MY GENERATION has a habit of thinking we aren’t good enough. Always too quick to doubt ourselves. Working with the Japanese taught me to break down those mental barriers.
THE MIND IS A POWERFUL TOOL and we must learn to use it positively. I've learned not to hold myself back from limiting mindsets.
TIMES ARE DIFFERENT NOW. The younger generation is full of individuality. I see them expressing their personalities more and it’s refreshing.
SOCIAL MEDIA has amplified that change. Back then, it was all about human connections, relationships built over time—something I still value today. Whereas sometimes social media paints a very one-dimensional part of the hairstylist or even the business. I guess I am just old school in that way.
I AM NOT A FAN of that sort of branding. We focus on connecting with people, fostering interpersonal interactions, and building relationships.
A TESTAMENT of what we have been doing from the beginning when clients from day one keep returning.
IT’S MEANINGFUL to see clients grow up. Some have been with me since day one and watching them transition from school kids to adults bringing in their own children is truly personal. That’s the best part.
IT ALL STARTED when I was thinking about where I could get my hair cut after relocating to Singapore. Coincidentally, I learned the director of the Japanese parent company was planning to open a salon here.
THINGS JUST FELL INTO PLACE. My stylist knew I was interested, so we had a meeting and that’s how I got into the business.
SWITCHING FROM engineering to hairstyling wasn’t as hard as it seems. I always had an eye for fashion, design and creativity. Hairdressing, to me, is an extension of that.
WHEN you have that interest it’s not difficult to jump over to something you’re passionate about.
I AM FORTUNATE to work with this husband-and-wife duo, both President Design Award winners and founders of Studio Juju. They specialise in furniture and interior design. We’re collaborating to expand their interior design arm.
NOT BOXING MYSELF UP, I aim to present and deliver something slightly different from what you typically see in Singapore’s interior design scene.
I’M NOT AFTER GRAND PLANS. I just want to keep doing what I love and have fun along the way.
BEING SINGAPOREAN in a Japanese trade has its own challenges culturally. Respect isn’t instant. I didn’t know a thing about hair when I started, so it was tough earning my place.
I’M KNOWN to be a quick-tempered person. But over time, I’ve mellowed. This job has taught me patience—something I didn’t always have.
I BELIEVE mistakes are our greatest teachers.
I WOULDN’T CHANGE a thing about my life. Every mistake is a valuable lesson, shaping who we are, just as much as the successes.
IN THE END, I don’t want much. I just want people to think of our salon as a place where they feel good, where they leave with more than just a haircut.
ENSURING our salons are more than just functional—they have a soul. That’s key to me. It’s not just about the haircut; it’s about creating an experience.
BODY LANGUAGE is crucial in this industry. Making clients feel comfortable is key. You don’t need to understand Japanese, but by their tone or the way they speak, you can sense how they’re feeling.
THE JAPANESE have an incredible work ethic, which fascinates me about Japan and its people. It’s great to have more people from Japan joining us; it feels like a cultural exchange.
IT’S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to find a hairstylist. Most people don’t grow up aspiring to be hairstylists; it’s often seen as a fallback option.
THAT’S NOT THE CASE in Japan, where many hairstylists are degree holders. I’ve come to appreciate the value of skill-based jobs, especially as knowledge-based roles may be replaced by AI. I hope more people start recognising the value of these professions.
THE LONGER you stay in this industry, the better you get. The prospects as a hairstylist are limitless.
WE EMPOWER our stylists to explore creative outlets beyond hair. Some have done art-related work or aspire to open their own salons abroad. It’s all about growing artistically and taking breaks to refresh the mind.
THERE’S NO LIMIT. We’re a hair salon at heart, but we explore beyond that. We’ve done pop-ups where our stylists have brought in Japanese brands, engaging with their creativity in new ways.
Photography: Jaya Khidir
Photography Assistant: Tawfiq Ismail
I KNOW FOR SURE that many different types of species are operating hyper-advanced aerodynamic platforms, and they’re visiting Earth, coming and going like taxis. As to who these operators are, I don’t know. Are they interdimensional, inter-realm, interplanetary?
I’VE HAD FOUR vivid sightings of craft that were not jets, helicopters, or planes.
I WAS ON MY MOTORCYCLE about eight o’clock at night, and I saw a red beacon flying over the high-tension power lines. There was no sound. It stops right above my motorcycle and shines a light on me. I look up, totally delighted. And the light winks off, and this thing drifts off over the field again.
MY DAD WAS an absolute absurdist. He would go to a grocery store, grab a roll of paper towels, and whip them over to the next aisle to hear the reaction. “Oh, whoa, whoa!” He was wonderful.
I WAS VERY MOUTHY in class all the way through high school because I knew I could get laughs. I was not a good student, but I was an entertaining one.
