Can a Haircut from Melissa Parizot Really Change Your Life?
Posted posted on July 22, 2025
On This Week's Episode:
Can a great haircut actually transform your confidence and identity? Celebrity hairstylist Melissa Parizot, owner of the renowned IGK salon, joins the Give Good Face podcast with Dr. Anthony Rossi to explore the powerful intersection of beauty, hair, and self-expression.
From giving Hailey Bieber and Sofia Richie signature chops to helping Bad Bunny craft a Met Gala look, Melissa shares her journey from a New Jersey salon apprentice to one of the most sought-after stylists in the world. But beyond the hype, this is a story about trust, technique, longevity, and knowing your worth—even when Reddit’s talking. They discuss the emotional impact of a haircut, the role hair plays in shaping identity, the importance of trust in client relationships, and how social media is redefining beauty standards.
Guest Bio:
Melissa Parizot is a renowned hairstylist and entrepreneur with over 16 years of industry experience. Based in New York City, she is a partner at IGK Salon and is preparing to launch a new luxury salon on the Upper East Side. Known for her precision and celebrity clientele, Melissa has a six-month waitlist for appointments.
Episode Transcript:
MELISSA PARIZOT: I'm going to give you a good haircut and I'm going to give you good styling.
DR. ROSSI: Give me some of your tips for your clients. How do you maintain healthy hair?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Anywhere from 8 to 12 haircuts in a day, I run a business while doing that. I've seen people go from like having a really down and out sort of somber attitude. Getting a great haircut changes their whole, you know, aura. I try to focus a lot on what your hair naturally looks like, what it's naturally going to do, and then enhancing that.
DR. ROSSI: How do you say no to a client? Because I've always wanted platinum blonde hair, and my mom consistently has said no to me every time.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Having grown up the way that I did, where I did, the fact that somebody would even pay me that much money for a haircut in today's world is like astonishing to me. I go home, and I'm like, oh my God.
DR. ROSSI: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Give Good Face. I'm Dr. Anthony Rossi. And today, I am so excited and also a little nervous, actually, because I have Melissa Parizot here. She is a world-famous hairstylist. “Melissa Will Cut You.” That's your name, right? I love that name. It's funny, right? It's great.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think it perfectly depicts my personality, too. Melissa is a sweet name.
DR. ROSSI: Yes.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But then I have a pretty sharp personality. So I think it embodies that for sure.
DR. ROSSI: I actually have this thing that if I was ever on The Real Housewives or if I was ever a real housewife or house husband, my tagline would be like, “I love lasers, but I'll cut a B.”
MELISSA PARIZOT: Okay.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. So I feel like…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, I think this is yours.
DR. ROSSI: Okay.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I love that. Awesome.
DR. ROSSI: So I'm so excited to have you here because you are a world-renowned hairstylist, and I grew up in a family of hairdressers and hair salon owners. Both of my parents are hairdressers. My uncle is a hairdresser. My cousins are. I feel like Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. And for the longest time, I thought I would be a hairstylist too because that's what I grew up in. So can you just tell me a little bit about your background and tell us all?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. So I went to high school in New Jersey and the conversation about where we're going to go after high school came up. And I didn't grow up with a family that went to college or anything like that. So picking up a trade felt like the more natural thing to do. And then I thought I'd figure it out after I did this thing. Go to beauty school, learn how to do your hair and makeup, and then figure it out from there.
I started working at a hair salon in New Jersey, and it was a pretty high-end hair salon. And so it was the first time I really thought that there could be a career in doing hair because I saw people that had families and kids and were supporting a lifestyle doing hair. So I still wasn't convinced that I would do hair.
I decided to move to New York to make enough money to go to college and then figure it out. Through that, I would say I learned that the lifestyle that I wanted wasn't through a college education. It was actually through applying myself to my work.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. And your craft. I mean, you love it. You're devoted to it. It's a calling and it's an art form.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It is. It's a little bit of everything. I get to be creative. I get to use my sense of business and I get to talk to people and be personable. I'm like the therapist, I'm the artist, all the things that a person needs for the hour that they have me. So it's pretty fun.
DR. ROSSI: It's really true. So I grew up with my parents going to their hair salon and I would see how they would interact with their clients. And for me, it was wild because their clients would tell them these deep, dark secrets. They would unleash all their frustrations about the day and vent, or also celebrate too. The hair salon is this area where people come together. It's very communal.
So I grew up seeing that and seeing how much my parents affected other people's day-to-day living. And I was like, wow, that's amazing. So I felt like it was a natural inclination to gravitate towards that. But they wanted me to find my own path. But I didn't go so far. I went to dermatology, which is like an extension of…
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's an extension. You know, I've learned that what we do is so similar because people come to you and they bring a concern or they bring something that they want to celebrate. And then your goal is to kind of figure out how to help them through whatever it is that they're struggling with. The emotions kind of mix with the identity. So I think that's something you've probably learned and I've learned as well, that it's beyond the face. It's beyond the hair. It's a really personal experience.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. And sometimes it feels very surface. But for the most part, you're like, no, I'm tapping into something.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. It's transformative. I've seen people go from having a really down and out sort of somber attitude. Getting a great haircut changes their whole demeanor. It changes their whole aura. I agree. I've seen clients from being single to having a boyfriend, to getting engaged, to getting married, to having their baby. It's pretty incredible to be on that journey.
And I have so many clients that have been with me for 10 years. They've rode the wave with me from having open availability to having no availability. And it's pretty incredible to feel like people are still loyal to me, even though I charge more money or I'm less frequently available. So it's really special.
DR. ROSSI: Well, it's a testament to you, who you are, your personality, your talent, and what you're giving.
So there's actually so many questions I want to ask you. And people have been asking me to ask you questions too because in the industry, it's not easy to break in. Just like in dermatology or plastic surgery, no one knows you at the beginning. So how do you go from working in someone's salon to now you're a celebrity hairstylist? You're charging a lot of money for a haircut. Some people on Reddit have a lot to say about that.
MELISSA PARIZOT: A lot to say about it.
DR. ROSSI: But you're on Reddit, so that means you made it. It's crazy.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's crazy.
DR. ROSSI: So how did that transformation happen? And you're part owner of your salons.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's layered. I was an apprentice.
DR. ROSSI: Is that a pun for a haircut?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. I love that. It is layered, though. It starts with: I moved to the city and I was an apprentice. I made $8.75 an hour. I worked as many hours as I could. Through that financial struggle, I decided that I needed to start doing some house calls and different opportunities to make more money. So I think that was the first initial struggle. How do I survive on minimum wage in New York City?
