Some people spend a lifetime searching for a vocation. David Mallett had settled on his at the age of four, in suburban Australia. A young punk in Perth before he became a fixture of Paris, he built a career on a single, stubbornly modern idea: that great hair should look as though it simply happened.
By 21 he held two of Australian hairdressing’s top titles, Newcomer and Hairdresser of the Year, awarded by Schwarzkopf. He promptly left home to work abroad, in Tokyo, Moscow and Milan. Paris arrived by chance: a Mondino shoot with Lenny Kravitz needed a stylist at short notice, and Mallett said yes. He was 27, with more than a decade behind the chair, and he never really left.
Editorial success followed. His work has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Tatler, among many others. And his credits include the 2009 Pirelli Calendar and an Elle story with Sharon Stone. Yet his most telling creation may be a room. In 2003 he opened his salon in a grand seventeenth-century townhouse off Place des Victoires and furnished it himself, with pieces hunted down over the years at flea markets and on his travels: coral, sculpture, crystal lamps, the odd wig. The atmosphere is intimate rather than intimidating, glamorous without ever being grand.
A second Paris address followed at the Ritz on Place Vendôme, then New York, at The Webster’s Soho store, where he carried across pieces of Paris itself, furniture included, along with members of his original team. What ties the rooms together is a sensibility shaped by the easy sun of Perth, the polish of Paris and an early love of Italian refinement.
A collection born of clients
The hair care range grew out of the salon floor. Clients kept asking for products that didn’t exist, so Mallett made them. Unisex by design and formulated in France, the collection pairs potent ingredients with featherlight textures, and it now sits on shelves in some twenty countries.
By his own account, he is the least precious client at his own salon. He commutes by scooter, doesn’t own a blow-dryer, and washes with his own products. It is the ultimate endorsement of low-maintenance elegance.
Home, in a bottle
The Australian Salt Spray is the range’s most personal product. A bottled memory of childhood by the sea, of boats, surf and salt-stiffened waves. Its fragrance stays fresh and light, closer to a summer breeze than a heavy floral.
Now the story deepens with the Australian Salt Scrub, the Spray’s natural counterpart. This exfoliating shampoo is made with purified pink salt from the Murray River, blended with white clay to lift impurities and buildup while reviving the scalp. Hair is purified, detoxified and revitalised from root to tip, and the whole thing feels less like a wash than a weekly ritual. It is an unmistakably Australian gesture from a Paris-based stylist.
David Mallett Australian Salt Scrub, $129, exclusive to Mecca