My parents enrolled me in the St Pius X minor preparatory seminary for boys, which was a priest school in Ottawa. So I went there from grade 9, 10, 11, and I was asked to leave, dismissed in a letter saying, “We believe your son is not a suitable candidate for the priesthood.”
A LITTLE UNDER HALF THE YEAR, I’m at the farm in Ontario. It’s where the family settled in 1826.
WE HAD A FAMILY MEDIUM, and frequent séances took place in the old farmhouse in the 1930s and ’40s, usually on a Sunday morning. The big black Chryslers, Packards, Cadillacs, and Lincolns would come in with the big bosomy matrons and their tiny, skinny little husbands. They’d sit around the table and my great-grandfather Samuel would host.
I WAS STUDYING criminology at Carleton University and expecting that I would go into the corrections service, having worked a summer as a Clerk 5 in the Penitentiary Service of Canada doing inmate catalogues.
I WROTE A MANUAL for deploying weapons in riots for the commissioner. And I thought, “Well, it's an interesting profession.”
BUT I HAD MET A WOMAN named Valri Bromfield in high school, and she said, “You’re not going to be a prison guard. You’re coming with me to Toronto.” And she dragged me off with our audition tape that we’d made on cable TV in Ottawa. It got the attention of Lorne Michaels.
I HAD A PRETTY GOOD LIFE going in Toronto. We were running an after-hours booze can, selling liquor and beer and wine illegally over the counter and making a massive 80 per cent markup. I bought a Harley. I bought a car.
I HAD AN ORIGINAL 1971 Ontario provincial police Harley motorcycle that had been in the display team of the Golden Riders. It went around the world with these stunt riders from the provincial police. Paid USD1,200 for it. And I kept that for a long time.
I RODE THAT BIKE up and down the thruway from the farm to SNL, the entire four years I was on the show. I never flew or took a train or a bus. I never commuted to New York on anything but that bike. Seven hours. Rain or shine. That was my ride.
IT WASN’T SO MUCH my public exposure that I felt in that first year of SNL. It was Chevy’s. I didn’t get much recognition, but Chevy did. I used to walk down the street with him and they were calling his name out, “Hey, Chevy Chase!”
I SAW HOW Chevy was exposed and thought to myself, I don’t want that.
I TRIED COCAINE a couple of times. I didn’t like what it did. It made me speedy. It didn’t help me creatively. But there were others who liked it a lot more.
I STARTED TO PLAY harmonica when I went up north as a road surveyor and tundra-crawler mechanic for the federal Department of Public Works, a job my father got me through pure nepotism. I played the harp up there around the campfire. I kept it up enough so when Blues Brothers came along, I was modestly proficient on it, and still am today.
MY MOTHER USED TO type my essays up when I was in college. Sometimes they were unfinished and I’d say, “It’s ok. They’ll accept this.” And she’d say, “No, you have to round this out. You’ve got to ride home on a third act or a conclusion here. I’m not letting you go until you compose that.”
MY STYLE IS basically all black. Black jeans, black shirt, black jacket, black tie, black hat. Sometimes I’ll go with a white shirt. I really don’t care about clothes. I prefer just to have a rack of black stuff to put on every morning that’s clean.
YOU CAN NEVER SPEND enough time with your children. You can never listen to them enough, give them enough focus and attention. Accept their advice and their criticism. You can never do that enough.
IF THEY’RE COMING after you and saying, “Dad, you were a little profane today” or “Dad, don’t smoke cannabis in the house”“You know, Dad, you’re driving a little too fast,” instead of being defensive, I’ve learnt to back off the throttle, take the smoke outside. Just listen to them. And cut back on the profanity if I can.
WRITING IS HARD. Alone, it’s arduous. With a partner, you can play back and forth. So I prefer to work with a partner.
I'VE WRITTEN EIGHT SCREENPLAYS that got produced. And every one of them, at some point I'd be stopped cold. Where am I going to go next? So usually, I would just go to sleep and dream on it and get up in the morning and I go, “Well, I got a solution to go forward. It may not be the best one, but it's a solution.”
OK, I’VE BEEN sentenced to death. They’re saying, “Well, Dan, this is your last meal. What would you like?” Oh, jeez, Warden, thanks. Well, let me see. I will have a T-bone steak with green peas, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts with maple syrup, button-cap mushrooms, preceded by a lemon-zest Caesar salad.
AFTER THAT, I’D LIKE to move on to a Black Forest chocolate cake, all washed down with a fine Brane-Cantenac Margaux. I would like a cigar. [And a helicopter.]
This year, Aykroyd appeared in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the fifth film in the series he helped launch as a cowriter and costar of the 1984 original.
