New York's fashion week is about more than clothing trends that emerge for an upcoming season.

Keen observers study the scores of shows for clues about the possible direction of accessories, makeup and even hair.

Philip Pelusi was one of the stylists helping to shape the look of American women's hair for next spring and summer. The Pittsburgh-based stylist, his creative director Jeffrey Rietz and four other Pelusi stylists coiffed models in designer Benjamin Cho's Sept. 9 show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Mr. Pelusi and his crew collaborated with Mr. Cho to come up with edgy, avant-garde hair styles that complemented the designer's urban-hipster-meets-futuristic-fantasy ensembles.

"It was fabulous," said Mr. Pelusi, who in the past had worked with two lesser-known young designers at fashion week.

Mr. Pelusi and Mr. Rietz met with Mr. Cho several days before the show to get an understanding of the designer's vision and goals, even doing a three-hour tryout. On the day of the show, they and stylists Teri Hunt, Lisa Krszal, Sam Canavan and Christie Wilt spent several hours backstage implementing the hairstyles.

Mr. Pelusi said they were impressed with the designer and understood that the collection had to take center stage.

"The hair is the accessory to the clothes," he said. "It's not our show, so we worked within the confines of what his vision was. He's a very interesting young man."

Mr. Cho dropped out of New York's famed Parsons School of Design a decade ago at the age of 21, and has since become one of New York's most popular young designers.

The plum gig for Mr. Pelusi resulted from introductions made by one of his clients at his Manhattan salon earlier this year. Mr. Pelusi has styled hair for more than 40 years, yet he "just sort of stumbled into hair by mistake," he said.

The Bloomfield native initially wanted a career in fashion design, and moved to New York to study. But one day he saw a man at a club surrounded by attractive women; he decided to switch careers after learning that the man was a hairstylist.

Mr. Pelusi, 66, graduated from Pittsburgh Beauty Academy and opened his first salon in Squirrel Hill in 1965. He now employs more than 330 people there and at a dozen other Pittsburgh-area salons, at his salon in Manhattan's revitalized meatpacking district (which also has a cafe, wine bar and design studio) and at nearly 50 concept salons that sell his signature hair products.

Mr. Pelusi's hair care products, inaugurated in 1976 with the launch of a moisturizing conditioner, now total more than 60. "P2" products, priced $18 to $40, are sold only in professional salons and his "RX" treatment line is made up of six products that tackle issues ranging from damaged, dry and color-treated hair to excessively oily hair and scalp.

In April, he introduced his new, higher-priced, certified-organic Tela line at Barney's. The 12 products contain numerous herbs and ingredients such as reishi mushroom, dandelion, sunflower, horsetail, marshmallow root and pomegranate.

Mr. Pelusi said he began making hair-treatment products almost as a hobby, experimenting with hair-friendly edibles such as yogurt and mayonnaise.

"I got tired of salespeople coming in and telling me what was a good product, because they never did hair," he said. "I didn't always trust what they were saying. I always felt, if we were going to be responsible for the hair, we should also be responsible for the 'fabric' of the hair. I love making products."

But his first love is hairstyling. He may be best known in the industry for his trademarked "Volumetric" system of cutting hair, a series of techniques he developed in the early 1970s to improve the quality of a cut.