Proprietors Robert Wilson and Matt Tully are looking for clients who want
more than just a little off the top. They love doing out-of-town
folks--Britney Spears' dancers came in for late-night drinks, hair coloring,
and a cathartic bitch session--because, as Wilson says, "They won't be
coming back, and I can really do my best work." This is not a threat from
some kind of loose-cannon stylist, because he and Tully can take the
plunge into "creative" without drowning in "tacky." Still, they often find that
people looking for high-fashion cuts in Dallas skew to a conservative range
of two or three looks. They make annual visits to hair shows and seminars
with top cutters in Europe, and return itching to introduce the locals to
something different. Sounds a little scary, until you sit down and talk with
Wilson or Tully and realize that their brains contain a 1,000-page flip book
of contemporary and classic cuts. It's not that they want to try something
fresh for the sake of freshness alone--they won't make you the guinea pig
for some au courant Czech crackhead's new style goof--but they want
to try something new for you. In other words, their first goal is a client's
attractiveness. Let their restless imagination be your reward, and once you
become a regular, ask them about the monthly Saturday night "hair events"
they host in their Deep Ellum salon. 

Readers' Choice: Hairs the End

Gwyneth Paltrow gave an interview this year in which she shuddered at the
thought of having her hair look like "Dallas hair." It was a reaction
against that big, lacquered, rich-matron look that some have defended as a
proud cause. Robert Wilson and Matt Tully, who recently opened Deep Ellum's
new hair hut Hair's the End, tend to be down with Gwinnie on this one. To
Wilson and Tully, too many wealthy and middle-class Dallasites simply aren't
up on the seasonal changes of hair styling, and too many of the city's
"top," jaw-droppingly expensive stylists are hucksters, peddling bloated
reputations rather than skills to customers who simply haven't been educated
about their options. Dallas hair services are overpriced, they insist, and
many of the most famous cutters will talk their clients out of new looks,
claiming that they wouldn't flatter the clients when the fact was the
stylists simply didn't know how to deliver. The waiting list to get into
Hair's the End is about two weeks. We can testify that the dynamic duo were
able to move a large clientele almost whole from their respective former
businesses because they are talented, knowledgeable, reasonably priced, and
extremely passionate about rescuing the "Dallas look." Wilson and Tully fly
all over the country to take classes with some of America's top stylists,
and they're bringing their wisdom back to anybody who desires it. Schedule
an appointment, and prod them to talk about their vision for Dallas hair (it
ain't difficult); you'll come away one of the faithful.