Our brand's unyielding principles, as it celebrates its 55th year:
Hakkı Kutlugün was born in Arhavi, Artvin in 1943, the son of Şevket KUTLUGÜN, Arhavi's only barber. After finishing primary school in Arhavi, he became interested in his father's profession. Although his father wanted him to pursue higher education, he said, "I will do this job not here, but in a big city," and came to Ankara during his middle school years. Although his father sent him to his uncle, he made it a matter of pride to take care of himself, but it was not that easy. After a very difficult period, in 1955, he started working at the barbershop opened by Hayati PİRLEPE, who received higher education and hairdressing training in France. In a very short time, he attracted attention with his different work compared to his friends. He managed to become a partner in this small barbershop, where he started working as an employee before even joining the military, in just one year. At Paris Kuaför,
Hakkı KUTLUGÜN, with his determined, diligent, and proactive approach as a boss, also changed the expanding customer base. By the end of 1957, he had transformed his barbershop into a large, successful, and distinct establishment, and three years later, he opened the largest men's and women's hair salon in Europe and the Middle East, again in Kızılay. For the first time in Turkey, he opened a hair salon for men, not as a barbershop, but as a hair salon together with the women's hair salon. Immediately after his military service as a hairdresser at the Istanbul Harbiye Officers' Club in 1963, he opened his first branch in Istanbul Cadde Bostan in 1964. In August 1966, his two children, Eda and Hakan, were born from his marriage to İlknur Hanım.
The hair salon became a preferred destination for prominent figures of that era, such as Adnan MENDERES, Nazmiye DEMİREL, Zeki MÜREN, Fatma GİRİK, Müzeyen SENAR, Muazez ABACI, and countless film and cinema stars, offering a wide range of services and attracting a diverse clientele. It also became an indispensable place for prime ministers' wives and bureaucrats, such as Tansu ÇİLLER, Berna YILMAZ, and the couple Semra and Turgut ÖZAL.
Paris Kuaför has set an example for all hairdressers in Turkey with the innovations it has brought to the hairdressing profession, introducing both novelties and principles. It has taught the profession to hundreds of people and nurtured many successful individuals. In 1991, with the partnership of his son-in-law Necdet, whom he called his son, and his children Hakan and Eda, it expanded into a multi-branch salon chain. It transitioned from being an individual entity to becoming an institutional one. Approximately 11-12 branches were opened together.
Hakkı KUTLUGÜN served as the president of Haute Coiffure Française, the world's largest fashion club, from 2000 to 2007.
A very social and much-sought-after, beloved, special person who loves to have fun, be with friends, host them, treat them, and share; someone whose body cannot contain their love, who invariably communicates and shares by creating a channel to convey what they know – an exceptional human being...