The next struggle was being promoted to a hairstylist “on the floor,” as we say. Getting on the floor is a big deal. It was kind of a shell shock. For every five people that call, I get one client. So I need people to call and ask for Melissa. That was the main objective.
So I partnered with a colorist and I sat down and said, influencers seem to be the wave. Everyone's getting gifted something. This is like 13 years ago influencer era, so it's a little bit different than now. I feel like now everyone is promoting their beautician. They're promoting their dermatologist. They're really proud of who they see for their services. It's like their squad.
Then it was more like: in exchange for a haircut, would you post social media content? And I reached out to a few people and they said yes. They filmed video. They posted their cute haircuts. And they also sent friends to me. People were seeing it on social media. They wanted to come to me. So that's kind of where it began.
One influencer turned into 10 influencers and they grew, their following grew. I tried to pick people that I felt were within my reach at the time. I didn't have a huge following. So I'm like, how do I get somebody… You don't go straight to Hailey Bieber.
DR. ROSSI: No.
MELISSA PARIZOT: That comes later. That comes later. How do you get somebody to notice your profile or want to promote you? So I tried to pick my best work and always post that first. I had to feel really proud of it before posting it. Of course in the beginning, you post everything. And then you're like, no, this is what I want the image for the world to see.
And then you start to attract more of that into the chair. So focus on what I'm good at, and then more of that starts coming into the salon. You also have to block out all the other noise that's going around. There's always so much noise. At that salon, I felt a little bit like the only one who cared to do it. And so everyone's like, what the hell is going on here?
So it definitely felt a little lonely at times, but I kind of stayed the course. I felt like it was really necessary. I knew that what I wanted was coming through that. So definitely had to put my blinders on. Definitely had to follow my own path.
DR. ROSSI: Very, very. This is real world experience. I love this.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's real.
DR. ROSSI: And, you know, sometimes I even tell my patients, like you could do X, Y, and Z for your face. You can…
MELISSA PARIZOT: But tell us what you think really helps to improve someone's beauty. Give us your idea of beauty. How do you frame the face? Because hair is so important.
DR. ROSSI: It is really important. It's one of the first things people see when they look at you. It's a big part of your identity. Deciding to cut a significant amount of length off is going to completely change your appearance.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I would say for me, it really starts… Hair, there's so many different ways. There's not one way. So I like to just speak to my way, which is just my own little thing that I created. I try to focus a lot on what your hair naturally looks like, what it's naturally going to do, and then enhancing that.
When girls bring the inspo in from Instagram…
DR. ROSSI: I'm sure they all do.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, everyone does. And I love the inspo, because it's usually my work or something related to my work. So I'm never like… I'm flattered by it. And then let's have the conversation about the differences between your hair and this person's hair, what the color plays a role in, what the texture's like, how thick or how thin.
So I start with that. And then we focus on the features that we want to enhance. I think the curtain bang is always a trend.
DR. ROSSI: That's your thing, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's one of my things. So basically I try to focus on the cheek or the lip or something like that. Hit the collarbone with a little layering. You know, it's like, I want to be super technical with you. But at the same time, sometimes I'm just cutting hair with a feeling. So I try to be technical in my work, but I'm not a very technical person.
DR. ROSSI: Amazing. It's interesting because there's this whole world in haircutting and hairstyling. My dad knew Vidal Sassoon, who was super technical, right? That whole style of very blunt, sharp edges was a thing and maybe still is a thing. But there's other ways to cut hair, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Totally. And I would say where I started was very much of that Vidal Sassoon culture, sharp, edgy hair. And my work sort of leaned into soft femininity. I wanted to attract the girls that wanted to feel like a beautiful girl. Ethereal, yeah. There are more girls walking around on this planet who just want to feel beautiful than the girl who wants this sharp razor bob. We can do that. But I feel like my signature thing is enhancing feminine beauty.
DR. ROSSI: I love that you talked about where the hair falls, what anatomy part it highlights. Because it really does make a difference.
And, you know, I also deal with a lot of people who are losing hair and have to regrow hair. And it also starts with good hair practices and good hair techniques, because there's a lot of damage going on.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Oh yeah. I think that the signature thing is, I just cut hair. I have knowledge of hair color. I can place people with the right person that I really trust for their specific need. If you're a brunette who's going lighter, if you're a blonde who wants to be super poppy blonde, I kind of become your concierge person for all things hair. Sometimes restaurants and other things too. Dating advice. All of it.
DR. ROSSI: But it starts with trust. I think one thing I learned is that people have to trust you. And that comes from being genuine, real, honest. No one wants to be sold to.
And charging a premium for your work is important because it really does matter to you. And I think sometimes people give you flack for that. But I think that's amazing.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Having grown up the way that I did, where I did, the fact that somebody would even pay me that much money for a haircut in today's world is astonishing to me. I go home and I'm like, oh my God. Because I value where I spend my money. Totally. Even now, I'm definitely a little bit more comfortable in my life, but I still think about every penny that goes out. In the business, I'm the penny pincher.
So for me, it's really important that when people take the time to spend their money with me, that it feels like it's worth it. And “worth it” means that you left feeling great, but also a good haircut a year is lasting some people. If you do a lot of color and a lot of really aggressive chemical treatments and stuff like that, processing, you definitely want to keep up with that a little bit more.
The conversation is like, it's lasting you.
DR. ROSSI: Honestly, it's the same in dermatology. There's this idea of discount Botox and people getting watered down Botox. And I'm like, this is your face. People are injecting it, putting a needle in it.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Baby Botox.
DR. ROSSI: You know, and for us, really good Botox — dose equals duration. So you get a…
MELISSA PARIZOT: So it's an investment, people. I feel like that's always my first analogy surrounding this. It lasts me four months. It makes sense.
But people think it makes sense because there's a needle involved and you're a doctor and you're wearing the white jacket and I'm wearing a crop top. Sometimes I wear a crop top.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, sometimes. Not on this podcast.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Getting people to take you seriously as a business person but also an artist, it's not…
[section about creative process / Bad Bunny styling]
MELISSA PARIZOT: …are like, we know the direction we're going in, but halfway through, we're kind of looking at each other like, it's going to work, right?
DR. ROSSI: Oh, wow.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And it did. Yeah, because you have to work with the outfit, the styling, everything. It's a very layered process. You have the clothing and it's picked by the designer. And then there's accessories and all of these things. It's really cool to see that unfold.
It was definitely a fun moment for me because Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and I'm Puerto Rican.
DR. ROSSI: Oh, really? Oh, okay.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And my family from back home, because I was doing somebody that they recognize, and I felt really good about that.
