I saw Alexa at the ELLE Style Awards. Her hair was dressed in a kinda half-up/half down, with just the right amount of height and a modern-day nod to the Sixties.
Alexa’s hair is done by George Northwood at Daniel Hersheson. I know that beauty editors and clients flock to him to get the famous “George Effect” and style advice. He has made this look his own and I think he is just brilliant. To come up with a style that is your signature piece and is loved by so many is a real achievement.
For me, “The Alexa” by George is “The Wedge” by Trevor Sorbie of our times.
As I write this, I can hear the uproar from hairdressers across the land! But to me, “The Alexa” is as big as many of the Vidal Sassoon cuts and has been worn by so many women in different versions.
“The Alexa” has the texture and length that sums up what women really want for their hair right now, and if I were heading up a salon I would hold my training evenings on this style for as long as it takes for my team to truly master it.
There are so many ways to get this style wrong.  As “un-done” as it looks, it is just as hard to master as the more technical “Wedge”.

I will not even try to explain it as “The Alexa” belongs to George. But the way the colour sits to give texture and a rooty look is as brilliant as the cut.
Often in salons lots of time is spent achieving the perfect blonde highlights – all creamy and right to the root – but no time is spent on how to do un-done hair. And yet, in my experience, it is often just as difficult for stylists to create a look that is uncontrived.
This is the reason why George Northwood probably has a waiting list stretching out till next Christmas!
George, I salute you! You are a true inspiration as a stylist.

Ohhh my god, where do I start?!
Maybe at the beginning of my day…
My ELLE day starts with a visit to  Miss Lisa Snowdon, where we decide to do a look from the show by Peter Pilotto, as she’s going to be wearing one of his dresses – we’d found it on a girlie shopping trip to Liberty. It’s textured hair that I wrap around pins in a bric-brac style, and then pin in an up-do.
I then dash to the Haymarket Hotel to tend to the locks of Lorraine Candy, a wonderful client and the editor of ELLE. She is wearing an incredible Alexander McQueen dress that simply mustn’t be upstaged by her hair, so I choose to do a textured side twist. I adore Lorraine. She is funny and clever and looks so beautiful in a gown that I could only dream to wear!
Time then for a quick turnaround as I’m attending the awards too, thanks to an invite from Lorraine. Lucky me!
With a David Seeta dress on, and a smokey eye courtesy of Mss Snowdon, I walk into the Grand Connaught Rooms to witness this massive awards do.
The tables are dressed in the most amazing way, with glass domes that hold butterflies and birds made of ELLE magazine pages. The menus are in snow-filled domes.
I sit on a table with Danni Minogue, George Lamb with Lisa – and just six feet away from Colin Firth. And Nicholas Hoult OMG!!!
Someone asked me the other day how being a hairstylist had changed my life. Well, if I had a night to sum it all up, this would surely be it.
The night before I had sat at home watching the Baftas, and here I am now, not 24 hours later, in the same room as incredible actors and musicians and woman and men of power.
Give me a day at a school leavers’ convention and I could give you a hundred reasons to be a hairstylist. The happy times it gives me, the people I get to meet and the drive and ambition it has always filled me with.
Now, let’s talk about the Olsen twins!
So in they walk to the reception before the awards. Maybe it’s the complete obsession I have with their dress sense and of course their hair, but I was completely floored! I wanted to jump up and down like a Beatles fan screaming at Paul McCartney (though of course completely inappropriate behaviour that would have led to me being thrown out!). They have JUST the right amount of re-growth on a blonde highlight and the MOST perfect textured hair.
They are soooooooo cool, with huge eyes and an aura that screams starlet!
Also up for hair mention:
Alexa Chung, of course, who’s tended to by the adorable George from Hershesons.
Carey Mulligan, who won a Bafta the night before, has the coolest blonde pixie cut that is a massive trend in the making.
Naomi Campbell also looked incredible in a McQueen dress and super-fine styling.
Henry Holland and Lorraine hosted the night. It was so much fun!

If you can’t see the video clip above, please click here
I am trying desperately to get over my love of this hair – but, oh, the bounce, the fringes, that youthful, sexy, clean texture! I throw myself into images of today’s styles that may nod in this direction but more often are so far removed and modern in a whole new way of texture and shape.

I was so doing so well. 15 days in Sixties hair rehab! I went cold turkey on height and backcombing. I had cleansed my round bristle brushes and withdrawn from my “kitten” brush. Then my dealer returned, with her Sixties hair crack… On a breezy Sunday morning she sent me this…

It was like a whole new supply! It was at this point I realised that not only had I just spent too much time on my boxed set of ‘The Wire’ but that as far as this addiction goes, I am beyond redemption.

This is like an insight into the wonderful world of Terry Richardson, the photographer. I have loved his work for so long and buy all his books. Keep it bookmarked – it will make you smile, giggle and gasp! I relish this daily!

If you can’t see the video clip above, click here

I thought that I would include a how-to for Katherine’s hair in Popstar to Opera Star, Week 3, just because I had some hairstylists mention that they liked the last one and found it useful. If you go to the end of the youtube clip you’ll see Katherine on the judging panel.

1) Blow-dry with a large, real-bristle brush; I use Acca Kappa (you can get them from Amazon). Apply a volumising product to the roots and a cream or leave-in conditioner on the ends. This will give tons of body but also keep the ends nice and smooth.

2) When you blow-dry, take sections from the nape of the neck and work upwards towards the crown of the head. Smooth the hair by pointing the nozzle down the hair shaft and blast the underside of the brush at the roots to get maximum lift. After each section is dry, pin up with a long sectioning clip. This part is essential as it “sets” in the volume.

