It's with great sadness that HJ reports the passing of Spanish hairdresser Lluís Llongueras, who died on 29 May 2023 aged 87.
An artist who revolutionised the industry and with a career full of successes and milestones, he was admired both by consumers and his hairdressing peers. Lluís Llongueras, who was born in Barcelona 1936, was a hairdressing pioneer and innovator.
He was recognised in 2019 as the first hairdresser in history to be awarded the prestigious International Hair Legend Award by the International Hairdressing Awards. In addition to being a hairdresser, Llongueras will be remembered as an artist. A friend and collaborator of artists such as Salvador Dalí, Lluís was also a renowned sculptor, painter, writer, poet and photographer. An innovator ahead of his time and a tireless creator of new techniques and trends, he never kept anything to himself and always shared his art and knowledge with the rest of the profession.
Thanks to this passionate spirit for education, he created the world-famous Llongueras Institute, where thousands of hairdressers from all over the world have been trained, and developed his well-known Llongueras Method, distributed internationally both in print and on video. Llongueras always remained true to his roots as a lover of the Mediterranean. As proof of this, he chose Barcelona to establish his first salon, his institute and the first eco-sustainable hairdressing salon. Today Llongueras has become a reference name in the sector with more than 70 salons in Spain and an important international presence in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, Japan, Dominican Republic or Andorra.
Lluís Llongueras was a passionate advocate for women's rights. It could be said that he was one of the people responsible for liberating Spanish women in the 1960s. As he himself declared in the media: "I dishevelled Spain's hair to liberate women". In the 1960s he was fighting and defending equal salaries for men and women in his salons. This industry icon will be greatly missed and we'd love to hear your tributes to Lluís Llongueras.
