Meet the Legendary Coiffeur: Paul Serville
When it comes to the hair industry, few hairstylists achieve household name status, but Paul Serville is a name synonymous with high-end hair service and New Zealand’s premier hairdressing academy. Paving the way for the New Zealand hairdressing industry for nearly 40 years, this hair Hall of Famer has collected many awards and commendations for his work. Perhaps most famously, creating one of the most reputable and sustainable hair salons in New Zealand. We caught up with the legend, to discuss his pride and passion, significant career achievements, and what went into creating Servilles Academy.
38 years in the industry is admirable! Why did you decide to work within the hair industry and how did your career begin?
38 years sounds good but it has actually been closer to 56 years. It all began with an amazing haircut I had in 1968 in a salon called London line. I realised after that haircut that’s what I wanted to do for other people. Three years later I owned London Line and then moved on to owning Crimpers in the 70s. I then went on to open Servilles in 1984…so this is our 39th year for the Servilles Brand.
What's your wildest hair memory?
In Moscow, Russia doing a show in the Kremlin on entry to the stage you had to go through machine gun-carrying security before you could get into the Kremlin for the show. One of our hairdressers didn’t have their passport, so hid under the table so we were all a bit worried about what would happen if he got caught!
Who is the most famous client you've ever had?
Owner of Prada, Patrizio Bertelli!
What is one hairstyle or trend you would like to see come back? And one hairstyle or trend that you would like to see go?
I would love to see the ‘Twiggy’ come back in fashion and I wouldn’t be sad to see the Peaky Blinders men’s cuts go.
Have you ever experienced any celebrity diva moments?
In our original Servilles salon we had a private room and sometimes after hours “would be-could be’s” who thought they were celebs would request it after hours so no one would see them. In reality, no one cared.
If you could work with one celebrity on their hair, who would they be?
David Bowie.
Tell us a bit about starting up Servilles Academy…
The training was at the backbone of Servilles and we really had a good reputation for this in the hairdressing world. So we decided to start our own training centre! We started that in 1993, and it has grown organically as we’ve gone through the years into teaching all aspects of hairdressing, makeup and barbering.
What have been some of your most significant career achievements and highlights?
Training so many hairdressers in Australasia would be our most significant achievement. I’m also proud to be awarded a world masters award in New York for Hairdressing and be honoured by the Australians as the only New Zealander to be put into their Hairdressing Hall of Fame.
We know sustainability is at the core of Servilles. Could you tell us a bit about the products you use?
We use Davines Hair products which are from a product company that is the most sustainable hair company worldwide. With such an amazing culture and belief system, who put as much back into the world as they take out. We are also part of the sustainable salons movement which means almost everything we use in the salon from foil to hair to product waste is recycled. Having a sustainable business is thinking about the world's future which we all need to do a little more.
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