Presenter and columnist Özcan Akyol receives for his program The Clipped Guest his conversation partners in a hair salon where he provides them with a fresh haircut. In conversation with NU.nl, he says that most guests do not keep it dry during the recordings.
“This is not a floury program or yet another show with famous Dutch people,” he assures. “Of course there is room for a joke, but there is a balance with more seriousness and serious moments.”
The presenter, who cuts for the show Rob Jetten, Loretta Schrijver and Jan Slagter, among others, has a suspicion about why emotions get so high. “During a recording, I thought that the guests should look at themselves. Now, during the conversation, you look at yourself in the mirror instead of your conversation partner, and that may be confronting,” says Akyol.
“Buying a hair clipper was cheaper than going to the hairdresser”
The presenter says that the program was created by accident. “I was sitting with people from BNNVARA talking about other things when one of them asked me if I would do the styling of my beard myself. I used to do that myself, but now I go to a barber”, says Akyol .
The presenter from Deventer explains that his family had no money to go to the hairdresser and that they had therefore bought a hair clipper. “You could get that for 20 or 25 guilders. At one point my father was known as the neighborhood barber. When I was about twelve years old, my friends and I were able to cut each other.”
“I said somewhat boldly that I could learn the hairdressing profession”
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They were impressed by the broadcaster that Akyol could handle scissors himself, he explains. “It is a kind of second nature for those people to come up with program formats and they immediately saw that. It was suggested that I could interview people while I cut them. I thought that was going too far, because of course I am not hairdresser and barber is just a craftsman. At the time I was somewhat overconfident that I could learn. “
Akyol admits that he has underestimated the amount of work involved. “I had never cut women. Barbier Metin Pamboghchy and women’s hairdresser Ali Jamali have been preparing me three to four days a week for weeks. I learned the theory that I applied to anyone who wanted to: my girlfriend, my children.”
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Loretta Writer is one of the guests who has her hair cut by Özcan Akyol. (Photo: BrunoPress)
‘You can’t really ruin the hair of prominent guests’
Although in the long run he had a pretty good grasp of cutting, a new challenge was awaiting him to start recording. “I needed all my attention for cutting, but had to do an interview at the same time. You can’t do a recording again, because you can only shave someone’s beard once.”
He compares the cutting of his prominent guests with the taking of penalties. “Such a thing is never the same as practicing. In addition, I talk to guests who are on television regularly and probably go to the hairdresser more than once every six weeks. Then you really can’t mess it up.”
Fortunately, Akyol has not yet received any negative responses to his haircut. “They were actually surprised that I can really do it. I still actually do it. Every time I finish cutting I am surprised that I did that.”
The Clipped Guest can be seen every Tuesday at 9 p.m. from 4 February on NPO2.
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