This year I loved…
*Alice Dellal’s shaved sides with long
*Jaime Winston’s red hair and all those Brits that gave us something more than a few highlights and wag like extensions – hooray!
*England’s obsession with blow-dries
*Bobs cut with kitchen scissors
*Bobs cut with precision
*Credit crunch treatments – I have never mashed up so many avocados and put so many eggs on heads!

Christmas time in a salon has to be one of the most fun places to be! Hari’s has been buzzing with clients that arrive bearing gifts of champagne, chocolates and thoughtful, often funny, things for all the staff. Some are a little squiffy as they come from a long Christmas work lunch and amuse us while we try to keep their heads still and they jostle around with tales of their work parties and children’s nativity plays. The salon is decked out so prettily…

It is also a time of year to focus on the trainees and let them know how much we appreciate the back up they give us all year round. We have launched a Hari’s diffusion line with the new young stylists that Hari has trained and cast his watchful eye on for so long.

I learn and get so much from the trainees. They are the ones that tell me if what I’m doing is still of the moment and I base a lot of my trends on the way they want to wear their hair. Ross, Sabrina and Bruno: Ross with his achingly cool way of rolling up a trouser leg and adding a new season shoe with an old vintage mac. When I teach him how to put hairpins in he sends me back styles with a twist of freshness that he has seen at a party or just how he would like his girl to look. Sabrina trained in France and was a stylist but has come to be retrained by Hari and has so much passion for the craft and Hari’s hair. Jake had three days with me before I sent him to Germany to do the Pussycat Dolls’ hair with Timothy Crispin. I love seeing it all through their eyes; it makes it so much more exciting – Jake updates Facebook and wows his friends as he hangs with the band.

I always need them around. When I arrive to do Jaime Winston it is their clothes that she coos over and they talk music while I style her hair. What I adore at Hari’s is that they do all of this while never forgetting to pass a pin or blow out a client with just the right amount of curl. So my photos this month are of my team. The best I have ever found and my column is in praise of our youth. Tomorrow’s stylists but, for me, today’s inspiration!

Now after a month of music parties, a week of concerts and TV shows with Anastasia and Elton John’s auction – ohhh and I met Nicole Kidman in the toilets in a studio in Germany – I am going on holiday. The dancing queen Miss Snowdon and I are off to Cuba for a fortnight. We will salsa and drink and wish for all the things we hope for this New Year.

Happy New Year!

The writing of the style book continues… I spend an entire morning moseying around various bookshops wearing my modern day detective outfit (long winter vintage coat and new Chanel Mary-Janes) so that I look like a potential beauty book buyer. I want to find out what titles women are picking up. I adopt a chic look for my detective work in the hope I’ll be less likely to get kicked out for stalking in the beauty section!

Ellen – a top beauty writer - and I sit down for a lengthy discussion among piles of books over a long lunch at the Wolseley. People watching is perfect at this location – we’re on the lookout for women of all ages in the hope of pinning down our target audience. We have so many ideas for the style book!

After five hours of brainstorming Ellen and I make our way to the Browns Halloween party where we end up dancing with a crowd of in-scene girls. Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldoff and fashionistas are spotted dressed in blood-spattered and cobweb-covered outfits.

This month sees the launch of my modern day men’s facial; my lovely friend David Walliams comes in for various treatments and recommends it to Grazia – as a well-known, well-groomed man this recommendation is priceless.

I’ve had a few entertaining afternoons with Susannah Constantine (of Trinny and Susannah fame) where I change her colour and prep her for Lulu’s 60th birthday party. She ends up giving me a style consultation, advising me on how to dress to flatter my figure!

I shot a story with the lovely Luke Worrell who is engaged to Kelly Osbourne. We had such a fun day shooting all the new menswear for Surface magazine and looking at videos of his new puppy that Kelly was sending over to him from LA.

I also flew off to Dubai with Katherine Jenkins and stayed in the hotel du jour, Atlantis Palm, where she performed for Montblanc. We ate dinner in Nobu with a bodyguard watching over us because her necklace was worth a million pounds! I felt compelled to ask the bodyguard what she would do if someone tried to swipe it - she was such a small lady! But after listing her Kung Fu and Martial Arts skills decided not to take the chance…

We’re focusing on colour at Hari’s and I’m preparing to launch new techniques and colour model after model with ‘Cobaine Chic’, ‘Sunkissed Starlet’ and all the others that will make up my new Hair Envy menu at Hari’s.

