The 15 Greatest Male Hairdressers in History

As long as society has paid attention to women's hair, it has paid attention to women's hairdressers—who, more often than not, have been male. Flamboyant, larger-than-life figures, they achieved a level of fame that throughout time has eclipsed even that of their storied clients: princesses, supermodels, first ladies, and starlets among them. Below, a look at the 15 greatest male game-changers in the colorful business of hair.

Champagne

Era: 17th century
Celebrity Clients: Princess Marie de Gonzague, wife of King Wladyslaw IV Vasa of Poland
C.V.: History's first "coiffeur," Champagne designed signature looks for aristocratic clients, who lavished him with gifts and competed for his attention.
Anecdote: He maintained the temperament of an artiste and was known to walk out mid-styling or insult blue bloods to their faces.
Legros de Rumigny

Era: 18th century
Celebrity Clients: Madame de Pompadour
C.V.: The official hairdresser of the French court, Legros penned a book containing 38 hairstyles (considered a must-read among Parisian haute society) and opened a hairstyling school.
Anecdote: He was crushed to death by a frenzied mob celebrating Marie Antoinette's marriage to Louis XVI.
Léonard

Era: Late 18th century
Celebrity Clients: Marie Antoinette, Duchesse de Luynes, Madame de Matignon
C.V.: Léonard was best known for creating elaborate hairstyles that sometimes stood five feet high and included or imitated objects such as "a serpent, a rising sun, and an olive tree."
Anecdote: Marie's faith in her hairdresser was such that she entrusted him with her jewels—he subsequently used them to aid his escape from France during the Terror.
Marcel Grateau

Era: 19th century
Celebrity Clients: The Princess of Sagan, the Comtesse de Castellane, Jane Hading
C.V.: While styling the hair of tarts in the slums of Paris, Grateau hit upon a workable method of waving hair, an innovation that made him so sought-after by the demimonde that clients outbid each other for appointments.
Anecdote: An 1893 article compared the fashionable "Marcel wave" to anarchist bombs detonating across Paris at the time.
Antoine (né Antek Cierplikowski)

Era: 1920s
Celebrity Clients: Coco Chanel, Lady Elsie Mendl, Josephine Baker
C.V.: Inspired by Joan of Arc, Polish-born Antoine created the bob cut, which was then popularized by silent-screen actress Louise Brooks and adopted by flappers as their signature look.
Anecdote: When Lily de Moure lost her hat before a prestigious event, Antoine assured that her he could provide her with a hair style commensurate to the occasion. The bareheaded lady caused a sensation, and the next morning Antoine had a line of women out his door, requesting (incorrectly) "the little Russian."
Sydney Guilaroff

Era: 1930s and 1940s
Celebrity Clients: Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly, Joan Crawford
C.V.: A protégé of Antoine's who used to sleep on park benches, Guilaroff became the official stylist of MGM studios, where he was adored by his celebrity clientele; he was the first hairdresser to receive screen credit.
Anecdote: He styled Grace Kelly's hair in Monaco on her wedding day and received a call from Marilyn Monroe on the night of her death.
Alexandre de Paris

Era: 1940s-1960s
Celebrity Clients: Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn
C.V.: Described by Jean Cocteau as "le Sphinx de la Coiffure," the mercurial Alexandre cut the hair of not only Hollywood stars but members of international royal families. He also worked as a stylist for fashion designers such as Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld.
Anecdote: When Elizabeth Taylor was bedridden during the filming of Cleopatra, she was asked what would make her most happy—she answered: "Alexandre." He promptly flew to London and gave her the famous "artichoke" cut.
Raymond Bessone

Era: 1950s and 1960s
Celebrity Clients: Diana Dors
C.V.: Bessone, a.k.a. Mr. Teasy-Weasy, ran a flamboyant London salon (gilded mirrors, champagne fountains) where he spoke in a faux French accent and is credited with inventing the modern bouffant. He was also one of the first hairdressers featured on TV.
Anecdote: If addressed by one of the customers while stalking the floor of his salon, he would shout, "Madame, can you not see that I am meditating?"

Kenneth Battelle

Era: 1960s-present
Celebrity Clients: Brooke Astor, Katharine Graham, Diana Vreeland
C.V.: Most famous for giving Jackie Kennedy her bouffant and styling her for the presidential inauguration ceremony, Battelle has maintained relevance into the present by recruiting clients from the modern fashion set.
Anecdote: In what some called a "palace revolution," Thomas Morrissey, Battelle's colorist, left to start his own salon in 1986, stealing a number of Battelle's clients—Nancy Kissinger, Pat Buckley, and even Jackie.
Vidal Sassoon

Era: 1960s and 1970s
Celebrity Clients: Mia Farrow, Nancy Kwan, Mary Quant
C.V.: Sassoon became an icon of the Swinging Sixties when he revolutionized women's hairstyles by delivering short, naturally elegant, geometric cuts.
Anecdote: After being turned away from salon jobs early in his career because of his thick, Cockney accent, Sassoon worked with Laurence Olivier's speech coach for three years to affect a sophisticated patois.
Gene Shacove

Era: 1970s
Celebrity Clients: Lucille Ball, Kim Novak, Marlene Dietrich
C.V.: The inspiration for the libidinous protagonist of the movie Shampoo, Gene Shacove was responsible for softer, tousled hairstyles that befitted a newly liberated, openly sexual era in America.
Anecdote: The reception for Shacove's funeral was held at the Playboy Mansion. Buddy Hackett delivered the eulogy, at one point saying, "A year from now…all the grass [on his grave] site will be gone because he will have smoked it."
Christiaan Houtenbos

Era: 1970s-present
Celebrity Clients: Graces Jones, Debbie Harry, Victoria Beckham
C.V.: Channeling the experimental spirit of Warhol's Factory days, Dutchman Christiaan pioneered the buzzed bob and brought a ragged punk edge to hairstyling, once giving the fashion designer Stephen Sprouse a half-buzz, half-flop.
Anecdote: Infamously, Christiaan cut a chunk of hair off the head of a fashion editor—without asking first.
John Sahag

Era: 1990s
Celebrity Clients: Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Demi Moore
C.V.: Often referred to as a rock star of the industry, the leather-pants-wearing Sahag employed an idiosyncratic method: He cut hair while it was dry, claiming that it gave him more creative control.
Anecdote: He put himself on the map with Demi Moore's "boy" cut in Ghost, prompting scores of women across the country to imitate the look.
Chris McMillan

Era: 1990s-present
Celebrity Clients: Michelle Williams, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Aniston
C.V.: The man behind "the Rachel," McMillan has styled Aniston from the beginning of her Friends days and remains one of her closest confidants. He also styled Michelle Williams at the 2011 Oscars, where she sported an increasingly popular pixie cut.
Anecdote: The inspiration behind Aniston's latest haircut, the angled bob? Julie Christie in Shampoo.
Oribe

Era: 1990s-Present
Celebrity Clients: Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Jennifer Lopez, Naomi Campbell (pictured above)
C.V.: Oribe was known as a maestro of big hair until cocaine—and the grunge movement—overtook him. He engineered a comeback in the 2000s when he paired up with Jennifer Lopez and has since been styling nearly every Hollywood head under the sun.
Anecdote: At the peak of his popularity, the waiting list for an appointment at Oribe's Elizabeth Arden salon in New York had over a thousand names.