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From working with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal and singer Britney Spears to more recently styling the tresses of singer Diana Krall and Miss Universe Stefania Fernandez, Laurentius Purnama has accomplished his wildest dreams.
But his true love — Laurentius Salon, which Philadelphia Magazine dubbed the best in 2008 — was a draw bigger than starlets and chanteuses.
“We feel like all of our hard work really paid off and we were just very, very grateful that we are being received so well in Philadelphia that people recognize that we’re trying to do something different, something out of the box,” he said of his salon at 815 Christian St.
The Fourth-and-Catharine-streets resident worked with Spears for almost three years, styling her hair for multiple covers, including magazines Elle, Glamour and Vanity Fair, in addition to her “In the Zone” album, “Me Against the Music” video with Madonna, as well as her 2004 European tour. At the end of the three-month tour, Purnama had a change of heart.
“I was in the most amazing places in the world, staying in the most amazing hotels,” he said. “We had like two chefs who cooked whatever the hell we wanted. We had a private jet and whatever … I wasn’t enjoying it and I was just realizing ‘you know what? I don’t want to do this the rest of my life.’”
Even with all of the success, Purnama had other goals that included settling down with boyfriend of 14 years, Steve Saunders, and adopting kids.
“Oh my god, that is so not what I’ve wanted to do,” he said of his past inclinations. “My whole life growing up, ‘I want to have three jobs. I want to travel.’ And I got all of that.”
He decided to find permanent work in Philadelphia by opening his own salon, but did not want to follow the crowd to the heart of Center City. Before opening his place, he commuted between two part-time gigs, one in Philadelphia and another at Garren Salon in New York City, where he learned how to run a business, as well as how to freelance. The latter resulted in his styling celebrities and models for magazine covers and advertisements.
Inspired by the Meatpacking District in Manhattan, he searched for the ideal neighborhood with a mix of businesses old and new. While in the post office one day, he saw a copy of the Review, which had a listing for a property near the Italian Market that seemed ideal, he said.
“How do I not think that is my perfect, traditional neighborhood? It was already developed for business. Yes, it’s not my kind of business, but why not? It fit into what I wanted to do — having traditional with modernism and with fashion,” Purnama said of the salon he scaled back work on his well-know clientele for and which won the magazine’s best-of honor less than a year after it opened.
The youngest of six, Purnama grew up in a small village in East Java, Indonesia, and had an interest in hair since a young age when he would tag along to the salon with his mother, Ava Augustina Mijaya.
“I always enjoyed the lifestyle — the beauty salon environment — where everyone’s happy. Everybody’s charming. Everybody came out looking fantastic, so I thought that would be a cool job to have,” he said.
At age 8, he practiced on his older sisters’ dolls, something he tried to hide from his father, Aqus Purnama, he said.
“It’s not a ‘boy thing’ to do, right? I just never had interest to play soccer or my brothers went to karate and I would be like, ‘no, I don’t want to do it,’” he said.
What started out as braiding and bows soon became cutting bobs with bangs and a short military-style ’do he tried to mimic from a woman’s magazine.
“I thought, ‘ooh, that’s a cool look,’ so I start cutting it and you can’t do that with dolls because you end up with polka dot head,” he said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘oh no’ and then my sister started crying and I’m like, ‘that’s it. I’m dead.’”
Years later, his parents are supportive of the fact their son has achieved his lifelong dream.
“When I started in this business, they’re like I’m crazy because nobody in our family ever did anything in fashion or hair or tailoring,” he said. “It’s just completely out of the box. [Now] they’re very proud.”
Purnama took beauty classes in high school before attending the Rudy Hadisuwarno Hairdressing School in Indonesia.
He worked at a salon in Pasadena, Calif., after moving to America at about age 20, but was unsure if he wanted to remain there. He left the West Coast for Philadelphia, where he had met Saunders while visiting a friend.
He had not found the right fit during a job search in the city, but came up with the idea to open his own salon.
“I thought this is my business opportunity,” he said. “I should open a salon that is very high end, yet is very customer-oriented. That is lovely and charming and keeping up really good quality, yet we don’t have to be pretentious to be having a top-class salon.”
He ran into one setback, though.
“I thought, ‘I have no money, so I can’t open a business,’” he said with a laugh. “Financially, we can’t do it, so let me go to New York.”
After learning the tricks of the trade in the Big Apple and traveling the world with Spears, the funds finally were in place. Soon, the three-story apartment building he had purchased when he spotted it in the Review was transformed into a top-notch salon with a glass façade and 10 parking spaces in a lot across the street. And luring people from Center City was not as big a task as he thought.
“Our clients were so mesmerized and so I think most of the reaction was ‘Oh my god, I forgot about the Italian Market,’ They always say that,” he said.
Purnama rounded out his staff of former coworkers and some who had worked at salons in Center City with four other stylists, a colorist and a nail technician. With more than two years in business behind him, the staff no longer has to prove itself. The proof is in keeping the stylish coming back looking for more, including those from Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.
Yet, his group does not aim to change anyone’s personal style, but enhance it. Unless, of course that person wants a complete makeover, Purnama said.
“We’re very open-minded. We’re very respectful to what your style is. We’re not about to try to change your whole thing,” he said.
Contact Staff Writer Amanda Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
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