Kirsten Dunst: Hot hairdo

New York, Nov. 20: In a recent weekday afternoon, Orlando Pita, hairdresser to celebrities like Jennifer Connelly, Naomi Campbell and Kirsten Dunst, received a client in his new salon, Orlo, on the third floor of a nondescript walkup on Gansevoort Street.

Pita, 42, stood mesmerised behind the woman?s brunette head, puzzling in a way that suggested he was examining a compelling piece of abstract art. He worked in monastic silence, his scissors venturing only the most tentative stabs. With each move, he stepped back, occasionally blowing the hair with a drier, watching the way it waved under the heat, his brow pressed in concentration.

The entire process lasted about 80 minutes. And each minute cost about $10: Pita charges $800 for a haircut.

If that seems like an extraordinary sum to charge, consider that New York has always been the hub of the outrageously expensive coiffure. But what?s different now is that there seems to be a race for the stratosphere, as if a haircut was the new luxury item.

As big-ticket hairdressers sprout all over Manhattan ? with an especially dense concentration in the district formerly known for meatpacking ? stylists, salon owners and customers are loudly debating exactly how much is too much.

Pita defended his $800 price tag, a new high for the city, and a fee that is the equivalent of twice the annual income of the average citizen of Bangladesh.

?Your hair is one of the first things people notice about you,? he said. ?You can spend a lot on clothes, but you wear your hair every day. The luxury market is not about needs, or ?Is it worth it?? It?s about ?What can I spend???

For years, New York stylists have been commanding prices many times higher than in most other places. Robbin McClain, the editor-in-chief of American Salon, a trade magazine, said her antennae first perked up several years ago upon hearing that John Sahag, the onetime tonsorial minister to clients like Jennifer Lopez, was charging $400 for a cut. ?At that time that seemed really outrageous,? McClain said.

In the last year, several high-profile hairdressers have opened salons with big ambitions or big price tags. Leading the fray was Sally Hershberger, whose eponymous salon opened on West 14th Street last fall. Ms. Hershberger, who became famous for the shaggily demure style worn by Meg Ryan, charges $600.

According to a report by American Salon, the average women?s haircut in the US costs about $21 for a cut in a salon with fewer than six chairs, up to $44 for a salon with more than 13 chairs. So what makes a haircut that costs 14 to 18 times the average high-priced salon haircut in the rest of the country worth it in New York?

?Look, even $250 is expensive,? Hershberger said over a high-protein breakfast on Thursday, her hair scrunched in a style college students typically refer to as ?bed head?. ?But you have to remember, hair is the first thing people notice. When you get a facelift, people say, ?Hey, you look great, did you change your hair???