Gérard François Duré: King of Hair, the title couldn't be more suited or deserving. This innovative artist has set himself apart from his contemporaries by mastering hairstyling AND make-up. A-list clients have benefited from his creativity and magical touch, contributing to the sex appeal and beauty each is known for. If you want to name drop, then we're talking En Vogue, Toni Braxton, Tyra Banks, and mezzo soprano opera singer Denyce Graves, to name a few. As a matter of fact, while I waited for Gerard to become available, current reigning Miss USA Shauntay Hinton, and Miss Jones were already in chairs being treated by staff. When I did get to speak with Gerard, the charasmatic creator spoke honestly as he serviced a client about his upringing, celebrity clients, and why his staff is multi-culture instead of all black....

-Describe what you do for anyone sitting your chair, whether it be hair styling or make-up...
I like for stuff to look natural. I like the client to have a finished look, I want the client to look as good as they can. I have a good eye for what looks good on a woman, and I like to make sure that I get that out. I'm not funny in terms of it has to be my way, it's all about satisfaction. I'm way past the point when you first start out just trying to make money. Been there, done that, it's really all about satisfaction. I get a bigger kick out of that than any money anyone could pay me...
-What would you say is your signature style? Where a lady is spotted in the street, and onlookers comment "Oh, she must've just been to see Gerard"...
Wispy, natural flowing, I mean when people see Toni Braxton and I HAVEN'T done her hair, they know. When people see certain artists and I haven't done they're hair, I get phone calls saying, " You didn't do that right?". I do a technique called 'slither cutting' where I slither cut the hair, especially when I'm doing extensions, and it makes the hair look very natural when it's finished. It moves, it has alot of movement, and it really frames the face naturally...
-Tell me about your multi-cultural background. How it influenced your life...
Well my fathers from Haiti, Santa Domingo, the same island where they speak spanish and french. My mothers Irish and Black. My parents got divorced when I was very young. That impacted me in a way where I had an early view of humanity first, as opposed to just culture and race. This country claims to be the melting pot, yet we get so caught up in what people look like. I mean, when I was little, I had WHITE aunts. As a child, I knew we didn't look the same, but I didn't realize it was different until I started going to school. My great aunt used to take me to school and one day the kids said, " Whose that white lady?" And I said, " That's my aunt!". I was made fun of but I didn't get why. It wasn't until later that I understood why they were making fun of me. I really began to understand culture from then, and since, I've always been a person that strived for culture. I know all humanity started in Africa, period. I'm not one that just because you have a little curl in your hair and a complexion your saying, 'Oh I'm part this' or 'I'm part that', I hate that. I'm black, this is obvious. I didn't ask you your DNA, when someone asks you where your from, culture and race is two different things. Now on my fathers side, the carribean side, you've got people that are blacker than oil, who speak spanish, that will tell you they're spanish. This is just a language, a colonized language that we're speaking. We're not speaking swahili or any of our original tongue, or hebrew. So this goes to show you that we're not exposed, we're so disconnected to our culture. We seem to know so much about European culture, and so little about our own. I hear people say, 'I wanna travel to Australia,
Turkey, Japan', but you don't want to travel to Africa? You don't want to go touch that holy place where everything comes
from? So me I've always been into my culture, and it exudes everything I do. I guess that's why I'm a colorful person..

