As a teenager, Tony Li spent all his pocket money on hard-to-get foreign fashion magazines, mesmerised by the colour and verve on display, features that were seriously lacking in the China of the early 1980s, a grimly monochromatic, and utterly glamour-free, nation.
Li left school at 16 with few qualifications, and no solid idea of how he could break into that tantalisingly exotic world, but decided that hairdressing might be a promising place to start.
It was a prescient call: Li was in the right place, at the right time with the right skills, including a fierce entrepreneurial streak that has seen him develop a chain of hair and beauty salons, a photo agency, a hairdressing training school and, as of this year, a new hair-and-beauty chain with plans for 300 stores spread across China within the next four years.
The hairdresser-cum-stylist, 39, is also the undisputed top-dog in his field, the go-to guy for the nation's top models and actresses when they want to be assured of a killer look executed by an international-standard talent. Many celebrities, such as Zhang Ziyi, Li Bing Bing, Fan Bing Bing and Faye Wong have become personal pals who he meets regularly for dinner to catch up on the latest industry gossip.
The boyish-looking Li loves to chat - in Putonghua, English or Cantonese, the latter two languages picked up from watching television and movies - conducting interviews in the cosy cafes that are always incorporated into the larger Tony Studio premises. Instead of heading down the minimalist route that is so prevalent today, Tony Studio designers were instructed to make the place homely, with warm-toned sofas and couches, a mood that encourages clients to stick around for a manicure, coffee, lunch or, better still from a business standpoint, come along with a bunch of pals for an afternoon of primping and pampering. Says Li: 'I put a lot of effort into the d?cor, not everyone is willing to spend money on it but for us we want every client to feel cosy, to feel they are coming into a home with the lighting and music and decoration. The coffee shop also helps with that mood ... customers come with friends and make a day of it, have lunch or dinner or even have a martini!
'I think customers trust our brand, the name is always in magazines, on television, or online. We do a lot of work with models and stars and celebrities, so everyone knows us. That is the reason they come in the beginning. They also know that we use real products like Wella, or L'Oreal, and some cheaper salons don't use the real thing.