The Long Lunch with Derek Elvy

Our industry editor went for another jaunt for this issue – heading down to windy Wellington to interview Buoy owner Derek Elvy. In his head he was ready to interview a rock n roller … in reality he was completely outclassed by an intelligent and highly articulate hairdressing legend.

Where do you start with someone like Derek Elvy? With the seven Australasian titles he’s accrued? With his 24-year-old salon that’s become an institution locally and nationally? With his work that has been widely published domestically and internationally?

To arm himself before flying out, Cooksley asked around. The two words that came up again and again were “genius” and “eccentric”. When he put that to Elvy there was a few moments of silence. How on earth do you respond to that? With a simple thank you, it turns out. Then you move on to the rest of the questions.

For his part, the Wellington-born and bred hairdresser prepared by reading our Long Lunch with Rodney Wayne from the summer issue of TRADE. “It was very generous of Rodney to mention me. Rodney’s been to the wall, he’s given a lot, he’s lost a lot and he’s still there.”

But we weren’t here to talk about Rodney, Elvy was the star of this show: “Gene, I am rock n roll. I’m not a cup of tea.”

GC: We’ll start with Buoy, your first shop …

DE: It’s interesting. In those days hairdressers were all the culture. They ruled the party scene, they ruled the hedonist culture … they were really interesting days. I was thinking about that actually. From then and hairdressers having that much control to now … the consumer drives them now and in some ways the hairdresser is now the pawn in the game instead of running the game.

I was working in Sydney on Oxford Street for a couple of salons there. Both were interesting salons in their time. One was called Broadway. It had an artsy clientele, and it was a really different kind of experience for me because it was very gay. Everyone that worked in the shop was very gay. Not just gay. They were verbally, in your face gay. This was in the ’80s prior to coming back here and setting up shop.

The situation actually became intolerable because I didn’t want to be a part of it. Even though the clientele was good, it was too harsh. Too waspish. And there was an extremely strong drug culture. That all turned to shit one afternoon. There was a drag artiste as a receptionist by the name of Markusa. He was in drag at night but in the daytime looked like he had been in drag the night before. Bleached white hair and too much jewellery and that sort of thing. We ended up having an altercation out the back of the shop one afternoon, him and myself and the two owners and I thought enough’s enough. It was over.

So I left there and ended up working up for another influential shop on the street at that time called Tribes, which was co-owned by a New Zealand Maori guy called Christopher Woods. And they were doing amazing stuff. We’re talking Culture Club, Pete Burns, all that dreadlock extensions … the whole lot. It was a really interesting skill base to pick up, but it was out of control. You stood a better chance of being paid in cocaine than in cash.

And then the salon one day decided that it would be really good profile to go off and compete in the Australian awards. Live competition work. We went off and competed and I won. I won the haircutting category for NSW, which was fantastic. Then we’re sitting there at the end of the competition and, hello there’s no money to celebrate. And I just thought, “what the hell is this about?”. So I struck up a relationship with a salon back here [in Wellington] to do two weeks here and six weeks in Sydney. It was for cashflow … I could generate quite good money under this arrangement. The salon was picking up the flights. They wanted the influence that I could bring back from Sydney.

GC: These are some salons that I haven’t heard about in a very long time, but they’re really cool. It’s got to be cooler than naming a salon after yourself.

DE: Very, very cool. I never quite got why people self-brand. At the end of it how can you sell that? How can you sell self-branding, unless you’re going to be in there until the day you die. And then do you want someone else to take on your name and affect the culture in a way that you never intended?

GC: So how did you come up with your salon name?

DE: Buoy came from a group of artists … I’ve always had an interest in creative musicians. One of the band members from Japan [a band from the 80s] created a solo album called When Dreams of Reason Produce Monsters.

GC: Was that David Sylvian?

DE: No, it was Mick Karn (RIP). David Sylvian [Japan’s lead singer] is probably my favourite artist, period. His work is just fantastic. It just goes from strength to strength. I haven’t listened to the latest two CDs because I want to import them with the international covernotes on them. He’s just about to launch a new work, but I mean he’s artful and his writing is beautiful. And the music style has changed so much from the 80s glam metal type thing into … it’s so sparse now. It’s just so beautiful and just so right for the times.

The name Buoy came from that album. It’s a little bit kind of Icarus, it’s a moth to the flame, that attraction and once again has extremely beautiful lyrics. And there were some practical things about it. I didn’t want too many letters; I wanted something that people would remember. The name stuck and travelled really, really well, and served us really well. We also needed something that was going to be at the beginning of the directory.