-How did you get into styling?
Well I'm a singer, and as a child I did musical theater, commercials, and I won Ameteur Night @ The Apollo a couple of times. But I always had a sense of what looks good, I'd say, 'that doesn't look good, that looks good', or 'if I could do that I'd be good at it'. After I won Ameteur Night one time, a guy by the name of Teddy Jenkins was watching with Eartha Kitt. Now at the time, she was doing a one woman show @ the Apollo, and they asked me to be in the show with her. Teddy really felt that if people heard me sing they'd be impressed, so he had me pretend to be his assistant. While I played the role I watched what he did, how he did make-up and hair. He saw how I was able to repeat him and said, "Your a natural at this". Eventually, I went to beauty school but before that I had already done celebrities. I was a teenage hair and make-up celebrity stylist. Now he did hair AND make-up so thats how I learned it. No one really does both like that, but now people are starting to do
both because they've seen me do it for so long. I'd go on gigs and people would go, 'You do both?' Not to mention i was quick because he was quick. All those things influenced me to be the way I am today. Some people take hours and hours to do weaves, or braids, I come in and get right on down!
-What contributed to your ability to get celebrity clients even as a teenager?
It had nothing to do with who I worked on, it had everything to do with how I carried myself. They knew I had talent, but they also knew I had been there on stage, done it, been they treated me with a different type of respect than most people. Some of the first celebs I did were people like Bernadette Peters, to big divas on Broadway when I did 'Black & Blue', to Eartha Kitt. I got a chance to work with legends that were from my parents time, but I always knew what to say and how to act. I never said the wrong thing, I never did the wrong thing. I was always on time and I was never star struck. People couldn't believe I was my age, being 19, 20 years old carrying myself the way I did...
-I'm going to throw some names at you, tell me about the experiences working with them...
-Toni Braxton
I love Toni to death, we're like sister and brother. I'm very close with her family, and we basically ARE family.
-Tyra Banks
I'm just now working with Tyra, and I find her to be very real. I was working with Toni and a make-up artist by the name of
Fran Cooper, bless her heart, referred me to Tyra. Put me on the phone with her, and next thing you know Tyra booked me for a few things with Victoria Secrets. I just got back from Ireland with her, So it's been a blessing. I also like working with Susan DePasse, she's one of our first black music moguls. She's knocked down alot of doors and I love working with her because she's real also. I like working with real people who've had real experiences. They don't believe the hype just because they've made some extra money. It's been a blessing to work with everyone, the artists have always found me, I've never had to find them.
-En Vogue
I love En Vogue. They're sweet people, very down to earth. We have great conversations, from god, to life experiences. It's great when you can work with people and be happy. I've had some not so nice experiences with a couple of artists, not too bad, but I don't want to say any names. I can say this part, they range from rapstresses, to opera divas. Anyone who knows who I work with will know. You can work with anybody, but if they're camp doesn't have they're business right, you just have to keep it moving. Some of them think well I'm 'this' or I'm 'that', and your supposed to do this for me. The reality is I'M 'this' and I'M 'that', and I'm going to only tolerate such and such. The good thing about my success is that the artists know I have my own, so they treat me with more respect than the girl doing hair charging $20.
-What led to your decision to open up your shot?
I opened up my shop 10 years ago, ofcourse I was only 10 years old then (wink). It was time, I had done alot of private work, and I had purchased this space (4000 sq. feet) that I was gonna turn into my ultimate bachelor pad. I was going to have a salon in one room but that wasn't going to work, so I wound up converting the whole thing. I just did it because it was time. Spiritually I knew it was the right thing to do...

-Few people know that you can give alot of your clients, who are singers, a run for their money as a singer...
That's right, thats why so many of them don't help me. So many of them say, " You should be signed, you should be doing 'this' ". But you know what, when I ask them to help me they say, "Oh, you don't want to be signed to my label", and I'm like, how do you know that? Your experience and mine could be two different things. I'm not saying get me a deal, but I'm saying why don't you just open the door for me? Make a phone call saying " My hairstylist can sing", simple as that. But some people are not that way. And some of them are females, what threat can I be? I'm a male.
(Our conversation changes after one of Gerard's hairstylists comes in briefly... )
-As you can see I have an international staff, she's from Japan and she can do some black hair to the next power! Ironically, this is the first staff that I've ever liked in 10 years. I've tried to hire black, I've tried and tried, but black folks are just too busy, trying to be the boss. There's only one chief here. If I was Jewish and old, fat, and bald, they'd just give the respect. But because I'm young, they don't give me I'm due. And they don't know, I'll fire you in a minute. I started hiring international, and you know what? They're never late, it's "hi Mr. Dure", and we'd be the same age! Really, it's my
fault for trying to make everyone feel comfortable, and there has to be a level of discomfort in the workplace. If it's too comfortable, they're gonna take liberties that they shouldn't take. I don't hang out with my staff anymore, it has to be seperate.
-What inspires you as a singer?
Just life, things you go thru and what god brings you thru. Music is very insipring, it's also inspiring when you can move a crowd. Usually, by surprise, people don't expect me to sing. When they do hear me, they go "Oh shoot!". I have so many things to sing about, it really starts with the emotion of your voice...
-What can people expect from you in the near future?
I'm going to be opening up some other business ventures, real estate, just continuing to enjoy life. I'm beginning to learn now that you can work, drop into a pine box when your finished, but what part of life do you truly enjoy? You can have money and still not be enjoying life. We all are 'alive', but how many of us really 'live'? How many times do you smell the grass? It used to sound so corny, but that is a real truth. I travel so much, I never take vacations because i'm always going to these exotic places, but I never get to enjoy them because I'm working. So that's what I'm looking to do, do good things with my family, and really enjoy life more...