A Natural High

From her perch at a table on the marble terrace of their Villa Dei Fiori, Geri Cusenza listens as husband John talks about his journey from the poor streets of Tunisia to the pinnacles of fortune.

John Cusenza, better known as John Sebastian of Sebastian International, is a big warm bear of a man who reigns as patriarch of the multimillion-dollar family-owned beauty business, a company with a reputation ranging from earth consciousness to Molding Mud.

As three beloved German shepherds laze at his feet, John sums up his story, and makes an observation about his and Geri’s astonishing success.

“Family. Family. Family,” he says simply. “We’re a close family. We’re a team.”

It’s a heartfelt conclusion, and a signal to Geri that it’s her turn to talk.

She tries to change the subject. She squirms. She looks like she’d rather take a nap in a casket of snakes.

“Just skip me,” she blurts. “There’s nothing to tell.”

John gently encourages her. The queen of chic lights a cigarette, shrugs her shoulders and, with a look of resignation, takes the plunge.

She says she grew up in a block-long farm town in Nebraska. Her father was a mechanic. When she was 13, she and her family of six moved to California to be close to relatives. The combined tribe of 16 lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Van Nuys.

She makes it clear that she never identified with cornfields, tuna casseroles or dormitory living. She was always a trendsetter, always interested in fashion, always a designer.

On a budget of $12, she once made a dazzling rhinestone evening gown for her sister. “She got ‘Queen of the Prom,’ ” says Geri, a darkly attractive woman who manages to look fabulous in a pants ensemble cinched together with a belt so wide it would look like a weightlifter’s corset on anybody else.

From San Fernando High, she enrolled in beauty school. It was there that she met and fell desperately in love with her instructor, John Cusenza.

“John is the best thing in my life,” she says, now on comfortable footing. “I feel something every time he touches my hand. I feel the same way about him I did when we met 30 years ago.”

“We’re always together,” John adds. “We live together, play together, vacation together. We still don’t have enough time together.”

The story of Geri and John Cusenza and the making of an image--and pots of money--is the stuff of fairy tales. It’s the story of a couple of hairstylists whose combined talents propelled them to rarefied heights of glamour and fame.

Above all, it’s the story of a tight-knit immigrant family--reared to pool resources, take risks and think big--and an outre Cinderella, a shy but strong-willed woman who hasn’t been attracted by convention a day in her life.

*

Visitors to Sebastian International’s corporate headquarters in Woodland Hills enter a sleek black pyramid-shaped building with spacious hallways, stylish people and furniture that doubles as sculpture.

The look, like the company’s high-end hair and cosmetic products, is decidedly hip. This is not a place where pretty cookie-cutter models hug walls. It’s a sophisticated establishment where the talk is of hugging trees.

The Cusenzas describe their corporate pad not as a center of commerce but as a think tank, an environmental museum and an art institute all in one.

Geri is art director.

“She’s one of the most brilliant and creative minds in the industry,” says Marianne Dougherty, publisher of American Salon magazine. “She’s far ahead of everyone. She designs everything--products, hair designs, salons, clothes, furniture.

“She’s always creating. She has a great sense of style. She’s a genius.”

John is CEO and chairman of the board.

“He’s her Rock of Gibraltar,” says company co-founder Tony Cusenza, youngest of the three brothers. “John [the eldest] is strong. He’s a gifted teacher. He’s a born leader.’

Though they dance to the music of the same score, John and Geri’s differences in style are palpable. At 59, John is an easygoing man with a slight Italian accent who speaks four languages, grows vegetables by the bushel, can toss pizza with the best of them, and really does want to make the world a healthier and nicer place.

At 51, Geri is an intense, high-energy, extravagant and passionate woman who gravitates toward futurist thought and great art and tackles projects with fearless enthusiasm--whether hosting an Italian feast at the villa for hundreds or staging a hair show in New York for thousands.

“Fashion is my muse,” she says.

Above John’s desk is a huge photograph of the pope. The focal point of Geri’s office is a crimson couch in the shape of voluptuous lips, one of Salvador Dali’s limited editions.

But it is the rain forest--yes, rain forest--that shouts out the corporate credo: Environmental ethics are as important as profit margins. The 2,200-square-foot rain forest, a glassed-in tropical terrarium in the headquarters with lush plants, live orchids, fish, turtles and falling rain, was designed as an environmental education center.

On most weekdays, a full-time guide talks to visitors, including schoolchildren who come by the busload, about respecting delicate ecosystems and protecting forests.

