善於創造影像中的視覺張力，讓每一張照片就如同一本故事書般的富有生命力，Peter Gray絕對是當今美髮界最具影響力與知名度的髮型師之一，以其精湛的剪髮技巧和絕佳的美學素養聞名全球。Peter涉足時尚界多年，他的作品幾乎上遍了所有國家出版的Vogue、Harper’s Bazaar、Numero等雜誌，而在今年6月出刊的Marie Claire台灣版也能見到Peter細膩精彩的作品。

採訪這麼多髮型師，每個人都有自己入行的故事，但是，Peter的故事絕對數一數二精彩的。

 

How people get into hair industry is actually interesting and sometime amusing. However, with so many interviews we’ve done, Peter Gray definitely gets the best story to tell.

 

「一切都是從寄宿學校開始…」Peter說道。

Peter的父親是一名醫生，母親則是研究英國和非洲文學的教授，他出生於辛巴威，在13歲的時候因為內戰而遷移至鄰近的南非共和國。望子成龍的父母送他就讀私立的男子寄宿學校，希望他能成為一名律師，沒想到Peter卻走上了美髮之路。

 

“It all began with that crazy boarding school,” Peter said.

 

Peter Gray was born in Zimbabwe but moved to South Africa with his parents due to a conflict that happened when he was 13. He then went to study at an all-boy boarding school after the relocation. Having a dad as a doctor and mom as a professor, becoming a hairdresser was never his plan.

 

當時的英式學校仍然有著嚴謹的髮禁，Peter 17歲時的某天，一位低年級的男孩因為頭髮過長被告誡要在晚餐前理好頭髮，不然就得挨鞭子，無奈這個男孩早已因為別的原因被禁足，根本無法離開學校，更遑論外出理髮。見到他因擔心被罰而坐立難安，Peter難掩心中的憤慨，便叫男孩乖乖坐在椅子上，一手拿剪刀一手拿梳子，剪了他人生中的第一顆頭。

 

「就像是戰勝體制一樣！」，他的舉動瞬間在學校造成轟動，隔幾天又有學生跑來找他理髮，一個接一個的小客人上門，Peter乾脆在淋浴間經營起沙龍，還有人專門幫他管理預約，每天傍晚4到5位客人，Peter為自己賺進了不少零用錢！

 

One day, a younger junior boy who had been gated was told to get a haircut on Friday afternoon. Since the barber shop wasn’t at school, the boy was about to get beaten if he didn’t have his haircut by dinner time. Seeing how worried and scared the boy is, Peter was really frustrated and felt unfair. “This is a really ridiculous situation,” Peter thought, so he asked the boy to sit down. With a pair of scissor that came from the book room and a comb, Peter finished the very first haircut in his life. After that day, all the students were talking about that. “Everybody thinks it was great like we beat the system!” Next week, some other students asked Peter for a haircut. One after another, he ended up cutting almost 200 boys’ hair in a year.

 

“We even made money with it!” One of Peter’s friends kept an appointment book for him so that he could cut four or five boys’ hair almost every single day at the shower room. The housemaster even taxed them.

 

在一間有著350人的學校，Peter剪了將近200人的頭髮，因此認識了很多原本沒有機會認識的人。到後來，一位在實驗室工作的女士更從她的兒子那裡聽說了Peter的作為，便邀請Peter到她丈夫經營的沙龍工作。

 

「一開始我拒絕她了，我對理髮有著很大的堅持和要求，我只願意跟爺爺一起去男士理髮廳，完全無法忍受在有女性的空間裡剪髮。」回想小時候的堅持，Peter不禁笑了出來，幸好這位女士後來說服了他，Peter才開始利用週六在髮廊打工，正式踏入美髮產業。

 

Because of what he did, he ended up knowing so many people. The lab technician heard from her two kids about what Peter was doing and introduced him to her husband who owned a salon in the city. “I turned her down at first because I have no interested in working in a lady’s hair salon. I really had a thing about hair salon; hairdresser is very special to me. When I was a kid, I only had my haircut at a barber shop with my granddad.” However, that lab technician somehow persuaded him by saying” You should try it!”