GC: What was your reason for going to Sydney? Was it for the lifestyle at the time and the hairdressing was a way to survive? Or did you go over there to do different work and you thought they’d have the clientele that would allow you to do that?

DE: Sydney was, as for a lot of people, just supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else. Kerry Hughes [the designer] went straight to London with her partner and I was going to catch up with them. There were a lot of polytech-driven students setting up small businesses. You didn’t have brand stores. I’m so glad I went through the polytech system where you had crossover with a whole lot of other students. In the building I was in was the cooking school … all the design schools really were in the same building. When you’ve got private providers in our industry that are only about one product, those people aren’t getting that exposure or interaction with those other schools. And I think that’s worse.

GC: Was the aspiration to get into hairdressing always there or was it a way for you to get into design and make a dollar?

DE: When I was at school and because the kind of parenting situation I had there was absolutely no way I was going to be allowed to work in a hairdressing salon. That was not my parents’ vision at all. Initially I was a trainee chef and went through that process at City & Guilds for two and a half years. Then I was at a stage in my life where I could make the decisions I wanted and live with the consequences.

It always comes back to this gay thing. When I went out to try to find a job there was only one shop, and that’s where I ended up working, that would actually consider me for an apprenticeship but the character who owned the business was concerned that I looked gay. Hairdressing shops then were … the unisex shop had just come into town.

GC: You’d think hairdressing would be one industry that you could walk into as a gay guy and get a job!

DE: That was the really interesting thing with the 80s too … none of those brands and none of that self-gratification lasted. All those brands disappeared: Tribes, Velvet Underground, Broadwave … The salons were around the Paddington area, but once again I think drugs was the downfall of that empire. There’s lots of drugs in Sydney.

GC: Having walked in off the street and tried to get a job and knowing what it’s like, does it make you more compassionate?

DE: When I set up Buoy in Newtown, I set the place up with a view to offering an opportunity to young people who may not necessarily get a foot in the door. Because it is in Newtown – every Newtown around the world seems to be similar – it’s a very mixed socio demographic. So we started uprooting kids from the area and the salon worked. It was just a rundown sweaty betty and we went in there stripped it out, turned it into a gothic fantasy, bought an outrageous painting, a huge painting … It was basically black, white and red – the strongest colour combination you can get. There was a big black cross the length of the store – this would have been 1987/88 – skulls hanging in the windows.

GC: Why did you move on from there – did you just outgrow it?

DE: Because the Majestic came shopping. They had done their homework and bought it out.

GC: That must have been a great compliment.

DE: Yes, but it was quite frightening as well. We’d gone from this space where we could do anything and we could just have fun, to this serious real estate. It became architectural and far more sanitised.

When I started in the industry, when I was doing my apprenticeship, the cost of a haircut was $38 or something, and possibly moving to $44. The point I’m making is that that’s very little appreciation in 30 years. I would struggle to pay $50 or $60 for a callout for a tradesperson just to get them to get in the car. I’m working with an accountancy company and they’re $460 an hour and they’ve got their junior sitting there that’s another $230. Comparatively our charging is very, very little and yet people are questioning $130 for a haircut.

GC: When you started Buoy did you do it alone or were you in a partnership?

DE: I had a partner for a year but it was a bit of a strange setup really. He was writing cheques, raised all the finance and was in the industry as well but he needed creative vision and also the cashflow that I could bring in. But he came into an inheritance in the first few months and became, unfortunately, preoccupied with how he could spend and invest it, and at the end of that process I decided it was over after one year. Let me say, it costs a lot of money to dissolve the partnership and retain the brand name.

GC: One of my fondest memories of you – I don’t know what year it was and you’ll be able to tell me – I had a girl working with me, Cindy Phillips, [they work out it was 1995]. She had learned about millinery and had made feathers out of hair and bits and pieces, and worked so bloody hard, given her heart and soul to it. We were so happy to be finalists and then we got to see the other finalists and you were one of them. That was the year you’d done that black and white, stark, dark arm and the spikes and we just went “oh fuck”. We’ve gone off on this tangent and he’s come in with something so clean and so precise. And the most beautiful thing was that you sent her a message saying that you loved her work and best of luck with the competition, and it just rocked our socks off.

DE: And I did, I did. I remember now. I think that was the ultimate year, the atmosphere, the camaraderie.

GC: Remember that Samoan boy that took off all his clothes, was just in his undies because he was overheating …

DE: That was my partner. The whole thing was outrageous. As soon as I walked in the room I could tell, I could feel in the air, stuff was going to happen. It was outrageous. We had a journalist at the time and she was just appalled. It was out of control. Totally out of control. I think I lost some friends that night but gained some also – High camp

GC: Do you still have input into what your staff put out?

