Chiao Shen/Chenet (one his Taiwanese name, one his French, both of which he uses professionally) arrived in Paris from Taiwan in 2003, at the age of seventeen—never having done hair. After working for six years with Toni & Guy Paris and for two years with Jean-Marc Maniatis, he left the salon life in 2011. He began work as a session hair stylist with Guido Palau in 2013, working in the main team for NYC, London, Milan, and Paris fashion weeks. Over 400 shows later, he’s an independent session stylist travelling around the world with his own team, working on everything from editorials to advertisements and even back again to Paris Fashion Week.

Growing up, what shaped your creativity? And what got you into hair as a profession? In the very beginning, I only started to do it because I saw that salon hairdressers were very stylish and liked their hairstyles. Also, my mum wanted me to be a pilot in the Air Force like my dad. But there, you can’t wear what you like and there is only one hairstyle you can have—a buzz cut—so working as a hairstylist, I kind of had an excuse to not do as my mum asked. I started with characters from comics, rock music bands, basketball players, skaters—any idols I liked, I would recreate the same hairstyle on myself. I got into session hair later, through 5 years working with Guido Palau’s hair team.

Three words that describe your approach to hair? Era, character, and whether it’s commercial or creative.

What are some unique sources of creative inspiration for you? Everything has the potential to inspire me!

Do you have a preference between styling for editorials and runways? I love variety, I could never only do one. I love the idea that every day is a new day, which is also the reason why I eventually left the salon.

You’ve executed very sculptural pieces for a variety of clients. What about hair and the head do you feel lends itself towards fine art traditions? This is a difficult answer for me. I’ve never studied art in my life, nor has anyone in my family, but some things are intuitive. I know there is a good balance for the shape, the volume, and the head, and you must maintain each of these aspects.

When you’re working, what constraints imposed by a client feel the most difficult to grapple with? Every client poses a new challenge for me, and I love it. There is always a solution, and the experience of finding it matters a lot, I think. It can be difficult, though, balancing how much hair history you know, the brand spirit or identity, and negotiating how best to present my idea to a client. And I will say the most difficult brief is when they tell me to do whatever I want…I always need a story to create!

And on the other hand, what is your dream brief / project? It’s not necessarily a single project, but I’d like to get into one of best hair agencies, one which would permit me to do all kinds of hairstyles and hair textures.

What has been your most memorable work to date? When I was in Guido’s main team, I led the team for the Celine show in Paris. I did 5 days hair fitting with Phoebe Philo.