3) Separate the top section from the recession line, or take from directly above the corner of the eyebrows and make two partings that reach just above the crown of the head. Back-comb this section lightly at the roots and then carefully smooth the section from the front. Pin just under the crown.

4) Working from the nape of the neck, softly tease and back-comb the hair, section by section, and then brush through with a Mason and Pearson brush.

5) Use the tail end of a tail comb to lift the top to the desired height and mist with hairspray to give a soft shine and hold. I then take a tiny piece from the edge of each side of the top section and wrap one over the other to make the crown pretty!

6) This can be as big or smooth as you wish. I always send my clients home with a tail comb and a handbag-size hairspray and teach them how to comb this through and spray it .

7) I hope you like!

I found this shot by Marcello Geppetti in 1961 of Brigitte Bardot. Another great summer braid look.

This hair is from the s/s 2010 Miu Miu show, and I think we’re going to see it in so many long and short versions throughout the season.
It might seem a little late for me to express such fondness for this style as the a/w shows are now on. But so many women are asking me how it can be achieved that I thought I would include it here.
It was done by the master genius, Guido.
Now that hair pieces can be found in TopShop and Dorothy Perkins, the look can be copied more easily.
But I think salons could do well by offering a service to customise hair pieces. I’m going to sew a few and include a how-to on my blog… Until then, here are my favourite summer braids!

I thought I would share some pictures with you. I was once told by the great  Gaynor Hodge on a presenters course that to keep your mind alive you should mix up what you see each day. So, for example, if you walk to work you should take a different route each time. When I go on holiday or work away, I find taking pictures of things I love is a great reminder of home and seems to help me at times when I need inspiration – and it can be anything from shop signs to grafitti. Anyway, here are some of mine from Mexico…

I have mentioned Nuno many times in my blog. We started working together about 18 months ago when I met him through Hari’s salon.
He is a self-taught illustrator who is talented beyond belief, and his work adorns the the walls of the salon and also my home.

He sent me these images last week and I thought I would share them with you. Check out his work too.

Can you imagine being that talented? I am in awe…

I have been a collector of hair accessories for a long, long time, my first being a cherry hairclip at the age of 5 . For the last few years I have collected Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton hair clips and slides and also a few by Luella. They are fantastic for keeping in your handbag to add to an outfit or to update a simple ponytail or bun.

I then started to collect brooches that I also put in hair – my favourites were by Sonia Rykiel. I would only use them on my own head, as the pin makes them slightly dangerous, but in fact it’s easy to pin a brooch through a ponytail, at the base.

Whenever I go abroad I also look for things to adorn the head. Here are items that I found in Mexico, and  some headbands from Cuba . In Paris I always buy beautiful ornate slides.
Hair accessories are HUGE right now and the trend seems to go on from season to season in some form or another. Today I found these in Liberty – they have a department with accessories by designers that made me coo!

I found these amazing headpieces by Zoe Sherwood. They would be beautiful yet quirky to wear to an event, but I would also wear them to the pub – just randomly with a pared-down look.
I collect them for my clients; I have in mind certain people as I buy. But when I was a creative director I always brought accessories to use in the salon – a box of mixed-up ones, from vintage to modern. We would just put the price on and charge them on top of a blow-out. Or lend them to a client for a special occasion.

I also left Liberty with some beautiful velvet slides, and of course the new Marc Jacobs collection.
Marc Jacobs do the strongest hair clips that I have ever used and they are worth every penny. Mind you, Topshop had a great selection too.

I found the A-Rebours blog through my friend Ellen and immediately loooooved it. It has the most beautiful images of fashion and art and I thought I would share the blog love!

If you can’t see this video clip, then click here

This is Kim Basinger in LA Confidential. It goes with my how-to and it’s the hair I have done ‘Pop Star to Opera Star’.
I luuurve this look, and it gets used so much in different versions. Check  out Penelope Cruz at the Golden Globes last week…
I get asked to quote on it all the time, which means it’s really popular with magazine readers – our clients!
Imagine being the hairdresser that came up with it! Amazing!

I arrived back from Mexico and one of my clients, Katherine Jenkins, was working on the new TV show ‘Pop Star to Opera Star’. I arrived on Friday at the ITV studios on the South Bank, and Katherine and I went through ideas for her hair that night – but when I took a look at the dress, there was nothing “soft tong with a tousle” about it at all! It was full-length, yellow and the diamonds that she was planning to wear with it spelled “Major Glamour”.  So, I chose to do a look that I adore on her and have done versions of for things like Proms in the Park.
I thought I would write up the how-to because hairdressers ask me how to do this all the time when I am training. It seems to scare some stylists.
When I was at Headmasters I christened this “Starlet Siren” and I think it kinda sums it up. Here goes:
 
1) I blow-dry after applying Sebastian Mousse Forte (for which I am having the flushes of a new product romance) and Shu Uemura Essence Absolue on the ends. I use a big round bristle brush for this.

2) From the nape of the neck, tong with WAM tongs (the only ones I find that do this really well). Hold the tong horizontally and then slide out the tong and clip straight up.
3) Work in lines across and up the head every two inches.
4) Leave to cool and mist with spray (I use Silvikrin Hydrostyle).
5)  Take out the clips and brush through with a Mason Pearson and use the palm of your hand to push in crests.
6) Take a big blusher brush and spray it with hairspray then use over the top section to gloss the hair and smooth flyaways.
7) Sit back, satisfied there’s more to you than a paddle brush blow-dry!