 

沙龍裡每個月都會表揚銷售最多產品的員工，Peter雖然只是個洗頭的小助理，卻有效地利用這段時間，投其所好的使用客人心儀的香氛產品，並在洗頭的過程裡傳授頭髮養護等知識，多數的客人在經歷過他的服務後都慷慨解囊，也讓Peter每個月都榮登最佳銷售員，拿光所有的獎品。

 

Starting a Saturday job in a hair salon became Peter’s vacation. He learnt from the award-winning owners and had a fun time at the salon. He managed product and make 10% of selling products. Peter made a good use of the time while shampooing and massage by telling a course of how to treat their hair. He made it very easy to sell the products and ended up winning all the prize that was given to the one who sells the most products.

 

講起過去的往事，Peter有感而發：「那是一個充滿鼓勵的環境，所有人都不吝嗇地給予讚美和肯定，這是對我最深遠的影響，警惕我時時以正面的讚賞來幫助身邊的人進步。在美髮界，很多人有能力用言語使人感覺渺小，但也有同樣的能力能幫助他人成長，端看你選擇如何使用你的影響力！」

 

“It was an environment where everyone is very encouraged,” He recalls, “I think I really try to carry that now. It’s so easy for someone to make you feel small. However, it’s also easy for you to make someone feel good and help them to grow. That’s always important to me that how did people back then had encouraged me of becoming who I am right now.”

 

即便父母對於Peter想要走上全職髮型師的道路非常不贊同，Peter仍然一顧一切地離開南非，坐上飛往倫敦的飛機，為了堅持自己的夢想，他6年沒有回家也沒有和媽媽說話。他努力地進入美髮的最高殿堂 – Vidal Sassoon，更與許多知名的攝影師合作拍攝，已令人眼睛為之一亮的作品在1990年代闖出名號。

 

Despite his parents’ disapproval, Peter left for London to fulfill his dream. He rose to prominence at the end of the 1990’s through innovative photographic partnerships with experimental fashion photographers that established Gray as a leading force in the field of creative hair.

 

Peter在Sassoon呆了15年之久，期間擔任Editorial Director，後來更進入產品部門，協助研發和包裝設計，更有幸獲得與沙宣本人面對面學習的機會，在這15年裡，讓Peter更了解了美髮界的生態，但龐大的工作也損耗了他的熱忱，他毅然離開沙宣，花了5年的時間浸淫在純然創作的領域，替自己充電，重獲動力的Peter受Aveda之邀，擔任International Editorial Consultant，站在環境保護的立場參與產品的研發製作，也在拍攝作品時給予意見，Peter直到2005年才離開Aveda，再次回到創作的懷抱。

 

Peter’s career in hair was formed at Vidal Sassoon in London. “It was kind of interesting because I have Vidal personally nurturing me for 5 or 6 years at Sassoon.

 

He usually came to the shows and gave me advice.” Peter spent 15 years there as editorial director where he brought expertise and creative ideas to students and staff across the world, through teaching in their academies. After years of that, he was burnt out and back to doing pure creative or editorial for 5 years before he worked for Aveda.

 

「這些工作讓我以不同的角度看待美髮產業，也了解了『包裝』的重要性，發覺所有的品牌都是在營造一種氛圍，透過影像誘使消費者去購買產品。」在髮品公司的經歷讓Peter更加清楚影像的魅力，進而應用在時尚產業的所有領域中。

 

“You get to see this business from every different angle and understanding details

It’s about creating a desire, attractive images that can allure people to buy it” he said. After four years in Aveda, he took a long break and back into creative again.

 

離開Aveda後，Peter花了很多時間跟綠洲樂團一起巡迴，幫他們剪頭髮，甚至參與了專輯封面和MV的製作。「這的確是我美髮生涯中最難忘的經歷，以髮型師的身份加入他們，卻能跟最棒的行銷公司合作，參與在音樂製作的過程中！」

除此之外，在Peter多彩多姿的美髮生涯中，可有著說不完的精彩故事。他曾經一肩扛起世界超模Kate Moss，扛著她搭電梯衝到相片處理部門，只因為Kate Moss從未看過修圖的過程。Peter也曾經搭直升機從里約的海灘趕往機場，穿著夾拖、泳褲，手上拎著塑膠袋，狼狽的出現在頭等艙裡。講著這些故事，Peter下了一句很棒的結論，「時尚界就是每分每秒都在發生瘋狂事！」

 

He toured with the band Oasis for ten years on the north. He even got involved creatively in their videos and album sleeves. “That was one of the most incredible moments as a hairdresser.” Beside this, he also has so much fun time in this industry.

