Angus' Surpise Secrets Pimping Cars: "I'm a frustrated mechanic. I collect cars, and if I hear one odd noise, I've gotta' get it fixed. I'm on car websites so much my wife calls it âcar porn.'" Guilty Pleasure: Interior design. "I'm always tearing out magazine pages of furniture." Heartfelt Cause: The Art of Elysium, which encourages artists to give their time and talent to children with serious illnesses. Would love a week alone with: "My Dad." Angus Mitchell's latest dictum: "For a world without conflict, you must have communication." |
Let's get right to the misconceptions:
Angus Mitchell, the only
child of hair care mogul Paul
Mitchell, wasn't born rich or spoiled.
"People think I'm a good-time Charlie,
but I work 15 hours a day," says Mitchell
of the many false impressions about
him. "I grew up in a two-bedroom apartment
in Manhattan, with my mother,
uncle and grandmother. My dad's first
line, called PM, failed, and he lost a lot
of money."
Still, salons were in Mitchell's blood.
As a child, he'd played in his father's Superhair
salon: its curved walls, created
to prevent hair from gathering in corners,
were perfect for toy-truck racing.
He says he never realized he was surrounded
by celebrities (Raquel Welch,
Barbara Walters), nor did he know his
mother, the first Asian model to grace
the cover of Harper's Bazaar, was famous
herself.
When the family moved to Hawaii,
Mitchell helped plant Awapui plants in
the hot sun. It was only when Mitchell
was 13 that Paul Mitchell's eponymous
hair care line finally took off.
"I never took money for granted,
and wasn't the most popular guy in high
school," says Mitchell. "I
became popular because
I
acted in plays. I wanted
to become an actor but
after a year of college,
realized I needed something
to fall back on."
This sparks a recollection
that his father,
too, had the acting bug,
but also had been advised
to
try a craft. Good thing
both Mitchells listened, as
the whole world became
their stage.
The Son Also Rises
To prove he could make it on his own,
Mitchell attended Vidal Sassoon's Los
Angeles school. "People assumed hairdressing
would come to me naturally, but
it didn't-imagine being Paul Mitchell's
son at a Sassoon school," he deadpans.
Having survived the pressure, he
learned fast that "No job is too big and
no job is too small-details matter."
Those details set apart his own work, he
says; its refinement comes from looking
at art and pushing his eye.
As will happen, destiny eventually
called, and Mitchell joined the JPMS creative
team, to which he brings his own
multifaceted approach. A true child of
dissimilar generational influences, he
loves mash-ups, like old-school/newschool
music via his friend DJ Soulman.
Mashing-up his own responsibilities in
2010, he turned 40, opened Angus M
salon in Beverly Hills, and married his
long-time best friend.
When he's not on stage or running his
hectic salon, he, his wife and daughter
are at his tranquil, 34-acre, wind-powered
Macadamia nut farm in Hawaii. His
future focus is on family life, he says,
and continuing to enjoy the intense variety
of a career he loves.
"I can't believe I have this life," adds
Mitchell. "There's not a moment I'm not
grateful."
Mitchell's
newest
collection was
inspired by the
textures and
light reflections
seen in metal
sculptor Guy
Dill's work,
and the curvy
lines of '50s
automobiles.
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