Sad news, the renowned Gatineau master hairdresser had to close shop at the beginning of June due to health problems. Unable to continue, he closed down his Recherché Concept Coiffure salon, open since 1995 in the former Columbia farm, on Saint-Joseph.
In his case, it really is a forced retirement. At 65, her passion for hairdressing and style remains as strong as ever. If it weren’t for his health, he would have happily continued an adventure that allowed him to rub shoulders with the stars, travel the world and win hairdressing competitions.
“It’s really a big pill to swallow,” he confided in an interview. I love my job as much as the first day. If, tomorrow, a wave of a magic wand could make the pain disappear and put me back on my feet, I would still be here. Sixty-five years is not old, even if I have been doing this job for 48 years…”
Severe back pain
It was his back that gave out. His back which had been causing him problems for several years already. Disc and inguinal herniations have overcome his resistance. He returned to Hull hospital last April, in intense pain, on the verge of apoplexy.
Since then, he has passed a battery of tests, both public and private. But our health system, also on the verge of collapse, is not able to cure it. Not in the short term anyway. Back surgery? To the public, they no longer do it, because of the risk of the patient ending up in a wheelchair, he explains to me.
Renowned hairdresser Yves Briand chats with columnist Patrick Duquette. (Patrick Woodbury/Le Droit)
He is pinning his hopes on another dye-enhanced magnetic resonance scan that could open the door to treatments. “The request has been made to the public since September,” he says. I haven’t had any news since…” Go private? It would go faster, but it’s very expensive, several thousand dollars.
In the meantime, the famous hairdresser, who worked on his feet all his life, gets around these days with a cane. He has to do everything sitting down, even cutting vegetables. If he’s depressed? “I’m not the type to get depressed!”, he says. And we take his word for it, hearing him recount his plans for the future and recounting anecdotes about his career.
Celine or not?
So, did he style Celine Dion or not?
I came across an article from Radio-Canada telling that he and his stylist partner Éva Pontiroli obtained the contract to do the singer’s hair when she came to Gatineau in 2003 for the show Simply Marney.
“The plan was to do Céline’s hair. But at the last minute, her sister did her hair. Céline apologized and told us she had run out of time. We did the hair of the whole crew, the backup singers and everything, and we got paid. Since then, people have been saying that we did Celine Dion’s hair!”
Yves Briand started cutting hair in 1977. At 18, he was already a hair salon manager at Sears. He opened his own salon at age 25. Later, he was recruited by Schwarzkopf, a German hair styling firm. On behalf of this company, he gave training courses across Canada with his colleague Stéphane Drouin. On a personal level, he twice won the Tête en fleurs competition at the Ottawa Tulip Festival, with florist Joël-Marc Frappier.
Yves Briand started cutting hair in 1977. (Patrick Woodbury/Le Droit)
What has changed the most in all these years? “Hairdressing is a spinning wheel. The styles end up returning, but readapted to current tastes. Cutting techniques have evolved. The product range too. You need good products to support the hairdresser’s creativity, otherwise it’s impossible to obtain good results.”
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A contract with the shows Celebrations, at the Casino du Lac-Leamy theater, allowed him to style singers like Jo Bocan or Mario Pelchat. He also organized a big event at the Marché Bonsecours, in Montreal, for the 100th anniversary of Schwarzkopf. “The theme was 10 decades of hairdressing, from 1900 to 2000. Some 500 people attended the event…”
He has always done hairdressing for ladies. “At my salon, it was an eight to nine week wait to get a spot,” he says. When it closed in June, customers and employees left testimonials on its Facebook page. More than his past achievements, his sense of humor and his kindness were praised. “You made me feel good and beautiful,” someone wrote.
After the salon closed, members of his team, Ramon Pacheco, Carole Raymond and Nathalie Desjardins joined another salon. “Ramon reserved a place for me in case I came back,” says Yves Briand.
He doesn’t yet know what he will do. It will depend on the health system. About his body’s ability to overcome pain. He loves plants, flowers, landscaping. Unable to get his hands in the ground himself, he thought about sketching gardens and offering the plans to his former clients.
At 65, her passion for hairdressing and style remains as strong as ever. (Patrick Woodbury/Le Droit)
Are you an artist, Mr. Briand?
“Totally,” he replied. To be a hairdresser, you have to have a love of beauty, the ability to balance things. A haircut is never ugly in itself. It simply has to go with the shape of the figure.”
He also told me that if he could have done Celine Dion’s hair in 2003, he would have arranged her hair differently. The diva was blonde at the time. “I would have made her something beautiful!” he said, with a mischievous smile.
