Defying the Odds: The Incredible Life of Sergio Slavnov - From Unwanted Child to Celebrity Hair Stylist and the Rise of Avenue Man
For over 20 years, Sergio Slavnov has served as one of the most gifted men’s hairstylists in New York City. His clients include some of the world’s top models and quite a few celebrities, too. We met with him earlier this year during the Avenue Man Time Square billboard story shoot and learned about his childhood, how he taught himself to cut hair, how he started his hair product company and the celebrities who sought him out.
Hello Sergio, thank you for joining us this afternoon.
It’s lovely to be here, thank you for having me.
Thank you for providing me questions beforehand. So, I’ve prepared my written answers since it’s my first interview, I didn’t have enough time to prepare and I’m not good at improvising.
Sergio, I’ve read your short biography on the website of your hair product company Avenue Man. I found it fascinating and I’d like to look deeper in the history of such a success. You are one of the most expensive hairstylists in New York City, charging around 250 dollars for men’s haircut. So, when did you start your hairstyling business? Was it a family business?
Oh no, certainly not. I was born as a Ukrainian in the former Soviet Union to a family of a military doctor and lived in different parts of the country, including modern Ukraine and Russia.
My childhood became very unhappy when I lost my mother at the age of 6. My father, who had already divorced my mother three years before, was forced to take me into his new family because of his military career. I was treated as an unwanted child; my father and my stepmother didn’t want to spend money on me or show me any parental love.
One of the most unpleasant childhood memories I have is when my father would send me to barbershops where I would get the cheapest military haircuts available. My forehead is just too big for short haircuts, so when I got out of the chair, in my view, I looked like Charlie Brown. At the age of 12, after these haircuts, I would pretend to be sick for a couple of weeks to skip school until my hair grew a little bit. As a result, I started cutting my own hair at the age of 13. To learn how to do it, I picked up books from the Hair Styling Academy and studied them. Longer hair styles were popular, and some of my schoolmates asked me to cut their hair as well.
At the age of 16, I was making enough money by cutting my schoolmates’ hair, so I got my own apartment, began wearing nicer clothes, and started my own independent life.
It sounds like this difficult situation with your father helped you to become a successful hair stylist?
When you learn your beloved craft at the early age, it is often a sign of future success. Since my father and stepmother were both oppressive and abusive, they built up a lot of insecurities in me.
After I got my independence, successfully finished high school and the Hairstyling Academy, I started winning competitions, including one international. I knew my life was moving in the right direction, and I felt my deceased mom would approve as she seemed to be guiding me from the heavens. Over the years, I have come to forgive my father and stepmother, as they unknowingly forced me into successful hairstyling business, and moreover, my childhood insecurities are still producing a constant striving for perfection in everything I do.
After winning competitions, what came next?
For a few years, I was working with Soviet celebrities, including the most popular boys’ bands of that time: Laskoviy Mai and Na Na and of course I also worked in the top hair salons.
Yet I always felt that in the United States, I would get more freedoms, including artistic freedom, because life in Soviet Union was gloomy despite my outgoing success.
When did you first arrive in the US?
At the first opportunity, at the age 24, I travelled to New York as a tourist, liked what I saw, and asked for political asylum.
What was your first job in hairstyling after coming to the USA?
In one year, I was already working in a pretty nice hair salon in West Village, while also cutting hair in my own private home studio to make more money.
One day, one of the world-famous celebrities, Neil Sedaka, came to my studio. He appreciated the privacy and the way I did his hair. At the time, I didn’t know who he was and gave him a discount since all musicians I met in New York usually didn’t make much money. He loved that.
The next day, he sent his Rolls-Royce to pick me up so I could style his hair for one of biggest US TV shows, and I realized how successful musician he was. It all resulted that I started travelling around the US and the world shaping Neil’s hair before concerts.
Neil and I had a very good chemistry and quickly developed a close relationship. Since we did everything together while on the road, I felt I had a life of celebrity as well. Sometimes we would travel in private jets, stayed in presidential suits, dined in the best local restaurants. During the trips, we would play tennis, or ski, or visit museums, and, on the days-off, we would go to the theater.
Other celebrity connections would soon follow: Celine Dion, Debby Reynolds, Tony Curtis, Judge Judy, Dionne Warwick, Siegfried and Roy, just the name a few. However, between trips, I continued working with mostly younger clientele in my New York private studio creating different and fun hair styles. Also, I would work on photoshoots and fashion shows.
