Alexandre de Paris

Louis Alexandre Raimon (6 September 1922 – 12 January 2008), better known as Alexandre de Paris, was a famous French hairdresser ("maître coiffeur"). He was responsible for creating Elizabeth Taylor's coiffure in the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra. He also styled Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, among others. He was nicknamed the "Prince de la coiffure", "d'Artagnan de la coiffure", "Sphinx de la coiffure", and "Figaro". His signature chignons (knot or a coil of hair arranged in the back of the head) and his flamboyant style made him famous, setting fashions in hairstyling for decades.

Alexandre was born on 6 September 1922 in Saint-Tropez, France. In 1938, he began working as an apprentice at a hair salon in Cannes (French Riviera). He soon became the head apprentice ("premier garçon") of his mentor Antoine de Paris. In this salon he met Andrée Banaudi, to whom he remained married until his death.

In 1946, he became famous for his masterpiece, the coiffure of Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (Yvette Labrousse) for her wedding with Aga Khan III. In that year he originated the chignon as art form, with different twists on the classic style. Later, for a 1961 dinner given at the Chateau de Versailles by Général de Gaulle in honour of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Alexandre would put diamonds in Jackie Kennedy's chignon.