Elle McPherson’s trainer came in for a style change – I cut his hair and held my stomach in for an hour as we talked through my food menu and nutrition ideas!

The salon’s coverage has been amazing recently and the staff are buzzing …Several new clients have mentioned they’ve heard Hari’s is the place to be!

This month I am loving…
* Really bright dyed hair… red is finally back in town
* The amazing new hairdryers on the market, which cut my drying time to half and makes my kit bag lighter
* Credit crunch fashion ideas forcing us all to be much more creative
* Party hair season…when clients leave with sexy hair ups and fill me in on all the gossip from parties

After the close of the spring/summer shows I sprang into action to review all the looks and design my new collections, which I’ll soon be releasing to the press for Hari’s.

I’m creating a colour and seasonal look menu and have planned a shoot with an amazing beauty photographer that I work with at Grazia. All week I’ve been sitting in front of my Mac and printing off looks from all the shows and have spent days writing nail blogs and trend blogs…” My nail menu at Hari’s has proved really popular. I’m releasing five new nail looks and have been booking hand models, which is pretty hilarious because I’m used to asking girls to walk for me,  now my interest is purely focused on how elegant the model’s knuckles are! I’ve also been busy mixing colours to come up with nail tones exclusive to Hari’s.

I have just finished judging the Grazia Beauty Awards. I tested styling products by applying them to different sections of the hair and blow drying them into current trends. You can see the most amazing difference in textures and hold for each section, which has inspired me to use this as a training method in the salon.

FYI my legs have turned different colours because I’ve been testing self tan products – not a great look!

I recently flew to Helsinki with Anastasia to style her hair for a big music event. I gave her a chignon inspired by images on the walls of Hari’s…

This month I’ve discovered that I have ORD - a bit like OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) but mine is obsessive reference disorder!

My new thing is to surround the team at Hari’s with creative images I’ve even installed a large board in the staffroom and set about photographing things that inspire me in London.

This month my favourite street is Bruton Street in W1. Matthew Williamson and Stella McCartney’s windows have re-inspired me on my mission to find the perfect font and discover how it can create a new brand image.

As a training exercise I sent my team out armed with a camera and asked them to shoot what they love in London. We then used their imagery as inspiration to create looks in the salon.

I’ve seen five films this week as part of the London Film Festival and have become obsessed by the hair of a famous Italian actress in a film called Perfect Day. I was so inspired that I’ve designed a new colour technique around it.

Have started writing a style book with a wonderful beauty writer so this month I’ve spent more time with my Mac than my scissors!

Yesterday I gave designer Jemima French (of Frost French fame) a cool bob with a haphazard fringe in exchange for her new season clothes. My new way of beating the credit crunch is to exchange cuts and colours for goods!

P.S This month I’m loving
* Hair wrapping as seen at Alberta Ferretti spring/summer 09… it’s gonna be big!
* Holey punky jumpers – goth up your look because it’s all about black. Most salons make you wear black – so embrace the goth trend!
* Tinting your eyebrows like Agyness Deyn (it updates a pale blond look)
* Online hair orders – it’s time to find those brushes and pins in Europe and the States and refresh your brush kit
* My men’s brogues with coloured tights

September: the month that fashion comes alive and London is abuzz with ultra fash pack tribes cramming their way into shows to see British fashion at its best.

For me it is the time to freshen up the colours and coiff the hair of the leading fashion and beauty directors and celebrities that attend the events. The ladies are blow dried and styled, mani-ed and pedi-ed before they slip into their gorgeous outfits and are whisked away in a waiting car from my private floor at Hari’s… This month I attended the GQ party and caught up with the very cool Jaime Winston, who I had just worked with on a Marie Claire shoot, and giggled with Lily Allen who was extremely controversial and the talk of the night. But for me the highlight was a cheeky wink from Dave Grohl, the lead singer of the Foo Fighters and a secret crush of mine!!

Being a GQ grooming judge, I swapped tales of bathroom antics with various creams on my face and treatments in my hair, which I’d tested by smearing on different halves of my face (to the bewilderment of my flat mate). The other judges and I have been truly engrossed in this mammoth task!

