and establishes a therapeutic environment for the hair and scalp.
Carol Alt was actually the muse for Marco’s Collagen Color Guard HairCare System. Marco befriended Carol and was immediately inspired to develop a high end product that would allow Carol’s hair to match the youthful expression of her beauty. Marco’s hair care system captures the sophistication of the fashion runway experience in Milan while helping everyone look their best and enjoy healthy hair.
Marco’s Collagen Color Guard is defined by its breakthrough proprietary technology, incorporating a special blend of naturally-occurring collagen, hair keratin, silk amino acids and hydrolyzed wheat proteins that carefully work together to repair, restore and rebuild damaged sites on the hair shaft. The result is increased volume, strength, style-ability, shine and color longevity.
No Place Like Marco’s
Finding the right style can often make you feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Everyone’s got an opinion on what you should do with your hair; from your brainy buddy to that heartless gal pal, and you’re little dog too. Thankfully, you need only follow the yellow brick road to the corner of Robertson and Melrose and into the trusted styling hands of a true styling wizard, Marco Pelusi.
Marco combines the passion of his family upbringing with the lessons derived from years of training in creating Marco’s Collagen Color Guard and managing the Marco Pelusi Studio. For more information, visit Marco’s website, www.marcopelusi.com.
Q&A with Marco Pelusi
Q: Why is it when I had my hair colored at other well known LA salons, I walked out with dried out straw hair, and when you color it, it’s silky smooth? Are you using special dyes?
MP: My mantra has, is, and always will be to color-treat the hair while maintaining the quality and integrity of the hair. My background literally was growing up while working inside my family’s chain of salons on the east coast, and also working inside the labs at a luxury hair color manufacturer called Framesi. I literally formed my hair education based on the knowledge and understanding of how to create and work with hair color at Framesi to maintain the shine and condition of the hair – and became a color trainer. I use top quality, low ammonia, and maximum conditioning hair color on my clients. Usually once you’re in my chair for color, your hair feels better than it did before. This feeling is because I only apply the minimal amount of ammonia and other chemicals specifically needed to achieve the color you desire. Less is more with chemicals. More rich pigment and condition, less ammonia and peroxide. Hair color can be nestled in a conditioning base which I do. Joico in LA then took me onboard years ago as their international color instructor, and I once again had the opportunity to create healthy, shiny hair color products. I love taking extra special care of the hair while coloring it. I also am the only one to actually add collagen to hair color formulas, making it something that cannot be achieved anywhere else, except right here at my studio.
Q: As a guy, I’ve had my hair colored at top salons and it looks fake or too dark. Why is it when you do it, it looks so natural?
M: Well first off, I have spent most of my life training hairdressers to perform natural-looking hair color. My life to this day still involves creating a color technique, taking it on the road, and teaching it! I prefer to color men’s’ hair to make it appear as it could have been the color he had as a kid. To do this work, I respect skin tone, eye color, hairstyle, appearance, lifestyle, everything. This awareness allows me to select just the right shade that will look appropriate right next to a gentleman’s skin. Then, when I apply a guy’s color, generally I may only apply it partially, allowing some of the gray hair to still show through in certain areas. This personalized application makes a guy’s hair look more natural. There’s nothing worse than when a guy’s color is so obvious it looks like shoe polish! My goal for a man’s hair color is to reduce the amount of gray, to make it look like it did ten years prior; or, simply to make his color look similar to when he was a young kid.
Q: I love my dark hair (it is natural) but I have read that after you’re over a certain age its best to lighten up the color. Is this true with everyone? Thanks so much!
A: As a colorist, yes, generally speaking, I do believe that as we get older, we shouldn’t be AS dark with our hair color as we once were. The reason for this is: as we age, we lose pigment in our skin and our hair, so the very dark hair no longer looks as good as it once did next to our skin. A woman or man in her/his early 30s can probably pull off the same level of darkness in the hair as she/he had in her/his 20s. But once he/she gets into the later 30s, and most definitely into the mid to late 40s, he/she needs to lighten it up a bit. I’m not suggesting for you to become blonde! I’m merely suggesting that slowly, gradually, you should aim to lighten your hair, over the years, at least by a few shades. If you have a very dark, rich brunette color, begin by adding a few caramel highlights. If you like them, gradually add more. Eventually, ask your stylist to slowly lighten your base color by a few shades, to catch up with the highlights. This lightening can be natural looking, if done in harmony with the highlighting. During this transformation, and with all hair color, make sure to use color-safe shampoo, conditioner and styling products on your hair.
Marco has been doing my hair ever since I moved to LA (five years ago) and he is honestly the best in the business. As someone who is extremely picky about my hair and has a tough criteria for finding the ‘right stylist’, you can trust my word! He also has a great personality, which always makes a visit to his salon something to look forward too!