When it comes to the universally obsessed-about subject that is hair, Christiaan Houtenbos is undeniably an authority figure. A legend in the fashion industry, and a man who has transformed and tamed many a mane during his 40-year-plus career, from Arthur Elgort and Mario Testino to Inez and Vinoodh and Cass Bird, Houtenbos has worked with them all. Here Houtenbos welcomes us into his Manhattan apartment.

"I moved to New York in 1966 and I stayed for half a year, and I lived in a YMCA on 23rd St. across from the Chelsea Hotel. I had friends at the Chelsea but I couldn’t afford it, so I lived at the YMCA and it was hilarious–it was the size of a closet; it had a table and a bed and a toilet down the hall. It cost $5 a week.

"New York, compared to every other city that I think I know relatively well, sets itself apart because it’s so big that it doesn’t just have one clique that runs the show. I always hear from people in Amsterdam, London and Paris, for example, and that if you’re not in the right clique you’re not in. Here, there are too many cliques. There is this clique, there is that clique, clique clic clop... whatever. And so it’s definitely a little bit more flexible. You can be in and you can be out… I don’t know if that’s understandable, but I always find that in New York. 

"To move? I can’t bear the thought! There’s one place in the world where I know which way to walk and find the bathroom, you know. Half the time I’m in rooms and I’m like, 'OK, where the fuck is the bathroom?'"