DR. ROSSI: I mean, the whole world knows.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, yeah. I love to see somebody in Latin music transcend from the Latin market. Everyone cares about him. So that's really cool.
DR. ROSSI: I mean, he's just phenomenal for everyone, because he transcends, you know?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Exactly.
DR. ROSSI: He's not just from Puerto Rico. Everyone all around.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Identity. I think it's an identity thing. He kind of plays with his look and it gives people the confidence to play with their look.
DR. ROSSI: You obviously do the IT girls, the ethereal look. What would you say men need to do? Sometimes it feels so basic.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I know. The thing about men is, I think what I like and what I lean toward is classic. I don't work with a lot of male clients now. I kind of keep it to my friends and family, mostly because the girls took over.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, I know. The girls took over. You're very busy.
MELISSA PARIZOT: My advice and what I'm interested in is to just work on enhancing what you naturally have. Hairline, I would say, is probably the thing that plays the biggest role for men. Because you can bring in that inspo, but if you don't have that same sort of hairline or texture or fullness, you have to lean into what you have.
If you have texture, lean into that. If you are missing hair in an area, find a way to conceal it with a really good haircut.
DR. ROSSI: Or a hair transplant.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But yeah.
DR. ROSSI: Hello.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think a lot of what hair is, is just enhancing what you naturally have. I love the inspo of some celebrity. Please be mindful — this PSA — that they've had a hairstylist trailing them around. And so my girls that are seeing me don't have that. So how do I make you feel good today, and then my work is supposed to also last you tomorrow after you've slept on it.
It's a little bit different than the red carpet, Met Gala vibe. I need to make sure this blowout is getting her to her Saturday party.
DR. ROSSI: My mom does hair for film and TV. And literally every piece is put together for every shot so there's continuity. And that's behind the scenes — they're picture-perfect 24/7. And it's a moment. A picture is probably a fraction of a second. We don't know what it looked like after.
MELISSA PARIZOT: So just be mindful.
DR. ROSSI: Speaking of, another thing that I think we overlap in is that I always say we need to work with your natural beauty, enhancing it, not changing you into a Kardashian or something like that. Which, they've obviously transformed and look great — no shade. They look great, but they've transformed who they appear to be.
How do you say no to a client? Because I've always wanted platinum blonde hair and my mom consistently has said no to me every time.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think the most important thing is, I never try to lean into the negatives. “You don't look like this person. You're not this person.” It's more about finding the similarities.
“Okay, so her hair is brunette. Your hair is brunette. Look at the way this is kind of falling in the photo.” Reminding people that extensions are involved, that sort of thing.
So the first thing I do is try to focus on some of the similar things they have in common. And then my big conversation is: “Love this. We're going to tailor it to you. This is going to be your version of Kim Kardashian's hair. This is going to be your version of Kylie Jenner.”
I feel like wording it that way makes more sense than looking at people and being like, “But you're not Kylie Jenner.” And the truth is neither am I. I do hair every day, and the way I do my own hair is different from how I do my clients' hair. Because I've leaned into what I think feels good for me.
I'm good at doing everyone else's hair, but this is how you see me at a black tie function or anything. So I think focusing on the similarities and then, we're going to do your version of that.
DR. ROSSI: Nice. Your hair looks amazing. But like we always say in dermatology, the busiest dermatologists are the ones that never get Botox, never get laser, because we have no time to do ourselves.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I know.
DR. ROSSI: Of course, I'm a dermatologist, so I'm always talking about hair and healthy hair. Give me some of your tips for your clients. How do you maintain healthy hair? What are your go-to things, especially for someone who's using extensions or they are either bleaching their hair or processing it?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Right. Stick to the maintenance plan is the first thing. If your stylist is recommending that you come back in six weeks, I promise you it's not for lack of clients. It's because you need to be back in six weeks.
Specifically for color, I would say the amount of time in between the services, what they're prescribing, is generally what's going to give them the best result. If you're working with a really large root area, you're not going to be as blonde as you expect to be. So you want to stick to the maintenance plan.
After that, it's home care. What are you using at home? TikTok is great, but it's also like… it's wild. The girls are claiming Pantene is the best shampoo now, and I'm like, I don't know.
I'm not super snobby about product. I feel like I play around myself. Stick to moisture. I would say if your hair is dry, color-treated shampoos are great, conditioning treatments, and then the maintenance on the haircut.
If your hair is splitting, those split ends travel up the hair. So if you're not addressing the split ends, no conditioning treatment is going to save that. That's another PSA. They’re great, and using things that claim repair can repair the hair, but usually they have proteins in them that harden the hair.
So after a chemical service, that could be great. But if you're addicted to your repair shampoo, it could over-harden the hair, making it more brittle, causing it to break more — all of these things that you don't really see on the bottle. You're just like, “Oh, my hair's damaged. Repair.”
So I would say stick to moisture, stick to things for color-treated hair, and then do a little mask at night. I'm not sure — everyone's like, avocado mask or coconut oil. I'm like, “I don't know, guys. I'm not putting my kitchen on my head.” I would say stick to the maintenance plan is probably number one.
DR. ROSSI: Nice. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, there's so many practices. I mean, we could go into so many things like the Brazilian blowout. That was a huge phase. But there was so much formaldehyde in there, and that was really damaging people's hair.
But I think we've now progressed away from these damaging chemicals. And even perms came back for a while and they were popular.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I loved that.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, me too. I think it was fun. But just doing it correctly and doing it with someone who really understands hair so they don't damage it.
MELISSA PARIZOT: You need to be honest. You often ask people, “Have you done anything to your hair?” And because it was two years ago, they're like, “No.” But hair grows about six inches a year. So if your hair is significantly long, you have to be mindful that that chemical might still be down here.
And if you're not disclosing that information to the person — specifically around color services, keratin treatments — if you're not disclosing that information, you're not disclosing that information. If something is coming up, there's an option to problem-solve it in the space.
DR. ROSSI: We literally live in the same world. I'll ask people, “Have you done anything? Do you have any filler?” “Oh, no, I don't have anything.” And then, you know, we go in there and there's filler everywhere.
“What happened?” They're like, “Oh, that was a couple of years ago.” But it's still there. You know, you got to be honest with your hairdresser and your doctor.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. Yeah. Please.
DR. ROSSI: So, you know, if you were to say, like, just looking on your day-to-day…
MELISSA PARIZOT: I'm trying to be a good sister, friend, all of the things. So it's definitely challenging to manage all of that. I feel like when I'm doing hair, I try to be as in that as possible because it's really important for me. I'm a stickler for the service, the experience. I love being a service provider. I'm obsessed with making people feel good, thinking about all of the little details.