Did you find working with celebrities difficult?
No, I was lucky. Every celebrity I met or worked with was very nice. One day, John Reid, Elton John’s former manager, came to my studio for a haircut. At that time, Elton John was performing in New Jersey and John Reid invited my ex-wife Deborah and me to his concert. After the concert, we went backstage to meet Elton. He was very welcoming, really liked me, and asked if I can do his hair on his travels. As a result, I ended up doing hair on the road for Neil Sedaka and Elton John.
What can you tell us from your time working with Neil and Elton?
I am honored to have travelled with these incredible music giants. I was quite good-looking in my twenties and thirties, and both had a crush on me. So, when your boss is treating you with high degree of admiration, a lot of time trips would become very exciting. Basically, living a celebrity life on the road, I often feel as I was in paradise, especially in contrast to my miserable childhood.
Who had bigger impact on your life, Neil Sedaka or Elton John?
I would have to say Neil Sedaka. We travelled all over the US and all over the world for over 15 years, sometimes three times a month. We got so close that he even dedicated a whole album and one of his hit songs to me.
Can you tell me the name of the album and the song?
Since I really like classical music and any time we were in the city with a philharmonic or opera house, I asked Neil to go to the concert. As a teenager, he studied piano at Julliard music school in New York, and he was amused that I had a stronger interest in classical music than him.
So, he dedicated the album to me and called it “Classically Sedaka.” As for the song, Neil called it “You”, because, in his words, I changed his life from lonely and boring to bright and happy. He was so close to me that he even invited me to the recording of the song to see how I liked it. Actually, I ended up advising him to add strings to some parts of orchestration that I now can hear it in the recording. I’m very honored when Neil performed this song around the world, and this song would always get standing ovations.
Neil had the biggest impact on me in the US, I learned so much from him that I consider him the most important adult in my life.
After my son George arrived in New York at the age of 13, I became a single dad, and I pretty much stopped travelling. However, we are still good friends with Neil, we meet from time to time for branches or dinners. I periodically stay in his apartment while visiting Los Angeles. I was honored when Neil came to my wedding and made it more special by performing his hit songs.
He was very happy when I started my own hair product company. By the way, as a matter of support, he changed words of his hit song “Laughter in the Rain” into Avenue Man lyrics. You can check it out on our website avenueman.com.
How was your experience with Elton John?
Well, it was just wonderful! In all the years I knew him, he never said ‘no’ to me: if I or my friends wanted to make a picture with him, or get an autograph, or get free tickets to his concerts or his Broadway shows, he always obliged. But most importantly I am honored to know him and to have had the opportunity to work with him, and to be admired by him. When I was in his company, I felt that I was dealing with a superhuman. He radiates amazing energy and wisdom.
After all of your travels, do you have a favorite city?
Well, in addition to New York, I’d have to say London. The theatre scene, arts and museums, dining. At this moment, it’s the only city I could see myself living in besides New York.
Do you still tour and style for the stars?
Not so much anymore. Since I became a single dad, I stopped travelling and started building successful solo business, dedicating my attention to modern clientele with longer hairstyles. Sometimes I still work with world-famous stars. For example, this week I cut and styled hair for Richie Sambora
However, most of my customers now are between age 17 and 33. They are financiers and software engineers followed by doctors, lawyers, students, and artists. Since most of them have longer hair styles, they need to come only once in 2-3 months. Barbershops short haircuts usually require visiting every 3 weeks, so when my customers come to me, they definitely save time and maybe even money, despite my prices being over 200 dollars.
Do you miss life on the road?
Well, it was certainly great in my 20s and 30s but I’m happy where I’m now. So, in the last few years of travel the life on the road became difficult. I’m a big city guy, and I always enjoyed cities like London, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, etc., but smaller towns, especially in the United States, became unbearably boring. It is not much to do, no museums, no theatres, no good night clubs. I would walk empty streets, overthinking and calling my friends in New York telling them how much I was suffering from the boredom.
Now I don’t have the constant shifts in mood I did back then. I’m super busy with creating fantastic hair styles for my clients and producing fascinating photo and video content for my hair product company.
Avenue Man has a team of 10 people, and with three of them I spend about 4 hours on zoom calls almost every day. I feel that my Avenue Man team is my extended family. No time to be bored or to do overthinking. Despite of the fact that I work about 18 hours almost every day, I consider last few years one of the best chapters in my career.
