Meet Peter Heimgartner: Rivertown's Roving Hair Dresser

Do you not have the time to go to the hair salon? Don’t worry – Irvington resident Peter Heimgartner can come to you.

Heimgartner began his styling career in 1992, a year after he arrived in the United States when he moved from Austria. While he was working in Pipino-Buccheri, one of the biggest salons in the 80’s in New York City, “[Marc Pipino, Owner of Pipino-Buccheri] told me to pick up a scissor and cut a bob,” said Heimgartner. “After an hour and a half, he asked me who had helped me and I answered ‘Nobody’…he then went and said that [the haircut] is something many hairdressers, even after many years, couldn’t accomplish that well.”

A year later, he began to pursue his career as a hair stylist.

Prior to moving to Irvington, Heimgartner spent 15 years working in salons in New York City such as Bumble and Bumble, Vidal Sassoon, and Stephen Knoll and ArrojoCutler – that is now two separate salons, Arrojo and Cutler.

One of the reasons why Heimgartner has been so successful as a hair stylist is because he can come to the client. After he left his first job, clients would call Heimgartner asking him to come to their house and style their hair.

“Since then, they kept recommending other clients and so on,” said Heimgartner.

Heimgartner offers his services anytime during the day or night.

“Some hair services are after 10pm, whereby in the morning I am sometimes at the job at 5:30am,” said Heimgartner. “Most clients call me for my dry-cut and special color technique.”

When he’s available, Heimgartner styles hair for weddings, red carpet events, and photo shoots. Recently, he has been doing haircutting events at the LAB store at Eileen Fisher in Irvington.

“I love a good challenge,” said Heimgartner.

Heimgartner enjoys styling hair because he can give something special to another person.

“They feel good about themselves, then everybody around them is also affected,” said Heimgartner. “For me, its almost meditation-like, I can get into a zone cutting hair.”

One of his biggest memories is the people that he has met throughout this career.

“From Marc who initially encouraged me, to the great people who helped me with my education, and to the clients whom I have been part of their lives for many years, some of them who are still my clients after 20 years,” said Heimgartner.

In his free time, you can find Heimgartner running around the Rivertown’s area training for marathons. He has run in over 25 marathons with seven marathon wins and a personal best time of 2 hours and 35 minutes.

Although he does not own a salon yet, Heimgartner is planning on having one in the future with extra all natural hair products.

“It is not something anybody offers yet”, said Heimgartner. “That is why this project is much harder than anticipated.”

Like Us On  Facebook  / Follow Us On  Twitter  / Sign Up For Our  Newsletter