So I would say as far as balance, I think we're figuring that out. I equate it to when people have a child. It's like you go from an individual to all this responsibility. I've taken on more responsibility as time has gone on and I'm just adapting as I go. I fail sometimes. I succeed sometimes.
So I feel like the honest answer to that is I don't think anyone has it figured out. I think we're all…
DR. ROSSI: For sure.
MELISSA PARIZOT: We're all questioning things all the time. So I'm learning to be more gentle with myself in that regard.
DR. ROSSI: No, I love the honesty because I mean exactly like that. We are in the service industry. So when we're on, we're just providing a service for others. We have to make sure we put ourselves in check.
Taking time to decompress your brain at the end of the night. You hear 20 different stories. You've remembered 20 different names and everything they've done. Sometimes I surprise myself — somebody's back in my chair six months later, and I'm like, “How was the baby shower?” They're like, “I can't believe you remember that.” I'm like, “I can't believe I remembered that.” It's just total recall.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But let your mind take a break because we're constantly remembering a lot of information.
DR. ROSSI: For sure. And actually, I've had so many hairdressers send me patients because they found skin cancers in their scalp. They have found melanomas. They've found basal cells, squamous cells. And, you know, I always tell hairdressers, if you see something, you don't have to diagnose it, but you have to just point it out.
You don't want to embarrass people. But like, “I've noticed your scalp is dry the last four times you've been with me. Is there something you're doing differently?” And people ask me the question, I'm like, dermatologist.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: Dermatologist. Girl, you're crusty.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I have a cosmetology license, not a PhD. And Google, ChatGPT, and TikTok are your friends, but they are not your doctor. That's amazing. So I'm always like, see a dermatologist, please.
DR. ROSSI: Thank you. Thanks for the support.
Actually, I wrote my med school essay about how in the Middle Ages, the first surgeons were actually barbers. So surgery wasn't a very noble profession. It wasn't like being a doctor. It was actually your barber was also your surgeon. So you'd get a haircut and also your limb amputated. It was kind of wild.
But this has evolved. But our worlds are actually very close together.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think so too. And sometimes I feel like after a long day of work, I'm like, did I amputate someone's leg today? I'm like, I don't know what happened.
DR. ROSSI: But you know what, you made them beautiful.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: And that's…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: A lot of what I do on this podcast is myth-busting, right? So when someone gets into your chair, what are they saying? What do you have to debunk?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Sometimes I'm kind of like, okay, “wolf haircut.” I don't subscribe to these TikTok terms. That's a curtain bang. Let's focus on a curtain bang. A butterfly haircut. Sometimes people are like, “hidden layers.” I'm like, all of these are just punchy words.
When you pick up an item at a grocery store and it's like “coconut oil,” I'm like, it's marketing. And so, kind of navigating past the marketing into, “I love this idea. I'm going to tell you from my perspective. And this is what we've been doing; you just didn't explain it to them, and now they're telling you how to do it.”
I think something we can both talk about is how social media, people come to your chair…
DR. ROSSI: I'm like, take the scissor.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Take the scissors.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, I know.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And I'm sure you want to put the needle in their hands and do it.
DR. ROSSI: Here's the syringe, go for it. Here's the scalpel. You think it should be done that way? I want to see you do it.
It is about listening to them, but also giving your opinion, right? They're there for you.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Totally. But they want to be heard. We all want to feel seen. We all want to feel heard. But then, again, back to the conversation before, find a positive way to channel that into, “I'm going to do this. It's going to work for you,” not, “Your idea sucks.”
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, totally. And what do you wish your… I was going to say patients — your clients — what do you wish they knew about getting in the chair and then rebooking? What do they do at home?
When they leave your chair, I'm sure it looks picture-perfect. They spin around, they look in the mirror — it's an “oh my gosh” moment. And then they get home and what do they do? Because again, they're going to wake up, their blowout might not be as blown out as it was.
MELISSA PARIZOT: The first thing that we do is focus on: I'm going to give you a good haircut and I'm going to give you good styling. This can be a little bit deceptive because if you don't own a round brush and a blow dryer, your hair will not be voluminous. That is the first conversation.
DR. ROSSI: I do own a round brush.
MELISSA PARIZOT: The idea is really just setting them up for: this requires styling at home. It requires maintenance at home. A haircut can help enhance a few things, but if you are not… like, all of the girls are putting so much effort. This is an hour's worth of effort for her to get her glamour shot. And you have 15 minutes before work.
So find a look that works for your working days. On the weekends, when you have a little bit more time, try to lean into that. And then the better you get at it, the easier it gets, maybe it'll take you less time. Maybe you can show up to work like that.
But I think focusing on the styling and what it will actually require at home. I feel confident that the haircut's going to be great, but then how can you maintain that?
DR. ROSSI: I say the same thing. I say, you know, I can do all this, but if you don't have a great skincare regimen at home and you're not taking care of your skin, you're not hydrating, you're going on benders 24/7 — we're fighting an uphill battle.
If you knew my skincare routine, you'd be…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Your jaw would be on the ground.
DR. ROSSI: Don't worry. I got some goods for you too.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I love it. I love it.
DR. ROSSI: And so how do people get in touch with you? I know “Melissa Will Cut You” is your IG, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. I would say most people just contact the salon. I don't book my appointments directly. There is a little bit of a wait list for it. I would say my next appointment available right now is in November.
DR. ROSSI: That's amazing. It's end of June. Congrats.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Thank you. And the reason being is I've put my clients on… Once I do an influencer, I get an influx of new interest. And so to keep my regular girls happy, I'm like, book.
DR. ROSSI: Love yourself first. Try not to focus on what everyone else looks like. We all have characteristics and things that make us look special and beautiful.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And so we have to lean into those things and not fight them. I have to do it myself too. I'm on social media. I see a trend or something that seems really interesting. And then I have to have the honest conversation with myself: you're not going to follow up or do that.
So I think that beauty starts here.
DR. ROSSI: That's an amazing PSA. Thank you.
And, you know, I deal with a lot of patients who are losing their hair, unfortunately, for many reasons. And a good wig can go a long way. I'm like, you know, you need a great stylist and a great cutter to make that happen.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Absolutely. That's a sensitive journey. And my biggest thing when people come to me with hair loss — dermatologist. You need to do some blood work. You need to figure out where in your…
DR. ROSSI: You were on this podcast before he was. He loves the camera. But hopefully, I'll see you back. And we're going to do coffee either way. But thank you so much.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
DR. ROSSI: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Give Good Face. I'm so grateful for all your support throughout the launch of this podcast show. Please subscribe, leave us a review, send us a DM, follow along wherever you listen to your podcast.
