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Saturday, August 03, 2002

By Cristina Rouvalis, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Hiro Kitayama, the master who straightens some 2,500 heads of hair a year at $800 to $1,000 a pop, was showing the Pittsburgh stylists the way, the hot new Japanese way.

	Hiro Kitayama, right, from Japan by way of California, trains Izzazu stylist Melissa Kalla, left, how to straighten hair the Japanese way. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

"Just Do It Like Nike."

"Work much quicker than Spider-man."

"Get Hyper."

Even with those nudges, it took about five hours for the stylists at Izzazu International Salon Downtown to learn how to transform frizzy hair, curly hair or merely wavy hair into straight hair. Straight-as-a-ruler hair. Cher hair.

And none of the clients was complaining. The $300 special offer for the Japanese Thermal Reconditioning Hair Straightening System was a bargain, compared with $600 to $800 they will probably be charged next time (depending on the length and texture).

Plus, these women were thrilled with their sleek new locks, which are supposed to stay straight four to six months.

"This is unbelievable," said Kelly Lazorchak, a 22-year-old swimsuit model, examining her long blond and just-out-of-the-flatiron hair. "If it can change you like this, it's worth it."

Lazorchak said she would no longer have to spend 30 to 40 minutes a day blow-drying and styling it. "I can never get it this straight," she said.

Featured on "Oprah" and worn by Kelly Ripa on "Live With Regis and Kelly," the straightening method is the rage on both coasts because it lasts longer than most straightening techniques and repairs hair instead of stressing it like most straighteners, say its proponents.

Gino puts the finishing touches on the newly straightened hair of Sandy Glass of Upper St. Clair. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)

Emilio and Gino, the one-name owners of Izzazu, say they are the only ones in town to be trained by Kitayama, who has straightened the locks of Paula Abdul and others at the Beverly Hills salon where he works. Kitayama also will return to Izzazu once or twice a month to straighten hair for $1,000.

But there is no exclusivity agreement on the process, and other salons may be doing it.

Will people in Pittsburgh plunk down $600 to $800 for straight hair? (The touch-up treatment is 10 percent off.)

Emilio, who wears his jet black hair in a ponytail and wants to straighten his waves around his forehead, said it's actually a bargain for those who spend hours blow-drying and flat-ironing their hair.

"If it takes a half-hour or more to blow-dry your hair, you can cut it down to 15 minutes. That saves you 2 1/2 hours a week. That saves you 10 hours a month. Over 4 to 6 months, that is a free weekend. Time is money."

Kitayama, a 22-year-old who was born in Kyoto and trained under the inventor of the treatment, is a whiz who can straighten hair in two hours flat. After they are trained this week, it will take the stylists at Izzazu from 2 1/2 to four hours because of the painstaking process of flat-ironing quarter-inch strands of hair with a small, 355-degree iron after the treatment and proteins are applied.

But why did the Japanese, people with some of the straightest hair on the planet, invent a straightening technique? It's humid there, Kitayama said, and the Japanese hair expands and sticks straight out. The process prevents it from expanding.

Oprah said the new straightening technique doesn't work on African-American women. But Kitayama said he has done many African Americans. He said it will not work for those who have had previously straightened their hair with lye. It also doesn't work for women with very curly hair and highlights.

The more damaged the hair, the less time the solution is left on.

As the women left the salon, Kitayama told them not to wash it for two days and advised them to buy $25 shampoo and $36 Blow Dry Essence and other products.

Emilio knows it's pricey. But no one ever said being beautiful was cheap.

"The value of having weatherproofed and non-frizzy hair is worth every penny."