Houston hair-care mogul doesn't split hairs over Trump friendship
Joy Sewing
Houston Chronicle
When Farouk Shami visited the set of ABC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” several years ago, Donald Trump wanted his professional opinion.
“What do you think of my hair?” Trump asked Shami, founder of Houston-based Farouk Systems, a manufacturer of professional hair-care products.
“I don’t like your color,” Shami said.
Trump defended his odd, orangey-yellow mane and, as the world knows, never did change the color. But he did pluck a product from Farouk’s line that Farouk said he still uses to this day: CHI Helmet Head Extra Firm Hair Spray.
In that way, Houston is partly responsible for the elaborately swept side-do that has become Trump’s trademark.
Shami, 73, is happy that Trump, a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, likes his hair spray. But he wishes Trump would use his hair dye, too.
Trump’s hair “needs more depth,” says the businessman. “It’s light blond and needs to be medium blond.”
The two men have known each other for a dozen years. They met when Farouk Systems became a minor sponsor of the Miss Teen, Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, then owned by Trump and NBC.
Farouk Systems eventually took over title sponsorship, providing the contestants with back-stage stylists and the CHI line of products.
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But last year, Shami withdrew sponsorship of the pageants and “Celebrity Apprentice” after Trump made disparaging remarks about Hispanics.
“I have 2,000 employees who are Mexican,” said Shami, a Palestinian-American. “I had to take up for them.”
Shami renewed his sponsorship to the pageants in December when the Miss Universe Organization was sold to entertainment company WME/IMG.
In spite of the controversy, the relationship between the two men hasn’t changed.
“Our differences were of opinion, but we are still friends and remain respectful,” Shami said. “I think a lot of what he says is campaign rhetoric. I don’t believe he means it.”
Not everyone is so diplomatic.
Helen Perry, a corporate and personal image consultant who worked with former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, said politicians and political candidates should look “approachable and identifiable.”
No one can identify with Trump’s hair, Perry said. “It’s so contrived and unnatural. A wind storm wouldn’t even move it.”
Cerón, one of Houston’s top hair stylists, suspects that Trump loads on the hair spray to camouflage a thinning mane.
“I think he uses a dry shampoo to keep it like that,” Cerón speculated. “His hair is so thin, I’m sure when it’s wet he only has one strand of hair.” Short hair on Trump, Cerón said, would be “adorable.”
Source: www.houstonchronicle.com