Can a Haircut from Melissa Parizot Really Change Your Life?
On This Week's Episode:
Can a great haircut actually transform your confidence and identity?
Celebrity hairstylist Melissa Parizot, owner of the renowned IGK salon, joins the Give Good Face podcast with Dr. Anthony Rossi to explore the powerful intersection of beauty, hair, and self-expression.
From giving Hailey Bieber and Sofia Richie signature chops to helping Bad Bunny craft a Met Gala look, Melissa shares her journey from a New Jersey salon apprentice to one of the most sought-after stylists in the world. But beyond the hype, this is a story about trust, technique, longevity, and knowing your worth—even when Reddit’s talking.
They discuss the emotional impact of a haircut, the role hair plays in shaping identity, the importance of trust in client relationships, and how social media is redefining beauty standards.
Guest Bio:
Episode Transcript:
MELISSA PARIZOT: I'm going to give you a good haircut and I'm going to give you good styling.
DR. ROSSI: Give me some of your tips for your clients. How do you maintain healthy hair?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Anywhere from 8 to 12 haircuts in a day, I run a business while doing that. I've seen people go from like having a really down and out sort of somber attitude. Getting a great haircut changes their whole, you know, aura. I try to focus a lot on what your hair naturally looks like, what it's naturally going to do, and then enhancing that.
DR. ROSSI: How do you say no to a client? Because I've always wanted platinum blonde hair, and my mom consistently has said no to me every time.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Having grown up the way that I did, where I did, the fact that somebody would even pay me that much money for a haircut in today's world is like astonishing to me. I go home, and I'm like, oh my God.
DR. ROSSI: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Give Good Face. I'm Dr. Anthony Rossi. And today, I am so excited and also a little nervous, actually, because I have Melissa Parizot here. She is a world-famous hairstylist. “Melissa Will Cut You.” That's your name, right? I love that name. It's funny, right? It's great.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think it perfectly depicts my personality, too. Melissa is a sweet name.
DR. ROSSI: Yes.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But then I have a pretty sharp personality. So I think it embodies that for sure.
DR. ROSSI: I actually have this thing that if I was ever on The Real Housewives or if I was ever a real housewife or house husband, my tagline would be like, “I love lasers, but I'll cut a B.”
MELISSA PARIZOT: Okay.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. So I feel like…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, I think this is yours.
DR. ROSSI: Okay.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I love that. Awesome.
DR. ROSSI: So I'm so excited to have you here because you are a world-renowned hairstylist, and I grew up in a family of hairdressers and hair salon owners. Both of my parents are hairdressers. My uncle is a hairdresser. My cousins are. I feel like Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. And for the longest time, I thought I would be a hairstylist too because that's what I grew up in. So can you just tell me a little bit about your background and tell us all?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. So I went to high school in New Jersey and the conversation about where we're going to go after high school came up. And I didn't grow up with a family that went to college or anything like that. So picking up a trade felt like the more natural thing to do. And then I thought I'd figure it out after I did this thing. Go to beauty school, learn how to do your hair and makeup, and then figure it out from there.
I started working at a hair salon in New Jersey, and it was a pretty high-end hair salon. And so it was the first time I really thought that there could be a career in doing hair because I saw people that had families and kids and were supporting a lifestyle doing hair. So I still wasn't convinced that I would do hair.
I decided to move to New York to make enough money to go to college and then figure it out. Through that, I would say I learned that the lifestyle that I wanted wasn't through a college education. It was actually through applying myself to my work.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. And your craft. I mean, you love it. You're devoted to it. It's a calling and it's an art form.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It is. It's a little bit of everything. I get to be creative. I get to use my sense of business and I get to talk to people and be personable. I'm like the therapist, I'm the artist, all the things that a person needs for the hour that they have me. So it's pretty fun.
DR. ROSSI: It's really true. So I grew up with my parents going to their hair salon and I would see how they would interact with their clients. And for me, it was wild because their clients would tell them these deep, dark secrets. They would unleash all their frustrations about the day and vent, or also celebrate too. The hair salon is this area where people come together. It's very communal.
So I grew up seeing that and seeing how much my parents affected other people's day-to-day living. And I was like, wow, that's amazing. So I felt like it was a natural inclination to gravitate towards that. But they wanted me to find my own path. But I didn't go so far. I went to dermatology, which is like an extension of…
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's an extension. You know, I've learned that what we do is so similar because people come to you and they bring a concern or they bring something that they want to celebrate. And then your goal is to kind of figure out how to help them through whatever it is that they're struggling with. The emotions kind of mix with the identity. So I think that's something you've probably learned and I've learned as well, that it's beyond the face. It's beyond the hair. It's a really personal experience.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah. And sometimes it feels very surface. But for the most part, you're like, no, I'm tapping into something.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. It's transformative. I've seen people go from having a really down and out sort of somber attitude. Getting a great haircut changes their whole demeanor. It changes their whole aura. I agree. I've seen clients from being single to having a boyfriend, to getting engaged, to getting married, to having their baby. It's pretty incredible to be on that journey.
And I have so many clients that have been with me for 10 years. They've rode the wave with me from having open availability to having no availability. And it's pretty incredible to feel like people are still loyal to me, even though I charge more money or I'm less frequently available. So it's really special.
DR. ROSSI: Well, it's a testament to you, who you are, your personality, your talent, and what you're giving.
So there's actually so many questions I want to ask you. And people have been asking me to ask you questions too because in the industry, it's not easy to break in. Just like in dermatology or plastic surgery, no one knows you at the beginning. So how do you go from working in someone's salon to now you're a celebrity hairstylist? You're charging a lot of money for a haircut. Some people on Reddit have a lot to say about that.
MELISSA PARIZOT: A lot to say about it.
DR. ROSSI: But you're on Reddit, so that means you made it. It's crazy.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's crazy.
DR. ROSSI: So how did that transformation happen? And you're part owner of your salons.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's layered. I was an apprentice.
DR. ROSSI: Is that a pun for a haircut?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. I love that. It is layered, though. It starts with: I moved to the city and I was an apprentice. I made $8.75 an hour. I worked as many hours as I could. Through that financial struggle, I decided that I needed to start doing some house calls and different opportunities to make more money. So I think that was the first initial struggle. How do I survive on minimum wage in New York City?
The next struggle was being promoted to a hairstylist “on the floor,” as we say. Getting on the floor is a big deal. It was kind of a shell shock. For every five people that call, I get one client. So I need people to call and ask for Melissa. That was the main objective.
