Leo Passage, Founder of Pivot Point Beauty School
Matthew Kruk
Founder of Pivot Point Beauty School
BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL
Staff Reporter
modo...@suntimes.com
Last Modified: May 24, 2011 02:10AM
Leo Passage likely influenced your hairstyle, even if he never touched a
follicle on your head.
Mr. Passage founded the beauty school Pivot Point International at
Howard and Clark, which over half a century grew from a student body of
five to a producer of hundreds of educational books, DVDs and online
courses distributed in 80 countries in 13 languages, said his daughter,
Corrine Passage, vice president of publications and production.
The school estimates 1 million people have studied with Pivot Point. Its
alums include Oprah Winfrey hairstylist Andre Walker; Michelle Obama
hair designer Michael Flowers, and David Raccuglia, who created American
Crew products.
"You probably never heard his name, but chances are good your hair has
been cut or colored by a stylist he taught - someone who learned the
fundamentals of hair design from Leo Passage and his worldwide network
of schools and educators," said Michele Musgrove, associate publisher of
Modern Salon magazine, which named him one of the industry's top 50
hairdressers in 2008. "He is one of the most influential hair designers
to have worked in the professional beauty industry."
"He's really, around the world, a mentor to many, many - we're talking
about thousands of people," said Salvatore Fodera, president of the
Paris-based Organisation Mondiale Coiffure [OMC], which touts itself as
the biggest beauty organization in the world. It has 65 member countries
and oversees the "World Cup" of hair-cutting and coloring competitions.
The OMC plans to create a new trophy in his honor, Fodera said.
Mr. Passage, 75, of Evanston, died of a lung disease May 11 at Evanston
Hospital.
His rise in the beauty industry is remarkable, given the modesty of his
Dutch beginnings. He was born in the Netherlands and was a little boy in
World War II Belgium, where his barber father, Theo - a member of the
Resistance - used Leo's cherubic looks and evasive bike-riding skills to
scout out the locations of German soldiers in order to hide or move
Jewish refugees across the Belgium-Holland border, according to friends
and family.
"I took over Jewish people who were trying to escape, and as a boy, I
knew exactly the little roads and the little creeks that you walked, so,
and we knew where the Germans would be sitting," Mr. Passage said in a
video about his life. "I had no fear out of it because it was kind of
adventurous for me, probably, and around later on I realized that
actually, you know, it was for a real good cause."
Some of the Germans were young and bored, so "He made friends with a lot
of the German soldiers," his daughter said. "Sometimes he would tease
the soldiers, and sort of have them chase him on his bike and get them
diverted, so the other people could move into the area."
After the war he learned to cut hair in Brussels and worked at a salon
in the Netherlands. He met and married his wife Lenie when she was 18
and he was 22. She would always be his favorite hair model, their
daughter said.
Mr. Passage sent letters to salons in Australia, Canada and different
U.S. cities inquiring about employment, and received the warmest
response from an Evanston salon, Pierre Andre, owned by a French
expatriate. After being married only two weeks, Leo and Lenie booked
passage to the United States.
American women were ready for some élan. As wartime rationing ended and
prosperity returned - and couturier Christian Dior rolled out the "New
Look" - European-accented hairstylists were a treat. "The ladies liked
the idea of having their hair done by a European hairdresser, and a
man," his daughter said.
Mr. Passage eventually opened his own salon in Glencoe, where he
fine-tuned a customer-care system that had the efficiency of an assembly
line, but retained the glamor that well-to-do North Shore ladies liked.
"He would do 50 clients a day," his daughter said.
He invented cone-shaped rollers that allowed stylists to create patterns
in hair. He won more than 100 hairstyling competitions, and people
sought him out for advice. He opened the first Pivot Point in Rogers
Park. The school still operates three locations in the Chicago area,
including its headquarters in Evanston.
Like superstar stylist Vidal Sassoon, Mr. Passage was influenced by the
Bauhaus movement and its clean, form-follows-function design and
architecture. "He said 'Hair's just a different media,' " his daughter
said.
"Hairdressers who study our system have a common language, based on art
and science," said Ben Polk, a Pivot Point spokesman. For example,
whether clients ask for a pageboy, a blunt cut or a bob, "We would call
it a 'solid form,' " Polk said.
Mr. Passage loved fishing. He did it in the Arctic Circle, at the Great
Barrier Reef and in the Florida Keys, where he liked to say he sought
"the elusive bonefish."
Mr. Passage is also survived by his son, Robert, and five grandchildren.
Services have been held.
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