From one chair to a name

Our story begins in a small barber's shop in Bağlıca, a village near Sinop on the Black Sea. This is where young Cemil Ayrancıgil first picks up scissors and comb, and for years he shaves the village's flat-capped men in that very chair.

Learned the traditional way, from master to apprentice, the craft teaches him patience, cleanliness and the value of sending every guest away happy. Our salons still hold on to those three things today.

Urged on by a relative who had settled in Ankara, he moves to the capital. In years when many homes did not even have reliable running water, Cemil's shop brings the scent of perfume to Ankara.

But times are hard. University students grow their hair long and skip the barber, and barbers are reluctant to cut it. After the military memorandum of 12 March 1971, young men's hair is cut by force. Demand collapses and the trade falls into a deep crisis.

Cemil turns the crisis into a turning point. He studies hairdressing magazines from France and Germany, blends what he sees with his own interpretation, and starts creating styles Ankara has never seen before.

Word spreads quickly. The men of Ankara begin to care about grooming, and his shop becomes the place to stop before a night at the gazino. His guests include well-known names such as Haldun Dormen, Göksel Arsoy, Tolga Aşkıner and Osman Yağmurdereli, and newspapers start interviewing him.

In 1975 he opens his first salon on Şehit Adem Yavuz Street, naming it after the newspaper headlines written about him: Parisli Cemil, "Cemil from Paris".

Our Eiffel Tower emblem has carried the same message ever since: craftsmanship that follows the world, and a devotion to elegance.

Today we welcome guests in Ankara at Panora, Armada and Cepa malls and at Bilkent City Hospital, and in Istanbul at Metropol Istanbul and at both the domestic and international terminals of Istanbul Airport.

We offer women's, men's and beauty services under one roof. Our team has changed and the cities have grown, but the care learned in that chair in Bağlıca has never changed.