So I partnered with a colorist and I sat down and said, influencers seem to be the wave. Everyone's getting gifted something. This is like 13 years ago influencer era, so it's a little bit different than now. I feel like now everyone is promoting their beautician. They're promoting their dermatologist. They're really proud of who they see for their services. It's like their squad.
Then it was more like: in exchange for a haircut, would you post social media content? And I reached out to a few people and they said yes. They filmed video. They posted their cute haircuts. And they also sent friends to me. People were seeing it on social media. They wanted to come to me. So that's kind of where it began.
One influencer turned into 10 influencers and they grew, their following grew. I tried to pick people that I felt were within my reach at the time. I didn't have a huge following. So I'm like, how do I get somebody… You don't go straight to Hailey Bieber.
DR. ROSSI: No.
MELISSA PARIZOT: That comes later. That comes later. How do you get somebody to notice your profile or want to promote you? So I tried to pick my best work and always post that first. I had to feel really proud of it before posting it. Of course in the beginning, you post everything. And then you're like, no, this is what I want the image for the world to see.
And then you start to attract more of that into the chair. So focus on what I'm good at, and then more of that starts coming into the salon. You also have to block out all the other noise that's going around. There's always so much noise. At that salon, I felt a little bit like the only one who cared to do it. And so everyone's like, what the hell is going on here?
So it definitely felt a little lonely at times, but I kind of stayed the course. I felt like it was really necessary. I knew that what I wanted was coming through that. So definitely had to put my blinders on. Definitely had to follow my own path.
DR. ROSSI: Very, very. This is real world experience. I love this.
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's real.
DR. ROSSI: And, you know, sometimes I even tell my patients, like you could do X, Y, and Z for your face. You can…
MELISSA PARIZOT: But tell us what you think really helps to improve someone's beauty. Give us your idea of beauty. How do you frame the face? Because hair is so important.
DR. ROSSI: It is really important. It's one of the first things people see when they look at you. It's a big part of your identity. Deciding to cut a significant amount of length off is going to completely change your appearance.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I would say for me, it really starts… Hair, there's so many different ways. There's not one way. So I like to just speak to my way, which is just my own little thing that I created. I try to focus a lot on what your hair naturally looks like, what it's naturally going to do, and then enhancing that.
When girls bring the inspo in from Instagram…
DR. ROSSI: I'm sure they all do.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, everyone does. And I love the inspo, because it's usually my work or something related to my work. So I'm never like… I'm flattered by it. And then let's have the conversation about the differences between your hair and this person's hair, what the color plays a role in, what the texture's like, how thick or how thin.
So I start with that. And then we focus on the features that we want to enhance. I think the curtain bang is always a trend.
DR. ROSSI: That's your thing, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: It's one of my things. So basically I try to focus on the cheek or the lip or something like that. Hit the collarbone with a little layering. You know, it's like, I want to be super technical with you. But at the same time, sometimes I'm just cutting hair with a feeling. So I try to be technical in my work, but I'm not a very technical person.
DR. ROSSI: Amazing. It's interesting because there's this whole world in haircutting and hairstyling. My dad knew Vidal Sassoon, who was super technical, right? That whole style of very blunt, sharp edges was a thing and maybe still is a thing. But there's other ways to cut hair, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Totally. And I would say where I started was very much of that Vidal Sassoon culture, sharp, edgy hair. And my work sort of leaned into soft femininity. I wanted to attract the girls that wanted to feel like a beautiful girl. Ethereal, yeah. There are more girls walking around on this planet who just want to feel beautiful than the girl who wants this sharp razor bob. We can do that. But I feel like my signature thing is enhancing feminine beauty.
DR. ROSSI: I love that you talked about where the hair falls, what anatomy part it highlights. Because it really does make a difference.
And, you know, I also deal with a lot of people who are losing hair and have to regrow hair. And it also starts with good hair practices and good hair techniques, because there's a lot of damage going on.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Oh yeah. I think that the signature thing is, I just cut hair. I have knowledge of hair color. I can place people with the right person that I really trust for their specific need. If you're a brunette who's going lighter, if you're a blonde who wants to be super poppy blonde, I kind of become your concierge person for all things hair. Sometimes restaurants and other things too. Dating advice. All of it.
DR. ROSSI: But it starts with trust. I think one thing I learned is that people have to trust you. And that comes from being genuine, real, honest. No one wants to be sold to.
And charging a premium for your work is important because it really does matter to you. And I think sometimes people give you flack for that. But I think that's amazing.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Having grown up the way that I did, where I did, the fact that somebody would even pay me that much money for a haircut in today's world is astonishing to me. I go home and I'm like, oh my God. Because I value where I spend my money. Totally. Even now, I'm definitely a little bit more comfortable in my life, but I still think about every penny that goes out. In the business, I'm the penny pincher.
So for me, it's really important that when people take the time to spend their money with me, that it feels like it's worth it. And “worth it” means that you left feeling great, but also a good haircut a year is lasting some people. If you do a lot of color and a lot of really aggressive chemical treatments and stuff like that, processing, you definitely want to keep up with that a little bit more.
The conversation is like, it's lasting you.
DR. ROSSI: Honestly, it's the same in dermatology. There's this idea of discount Botox and people getting watered down Botox. And I'm like, this is your face. People are injecting it, putting a needle in it.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Baby Botox.
DR. ROSSI: You know, and for us, really good Botox — dose equals duration. So you get a…
MELISSA PARIZOT: So it's an investment, people. I feel like that's always my first analogy surrounding this. It lasts me four months. It makes sense.
But people think it makes sense because there's a needle involved and you're a doctor and you're wearing the white jacket and I'm wearing a crop top. Sometimes I wear a crop top.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, sometimes. Not on this podcast.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Getting people to take you seriously as a business person but also an artist, it's not…
[section about creative process / Bad Bunny styling]
MELISSA PARIZOT: …are like, we know the direction we're going in, but halfway through, we're kind of looking at each other like, it's going to work, right?
DR. ROSSI: Oh, wow.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And it did. Yeah, because you have to work with the outfit, the styling, everything. It's a very layered process. You have the clothing and it's picked by the designer. And then there's accessories and all of these things. It's really cool to see that unfold.
It was definitely a fun moment for me because Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and I'm Puerto Rican.
DR. ROSSI: Oh, really? Oh, okay.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And my family from back home, because I was doing somebody that they recognize, and I felt really good about that.
DR. ROSSI: I mean, the whole world knows.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah, yeah. I love to see somebody in Latin music transcend from the Latin market. Everyone cares about him. So that's really cool.
DR. ROSSI: I mean, he's just phenomenal for everyone, because he transcends, you know?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Exactly.
