Udo Walz died unexpectedly on Friday at the age of 76. In addition to supermodels, he also coiffed Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On Friday (November 20th) Udo Walz (1944-2020, "Every woman is beautiful") died unexpectedly in a Berlin hospital. All sorts of big names have sat on the chair of the celebrity hairdresser over the years and entrusted him with their hair. Among them: the Hollywood stars Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) and Julia Roberts (53, "Pretty Woman"), the supermodels Claudia Schiffer (50) and Heidi Klum (47) and Chancellor Angela Merkel (66).
Walz didn't like the term "star hairdresser" at all. "That is an insult. It would mean that I only do stars' hair," the "Tagesspiegel" quoted him on the occasion of his 70th birthday six years ago. However, this is not true. Anyone who registers can get an appointment with him in person, emphasized Walz, who, despite his popularity, was in his salon on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin from Tuesday to Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
He did Marlene Dietrich's hair in St. Moritz and flew to the Big Apple for Claudia Schiffer
However, the native Swabian seemed to have a certain attraction, especially for well-known personalities. One of his first prominent customers was the German film diva Marlene Dietrich, who took a seat in front of him in the Swiss holiday resort of St. Moritz. The young Udo Walz had just finished his apprenticeship and had no idea who the German-American Hollywood actress was. Only his mother was able to explain to him afterwards.
Since then, stars and starlets have regularly booked appointments with the Walz hairdresser, and "Sissi" actress Romy Schneider (1938-1982) was one of his regular customers in his first own salon in Berlin. Numerous supermodels followed. For Claudia Schiffer's 18th birthday he even flew across the pond to New York with the Concorde, Walz recalled in an interview with Deutschlandfunk in the summer. His nervousness disappeared after three minutes, before he had trembled. With a comb and scissors, he was also allowed to put his hand on the manes of Naomi Campbell (50) and Heidi Klum.
Udo Walz always dutifully complied with the wishes of his customers. Occasionally, however, he tried to dissuade her from a supposedly bad endeavor. This is what happened in the late 1960s, when the later RAF terrorist Ulrike Meinhof (1934-1976) suddenly came to his salon with the wish to have her hair dyed blonde. Like Marlene Dietrich, the hairdresser did not recognize the journalist, it was only later that the penny fell for him – when he recognized her on wanted posters.
Angela Merkel made her appointments personally by phone, Jeanette Biedermann was an apprentice with him
The Berliner by choice only rarely commented on one of his most prominent customers, Chancellor Angela Merkel. He once told the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit": "So much for Ms. Merkel: I don't know any woman who types text messages as quickly as she does." The Chancellor reported "normally over the phone" with her last name and asked "whether something is free", revealed Walz in 2018 to the magazine "Gala". Merkel's predecessor, former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (76), also regularly used the hairdresser's services. He was one of the few men Walz did.
Many of his customers have become close friends of Udo Walz over the years, for example presenter Sabine Christiansen (63), actress Ursula Karven (56) and Boris Becker's ex-wife Barbara (54). Singer and actress Jeanette Biedermann (40) even started an apprenticeship with him in the 90s – before her breakthrough – which she broke off a little later. Afterwards, the former actress "Good Times, Bad Times" became a permanent guest in Walz's salon.
Other celebrities who put their hair in the hands of the hairdresser included the Hollywood stars Julia Roberts and Jodie Foster (58), the German actresses Jenny Elvers (48) and Jessica Stockmann (53), cabaret artist and reality TV star Desirée Nick (64), singer Sarah Connor (40) and the mother-daughter duo Simone (55) and Sophia Thomalla (31).