Brian Kleis needed a haircut. But his longtime hairdresser was on an extended vacation. As he walked through Tresidder one day last June, the former resident fellow in Arroyo House happened upon Stanford Hair, the salon that had been operated by the beloved barber Carmelo Cogliandro since 1962. He popped in.
Jane Yoon was free. As she tamed his curly locks, she told Kleis that the salon would be closing. Cogliandro was eyeing retirement, and Yoon—the sole remaining stylist—only worked two partial days. There was neither the leadership nor the money to keep it going.
“I thought, It’s a shame to lose this. It provides a service to the campus community,” Kleis recalls. He gave Cogliandro a call.
“Who on campus would want to run a salon?” Cogliandro had mused. But Kleis had recently trimmed his child psychiatry practice in order to travel with his husband, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences James Lock, MS ’00, and to work on their home remodel. On a whim, Kleis gave Cogliandro an offer. And just like that, the salon was no longer history.
“As an RF, I fell in love with the undergraduate community and want to support them,” Kleis says. “I also like learning new things and multitasking in my life. This represented an opportunity to satisfy all of that.”
TIME TO SHINE: Patton, ’03, MA ’04, sits for a session with Quintana-Mueting.
Stanford Hair reopened in September with a reshaped identity and modernized operations. Men’s cuts and straight hair had been the thing in Stanford Hair’s early decades, and all along it was cash and drop-in only. Kleis has focused on full service and a broader demographic, offering women’s cuts and natural hair services such as braiding, weaving, and relaxing. There’s now a reservation system and a way to pay by credit card or Apple Pay. In keeping with its college-town setting, the salon even has an educational bent. “Did you know that no two hairs on your head grow at the same speed?” says master stylist David Quintana-Mueting during a recent ladies’ trim. (That’s why your new ’do will eventually lose its shape.)
“We spruced it up a little bit,” Kleis says.
The staff, now counting six stylists, has even experimented with hair events. For Halloween, two stylists outfitted Potter House students with wild color treatments, temporary hair weaves, and theatrical makeup, and for Reunion Homecoming, they had a special: Get your hair cut for the price you paid when you were a student!
Kleis, once an instructor in the department of psychiatry, jokes about his part-time pivot from the psychiatrist’s couch: “I kid the stylists that I’m getting new chairs.”
Hair Care Advice from Stylist David Quintana-Mueting• When brushing out tangles, start from the bottom. • Don’t go to sleep with your hair wet. (Dampness encourages mold and bacteria growth in your pillow.) • Only shampoo once or twice a week, and follow the instructions on the bottle: Rinse and repeat until the product turns foamy. That’s when you know your hair is clean. |
Jill Patton, ’03, MA ’04, is the senior editor for Stanford. Email her at jillpatton@stanford.edu.
