Hidden away at the back of the US Open’s presidential suite, the tournament’s unsung hero remains hard at work, scissors in hand. For 15 years, hairstylist Julien Farel has hosted a pop-up salon for all players participating in the Open. Tresses of top-seeded players fall to the ground as Farel carefully styles each coif.
Growing up in Lyon, France, Farel didn't have aspirations of becoming a hairdresser; until he was 14, he dreamt of being a professional soccer player. While attending a middle school for athletes, Farel received an offer from France’s national soccer team to attend their competitive recruiting camp, but due to his family’s situation at the time, he was unable to go. After he failed to show up to the camp, Farel never heard back from the team.
His hopes for a successful soccer career seemingly crushed, Farel brainstormed other career aspirations. He didn’t enjoy school much, and he felt his professional options were limited to being a baker, plumber, accountant, or hairstylist. Opting for the hairstyling route, Farel began cutting his early clients' hair out of his grandmother’s kitchen.
Hairstylist Julien Farel gives tennis legend Leander Paes a pre-match tuneup. Photo by Matthew Salacuse.
Far from the kitchen workspace where it all began, Farel has opened salons all across the world; his largest is a two-story megasalon on Park Avenue, New York City–where clients can get their nails done, exercise, and have a massage–all with white-glove service.
Farel credits his success to years of perseverance and hard work in the industry that wouldn’t sound unfamiliar to the tennis players he calls clients: “When everybody else quits, you keep pushing forward,” he said.
Farel maintained that same grit and determination when his idea for the US Open pop-up salon came to him. In 2003, shortly after opening his first salon in NYC, he reached out to the United States Tennis Association in hopes of becoming the players’ official hairdresser. Having already accomplished a similar concept at Roland Garros, he knew it would work.
It took Farel five years of asking the USTA for a contract before he was able to negotiate a deal; each ‘no,’ he said, was just more incentive to improve his craft. Since it opened in 2008, the pop-up has become an annual tradition (pandemic notwithstanding).
Although he trained as a soccer player, Farel has spent nearly his whole life watching and playing tennis. Being a life-long fan of the sport has made for exciting moments while styling some of the most iconic players on tour: in 2010, he cut Rafael Nadal’s hair, in an iconic transformation from long to short. That same year, Nadal won the whole tournament.