For the last two weeks I have entered a very different hair world styling the Pussycat Dolls and Anastasia in a whirlwind of TV and photo shoots in the run up to their albums. I shook my booty in the studio with the very cute Pussycat Dolls and then whizzed off to Ireland with the opera singer Katherine Jenkins, who I’m giving a soft girly Zoe makeover.

Days at Hari’s have been spent teaching the guys Gucci hair and powdered braiding and crimps, as I gear up the team for their seasonal styling menus. I’ve been shopping for cashmere blankets, choosing beautiful blinds for the beauty rooms and working with writers on our new chic and cool menus. I’m loving Hari’s and all the new areas it is taking my career.

My Saturdays are now spent in the super sparkly studio of Strictly Come dancing because my bezzie Lisa is a contestant. Come on guys get voting for Lisa!

This month I AM LOVING….
*Manly brogues and loafers with black tights and pretty dresses
*Collecting oversized bows to put in hair
*Mongolian jackets for a Kate Moss-inspired snuggle against that autumn chill
*Super shiny hair slathered in serum then slicked into the most perfect hair up to sex up the lace trend
*All the new texturising products and conditioner used as a finishing product

This month I am loving…

* The new Chanel Union Jack earrings, mixed with shiny, wet-look American Apparal leggings
* Goldie Hawn in Shampoo with Warren Beatty and my fave Julie Christie. The cult Sixties movie and the cutest summer hair…watch it now or regret it later!
* Neon pink tips on a biege base for nails’ kooky nails at their best. If you can’t afford the bag this season get the nail!
* Mason Pearson blo outs…the only way to blo!!

“Life with my agents Frank is speeding up and although August is often quiet for those of us that choose to be session stylists…this month has been hectic. Magazine life goes on regardless of the recession! It seems we still need to look at beautiful images even when we need to save for longer to get them…

The biggest challange by far this month has been my move to Hari’s salon on Brompton Road and starting my new job as Creative Director. I’ve turned my hand to all sorts of new things that are all an essential part of a modern salon business. Being the PR-influenced and new-trend-addict that I am, I’ve been developing new services to keep Hari’s on the map and build press for our new salon on the Kings Road.

First stop Scooters: I’ve trained up a team that will arrive at a clients’ homes on scooters and deliver polished, trend-focused cuts and styles – a full-on red carpet service. I’ve been to Paris to get them the ultimate kit and have spent the month designing helmet logos and buying Dior outfits for them to make it as chic as possible.

I’ve also created a nail menu with the hotties of the month like the Prada-influenced black lace over a biege shade.

I worked with a chef and nutritionist and even Elle Mcphereson’s personal trainer to get a food menu that is all about the best and yummiest foods for skin and hair. When I took up hair all those years ago I never thought that I’d end up in a kitchen making eight dishes for Tatler and The Times to taste.

Favourite days out:
V festival with the Elle girls and a mixture of friends – we debated Amy’s singing over several glasses and got to mingle with bands.

…It always does, and always will come back to the music.  That’s pretty much how it’s been for me this month and I’m loving it…

After working with Jerry Devout (Lenny Kravitz’s cousin), he took me to Lenny’s concert as a VIP, which is by far the best way to enjoy the music – no queuing in the drizzle, no desperately trying to peer over the six foot six guy in front of you and plenty of bubbly! Then the very next night I was off to see Supergrass.

But by far the funniest day I had was at a friend’s wedding at the gorgeous Lansdown Hotel. I celebrated the nuptials in style with Noel and Liam Gallagher and Holly Willaby, and I sat between the rolling stones manager and Peter Blake, the famous artist. Everyone was running in and out of each other’s rooms late into the night and I found myself gossiping with the All Saints chicks and randomly dancing with Vanessa Feltz. It was the chicest wedding I’ve ever been too and the most Jimmy Choo’s I’ve seen in one room in my life, and that includes their flagship store!

Before my crazy music week I also managed to squeeze in a week’s holiday with Lisa Snowdon in the sunshine, resting my weary bones and topping up my tan. That’s why this month I’m loving Luella floral prints teamed with lots of beaded bracelets – perfect with a healthy glow!

When I arrived back, I went straight into a shoot for Marie Claire with the wonderful photographer Terry O’Neil. I’m also working on some hair stories with Harpers Bazaar and collating our summer fashion boards for all Headmasters salons, plus putting the final touches to the new blow-dry collection, before jetting off to Italy for the Kerastase press trip. Next time I’ll update you on my Grazia shoot in Ibiza – can’t wait!