Runway House, CiRCA’s monthly Sunday fashion-art-music-party series, is set to mix shampoo with schmooze on March 30. Project manager Rolyn Chambers hopes to “bring back the old-school energy that has been lacking in the past four to five years” by luring fashion scenesters and members of the hairstyling community out to the Toronto Salon Social.

Hosted by local stylist to the stars Jie Matar (pictured at left; his “Jie-fied” clientele includes Nelly Furtado and Kim Cattrall), the Toronto Salon Social will combine cocktails with hair-minded mingling. Runway House partygoers can stop by the specially installed pink bubble salon for free samples, salon brochures and coupons or witness demonstrations by local salons such as Salon One (445 Church, 416-961-1663).

Patricia (who, like Cher, gives no last name), owner of internet-based consultation Custom Celebrity Lace Front Wigs (www.cclacefront.com, 905-463-0184) will have a mini–hair show promoting her line of lace fronts that can be curled, flat-ironed and even be parted in any direction. She is hoping that the secret of drag queens and pop singers (she name-checks Beyoncé, Madonna and Gwen Stefani) will be properly exposed.

“The reason they are so popular is because there is no damage to your hair [and] no stress to it,” she explains of the wigs (which retail for $500 and up). “Hair weaves and glues ruin your hair,” she says. “With the lace wigs, it’s a protective style that leaves your hair looking fashionable and stylish.”

John Taccone, owner and artistic director of Navigatespace (250 The Esplanade, ste. 123, 416-427-6020) is a first-time participant who is looking forward to seeing how the social will make hair­styling “accessible” to partygoers. But he’s quick to quip that the social networking aspect of the event is “so bizarre, because hairdressers typically hate each other.”

According to Taccone, up until the mid-’90s, local stylists enjoyed the privileged status of celebrities among their devoted cabal of clients. The self-promoting hairstylist archetype is still going strong — think veteran “Mister Glitter” Robert Gage (clients: Norman Jewison, Peter Munk, Dalton McGuinty) and John Donato (who recently launched a glossy called Donato).

Matar — a controversial and colourful figure who is currently the creative director at 186 Davenport (186 Davenport, 416-925-6000; www.jiematar.com) — came on board with the social because he was missing the adventurously fashionable New York parties he went to back when he had his own salon there.

It was also only a year ago that recent money problems forced Matar to close down his Yorkville Jie Avenue salon. The once snarky showman — he remarked in a 2002 Toronto Life profile that he didn’t recognize other local hairstylists because he “hadn’t seen any work that [made] me say wow. I am just very good at what I do” — is now interested in the city’s “new generation” of stylists.
“Hairdressers are very territorial,” says Matar, dismissing his former remarks. “I want to meet the young ones, and engage with them… I feel young and I can still give.”

That’s why he’s supporting an event that he hopes will re-energize the drab Sunday-night party scene through the emergence of a hair community. It also helps that he’s bringing a touch of his celebrity glamour with Canada’s Next Top Model judge Yasmin Warsame as his date.

“Let’s not blame Toronto for being Bore-ronto. It’s what we make of it,” he says. “If people complain that it’s Sunday and boring — why? Do it and be there. I want to see people that love life there.”