 

“For fashion way is always fun and crazy,” He once put the super model Kate Moss over his shoulder, head down, and carried her down into the retouching department just because Kate Moss has never seen a retouch. “This is fashion, you have memories like that, crazy things happen every day.”

 

There’s also time that he had to take a helicopter from the beach to the airport at Rio because they were running too late to catch the flight and showed up in the first class with flip flop and swimming suit.

 

身為世界知名的髮型師，Peter每隔幾天就得從一個國家飛往另一個城市，「很多時候你真的會很想殺了自己，覺得我何必受這種折磨，例如坐在候機室裡等著10小時後的飛機，但轉念一想，這個世界上有95%的人甚至沒有機會搭乘飛機！這時候我就會知道自己有多麼幸運！」

 

Being a world-known session stylist, Peter travels all day. “It’s an incredible ride. Though sometimes you just want to kill yourself when you have to stay at the airport lounge for 10 hours. Yet, in the other hand, 95% of the world population doesn’t even get to be in the airport lounge. So I take it as a privilege.”

即使很多人說Peter是靠著好運氣爬上世界頂端，但每個跟他共事過的人都知道，Peter絕對是埋首工作的最努力的那一人。正當大部份的人享受著一個月至少八天的假期，這卻是Peter半年加總起來的休假，「我去年一共工作了322天，我從來就不覺得自己只是幸運，當我比別人多努力了100天，兩年下來就領先了將近一整年！幸運是需要靠努力輔助的，還要懂得把握機會，不然再多的運氣也只是徒勞！」

 

Some might say he gets luck to get to where he is now. However, Peter is actually one of the most hard-working hairdressers in the world. “I worked 322 days last year, I wouldn’t say I’m lucky,” he continued, “I try 100 more days than others. In three years, I will be a whole years ahead of somebody else. That’s how lucky I am.” Peter then shared his opinion on luck. “Luck is two thing – preparation and lucky, you put these two together is luck. And you have to be fast to take it or someone else will.”

 

Peter現在加入Moroccanoil的團隊，有著奇妙的合約關係，讓他在工作的同時也保有自己的創作時間，他形容這份很約「有點像開放式關係」，他很享受這種自由又同時能對業界產生影響力的職位，再次重返髮品產業，Peter直言「很具挑戰性，需要花些時間適應，但是能真正實踐自己理想中的美髮環境感覺真的很棒！」

 

Peter is now working with Moroccanoil as a consulting, “It was a challenging environment for me again, I feel like I am so close to the top of the tree (management) that I can actually infect the company and make things happen.”

除了在時尚產業與教育界的成就，Peter最讓人津津樂道的莫過於他在地下髮秀Noise的表演，無論是火燒頭髮或是邀請到全世界年紀最大的模特兒，Peter在Noise的表現可謂不停的在挑戰觀眾極限，「Noise太酷了！酷到你會想要不停地變出新花招讓自己夠格站在那個舞台上！」對於每一場超乎想像的表演，Peter只說：「我不想做別人都在做的事，所以我挑戰以不同的方法完成。平凡只是一個選項，卻絕對不會是我的選擇！」這或許也反映了他對時尚產業如此熱愛的原因，時尚界是一個不停前進的輪子，人們不想看到一樣的東西，所以髮型師必須

 

At every Noise we’ve seen, we kept being surprised by what Peter had achieved. “Noise is just too cool. I don’t want to be the same as others, I want to be the one who do the same thing but in different ways. Normal is already there, why do I want to repeat it?”

 

That also reflect his passion for editorial, “It’s a constantly evolution. People don’t want to see the same, so we must try to involve newest things.”

 

Peter在採訪的最後，以一句話提醒大家身為髮型師是多麼幸運的事，「態度是成敗的關鍵，只要你懂得享受，做美髮每天都是很開心很好玩的！」

 

“In hair industry, every day is fun, you just gotta find it and enjoy it. It’s your attitude that makes a difference.” This is the advice that came from a successful hairdresser to those who are in the same industry.