This is the story of a young man from Sologne who, after obtaining his school certificate, decided in 1945 to go to Paris. Coming out of the war, reviving in peacetime is necessarily a dream and here is the young Hubert (his real first name) carried by the agitation of the city of light. Introduced to haircuts in Souesmes (Loir-et-Cher) in his father's living room, he quickly became disillusioned. For good reason, in one year he was fired twelve times from the salons that employed him; enough to harden a spirit without imprisoning it in resentment.
So scissors and comb in hand, he continues to push the doors of Parisian hairdressing salons until entering that of Louis Gervais, a fashionable hairdresser who maintains, among other things, the hair of Joséphine Baker. The meeting between the two men is conclusive; Hubert Dessange is hired. With his mind finally freed from the fear of tomorrow, the young hairdresser can concentrate on his art and give free rein to his desires. He then had the sublime idea of "modernizing the woman's face. How? 'Or' What ? By inventing the coiffé-décoiffé technique. A haircut with a revolutionary premise for the time:jostling the hair, tilting it into another dimension so that it bursts with vitality, so that the woman who decides to wear it is "neither quite the same nor everything quite another ". The woman moves, and her hair must accompany this movement. Jacques Dessange has just revolutionized the hairstyle for women and somewhere their existence.
A care without constraint and a simplicity of styling which from then on will be a huge success. Jacques Dessange becomes the official hairdresser for models from Dior, Chanel and Carven. In 1954, he opened his first salon at 37, avenue Franklin-Roosevelt, a few steps from the Champs-Élysées roundabout. The following year, he opened a second one in Saint Tropez. Period during which he did Jean Seberg's hair, but also Brigitte Bardot (whose famous sauerkraut bun or blonde he signed on the set of the film And God Created Woman by Roger Vadim), Sheila, Sylvie Vartan, Jeanne Moreau; then here he is taming the hair of international stars like Liz Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner or even Jane Fonda.
Taking advantage of his international reputation, the master hairdresser then turned into an entrepreneur. Thus in 1955, he joined forces with his main collaborators to develop “Jacques Dessange” salons. Twenty years later, the self-made man is looking to expand his salons through franchising. The Jacques Dessange brand is increasingly strong. It should be noted that in 1976, the Jean-Louis David group, its direct competitor, was set up and also applied the franchise system to its hairdressing salons.
But nothing can stop the rise of Jacques Dessange. and the man decides to diversify his activities. In 1979, he founded his own training school. In 1990, he was marketing make-up products, and two years later, a range of products with L'Oréal. Meanwhile, in the early 1980s, Catherine Ahnelle appeared throughout France for an advertising campaign that would definitively impose the “coiffé-décoiffé “, thickening a little more the popularity of the child of Sologne.
Here we are in 1996; the network Camille Albane, property of Dessange International , is thrown; hairdresser, colorist, make-up artist are all in one place. The brand now has more than 250 salons around the world. The thirst for expansion does not stop there; in 2002, the hair salons Frédéric Moreno are purchased; that same year, the original salon moved to 39 Avenue Franklin-Roosevelt, covering 1,000 m2. Jacques Dessange is also at the origin of the Capi-Lustro which will later become the famous Babyliss .
An extraordinary life began in the middle of the forests of Sologne where he decided to end his days by indulging in his passion for painting. In the meantime, Jacques Dessange will therefore have lived an incredible success story, transforming his name into a brand and then into an empire, until establishing himself in no less than 43 countries with nearly 1,600 salons in the world, including 370 in France. He leaves behind two sons, Cyril born in 1961 and Benjamin born in 1967. His death occurs less than a year after that of Jean-Louis David, the other star hairdresser and inventor of the gradient, on April 3, 2019 in the age of 85. Two men to whom we say:Thank you!