DR. ROSSI: He's not just from Puerto Rico. Everyone all around.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Identity. I think it's an identity thing. He kind of plays with his look and it gives people the confidence to play with their look.
DR. ROSSI: You obviously do the IT girls, the ethereal look. What would you say men need to do? Sometimes it feels so basic.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I know. The thing about men is, I think what I like and what I lean toward is classic. I don't work with a lot of male clients now. I kind of keep it to my friends and family, mostly because the girls took over.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, I know. The girls took over. You're very busy.
MELISSA PARIZOT: My advice and what I'm interested in is to just work on enhancing what you naturally have. Hairline, I would say, is probably the thing that plays the biggest role for men. Because you can bring in that inspo, but if you don't have that same sort of hairline or texture or fullness, you have to lean into what you have.
If you have texture, lean into that. If you are missing hair in an area, find a way to conceal it with a really good haircut.
DR. ROSSI: Or a hair transplant.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But yeah.
DR. ROSSI: Hello.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think a lot of what hair is, is just enhancing what you naturally have. I love the inspo of some celebrity. Please be mindful — this PSA — that they've had a hairstylist trailing them around. And so my girls that are seeing me don't have that. So how do I make you feel good today, and then my work is supposed to also last you tomorrow after you've slept on it.
It's a little bit different than the red carpet, Met Gala vibe. I need to make sure this blowout is getting her to her Saturday party.
DR. ROSSI: My mom does hair for film and TV. And literally every piece is put together for every shot so there's continuity. And that's behind the scenes — they're picture-perfect 24/7. And it's a moment. A picture is probably a fraction of a second. We don't know what it looked like after.
MELISSA PARIZOT: So just be mindful.
DR. ROSSI: Speaking of, another thing that I think we overlap in is that I always say we need to work with your natural beauty, enhancing it, not changing you into a Kardashian or something like that. Which, they've obviously transformed and look great — no shade. They look great, but they've transformed who they appear to be.
How do you say no to a client? Because I've always wanted platinum blonde hair and my mom consistently has said no to me every time.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think the most important thing is, I never try to lean into the negatives. “You don't look like this person. You're not this person.” It's more about finding the similarities.
“Okay, so her hair is brunette. Your hair is brunette. Look at the way this is kind of falling in the photo.” Reminding people that extensions are involved, that sort of thing.
So the first thing I do is try to focus on some of the similar things they have in common. And then my big conversation is: “Love this. We're going to tailor it to you. This is going to be your version of Kim Kardashian's hair. This is going to be your version of Kylie Jenner.”
I feel like wording it that way makes more sense than looking at people and being like, “But you're not Kylie Jenner.” And the truth is neither am I. I do hair every day, and the way I do my own hair is different from how I do my clients' hair. Because I've leaned into what I think feels good for me.
I'm good at doing everyone else's hair, but this is how you see me at a black tie function or anything. So I think focusing on the similarities and then, we're going to do your version of that.
DR. ROSSI: Nice. Your hair looks amazing. But like we always say in dermatology, the busiest dermatologists are the ones that never get Botox, never get laser, because we have no time to do ourselves.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I know.
DR. ROSSI: Of course, I'm a dermatologist, so I'm always talking about hair and healthy hair. Give me some of your tips for your clients. How do you maintain healthy hair? What are your go-to things, especially for someone who's using extensions or they are either bleaching their hair or processing it?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Right. Stick to the maintenance plan is the first thing. If your stylist is recommending that you come back in six weeks, I promise you it's not for lack of clients. It's because you need to be back in six weeks.
Specifically for color, I would say the amount of time in between the services, what they're prescribing, is generally what's going to give them the best result. If you're working with a really large root area, you're not going to be as blonde as you expect to be. So you want to stick to the maintenance plan.
After that, it's home care. What are you using at home? TikTok is great, but it's also like… it's wild. The girls are claiming Pantene is the best shampoo now, and I'm like, I don't know.
I'm not super snobby about product. I feel like I play around myself. Stick to moisture. I would say if your hair is dry, color-treated shampoos are great, conditioning treatments, and then the maintenance on the haircut.
If your hair is splitting, those split ends travel up the hair. So if you're not addressing the split ends, no conditioning treatment is going to save that. That's another PSA. They’re great, and using things that claim repair can repair the hair, but usually they have proteins in them that harden the hair.
So after a chemical service, that could be great. But if you're addicted to your repair shampoo, it could over-harden the hair, making it more brittle, causing it to break more — all of these things that you don't really see on the bottle. You're just like, “Oh, my hair's damaged. Repair.”
So I would say stick to moisture, stick to things for color-treated hair, and then do a little mask at night. I'm not sure — everyone's like, avocado mask or coconut oil. I'm like, “I don't know, guys. I'm not putting my kitchen on my head.” I would say stick to the maintenance plan is probably number one.
DR. ROSSI: Nice. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, there's so many practices. I mean, we could go into so many things like the Brazilian blowout. That was a huge phase. But there was so much formaldehyde in there, and that was really damaging people's hair.
But I think we've now progressed away from these damaging chemicals. And even perms came back for a while and they were popular.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I loved that.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, me too. I think it was fun. But just doing it correctly and doing it with someone who really understands hair so they don't damage it.
MELISSA PARIZOT: You need to be honest. You often ask people, “Have you done anything to your hair?” And because it was two years ago, they're like, “No.” But hair grows about six inches a year. So if your hair is significantly long, you have to be mindful that that chemical might still be down here.
And if you're not disclosing that information to the person — specifically around color services, keratin treatments — if you're not disclosing that information, you're not disclosing that information. If something is coming up, there's an option to problem-solve it in the space.
DR. ROSSI: We literally live in the same world. I'll ask people, “Have you done anything? Do you have any filler?” “Oh, no, I don't have anything.” And then, you know, we go in there and there's filler everywhere.
“What happened?” They're like, “Oh, that was a couple of years ago.” But it's still there. You know, you got to be honest with your hairdresser and your doctor.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. Yeah. Please.
DR. ROSSI: So, you know, if you were to say, like, just looking on your day-to-day…
MELISSA PARIZOT: I'm trying to be a good sister, friend, all of the things. So it's definitely challenging to manage all of that. I feel like when I'm doing hair, I try to be as in that as possible because it's really important for me. I'm a stickler for the service, the experience. I love being a service provider. I'm obsessed with making people feel good, thinking about all of the little details.
So I would say as far as balance, I think we're figuring that out. I equate it to when people have a child. It's like you go from an individual to all this responsibility. I've taken on more responsibility as time has gone on and I'm just adapting as I go. I fail sometimes. I succeed sometimes.
