Fashion 88 : Uppercuts: $100-and-Up Prices Are Not Unusual for Those Groomed at the Top

“Hair is strength,” says actress Sydney Walsh as she watches bits of her own fall to the floor. Forty-five minutes later, her naturally curly locks are the way she likes them: long, straight and silky. Her face is framed with fetching bangs and little side wisps. It’s a classic cut--with a $100 price tag.

Welcome to Los Angeles, city of angels and heavenly hair styles, where the $100-and-up cut has taken hold.

Among practitioners, there’s Joe Torrenueva, who’s pretty sure he’s “the most expensive barber in the world.” Working out of a classy, wood-paneled salon in the Sunset Plaza area, he provides a virtually all-male clientele with the house specialty: $115 cuts.

Jose Eber is the man many consider responsible for the three-digit trend. Author of “Shake Your Head, Darling” and Elizabeth Taylor’s latest hair style, he owns several salons, including one in Beverly Hills, where his fee is $125. But for $40, he gives a 5- to 15-minute consultation and sends the client off to a stylist, who cuts for $45 to $60.

Cristophe, proprietor of a salon in Beverly Hills, is the man in charge of Walsh’s tresses. “He’s the best. No one has ever taken such good care of my hair,” says the “Hooperman” TV series regular. “He has such finesse when he cuts. The shape is always there.”

And she can count on Cristophe, who has cascading locks of his own, not to get scissor happy: “I always had short hair when I was young. My mother thought it would grow stronger and thicker that way,” says Walsh, smiling through long wet strands that are being precision trimmed. “I used to say: ‘I want down hair, Mom, down hair.’ ”

Cristophe moved from $75 to a higher bracket about a year ago, because, he explains, “I only have so many hours in a day.”

He is perfectly aware “people expect me to perform for that $100.” Along with good looks, a charming French accent and a friendly manner, he produces cuts calculated to survive on their own for six weeks. Between visits, his clients supposedly can blow dry their hair “in 15 minutes and get it right. They’re not dependent on me.”

That’s one plus mentioned by all the high-cost hair stylists. They don’t offer anything as extraordinary as gold shears, flowing champagne, baby-sitting services or valet parking. But you can have a shoeshine along with unlimited free candy and pretzels at Joe Torrenueva’s, for example.

There’s also the promise of no waiting. No cookie-cutter styles. No extremes. That leaves classic, versatile cuts--intended to work miracles on age, attitude and image while taking into consideration facial features, personality and life style. (Don’t wear Chanel if you’re really a blue jeans person when you first visit Cristophe. He’ll cut for Chanel, he says, unless you tell him otherwise.) And definitely no slip of the scissors to make a person weep all the way home.

Frequently, it’s the memory of past disasters that keeps patrons loyal, no matter how high the price goes. Actress Catherine Bach, for example, remembers a rock ‘n’ roll haircut she accidentally acquired before she met Angelo diBiasi, style director at Umberto in Beverly Hills.

“It was a pretty unusual haircut for an actress. I looked like I was trying to audition for a part with Twisted Sister. It was short on top, short on the sides and down to my waist in back. Angelo came to see me about a photo shoot. He was very kind, nice, supportive. He blew it out so it looked really good that day.”

Two years later, she’s a DiBiasi regular, getting one of his $110 cuts about every two months.

“I don’t think you can spend too much money on the basic you,” she says. “I’d rather pay for one good cut in the same way I’d rather have one nice dress instead of 20 dog dresses, and one good pair of jeans instead of a whole lot that don’t fill the bill.”

But she does know women “who cut their own hair. They can afford not to, but they do it so someone won’t victimize them in a sense.”

DiBiasi divides his time between the salon, movie locations and house calls. When he’s in town, he drops by Wallis Annenberg’s three times a week at 8 a.m. to do her hair and makeup for the day. Twice a week he goes by Ginny Mancini’s to take care of her hair. If he’s on location, he flies back to the salon once a month and fills the day with appointments.