What do you find the most rewarding in your work as a hair stylist?
I get excited when properly chosen hairstyles turn some of my customers into models or Hollywood stars, especially if they would agree to embrace something more than ordinary. It is very rewarding when I hear that my creation of a new look is a life-changer to them. I’m good at taking photos when it comes to striking haircuts. Some of my customers would use them for the dating sites. As a result, some of them are already got married. One customer told me that he had no a girlfriend before I changed his look, now he has more girls interested in him then he can handle.
I’m really honored when my customers come from different states to see me for haircuts. Of course, they usually would build other events around the haircut like see the shows, visiting friend or family. If you want to see my creations, I have hundreds of photographs of my customers posted on my Instagram account @bestmenshaircutsnyc. Also, I enjoy recording my most interesting haircuts. I got over 20 million views on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram reels. Transformational haircuts from very long beautiful hair to short are most popular. One of them got over 11 million of views.
Next rewarding element of my hair styling business is that some of my clients became very close to me. I’ve been cutting hair in New York for over 25 years and I still have some customers who came to me in the very beginning of my New York career. Some of them would come every month, and we chat about different aspects of life during haircuts. As a result, a few became really close friends of mine. Since I don’t have any family in the USA besides my son, I always appreciate advice especially from my older wise customers. I treat them like my relatives. Sometimes we even go to the theater or dinners. By now, some of my older customers have already passed away. For three of them I was so significant that they put my name in their wills among relatives and close friends. I’m very honored to receive such a gesture.
Lastly, I’m very happy to be my own boss and work in a private studio where I can choose my own music, lighting and décor. My customers really appreciate privacy, one-to-one treatment like with a psychologist in spacious area compared with usual tight and noisy environment in typical New York City salons. I really don’t like to rush with my haircuts. I usually allocate 1 hour 15 minutes to each creation. For models’ and complicated haircuts, I allocate 1 hour 30 minutes. As a result, I cut hair about 8 hours a day and work on my hair product company another 6 hours with one day off.
Isn’t it too much work?
Yes, but I’m very excited to grow my hair product company to be very successful and profitable. We are still in investment stage, so at least half of the money from haircuts goes to Avenue Man development. But soon I’m planning to have more extra time off.
I see on your schedule at haircutsbysergio.com that you normally booked 10 days ahead. What if the customer cannot wait that long? Is it any option for him?
I don’t like to say “no” to my customers, so there is an option for urgent haircuts. They need to pay more and I would take them even at 11 pm, but not in the morning hours, as I’m a night owl!
Promotions is key for any product-driven brand. I see that you are an absolute leader when it comes to men’s grooming photography and videography. You have extensive media created for Avenue Man, what’s your favorite advertising pieces you produced so far?
Narrowing it down to one is difficult. Honestly, three pieces come to mind; Swan Lake inspired our ballet advertisement featuring two dancers doing some mid-dance hairstyling. Also, we have a stunning acrobat ad, featuring an extremely talented Cirque Du Soleil gymnast. Lastly, I love our underwater commercial However, most profitable video commercials are our hairstyling tutorials performing by models. If you search on Amazon “hair mousse for men” or “hair spray for men” you’ll see mostly our video tutorials for those men’s products.
How you find your amazing models?
On Instagram mainly, or through photographers that I know and work with. I often turn some of my customers into models. What can I say? They have such great hair, know the brand, and are usually happy to get in front of the camera. Sometimes I work with the model agencies.
What is your favorite male model you worked with?
It’s hard to say, because I find all my models pretty awesome. But Corrado Martini is probably my favorite one since he resonates with one of the very famous actors from the days when I was very young.
When I was in middle school, I saw the movie Death in Venice by Luchino Visconti based on Thomas Mann’s novella. Corrado reminds me of a brunette version of Tadzio, played by Björn Andrésen, because they have similar long hairstyles, popular at that time and coming back again. Following the Cannes Film Festival, Björn Andrésen received international headlines as “the most beautiful boy in the world.” So, he was an idol for many young guys at that time. His look was one of the reasons why I stopped going to barber shops and started cutting my own hair. Additionally, images of Corrado Martini and Björn Andrésen make me think of Renaissance paintings that impacted me from early age and until now influence my work.
