Ferruccio Mica
Ferruccio Mica
THE ART OF DOING HAIR
I am a son of art, born on 11/07/1977 in Corneliano d'Alba, a small village in the Roero area, of about 2000 people in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont.
My dad Franco is a great and tireless worker, in fact he was a bricklayer for over 50 years, his strength, tenacity and perseverance passed them all on to me and in fact today these qualities, so rare, I carry within me.
The best memory I have of my dad is when he took me to the first courses to become a hairdresser in Turin, in the various academies I attended he always told me to "go ahead, you're doing well" and never give up, especially faced with very difficult and complicated situations.
My Mom, Maria, on the other hand has been a hairdresser for 52 years of honored career in this sector, together with her twin sister Anna as well as my godmother, they were the ones who made me fall in love with this beautiful and fascinating profession.
After 6 months spent studying at ITIS in Bra, I decided I really didn't like doing all those hours in front of books and that in the end it didn't lead to anything for me, I was really fed up and in addition my grades were really bad, which my parents didn't like it, and God forbid.
So I asked my mum if I could go to her to start working in the shop, and to carry out the first tasks one does when one takes the first steps in this profession.
Back then my mum's clients were all ladies who had seen me grow up, they knew me as a child when I went to play football after school, always before studying.
In fact, in those days I used to go to play in a small square in the village which was a volleyball court but in the end my friends and I didn't care, it was a real meeting place and ball games that lasted until late evening.
Returning to work, my mother absolutely did not want me to learn from her, because at that time (we are talking about the distant 1991) hairdressing schools taught this art very well and she wanted me to learn at all costs outside the context of the shop, to learn completely different techniques and styles from the ones she had learned throughout her career.
So he enrolled me in my first professional hair school in Alba and precisely in the "Promofashion" a school for hairdressers and also beauticians.
I learned the first basics there, it was a purely female environment (in fact I was the only male) as the days and weeks went by I saw in me the difference in work I had compared to the other students and a different ability that fascinated me day after day more and more.
In fact one day when I got home I asked my mother which other school could teach me other cutting and coloring techniques, because I saw that in the school I had just started it wasn't enough for me anymore.
She told me that when she was just 15 she had attended the GARAP academy in Turin, in the beautiful and elegant Galleria Subalpina and precisely on the balcony above the Roman Cinema.
And he had well explained to me that there were some very good and important great masters there and that it was very difficult to enroll so much was the accession to enter.
But I wanted to go at all costs, because I wasn't afraid to confront myself with older people even though at the time I was very shy to the point that in front of some older people than me I even started to stammer, so much emotion I had.
So my mom and dad talked for a while about my situation and made the decision to be able to enroll in this prestigious Academy.
I was thrilled I couldn't wait anymore, I told everyone in the shop I drove them crazy talking about it and my mother and aunt and father saw me happy and cheerful for having made this choice.
We left on 5 February 1992 in the direction of Turin, along the way my mother made me many recommendations, as I think all mothers do to their children, because she was afraid that I would make mistakes and that I would find people who could not help me or who would take me on the bad road.
He was right, in fact I was only 14 at the time and I was still small, let's say so, but in that period there were fewer controls in the city, and it was still seen as a place full of dangers that could come from every corner, but in the end she too saw that it was enough to do the right things and nothing would happen.
And from that day, as soon as I crossed the threshold of the GARAP Academy, I saw a completely different world from the one I was used to with the other school.
There were many more students, I saw the teachers as gods and for me it was all to discover.
They put us in line for registration, we waited a few minutes and then it was my turn, I was anxious and nervous because I had no idea what to expect.
They asked me if I had already attended an academy like theirs and if I was already working, I replied that I had just started working for 1 year and I was a beginner, as soon as I said this the person who was inside the office was amazed and turned to my mom telling him "but you Madam brought us a baby" , this was his statement.
And indeed I was, in fact towards the others I was really a child and this worried me a little, because I had just started with a simple school where they taught you a little bit of everything and only after about 1 year was I already in one of the most important academies of Turin.
In the end they took me and placed me in the 2nd level of preparation, the courses were held every Monday from the morning until the evening, from the beginning of September until the end of May.
I learned many things, during the year I used tools that I didn't know yet and that at the time were revolutionary and that led me to have truly unique results.
I learned to make the first cuts, I remember the first thing done on the Head, it was a bob, which seems easy but it isn't, however at the time it took me 2 hours. Yes, they were difficult times for me, I had never picked up a pair of scissors and making that geometric cut seemed like the hardest thing in this world.
But my stubbornness eventually led me to finish it and after the master step to check all the work done by all of us in that classroom, I was very agitated because I was afraid of negative judgment or that there were big mistakes, instead when he took the model head in my hand and I start to move it in all directions to check the cut well, he saw that I had made far fewer mistakes than my classmates.
I was delighted with the judgment and from that day on my professional life took a different turn, I was realizing that this was what I wanted to do, even though I knew in my heart it would be very tiring and difficult.
The years went by, meanwhile the courses they attended were increasingly frequent and difficult, as I progressed in my work and in my results, the training courses increased hand in hand and consequently the commitments too.
I had a careful care in the hair and in studying the shapes that adapted to the person's face, the attention to detail to bring out the best qualities and at the same time camouflage the defects.
In fact I noticed that by dint of enhancing the face I understood that the client was much more at ease and had no problems when socializing with people because with his hair in order he felt more confident in himself and his image improved towards the others people.
So I started asking a few clients I had selected what compliments he had received and if so, how I could still help him.
At that moment I was taking my first steps in consultancy, which I didn't know what it was, because I saw that clients needed to be listened to and when I asked them questions about what problem they wanted to solve, they answered explaining exactly what they needed.
And in fact, by simply asking customers questions, I saw that they answered me with ever more precise details of their requests.
And I was able to make the work more and more precise, making them more and more beautiful and fascinating in the eyes of the people they frequented, because they received compliments they had never heard before.
In short, it was a valid reason for me to change the way I work and to help all those people who understood the importance of targeted consultancy and to receive a result that allowed them to be more attractive and feminine towards both their husband , companion or lover that is.
So from that moment on my life has totally changed and now my ambitious projects lead me to new horizons that for me and my clients we desire.