Joey Silvestera
"By age 13, I was cutting all my friends hair."
Joey Silvestera, Founder of Five Wits and The Blackstones Collective
Founder behind the cult hair salon Blackstones
Today, Joey is still cutting his friends’ hair – but now their names include Chloë Sevigny, Hamish Bowles, Helen Mirren, Paul Banks, and Helena Christensen. This roster of most interesting clients has led to many inspiring conversations about hair, beauty and life, which is one of the things Joey loves most about cutting hair – that magic moment when you learn from and about the person sitting in the chair. The Blackstones Collective was born from this exchange of ideas, those very conversations. The result? A shoppable curation of the personal favorite products of some of his most influential clients.
Why You’ll Love it
It’s all I use, it’s all I need.
Five Wits Hair Cream is an all-in-one styling product that works for almost all hair types. Super user-friendly with an incredible scent.
Forever curious, and a little bit restless – the launch of The Blackstones Collective is the latest incarnation from wunderkind Joey Silvestera. A literal shop within the East Village salon, The Blackstones Collective offers a tightly curated selection of hidden gems and product obsessions from some of Joey’s most influential clients.
I’d ask what’s your favorite product? And the answers resulted in this super well-curated list of must-haves and new discoveries.
Too social to cut it as a taxidermist, Joey moved to New York from the suburbs of Philly and became known as the go-to for expertly-crafted cuts that require minimal styling – particularly amongst the more creatively-inclined, yet discerning, clientele of downtown NYC. With vestiges of his taxidermist past on the walls, his East Village salon Blackstones has been a cornerstone of downtown cool and exceptional cuts and coloring services for 15 years. Often bewildered and unsatisfied by the never ending onslaught of haircare products and launches, Joey then decided to formulate his own simplified, yet effective and performance-driven line of haircare products. Designed with a refined aesthetic and an eco-conscious sensitivity, Five Wits has grown into a full line of haircare and bath & body products that can be found in some of the chicest hotels across the country. After decades of doing hair, Joey knew exactly what he wanted in Five Wits first styling product. Hair Cream was the one.
Hair Cream is my favorite product in the entire Five Wits line – it’s all I use, and it’s all I need.
The Five Wits Hair Cream conquers all the challenges most people have in a super user-friendly formula. It has a tiny bit of hold with a matte finish. “I like to say you can use it like a primer coat of paint on wet hair to tame frizz and set curls, and then you could also use it like a top coat on dry hair as a finishing product. It does it all. And the fragrance is to die for – pepo and olive in its truest form. Everyone I recommend it to loves it.”