Since the early days of the John Sahag Workshop, Santino Acquista has worked alongside John as a colorist bringing a strong sense of personal style to his work. Santino takes pride in his ability to create color that enhances the best qualities of each client’s natural hair. Keeping the hair’s integrity is key for Santino as he believes healthy hair makes for the most beautiful, long lasting color.

One of Santino’s specialties is in grey blending - he utilizes techniques such as shadowing and clear glazing to bring out depth in ‘salt and pepper’ hair.; tThis allows women to have their natural color as they age by adding dimension in the hair to create the most organic and flattering color.

Santino also specializes in hand painted clip-on hairpieces that have been made famous by Christina Aguilera when she wore them performing “What A Girl Wants” and “Genie In A Bottle” in the year 2000. He worked closely with John Sahag to make the hand painted tiger tail clip-ins worn by celebrities and supermodels of the late 90s and early 2000s. Santino’s client list includes supermodel Paulina Porizkova, Elle MacPherson, Brooke Shields, Gina Gershon, Empress Farah Diba, Princess Cristina De Borbon, Princess Elisabeth of Yugoslavia and more.