For 44 years, the founder of Hair Club for Men, Sy Sperling, has been a weaver of dreams and hope for the disabled.
Daughter Shari Sperling said her father’s ambition came shortly after her parents divorced, and Sy had to move in with her mother. “Suddenly, my father found himself in his early 20s with thinning hair. He was trying to date again and was not having much success.”
But after restoring his own mane, an inspired Sperling entered the market selling a process that connected real human hair to a man’s existing hair non-surgically. And in 1982, Hair Club launched its first commercial – in fact, two of them.
“They filmed a commercial for, like, a guy on horseback with that kind of thick, wavy hairstyle,” Shari said. “And the guy in the ad was, like, ‘Look, if that doesn’t work, why don’t we shoot with you?'”
Correspondent Mo Rocca said, “At the time, they said to your father, they said, ‘Sy, shall we make a backup’?”
“Yes. The first commercial didn’t work; they hardly received any calls. So they ran my dad’s commercial, and we had, like, 2,000 calls.”
And those calls came from Lonely Joes everywhere: “Let’s say it’s Friday or Saturday night. And maybe he wasn’t so lucky, right? To be honest. So they come home and are watching TV because they “I’m still awake, maybe a little drunk. And they are changing channels. And there is my dad, almost talking directly to these guys. ”
“Saying, ‘I will help you. ‘”
“Exactly.”
The “normal guy” TV pitchers were nothing new, but it was Sperling’s pure honesty at the end of the ad that set him apart.
“I’m not only the president of the Hair Club, but also a customer.”
That slogan has become your mantra. Shari said, “He took something that was embarrassing for him, you know, because he was bald, and he became vulnerable.”
“He was really sharing something about himself,” said Rocca.
“Exactly. Touché. Touché, Mo.”
Sy Sperling has become a favorite of the night comedy. Rocca asked, “Did he like to be famous?”
“He loved it, he loved it,” replied Sahri. “It is the American dream coming true.”
But for Shari – and so many Hair Club customers – Sy Sperling was not a joke. “He helped men to feel better about themselves and to live life the way they wanted to, without embarrassment,” she said.
Sy Sperling died in February at the age of 78 in Boca Raton, Florida. His family said he was a client of the Hair Club until the end.
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Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Editor: George Pozderec.
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