I agree with some film historians that certain images of Andrésen, and in my view of Corrado, "could be hung on the walls of the Louvre or the Vatican".
Also, Corrado photographs were the first choice to be published by GQ, Vouge and Vanity Fair when we started working with those magazines
What are your methods and techniques in cutting hair?
I mostly use texturing scissors for my long and medium haircuts. You can see my haircut and hair styling videos on my Instagram Reels, You Tube and TikTok channels. Of course, if needed, I use clippers, razors and straight scissors. I like the artistic freedom I can achieve by using texturing scissors while working men’s longer hair styles.
As I mentioned earlier, I was heavily influenced by 90s longer men’s hairstyles. I bought and studied all Versace’s and alike photography books and happy that this era of fashion is back lately. I feel like I returned to my youth. It is reflected not only in my haircuts but also in photography and videography I produce to promote my hair product company. Also, I continue to learn different techniques from other top hair stylists around the world by watching their haircutting videos on Instagram, You Tube and TikTok channels.
How you did you decide to start your hair product company?
Since I stopped travelling with celebrities, I dedicated more my services to men looking for longer hairstyles. In my view, the US barbershops tend to specialize in short quick haircuts for men, and beauty salons are devoted typically to women. Also, I noticed that most of hair products on my work station have a feminine look since hair product industry overlooked the needs of men with longer hairstyles.
Additionally, in the last few years, men become more interested in sophisticated looks. My customers often ask what hair products I would recommend. So, in 2019, I decided to open my own hair product company to fill that niche. It is a very difficult journey, mostly because I have so much work and not enough time to sleep.
However, I’m happy to conclude that our sales usually double every year with over 40 million impressions so far of our advertisements on Amazon alone. We regularly introduce new products to our inventory, recently started a new hair product line Avenue Lady, and what is really exciting, we attracted interest of GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour and other fashion magazines.
This April, we have our video advertising premiere on Times Square digital billboard; you can see our Brand Story “How to Become an Avenue Man Model” on our website avenueman.com. So, anyone who is interested, can buy our products and submit a video review, and maybe this customer can become the next Avenue Man model on Times Square billboard.
Does it happen to you when you see somebody and think “If I could give him a better haircut, he would look like a model”
All the time! In fact, as I’ve said above, I turned a lot of my customers into models. For example, see this picture I turned the average-looking guy into Versace model.
I am constantly inspired by the potential for transformation through beauty and style – the ability to make a positive impact on people's lives by helping them to find their look.
If you could wake up as anyone, who would you wake up as?
I would like to wake up back at the age of 25, and with the financial success and influence of world-famous hair stylist Vidal Sassoon. If I ever achieve even just a fraction of his fortune, I would produce even more photo or video sessions to beautify the world.
Also, I would open model agencies in the centers of fashion like New York, London and Paris, and I would pay at least 5,000 dollars a month to the models if I find them worthy. It is a well-known fact that models have inconsistent income and often suffer from financial troubles, especially male models. I’d also would encourage them to pursue education, and I’d contribute to their academic expenses, recognizing that the modeling profession tends to have a short lifespan. A lot of former models cannot find comfortable place in their lives without college degree after they’ve aged.
And if I have any money left after that, I would support arts like opera, ballet, museums, etc. Style, beauty, and the arts have always been my true passions, and throughout my life, I’ve tried to promote these areas and would love to do more.
If there’s a message you could give to a young aspiring hairstylist, what would that message be?
It is good not to be too comfortable. Since my childhood, I’ve always had a need to grow. That’s one of the reasons why I’m so happy now. After winning all possible hairstyling competitions, working on fashion shows and with celebrities, I created a hair product company that gives me the endless opportunities to create amazing styling ideas, work with the most beautiful or interesting models around the world and engage with very talented photographers, movie directors, and videographers.
What I’ve admired since my youth – Renaissance paintings, Roman and Greek sculptures, Versace books and fascinating fashion commercials – I’m able to do it myself now for some extent. I believe that helped me to be a better hairstylist than ever. So, my message to the young hairstylist or any stylist is – follow your dreams; try to grow in whatever you do, learn from everything you experience, even the hardships; and never become too comfortable with what you’ve achieved.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!
Live the life you’ve imagined!
Avenue Man Hair Products Celebrates
Four Year Anniversary!
Sergio In LA With Production Crew During Photo And Video Campaign
