So after six months with my new job as Style Director for Silvikrin I attended the huge P&G Global Conference, held in Barcelona at the W hotel. Talk about a who’s who of hairdressing and beauty… P&G brought out the top beauty directors from around the world and all their ambassadors – including me.

Well when I arrived I got into the lift with Sam McKnight and was completely starstruck! I didn’t say a word! He is the man of amazing blo-outs and Vogue covers and, in my opinion, a hair god. I thought of all the things I could say (referencing amazing shoots that I have kept pristine) but settled at a smile (because I usually goof these things up). At dinner we watched a show by Pat Magraff, Eugene Souleiman and Josh wood and Sam McKnight. Sam did the most beautiful crimped hair that kinda floated on the stage and we all cooed!!! My new hair crush…

The next day I talked trends in a room with Ben Cooke and Duffy and decided that, if it was all about the hair company that you keep, then this was surely it. Rankin was there photographing the press after my lovely friend Caroline Barnes made them up and we had drinks and laughs in the rooftop bar surrounded by the Barcelona cuties.

The W hotel was pretty amazing too and I shot all the design ideas that they had. I think for salons you can get so much inspiration from hotels like this.

The nails oh the nails… For those that missed my blog entry on nail art, a year ago I entered into the nail world. It was on a hunch rather than a professional manner that involved years of training with files and polishes and scary looking implements for cuticles.
It started with the “loving luella”.  At the time I had a beautiful tan Luella handbag with prairie inspired flowers and an on-trend fleuro pink trim so I designed a manicure, which was inspired by my bag. It ended up in a few fashion magazines and blogs. So on I went with “fashion nails at Hari’s ” and here I am a year on and 10 designs later…

This month we launched the Stud collection…

Something about my beaten up biker jacket that I wore over a chic silk dress needed an edge… I frequent a nail bar in Hackney called “nails 4 u” which I love. It is a lurid pink painted shop where the clientele have acrylic nails that are inches long and sprayed with paradise beach scenes. The girls arrive with children that are named after the singers that they see on MTV, which plays in the shop. Last week I sat next to the most beautiful young girl who had a daughter called Beyonce, aged 7, that was having her first acrylics. These girls teach me about nails, while looking pitifully at my own short square nails (by choice). It is here that I found the studs. We ordered them into the salon and now I have a “nail-mate” Jo Stenner at Hari’s, who played with them until we settled on four different designs.
They made it into Harpers Bazaar this week. If that isn’t Hackney high-end styling, I don’t know what is !

I’ve had a whirlwind month with the singer Katherine Jenkins, who must have been the busiest artist this month, launching not only an album but, on last count, 15 hair looks! Her diary was so full in promo week that I had to start my day at 4am. When I arrived at her house I met with the make up artist to talk through the day of clothes changes and events. I started with a style fit for the early morning viewers of breakfast TV – soft, approachable and in keeping with her album image.

We left the TV studios at an hour I would normally wake, jumped into a car and headed for record stores around the country for album signings and 300 or more eagerly waiting fans, followed by more dress changes and then evening TV. During all of this the paps were waiting and she appeared in the newspapers every day. She is a bit of a dream to do. Unlike most artists that are tied to a look, she goes from a soft, beachy do to a Sixties bardot, then a high tousled up do in a few hours. The looks have been picked up by the weekly mags.

So although I have been to the glitziest parties in the past (dancing with Beyonce at Gucci and Sharon Stone at Versace) I have finally found the thing to make my mummy truly proud and something for her to boast about at the local bridge club. Her daughter (‘no, she isn’t on This Morning TV doing hair, she is a hidden secret’) has met Piers Morgan, Chris Tarrant and Gordon Ramsay in the space of a week.
Katherine Jenkins I thank you, I have made my mummy proud!

It’s the day of my big speech! I have been asked by Creative HEAD’s new club The Coterie to speak about trends and modern salon theories. I am terrified. At first I was going to turn the invite down as I am so scared of talking in public – it’s been a year and a half since I stepped forth in front of a crowd and spoke. But I have risen to the challenge and spent the last month thinking about what I really do as a job. Actually it has been therapeutic to put down the things that I have worked on in the last five years.
What does it take to be a trendsetter? Guts. Putting a thought or idea out there can be scary. But think of all the people that do it everyday.

I am not a trendsetter, not in the way great fashion designers are. I study what is around me and add my own twist. Every stylist I meet can do the same, the more that you surround yourself by colour and books and textures – all sorts of things pop into your head.

After reading Elle Decoration I have made myself a study area. This helps me to focus. Now whenever I do an interview for a magazine I sit at my desk. I’ve bought myself a beautiful vintage Danish desk, piled high with fashion and beauty books, and a spring green 1970′s Eames office chair and a Missoni cushion to sit on top – well, it had to be fashion inspired if it was going to work.

I have just returned from the opening of the new Frost French shop in Soho, which was crammed with celebs in this season’s cutest, coolest outfits. I was invited by Jemima French, a client of mine and co-creator of Frost French with Sadie Frost.

Stood against the racks of clothes was Pixie Geldoff – I adore her ashy, bleached blonde hair that makes you want to be 18 again. Afterwards I met up with Marvin from pop group JLS. I was a little shy as last time I saw him I was in Ireland, partying with Katherine Jenkins and Gordon Ramsay after an appearance on the Late Late Show and I was made to learn a JLS dance routine for a dare… They were great teachers. How do I get myself into these situations?!

In between cupcakes and champagne and meeting the London scenesters I got to thinking about the training that I’m doing at Hari’s tomorrow. I’m going to base it on the styles that they see on the celebs they adore, making them transform a model for anything from a red carpet event to a cool shop opening and prepare them for a day in the life of a modern hair stylist. (Maybe I should get them to sign a confidentiality agreement too?!)

I seem to be using more and more shine products. Maybe it’s the Eighties hair that I’m being asked to do on shoots with slicked back sides? I use gel and spray on shine and over spray with hairspray. The mixture of a shiny top or side against height and dry textured hair seems very now somehow. I’m teaching this at Hari’s for the party season that awaits us. You can update long hair with a big blow dry, pulling back the sides and slicking with gel. It accentuates the cheek bones, which is always flattering. Over spray with hairspray for a look that can be brushed out the next day. Or for full on gloss get out the gel and slick on with a tint brush.