So I feel like the honest answer to that is I don't think anyone has it figured out. I think we're all…
DR. ROSSI: For sure.
MELISSA PARIZOT: We're all questioning things all the time. So I'm learning to be more gentle with myself in that regard.
DR. ROSSI: No, I love the honesty because I mean exactly like that. We are in the service industry. So when we're on, we're just providing a service for others. We have to make sure we put ourselves in check.
Taking time to decompress your brain at the end of the night. You hear 20 different stories. You've remembered 20 different names and everything they've done. Sometimes I surprise myself — somebody's back in my chair six months later, and I'm like, “How was the baby shower?” They're like, “I can't believe you remember that.” I'm like, “I can't believe I remembered that.” It's just total recall.
MELISSA PARIZOT: But let your mind take a break because we're constantly remembering a lot of information.
DR. ROSSI: For sure. And actually, I've had so many hairdressers send me patients because they found skin cancers in their scalp. They have found melanomas. They've found basal cells, squamous cells. And, you know, I always tell hairdressers, if you see something, you don't have to diagnose it, but you have to just point it out.
You don't want to embarrass people. But like, “I've noticed your scalp is dry the last four times you've been with me. Is there something you're doing differently?” And people ask me the question, I'm like, dermatologist.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: Dermatologist. Girl, you're crusty.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I have a cosmetology license, not a PhD. And Google, ChatGPT, and TikTok are your friends, but they are not your doctor. That's amazing. So I'm always like, see a dermatologist, please.
DR. ROSSI: Thank you. Thanks for the support.
Actually, I wrote my med school essay about how in the Middle Ages, the first surgeons were actually barbers. So surgery wasn't a very noble profession. It wasn't like being a doctor. It was actually your barber was also your surgeon. So you'd get a haircut and also your limb amputated. It was kind of wild.
But this has evolved. But our worlds are actually very close together.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I think so too. And sometimes I feel like after a long day of work, I'm like, did I amputate someone's leg today? I'm like, I don't know what happened.
DR. ROSSI: But you know what, you made them beautiful.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: And that's…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah.
DR. ROSSI: A lot of what I do on this podcast is myth-busting, right? So when someone gets into your chair, what are they saying? What do you have to debunk?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Sometimes I'm kind of like, okay, “wolf haircut.” I don't subscribe to these TikTok terms. That's a curtain bang. Let's focus on a curtain bang. A butterfly haircut. Sometimes people are like, “hidden layers.” I'm like, all of these are just punchy words.
When you pick up an item at a grocery store and it's like “coconut oil,” I'm like, it's marketing. And so, kind of navigating past the marketing into, “I love this idea. I'm going to tell you from my perspective. And this is what we've been doing; you just didn't explain it to them, and now they're telling you how to do it.”
I think something we can both talk about is how social media, people come to your chair…
DR. ROSSI: I'm like, take the scissor.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Take the scissors.
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, I know.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And I'm sure you want to put the needle in their hands and do it.
DR. ROSSI: Here's the syringe, go for it. Here's the scalpel. You think it should be done that way? I want to see you do it.
It is about listening to them, but also giving your opinion, right? They're there for you.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Totally. But they want to be heard. We all want to feel seen. We all want to feel heard. But then, again, back to the conversation before, find a positive way to channel that into, “I'm going to do this. It's going to work for you,” not, “Your idea sucks.”
DR. ROSSI: Yeah, totally. And what do you wish your… I was going to say patients — your clients — what do you wish they knew about getting in the chair and then rebooking? What do they do at home?
When they leave your chair, I'm sure it looks picture-perfect. They spin around, they look in the mirror — it's an “oh my gosh” moment. And then they get home and what do they do? Because again, they're going to wake up, their blowout might not be as blown out as it was.
MELISSA PARIZOT: The first thing that we do is focus on: I'm going to give you a good haircut and I'm going to give you good styling. This can be a little bit deceptive because if you don't own a round brush and a blow dryer, your hair will not be voluminous. That is the first conversation.
DR. ROSSI: I do own a round brush.
MELISSA PARIZOT: The idea is really just setting them up for: this requires styling at home. It requires maintenance at home. A haircut can help enhance a few things, but if you are not… like, all of the girls are putting so much effort. This is an hour's worth of effort for her to get her glamour shot. And you have 15 minutes before work.
So find a look that works for your working days. On the weekends, when you have a little bit more time, try to lean into that. And then the better you get at it, the easier it gets, maybe it'll take you less time. Maybe you can show up to work like that.
But I think focusing on the styling and what it will actually require at home. I feel confident that the haircut's going to be great, but then how can you maintain that?
DR. ROSSI: I say the same thing. I say, you know, I can do all this, but if you don't have a great skincare regimen at home and you're not taking care of your skin, you're not hydrating, you're going on benders 24/7 — we're fighting an uphill battle.
If you knew my skincare routine, you'd be…
MELISSA PARIZOT: Your jaw would be on the ground.
DR. ROSSI: Don't worry. I got some goods for you too.
MELISSA PARIZOT: I love it. I love it.
DR. ROSSI: And so how do people get in touch with you? I know “Melissa Will Cut You” is your IG, right?
MELISSA PARIZOT: Yeah. I would say most people just contact the salon. I don't book my appointments directly. There is a little bit of a wait list for it. I would say my next appointment available right now is in November.
DR. ROSSI: That's amazing. It's end of June. Congrats.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Thank you. And the reason being is I've put my clients on… Once I do an influencer, I get an influx of new interest. And so to keep my regular girls happy, I'm like, book.
DR. ROSSI: Love yourself first. Try not to focus on what everyone else looks like. We all have characteristics and things that make us look special and beautiful.
MELISSA PARIZOT: And so we have to lean into those things and not fight them. I have to do it myself too. I'm on social media. I see a trend or something that seems really interesting. And then I have to have the honest conversation with myself: you're not going to follow up or do that.
So I think that beauty starts here.
DR. ROSSI: That's an amazing PSA. Thank you.
And, you know, I deal with a lot of patients who are losing their hair, unfortunately, for many reasons. And a good wig can go a long way. I'm like, you know, you need a great stylist and a great cutter to make that happen.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Absolutely. That's a sensitive journey. And my biggest thing when people come to me with hair loss — dermatologist. You need to do some blood work. You need to figure out where in your…
DR. ROSSI: You were on this podcast before he was. He loves the camera. But hopefully, I'll see you back. And we're going to do coffee either way. But thank you so much.
MELISSA PARIZOT: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
DR. ROSSI: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Give Good Face. I'm so grateful for all your support throughout the launch of this podcast show. Please subscribe, leave us a review, send us a DM, follow along wherever you listen to your podcast.