Umberto colleague Bruce Wayne has his own celebrity clientele and prices to match. He’ll do “an easy cut” for $60. Special cuts run $100 to $1,000.

He has “a good eye,” and his own way of changing the way someone looks: “I’ll make fun of you. I figure your best friend won’t say it, but that’s what I’m here for.”

Brigitte Nielsen is a client; so is ex-husband Sylvester Stallone (and Stallone’s double), along with “all of Sly’s girlfriends. I try to make sure no two come in at the same time,” says Wayne, a tall, jovial man in mismatched high-tops, who works in semiprivacy on the balcony level.

Below is Juan Florentino’s station. Actress Kimber Sissons, who appears in a Spuds MacKenzie Bud Light commercial, says she wouldn’t go to anyone else, even though Florentino has progressively increased from $35 to $100 for a cut: “I’ve had such bad experiences. Once I was turned into a platinum blonde--on location.” When Florentino convinced her to wear shorter hair, she says “I couldn’t believe I sat here and watched it all fall off. But it helped get me work. At the time, every blonde in the business had long hair.”

Model Julie Smith goes to $100 Carrie White at Menage a Trois in Beverly Hills. She tells a similar story: “When I found Carrie, it was magic. I’m working a lot more since she gave me this cut.”

White, back from early retirement (“I was living in Malibu and barely brushing my own hair”), says she used to get $2,000 for one film haircut, so $100 seems “fair.” Along with celebrities like Anne Archer, she creates looks for “people from Pasadena to Venice Beach. I really have a mixed clientele.”

She books on the hour, with one woman arriving as another leaves. “I don’t have a pileup. Time is also money. Clients like Betsy Bloomingdale have a schedule that demands efficiency.”

Her youngest customer is a 2-year-old boy. He gets a $75 haircut, but White doesn’t think that should raise any eyebrows: “Some people pay $350 for a bow just because it’s Chanel,” she argues.

Dressed in a black leotard, tights and a long tulle skirt, she looks like an energetic ballet mistress. In truth, she likes to do more than just hair: “I try to start at the top and fill their heads with good thoughts and get off on spiritual planes.

“I always say the hair is free,” she quips, “but the personality is expensive.”

As far as barber Torrenueva is concerned, “A man can wear an $800 suit and $200 shoes, but if he’s got a $5 haircut, he doesn’t make it.”

Clients run the gamut, from Aaron Spelling, Robert Wagner, Zubin Mehta, Kirk and Michael Douglas to the finance manager of a Thousand Oaks car dealership and “a couple of housewives. While he’s snipping away, Torrenueva will talk about anything from politics and family matters to cosmetic surgery and balding remedies.

One famous client doesn’t have much to work with: “He only has hair on the sides,” Torrenueva explains. “A lot of people would say, ‘Why bother to come in?’ But a regular barber would clip the sides and he wouldn’t look good. When he leaves me, you wouldn’t notice he’s shy on top. He just looks handsome. It’s the balance. If a man has large ears, I can make them look smaller. If he has a large nose, I can make it look smaller just by the distribution of the hair and the way it’s brushed.”

When Jose Eber changed the distribution of Georgia Holt’s hair several years ago, “people thought I’d had a face lift,” swears the author of “Star Mothers” and mother of Cher.

Eber’s loyal followers, male and female, say he’s amazing, a miracle, a genius. He has his own point of view: “I consider myself artistic.”

His thinks his price tag is “quite reasonable because of my reputation. I don’t do trims. I spend a good 45 minutes on the cutting and it lasts at least six weeks,” he says. “When you divide it, darling, that’s nothing for looking great for six weeks.”

Then there’s the way it stacks up against other luxuries. “You can spend $50 on a meal in a restaurant. You eat, you gain weight and that’s it,” he sighs from beneath his straw hat. “You know how important hair can be? It can make you look 300% better.”