At Sebastian, the quest for “eco-literacy” is everywhere, and no one is shy about chanting the green corporate mantra. A lengthy list of all the causes Sebastian supports--from saving the Brazilian rain forest to battling AIDS, breast cancer and homelessness--is prominently displayed on a wall plaque, complete with a dollar tally of Sebastian’s contributions, about $9 million to date.

Despite lapses into corporate bragging, and New Age fervor about vision statements and “wanting to make a difference,” real live environmentalists credit the company with integrity and genuine interest in pet projects.

Randy Hayes, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco, has worked with the Cusenzas on environmental concerns for the past decade. “John and Geri are truly, deeply concerned about the forests,” he says. “John isn’t a dabbler. He is focused. He has strength of character.”

At Sebastian International, products are wrapped in earth-friendly newsletters, packaging is recyclable, ingredients are touted to be pro-planet, yoga classes are part of the benefits package, recycling bins are as common as computer monitors, and paper scrolls called ecology rolls are hung from walls for employees to jot down thoughts and feelings about concepts like personal success and cooperative thinking.

Every year, winners of a company-sponsored public contest are invited on a weeklong trek through the Brazilian rain forests with a contingent of hairdressers and corporate bigwigs. The Cusenzas have become Amazon regulars, most recently dedicating time and money to a medical barge serving people displaced by deforestation.

Their interest in rain forests goes back to the late ‘60s when middle brother Jimmy Cusenza, now Sebastian’s vice president of international sales, alerted them to the impact of vanishing forests. Jimmy was then director of the Peace Corps in Brazil.

Since then, they have founded the Rainforest Foundation with rock musician-composer Sting and have sponsored several programs, including an international children’s campaign to save the environment called Little Green, founded with singer Paula Abdul, and Club UNITE (Unity Now Is a Tomorrow for Everyone).

The organization was launched in hair salons as a way of encouraging patrons to contribute to Sebastian causes such as the Rainforest Foundation and the Humane Society. In exchange, customers receive discounts on Sebastian products.

John doesn’t pretend to be a VW bus-driving vegetarian who spends evenings pondering Rachel Carson. Still, he says the days of gross materialism and corporate greed are over.

“Consumers look at what a company stands for, not just what it sells,” he says. “I hate goody-two-shoes who have no values. You’ve got to give, and giving means more than just writing a check. The consumer ultimately judges you on what you do.”

*

From the terrace of their 10,000-square-foot villa in Hidden Valley, John and Geri gaze out at their sumptuous spread, a 40-acre chuck of rural real estate nestled in the rolling hills near Thousand Oaks. Brother Tony lives in the Moroccan villa next door.

The estate encompasses a pristine man-made lake stocked with bluegill and trout, a studio retreat snuggled up against a waterfall, horse stables and tennis courts, entire hillsides carpeted in vegetables and flowers, and a zoo-size aviary where Chinese pheasants and African cranes nibble on fresh papaya.

In the years after their marriage, July 4, 1964, it looked as though the Cusenzas’ days of scratching for money were almost over. John, who had immigrated to New York with his family from Tunisia at 13 and on to California in the mid-’50s, had helped support the clan with jobs washing dishes and cleaning toilets. Now he had become a partner in a chain of beauty schools in the Valley.

When the company was sold, he was to get a check for $4 million. Just before the money was due, however, the buyer went bankrupt. As the deal unraveled, John and his partners lost everything.

John recalls meeting Geri for dinner at an El Torito restaurant to break the news. “I had no money. Geri was pregnant and had no job. She had $11. I said, ‘We lost everything. We have nothing.’

“Most people would have yelled and screamed,” he says. “Geri said, ‘So what? We had nothing before. We’ll start over again.’ ”

“The least thing we care about is money,” Geri interjects.

“If you make the right decision, the money will come,” John continues. “The question to ask is, ‘Do I believe in what I’m doing or not? Will it help or hurt somebody?’ ”

After the bankruptcy fiasco, Geri had a miscarriage, her first of three. It’s a subject the Cusenzas rarely talk about.

With a momentary flash of sorrow, Geri says simply, “It’s very sad. It wasn’t meant to be.”

The conversation quickly turns to the circumstances leading up to the Cusenzas’ change of fortune. With the same panache she had shown since childhood, Geri became a celebrity stylist who worked the likes of Johnny Mathis and Priscilla Presley. With the help of a brother-in-law, she had also developed a crimping iron for a hairstyle she created for Barbra Streisand.

