Call it Elizabeth Arden’s revolving Red Door! The Fifth Avenue salon lost at least four top team members over the weekend when they defected to Hillary Clinton’s hair stylist John Barrett.
Zahir Ziani — Arden’s national creative director who has trimmed the tresses of Nancy Pelosi and Arlene Dahl — led the exodus, bringing along stylist Herve Merlino, plus coloring and highlight maestros William Simon and George Reus.
“These guys are really stars,” said my tonsorial tipster. “They got a better deal.”
Ziani will head a newly formed “academy” at the Barrett salons to teach the upscale “French way” of cutting.
On Monday, the Red Door Web site still boasted of “renowned 2011 North American Hair Awards winner Zahir Ziani” and his “hair team.”
“Each brings with them [sic] an impressive resume of runway and celebrity experience,” the site brags.
Barrett — who cut Princess Di’s hair when he worked in London — is expanding rapidly with a new salon at 54 Bond St., a landmarked building near The Bowery.
The native of Limerick, Ireland, is moving in 2016 — after two decades on the top floor of Bergdorf Goodman — into the mansion at 10 W. 56th St., where Elizabeth Taylor once lived. Barrett also has a deal to open 15 salons in Saks department stores nationwide.
“It’s just the way this industry is,“ Barrett told me. “One day you’re really hot. The next day you can’t get arrested. Possibly, I’m hot today.”