DE: I hope the standards I set for myself have and do influence some of the success stories that have come out of the salon … David Malo, Sophia Taurae, Michael Beel. Michael has his own philosophy about hairdressing – he likes things big soft and beautiful. Which is very now. I still think there is a place for artful, tasteful, provocative work that has nothing to do with the commercial marketplace. Everything’s so commercial now. I’m actually concerned about the imagery that brands are putting out there. Because it’s so dumbed down to boring, and it also has an incredibly short shelf life. That’s the other thing that’s happened: celebrity is driving this. You turn on the entertainment channel, they’ve all got the same hair – how did that happen? It’s a very strange place, the whole game at the moment.

GC: I remember seeing you at Silver Factory at ASB stadium in St Johns, you were so good up there on stage, why didn’t you do more of that?

DE: I’m not a public person. I actually felt incredibly uncomfortable but the team wanted to do it. Some people are up front and are very comfortable with it – Michael, he loves it – I have never liked it. I really do feel uncomfortable, I’m just private, I’m a private guy. I don’t want it, I don’t need it.

Something of that size [Silver Factory], it’s not the biggest show I put together. Another one I put together was called To Die For. All of the technicians that worked on that show would actually support that as well. We built this HR Geiger set and everyone could take it to the max, and we were launching new talent, and as soon as the doors closed – that probably took a year to put together, and Silver Factory also took some time to put together as well – I knew I’d lost a lot of money. We had Schwarzkopf on board and they were generous enough to give me $12,000 and they got a lot of branding out of it. This was in the Town Hall – this thing was colossal.

Talking about learning lessons: do your market research on what is coming up in the future. That night we were competing against the opera, the ballet, a ball, I think two dance parties and likewise with the Silver Factory. It did cost us, even though we had the support of Wella and Sebastian, it still cost. I would be reluctant to rush into something like that again.

GC: Did you ever think about having more than one salon?

DE: No. One’s a nightmare. I’d be on sleeping pills all the time.

GC: But it’s so successful, someone could come in and offer to duplicate it elsewhere.

DE: If someone was gorgeous enough to come along and offer it, I could talk about it. Once upon a time we did have a kind of operator wander into the shop and say “I want to buy your store” and she came in with a small army all dressed in black. But I think they’d just had a late night out on the turps to be honest because it didn’t go any further.

GC: So alongside Sorbie, Mascolo, Hayes … Robert Lobetta still the one you look up to?

DE: Of course, they’re legends, they’re icons, theirs is the stuff that dreams are made of. But I just really liked Robert’s … the way he mixed it up actually. He has a way of mixing it up and it is still beautiful and there are a lot of people that attempt that and it’s just wrong. It’s just proportionately wrong.

GC: Do you think you’re born with an eye or can you learn it?

DE: There are so many sets of eyes, aren’t there? It’s kind of like … getting back to Michael, I don’t see things the way he sees them. And Michael certainly doesn’t see things the way I see them.

GC: What disappoints you about the industry?

DE: I think there is, and it’s probably a youth driven thing, the sense of self-importance that industries like this attract. Which I find tediously boring. You’re either good and onto it and deserve respect or just shut the fuck up. That’s probably the only downside of it. They work incredibly hard for it. It’s not an easy industry, it’s a hard industry and in some ways I don’t think it attracts the respect it deserves. I say that because for the Hair Expo awards I needed referencing and I approached various people for references and one particular professional said “of course I’ll give you a reference but for god’s sakes don’t share it, don’t tell anyone or else I’ll be the laughing stock of my industry”. It was that remark that made me think actually there’s clearly a lot of people in various industries that have a very low regard for hairdressing.

GC: Do you recommend hairdressing?

DE: We’ve actually got a young guy in the shop at the moment who I think, I believe, in fact I’d put money on it, that he has a natural ability. It suits him and he will do well. It really depends on what you’re driven by. If you want to make money then don’t go down the hairdressing road. You’re not going to make a lot of money unless you’re out to kind of screw the staff – pay them peanuts, work them till they drop. It’s a hard industry.

GC: Is there a mentor that you remember or appreciate, someone who stands out?

DE: Paul [Serville] is one of those people who has always strived to keep the game at a premium level and I respected that and admire that. There are so many people who have had windows of fabulousness windows of fabulousness and I’ve seen that – Colin Ford, Richard Marshal, Peter Zidich and Grant Betttjeman and the whole scene of fashion, art and music.