A little bit about Batia & Aleeza

Sit a moment in Batia Elkayam and she’ll give you a bouquet of wisdom to go along with your perm or cut. Her secret to everyday happiness is her philosophy on life; make people feel good and good about themselves. A cool breeze in a world that has become hectic, anonymous, and increasingly void of human contact, “you can make a person feel bad, you can make someone feel like a million dollars”, she says. “I like to make people feel good.”

This philosophy is to what Batia & Aleeza attribute their success. Located in Beverly Hills, Ca, Batia & Aleeza have had the likes of celebrities Alicia Silverstone, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Bay (among others) sit in their chairs. However, being a celebrity is not required for you to live a few moments in the glow of a Batia & Aleeza experience.

“Nobody’s Different to Me”

“I take care of everybody the same way”, says Batia. “I think people come from the same place, they’re going to the same place. Nobody’s different to me. If you have more money, less money- if they’re nice, I like them. I like human beings.” Every person who meets these two sisters leaves understanding that, to this pair, everybody deserves to be treated well. Knowing these two sisters means knowing their philosophy and their history.

Batia and Aleeza were raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, in a family of six children with hard-working parents. Their father was in the Israeli army and their mother worked for a clothing manufacturer. Both parents were hard workers which they instilled this same work ethic in their children. From a young age the two girls exhibited this ethic and a passion for hair. As they grew, the two were inseparable and rarely did anyone see one without the other.

The passion began with doing each other’s hair and grew into a vacation when they began to take hair design classes together.

Upon graduation, the two opened a hair salon in Tel Aviv combining their love for hair and the work ethic taught to them by their parents. The salon grew to be a success attracting actors and models from the surrounding area. The sisters moved to Los Angeles in 1978, and spent some time working for someone else but eventually opened their own hair salon in 1980 in West Hollywood. Just six years ago, they moved their business location to Beverly Hills and hung up their shingle under their own names. Both have long since married- Batia to cardiologist Uri Elkayam and Aleeza to director Marty Callner (Director of Jerry Seinfeld’s I’m Telling You for the Last Time). Now happy parents of many beautiful children, the two gather together their combined families every Friday night to do what they do best, enjoy each other’s company.

In fact, it was a conversation between the two during a family gathering that sparked the idea for their product line specially designed for curly hair. The two were in beautiful Hawaii enjoying paradise when they looked at each other. Each one remarked and laughed at how frizzy each other’s hair looked. They realized then that humidity and other environmental conditions are no reason or excuse for frizzy hair. Working with a chemist and their experience with many different kinds of hair products, they developed a line of botanical hair care products that supplement their already successful salon.

When it comes to business, they’re as inseparable as they were as little girls when they first started braiding each others hair. Batia directs the business side of things, while Aleeza handles their artistic direction.

“She’s my best friend. She’s the best girl.”

“She’s my best friend. She’s the best girl. She’s beautiful and everybody else is crazy about her, too,” Batia speaking of her little sister. They work well together, “my sister and I are totally different. She could never run the business like I do. She’s the artistic side. She can do your hair unbelievable, but she wants nothing to do with the (accounting).”

A “hair design” at Batia and Aleeza costs 80$ and up. Additionally, the salon provides highlights, henna and color services, makeup, mask treatments, manicures and pedicures, among other services. They also have a line of shampoo, conditioner and gel.

Advice, however, is free. Elkayam has been dishing it out since she can remember. To her, its part of the Batia and Aleeza experience. And she doesn’t get shy around the famous.

“Of course I give stars advice, believe me,” she says. “I used to talk a lot with Amy Irving at the time she was divorcing Steven Spielberg. She was really unhappy. We used to talk about that and the kids. I always tell them, don’t fight with the husband when you get divorced because you lose and the children lose,”

Michael bay, director of films like “Armageddon,” “ Pearl Harbor,” and “The Island” has also received guiding words from Batia.

“He always says to me, ‘You mother me,’” says Batia. “I give him advice. I’m not like a mother to people, but I just give him good feelings.

“I can give very good advice…”

“I can give very good advice because people say, ‘I like the way you are and the way you make life simple’,” says Batia. “I don’t make a complicated life. It’s easy, simple to me. Number one, its health, Number two, its family. And the rest of it can be three or four or five.”

“We have very nice people coming to the shop. We have people coming just to say hello because they like us.”

“It’s a very homey place, beautiful,” she says of Batia & Aleeza Salon. “You come in and you hang around with us. You have coffee, cake. We like to welcome you like you’re coming to our house. That’s the idea and people love it.”

At Batia and Aleeza’s beauty salon the door is always open. Just like in Israel.

“It’s a known fact: If you look good, you feel better about yourself,” says Aleeza. “We make our clients feel good. Our curly hair products make people feel good. They tell other people—word of mouth has helped our growth more than anything.”