Fashion
Andreas Kurkowitz
30 October 2026
Fashion
Andreas Kurkowitz
30 October 2026
Image: Anastasia Lisitsyana
Q: You became a colourist without a traditional hairdressing education. What did that unconventional path give you that formal training might not have?
A: Hair colour is a complex field in itself, you realise early on that it demands its own focus, that it's something entirely different from cutting. A different career, really, even though we both work with the same medium: hair. So colour became my focus from the very beginning,and it never shifted.
Q: You’ve worked as a colour ambassador for hair brands. What does that actually mean in practice, and what does the industry look like from that position?
A: It's a very different environment, working with brands that focus on B2B. You're trying to showcase what a product can do for hairdressers at every level. It's not about thinking in fashion terms, it's about asking: how can this help someone working day to day in a salon environment, anywhere in the world? Still my favourite part when working with brands: getting to work closely with the R&D team to develop new colours.
Image: Simon Menges
Image: Simon Menges
Q: Which celebrity hair moment from the last ten years do you think actually changed how people think about colour?
A: I don't think you can single out one celebrity as having changed how the majority of people think about colour. Through social media, things shift so quickly, there are millions of images out there, with certain colours inspired by or copied from well-known individuals. But that's not the same as one moment changing everything.
Q: You deliberately avoid hair trends. In an industry built on trends, how do you convince a client to trust you over what they saw somewhere else?
A: I wouldn't say I avoid trends, I simply don't use them as something to sell to my clients. My work is a collaboration: finding the colour that's aesthetically right and genuinely makes that person happy. In the end, it's not about fulfilling my vision.
"The client has to feel comfortable with the colour they leave with. It's about individuality, not trends."
Image: Jonathan de Francesco
Image: Jonathan de Francesco
Image: Jonathan de Francesco
Q: Blonde is the most requested and the most feared colour in the industry. Why do so many blondes go wrong?
A: For me it comes down to three things people underestimate. What type of hair you have — and whether it's already been chemically treated. How realistically you can maintain the colour and care for it afterwards. And the biggest misunderstanding of all: that blonde means bleach. It doesn't — with the right hair type, you can lighten with colour alone.
Q: Berlin has one of the most specific aesthetics in the world: cool, effortless, slightly undone. How has living here changed how you think about colour?
A: Berlin is an interesting place for me — it's full of great minds, and it's not a city obsessed with maintaining a look, which I appreciate. But honestly, my perspective was never shaped by one city alone. I lived in London before coming back, and now I spend more time in New York than in Berlin. What really changed how I think about colour is moving between these cities — seeing where they overlap and where they couldn't be more different.
Image: Simon Menges
Image: Simon Menges
Q: Where do you go in Berlin when you want to switch off?
A: When I get a day off in Berlin, I like to go for a run in Grunewald: it's great to have that much green in the city, so close by. But in general, Berlin feels like quite a relaxed city to me.
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