Louis Licari

I met a young fashion designer friend for lunch Saturday at Barney's. He asked for some advice in starting up his business. I went into my usual pep talk. Believe in your talent, keep working, never give up, and success will come. Then I asked him what I thought was...

I found myself on a plane this weekend and had plenty of time to read the newspapers. This weekend's Wall Street Journal headline read "Job Growth Grinds to a Halt," referring to the zero job growth. Seeing this in bold type nearly made my heart stop. I decided to change...

Older men have been dating younger women for years, raising eyebrows and causing the judgmental snickers of middle-aged women and men for years. In the last decade, the tables have turned. It's no longer unusual for older women to date younger men. The trend has become so prevalent that the...

Today is the baby shower for my publicist Leigh Rossini. I am the only man invited. My instructions are to arrive exactly thirty minutes before the shower ends. I must admit that I am a bit nervous about entering no man's land. I know that it might seem odd to...

Jury duty is my civic obligation, which I respectably accept. Waiting to be called to serve on a case, however, is nothing short of torture. I have been sitting in this room for almost two days with the exception of the occasional respite. I find myself staring at the other...

There are no truer words than the adage "time flies." I can tell you from personal experience that the decades slip into each other. And with each new decade, a woman needs to think about changing her style and her hair to keep looking her best. This means always staying ahead of the curve....

It's already the middle of June and college graduations are over. The quest for jobs has begun. Right about now there is always an influx of college graduates making appointments at the salon. Most are in a real quandary about their hair even as they sit in my chair. They realize how...

I immediately felt the heat and humidity as I walked the streets of New York this past holiday weekend. I thought the city would be quiet, but to my surprise there were more people in town than I had expected. Almost everyone was smiling as they ambled by, probably because...

Every day at the salon, I find that another woman is bursting at the seams to tell me she is with child. I am often one of the first to know and am sworn to secrecy. They sometimes tell me even before anyone else outside of their immediate family, and...

Do you remember when you could talk to anyone on the phone and not think for a second about the way you looked? Thanks to modern technology, those days are over. Now, because of smart phones, Skype and cameras on all handheld devices, we can no longer hide behind our voices....

I just finished this week's "Ambush Makeover" on the Today Show.  On my way to the airport, I noticed the new billboards for the third series of United States of Tara. I love this show. It is a comedy-drama series created by Diablo Cody that follows the life of Tara, brilliantly played by Toni Collette. Tara is...

Pink recently showed up at the premiere of The Lincoln Lawyer with a new hairstyle.  She hated it. She tweeted "The woman that did my hair butchered it." To Pink's credit, she did not mention her by name, which would not have been the best moment of...

The other day in the middle of taking care of a client's color, I was called to the phone. A very respected beauty editor needed to speak to me urgently. I called her back as soon I was finished with my client. She had called to ask me about the...

Life is full of unexpected twist and turns. Fortunately or not, this is the nature of life. Sometimes the changes make life easier and at other times, they just create yet another aggravation to make things more difficult. Often at the very moment your life is in order, something goes...

It seems to me that people are looking better longer than ever before. I really think this is because of the increased general awareness of diet, exercise and living a healthy lifestyle. I have been standing behind the chair of my salons in the middle of Manhattan and...

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was a style-starved student at beauty school in New York City. Coming from a small town in upstate New York was not exactly the best environment for fashion or beauty awareness. It has many other wonderful attributes, but it is hardly...

The more things change the more they stay the same. This is especially true of fashion. Every trend returns, but always with a twist. Hair color, haircuts and makeup are fashion and the iconic hairstyles of the past will always influence today's styles and trends. As we welcome in the...

I was on the plane for my final trip to Los Angeles before the New Year. I was already a bit worn down because I had been working like a lunatic. I am happy to say the salon has been incredibly busy. Everyone wants to be sure to look their...

This morning I was running late on my way to shoot a segment for the Today Show. Time ran away from me as I was getting showered, dressed and doing a final packing for a quick trip to Los Angeles right after the show. I have been getting TV ready...