In 1974, she and John and brother Tony took the crimping iron to a hair show in New York. To keep expenses down, Tony slept on the floor of their hotel room. Despite their bare-bones budget, they mounted a spectacular, expensive-looking presentation.

Out came the crimping iron. It was a sensation. The Cusenzas took orders by the hundreds. And, on the flight home, John and Tony and Geri founded Sebastian International, named for the brothers’ Sicilian-born father, Sebastian Cusenza.

There was only one problem: They didn’t have any crimping irons to sell. So, for the next year, they kept their new customers at bay while they produced the product, disguising their voices when people called to make it sound like their fledgling operation was a well-staffed, going concern.

John’s mother did all the packaging. To this day, Mama Cusenza, whose ancestry is also Sicilian, is a company icon, a nurturing woman of 85 who regularly drops in to corporate headquarters with home-grown figs and homemade cannolis.

In fact, about 10% of the company’s 400 employees are related to John or Geri. But it is Geri and the three Cusenza brothers--each two years apart--who are its heart and soul. Jimmy, a UC Berkeley graduate and the only family member who went to college, joined the company several years after it was founded.

“The success of the company stems from the way we were brought up,” Jimmy says. “Our father was simple but strong. He taught us to treat clients like they are guests in your home: ‘Always put out the best table.’

“We were immigrants. That is the key. We took a family vote to come to the United States for new opportunities. The vote was unanimous. We worked hard. We pooled everything.

“My father believed we could do anything.”

Over the years, John and Geri have bought their parents houses and taken them and a slew of other relatives on trips to Mexico and Europe. Geri is paying for her nephew’s medical education. They recently returned from a Christmas trip to Puerto Vallarta, where they support an orphanage.

When not collecting money and food for an orphanage or building a vineyard or combing world capitals for Aubusson carpets or Venetian glass, the Cusenzas can be found at corporate headquarters working long hours, doing all in their powers to keep a step ahead of the pack in the ferociously competitive beauty business.

In the industry, they are known as hairstylists’ hairstylists. Their target market includes the 50,000 stylists attending the Long Beach International Beauty Expo this weekend. Geri is the recipient of the 1994 North American Hairstyling Award for Lifetime Achievement, the first woman to receive that top industry honor.

Celebs like Demi Moore, Sharon Stone and Madonna use Sebastian products--ranging from a line of contemporary makeup called Trucco to products named to describe what they do: Fizz, Grease, Wet and Molding Mud.

Sebastian Shpritz and Shaper hair spray are two of their most identifiable products. Shaper is the hair spray that comes in a can so large it looks like it could double as a fire nozzle.

But on the subject of beauty, Geri says the test is in the deed, not the look. “Beauty really is only skin-deep,” she says.

Though she is a raging clotheshorse, she proudly refers to herself as low maintenance. John occasionally helps her trim hair she can’t reach, but she usually cuts it herself. She wears little makeup and no perfume and doesn’t paint her nails.

Neither is obsessed about the shape of their thighs or the size of their waists. They drink wine with meals, usually eat pasta at least once a day and get most of their exercise working--not working out--on the grounds of Villa Dei Fiori.

“It’s OK to be heavy or skinny,” John says. “You have to be the master of your own body, not be skinny because your boyfriend wants you to be skinny. If you’re tall, it’s silly to try to make yourself look short.

“You have to accept what is and work with what you’ve got. You have to know you are one of a kind, and that you are special. If you believe that, you can surmount all kinds of obstacles.

“You have to be at peace with yourself regardless of how you look.”

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Geri and John Cusenza

Ages: Geri, 51; John 59

Background: Geri was born in Southerland, Neb., and moved with her family to Van Nuys at 13; John was born in Tunis, Tunisia, and moved with his family to New York at 13, and to Los Angeles a few years later.

Passions: Both share a passion for their home, entertaining, landscaping, traveling, involvement in social causes. John’s special passions include teaching--whether hairstylists or schoolchildren--and a love for nature and animals, with a particular fondness for his three German shepherds. Geri’s special passions include fashion, art and design, photography, futuristic thought, technology, flowers and flower arrangements (she has about 10,000 roses in one garden alone). She is an accomplished decorator and gourmet cook.

On marriage: The two essentials are respect and trust, the Cusenzas agree. “You can’t be questioning another person’s decisions,” John says, adding: “It can be frustrating. It isn’t easy.”