CNN - Home is where the hair is
Original Article (cnn.com)
It was a recent Saturday and Batia Elkayam -- who runs the Beverly Hills hair salon Batia & Aleeza with her sister Aleeza Callner -- was working.
As cars and pedestrians passed the large plate-glass windows at the front of the salon, candles burned inside, music played, and a half-dozen clients had their hair done, visited with each other.
The front door opened. A guy walked in. He was trying to sell flowers. In some businesses, this might not be welcomed. But Batia & Aleeza is not your average business.
"You know what I did?" says Elkayam. "I bought every client in the shop a bouquet of flowers. They thought I was crazy. But I said, 'Why? I like you, I love you.' All of a sudden one of them said, 'It's my birthday today. I've gotten two bouquets of flowers!'"
Spend a moment visiting with Elkayam and she'll give you a bouquet of wisdom, her secret to happiness. Her philosophy of life and business are one in the same, an ocean breeze in today's hectic, anonymous, e-mail-driven climate: Make people feel good.
"You can make a person feel bad, you can make someone feel like a million dollars," she says. "I like to make people feel good."
This may well be why Batia & Aleeza is such a success. This time of year is particularly busy, with awards season in high gear in Los Angeles, from the just-passed Grammys to the upcoming Oscars. It's important for celebrities to look their best, and shops like Batia & Aleeza thrive. What can set one apart is how it treats the customer.
Batia & Aleeza claims celebrities Alicia Silverstone, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Bay (among others) as clients. But they cater to the not-so-famous, as well.
"I take care of everybody the same way," says Elkayam. "I think people come from the same place, they're going to the same place. Nobody's different to me. If you have more money, less money -- if they're nice, I like them. I like human beings."
'She's my best friend'
Elkayam, 50, and Callner, 49, were raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a family that included a total six children. Their father was in the Israeli army. Their mother worked for a clothing manufacturer.
From the time Batia and Aleeza were young, they were inseparable, two curly-haired girls who had "a passion for hair."
"We used to do each other's hair all the time," says Elkayam, who went on to take hair design classes with her sister.
After graduating, the two opened a hair salon in Tel Aviv and Elkayam says it was a huge success, pulling in actors and models from the area. The sisters moved to Los Angeles in 1978, spent time working for someone else, then opened their own hair salon in West Hollywood in 1980.
They moved their business location to Beverly Hills a year ago, and today they employ seven people. Both are married -- Elkayam to cardiologist Uri Elkayam, and Callner to director Marty Callner -- and they both have children.
But when it comes to business, they're as inseparable as little girls braiding each other's hair. They spend their days in the same place, and their families come together for dinner on Friday nights.
"She's my best friend. She's the best girl. She's my life. She's beautiful and everybody else is crazy about her, too," says Elkayam of her little sister. In other words, they work well together. "My sister and I are totally different. She could never run the business like I do. She's the artistic side. She can do your hair unbelievable, but she wants nothing to do with the (accounting)."
'You mother me'
A "hair design" at Batia & Aleeza costs $80 and up. Additionally, the salon provides highlights, henna and color services, makeup, mask treatments, manicures and pedicures, among other services. They also have a line of shampoo, conditioner and gel for $20 each.
Advice, however, is free. Elkayam has been dishing it out since she can remember. To her, it's part of the Batia & Aleeza experience. And she doesn't get shy around the famous.
"Of course I give stars advice, believe me," she says. "I used to talk a lot with Amy Irving at the time she was divorcing Steven Spielberg. She was really unhappy. We used to talk about that and the kids. I always tell them, don't fight with the husband when you get divorced because you lose and the children lose."
Michael Bay, director of films like "Armageddon" (1998) and the upcoming "Pearl Harbor," has also received guiding words from Elkayam.
"He always says to me, 'You mother me,'" says Elkayam. "I give him advice. I'm not like a mother to people, but I just give him good feelings.
"I can give very good advice because people say, 'I like the way you are and the way you make life simple,'" says Elkayam. "I don't make a complicated life. It's easy, simple to me. Number One, it's heath. Number Two, it's family. And the rest of it can be Three or Four or Five."