Hair's to fame and success
SASKA GRAVILLE
29/04/2001
Sun Herald
 
Celebrity hairdresser Renya Xydis is the fashion industry's style snipper of choice. SASKA GRAVILLE spoke to her at home.
 
I'M TRYING really, really trying to get some celebrity gossip out of snipper-to-the-stars Renya Xydis. Comfortably settled 
on one of her exceedingly stylish sofas I want to know how many grey hairs Nicole Kidman has, whether Alex Dimitriades trims 
his nose hair and if supermodels get dandruff. 

Renya will do the hair for, among others, Collette Dinnigan, Third Millennium, Brave/Wayne Cooper and Morrissey at Australian 
Fashion Week and as Australia's most internationally successful hairdresser, she knows all the answers. And I want them. 

As someone whose Paddington salon is the choice of such local celebs as Miranda Otto, Geoffrey Rush and Richard Roxburgh and 
who flies twice yearly to Paris and Milan to work at major fashion shows for the likes of Dinnigan and Chloe, Renya is bound 
to be a font of all gossip. 

Unfortunately, not only is she closer to more celebrity heads than an Elton John hair weave supermodel Christy Turlington, 
for example, is her new e-mail best friend Renya is also tres, tres discreet when I demand gossip. Other than letting slip 
that she was one of the first to know when Christy got engaged to actor/director Ed Burns, I get nothing. 

But it doesn't take much to surmise that her sealed lips are precisely why the likes of Kidman and Dimitriades trust her 
with their locks. So, no gossip forthcoming (for the moment), and I'm forced to do what I came here to do in the first place: 
admire the surroundings. Very nice they are too. And very crowded! 

``I'm not a minimalist person," laughs Renya. No kidding. Photos, mirrors, lights, vases, flowers, cushions, beaded fabrics, 
her Kingsford home is an Aladdin's cave of jewelled and colourful bits and pieces. 

``I have eclectic taste," she admits. Her regular work trips to Europe only add to her collection. ``I'm always on the 
lookout for old shops in which to find antiques," she says. 

She's also perfected the art of flea market shopping. ``I look out for things that you can't buy here," she says. ``We have 
great stuff in Australia but I try to buy things that are memories of the area I've visited." 

A perfect example is the small framed Frou Frou picture. ``I found the frame in a little Parisian flea market and then I 
spotted the picture," she says. ``My new Paddington salon [opening in June] is called Miss Frou Frou so I thought, I have 
to have that picture. I love it." 

Renya's home wasn't always a resting place for her compulsive international foraging. 

``When I moved in four years ago I made the big mistake of completely furnishing the house within the first three months of 
moving in," she says. ``And I hated it." 

Her solution was to give it all away and slowly start again. 

``Then the hail storm hit," she remembers, ``and I lost a lot of things." The stuff that surrounds her today has taken two 
years to accumulate. 

``I just pick up pieces that I like," she says. ``I buy whatever catches my eye. It's all comfortable and none of it will 
date." 

Most of it also seems to be gold. ``Yeah, I do love gold," she laughs. ``Tacky, eh!" Maybe it's Renya's Greek Cypriot 
heritage. 

The house is filled with gold-embellished religious icons, courtesy of an aunt who is a nun in Cyprus. 

``I am totally inspired by our culture," she says. ``When I was growing up in Australia and at school, I really didn't want 
to be Greek, I wanted to forget all about it. But now that I'm older and comfortable with my own self I totally love it." 

It's a heritage that she's keen to pass on to her own children, Paul, 8, and Aiden, 4. 

``It's up to my generation to try and hold on to it because the children will forget it," she says. ``I speak Greek to them 
but they just don't get it!" 

It's also for her kids' sake that Renya loves life in the suburbs. 

``As soon as I leave work in Paddington and come into our street I feel like I'm at home," she says. ``I love the way my 
kids have got friends in the street and can play outside. People always ask me why I don't live in Paddington but why would 
I want to be around all those pubs? My home is my sanity." 

Kingsford is certainly a sane contrast to the crazy world of international fashion. Which takes us back to that hair gossip. 
Can't she let slip just a tiny bit? ``Oh no," she laughs. ``All right, Kate Moss is gorgeous. She's got a great haircut and 
a great attitude. Christy Turlington is unreal, I love her." 

As for Nicole's grey hairs and other urgent inquiries, I guess the world will have to wait. 

Why Sydney's stars love Renya's Valonz salon: 

Geoffrey Rush: ``Valonz is a fantastic place incredibly informal but high on class and style. Very relaxed and very groovy. 
A truly unique salon." 

Richard Roxburgh: ``[They] have only ever wrought improvement and have never sent me forth with an unwanted mullet or root 
perm." 

Miranda Otto: ``Valonz means that I can relax, know my hair is in great shape, get good advice and even learn to put on 
make-up!" 

Pia Miranda: ``I always walk out with a smile on my face." 

David Wenham: ``A relaxing environment where, after a cup of coffee and a flick through magazines, I will leave with a 
haircut that puts a smile on my face."