ReneFris

By Ron Sklar

FabulMag Contributing Writer

Danish model and hair-care professional Rene Fris actually once thought of Manhattan as his place to be anonymous (even with his movie-star looks). But since his memorable appearances on the Bravo hair hit Shear Genius, he’s no longer just a face in the crowd.

“I did a Queer Eye for the Straight Guy back in Europe, so New York was my hiding place,” he says. “And now it’s kind of weird being on TV in the United States. I walk down the street and people say, ‘go shake it’ or ‘hi hi’ or whatever they say. It’s okay. It’s fun.”

Fun is a lifestyle choice Rene made long ago, when he contemplated how he would earn a living while really, really living.

“The day that I had to make up my mind about what my future should be,” he says, “it was between being a designer or an interior decorator. But I couldn’t draw. So I thought that being a hairdresser could be an option too.

“My whole key was ‘which job can I choose that I can take with me all over the world and survive everywhere?’ Because I really wanted to travel and discover the world. At the same time, I wanted to be capable of bringing my work with me. I just wanted to go around from city to city and country to country, which I did.”

He did indeed. Rene sold his successful salon in Denmark and, scissors in hand, went off to see the world. In 1999, he came to Miami, where he was immediately scouted for modeling. From there, it was off to Japan, Milan and New York, among other destinations.

He walked runways, appeared in TV commercials, print ads and reality shows, and all the while continued to cut hair.

“It’s hard to have a job every day,” he says of the modeling business. “If you want to make money in this industry, particularly as a guy, it’s about going out to the smaller markets that people don’t think of. Go to Austria, go to Sydney. The smaller cities. Everybody needs models. Everybody has to have models. I mean, so many models are in Milan, in London, in New York. There, you make it so much harder for yourself because the competition is so much bigger.”

His plan of world conquest worked like a charm. He set himself apart from the hordes of models by making the most of his hair-cutting and styling skills as well using his unique personality, which is candid, funny and accented. That winning combination scored him scores of modeling jobs as well as TV gigs that caught the public’s attention. Yet for him, modeling was always served on the side.

“The most enjoyable thing about modeling for me is all the people I’ve met through the years,” he says. “When I was shipped around for two or three months at a time, and I had these roommates, I would really build a love/hate relationship with them. And then I would leave, or they had to leave, and go on to the next contract.

“The sad part is that I never knew when I would see these people again. After about four or five years, I had a list of fifty people who I loved to death. I was so frustrated because I didn’t know when I would ever see these people again. It really started to hurt me because I felt kind of lost and lonely, because I didn’t have the same people around me and I moved on to a new group. Then I would have a blast with the new people and then we would have to leave all over again. That was both the hardest and the best thing.”

He now busies himself with Shear Genius, as well as his personal line of hair-care products which is selling big in Europe and should launch in the US later this year.

Like his role on the Bravo series, he is not shy about dispensing advice, here for models.

“I think the most, most important thing is to not take it personally,” he says. “That means when you are turned down at those castings, you should not take it personally. Like ‘your nose is not even’ or ‘it’s too long’ or ‘your face is too big’ or ‘you’re too skinny’ or ‘you’re too tall.’

“Actually, there is somebody for everybody. It’s just very hard to get the nine jobs out of ten. If you were to pick ten guys and ten girls right now, and then somebody else would pick ten guys and ten girls, they would pick ten completely different people. Everybody has different tastes. If you are a booker or a client, beauty in your vision is a completely unique thing. That doesn’t mean that you won’t work in the business as a model.”

As for Shear Genius, Rene continues to grab the spotlight and yet his personal reaction to his own televised appearances may surprise you.

“I don’t mind seeing myself in pictures, but I cannot watch myself on TV at all,” he says. “It’s the same thing as taping your voice on an answering machine and you hate listening to yourself. I am not flattered by it and I cannot learn from it. People say, ‘watch yourself and you can learn from it.’

“I have a hard time saying if there are good or bad pictures of me in a magazine. I would not be the right person to pick and choose my own pictures. But when I see myself on TV, I am seriously cowering in the corner of a couch with my hands over my face, looking out between my fingers. I seriously hate watching myself on TV.”

However, he seems to be the only one, as the impressive ratings have proven.

As far as the show’s success, he says, “What’s so surprising is that I’ve done these shows before in Europe. The first season is always what it is, and the second season is when you really know [if it’s a success]. I can feel much more pressure or tension. It’s shot in high definition and the salon is much more beautiful. That’s when you can tell that they are definitely risking everything on it.”

Of course, risking everything is nothing new for Rene.

For more information on Rene, go to :

www.Renefris.com and http://www.bravotv.com/Shear_Genius/bio/Rene_Fris

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