“Forget about what people say. Your curly hair are just like rock’n’roll, they will never be out of fashion“. That’s one of the first things Alessandro Santopaolo told me when we met. Together with Massimo Bianco he founded ContestaRockHair in Rome in 1996 and now the brand counts on 11 salons between Rome, New York, Miami, Firenze and Shanghai, but this wouldn’t mean that much to me.

The way they are dealing with hair has got so much to do with music, art, photography, in short with life or rather street life. They constantly travel to all their salons and you see they have that feeling, that way of treating people which only genuinely cool guys have. I learnt they invented a new revolutionary cutting technique and I believe it’s true. Still to me Alessandro, Massimo and their whole team have another charm: they are totally unpretentious.

I asked them to select a few pictures they had been taken while working as to show me what mostly attracted their attention, a sort of a Sign o’ the Times story. They sent me all the photos you can see beolow, plus the one on top with the old lady having her hair done one the day of their 20th anniversary. Their first shop opened in Pigneto a then non trendy area of Rome and that’s where they celebrated. The picture above says everything to me and I have a reason to show it today.

ContestaRockHair partnered with Lila – Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro l’Aids an Italian much respected organization which fights against Aids. Today it’s the World Aids Day and ContestaRockHair organized a big event in Rome. If you happen to be there, you can join  Aids is not dead, a night where to enjoy the good music of many different bands while remembering that there are still people suffering from this desease and that condoms remain the best way to prevent its spread. It will start at 6 pm in via Palestro 51, within the Yellow Square area, a block with a top quality hostel, restaurant and bar (plus the ContestaRockHair temporary salon) which turned into a vital centre for kids travelling from all over the world. For the whole month of December it will be possible to get a ContestaRockHair Condom with a minimum 1 euro contribution which will be given to Lila.