If I had a team of my own and they where fully Zoe trained in my kinda “hair love” way then I would include, as part of my junior training, the Shampoo film.
The lead character, George Roundy, is based on actual hairdresser Jay Sebring and on Jon Peters, the film producer, who is a former hairdresser.
It’s one of my all-time hair video favourites and I have a particular lust award for Goldie Hawn’s hair too.
What better an introduction to Sixties hair?!!

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.

The Hari’s crew need to be informed super-quick to keep up with the quick turnover of news from the weeklies so I’ve been giving trend demos at the salon.. This season’s chignon is extra-polished so I am upping my serum usage and my gel pots are empty after styling so many slick back looks on shoots. I use tint bowls filled with gel and apply with a brush with the precision of a high lift tint!

In my eternal search for the best beauty treatments for the salon I am now donning lashes that last a month and promise early morning glamour. The trouble is, with my half head of Russian hair extensions and my major lash flutter, I am becoming so fake. When my handsome man says I look cute I’m not really sure whether to take it as a compliment. The only way to understand a new salon treatment is to have it: our Brazilian Blo Out has a waiting list and our lash queen is busy as can be. Boy do I have to step up with my colour and foil!

So for me it’s back to school in the form of the Wella Studio. The only way to compete with the best is to obtain the highest knowledge and spend days watching the coolest new crowd in Hackney and Copenhagen. I think it’s an exciting mix. And my brushes are more than ready!

My blonde month started with a call from Pixie Lott’s mum. She called me on a saturday afternoon after a recommendation from Caroline Barnes, the celebrity makeup artist, and asked me if I could come over to colour her daughter’s hair. Now, of course, I had heard of Pixie. She is the beautiful, pale blonde with the big voice and hot song that is currently Number One in the Charts.

My moodboard for my S/S 09 Colour Crush Menu

This season I created a colour menu of techniques inspired by my ‘Colour Crushes’. We all have them – crushes – no longer exclusive to hot boys, the modern day crush can be the latest handbag, nail colour or you may have even find yourself with your very own girl crush…

Sun Kissed Starlet – Giselle Bundchen & Sarah Jessica Parker

Radiance Lumi Light – Jennifer Aniston

The No Colour colour – Angelina Jolie & Penelope Cruz

Cobain Chic – Alice Dellal and the Olsen twins

Hari’s Honey – Eva Mendes

Iconic Blonde – Gwyneth Paltrow & Kate Winslet

Have a go at designing your own moodboard with on trend colours at www.head1stinspires.net

Hari’s is super crowded at the moment and buzzing from the excitement of lots of celebs walking in. I brought T4’s very handsome Rick Edwards along – he’s so lovely, tall and handsome so I knew he’d get the ladies smiling! Susannah Constantine – in my opinion the funniest makeover lady – came in for a new colour look, along with some other new presenters who wanted makeovers.

I spent a few days shooting with Emma Bunton and loaded her hair with Dry Shampoo and Shu Uemura Liquid Fabric. She looked so hot and ended up taking me along to a TV job she was doing. I fell in love with her personality and her very cute son and tried to stop myself asking for an autograph for my neice (not so cool!).

I shot in a painters’ warehouse for the Independent and did a few other fashion stories.

My friend Donna Air hosted a fabulous dinner party where I met Lulu (how does she look so great at 60?), Jo Wood (Ronnie’s wife and lady behind the organic range) and  caught up with Jemima French and some other fashion buddies. I tried to eat the same amount as the slim ladies surrounding me but blew it by finishing left-over lasagne when I got home!

I’ve started holding girly nights in my private room with bubbles and a buffet. We’ve had lots of girls come in for manis and pedis and late night hair dos! I’ve also decided to launch a seasonal update on how to create the styles from the winter shows at home.

Life as creative director for Hari’s is definitely turning out to be fun!

Who would have thought that a simple idea I had over six months ago – an inkling of what the next big thing could be – would become so huge for me?! I certainly didn’t predict this!

The Sunday Times Style magazine reported that “Zoe Irwin has been at the forefront of the nail art comeback” and wrote about my love of the It bag inspiring my new nail art menu (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article5747660.ece ). Top beauty writer Bethan Cole also featured my nail art in the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/beauty/4969143/Nail-art-that-comes-up-to-scratch.html ). Then it started to spiral and other glossies wanted to shoot my new designs.

It just goes to show how important it is to go with a hunch and a feeling, and not care what other salons are doing. I think we spend too much time worrying about competition, especially at the moment. When a salon down the road is quieter, it’s easy to rest on our laurels, or if it’s busier, lose sleep over it. The trick is to stand out from the crowd.

My fashion head turned to colour this month with the release of new colour techniques for Hari’s. I have made up big boards of all my inspirations with a mish-mash of old and new ideas. My starting point was a 1996 Annie Morton shoot by Juergen Teller, which I adore, mixed with my ‘colour crushes’ (actresses and models whose colour I have a crush on). These inspirations were sent out with the press releases to entice the beauty press.

Pantone – the world authority on colour – has released their colour of the year: Mimosa, a warm engaging yellow. My private room is decorated with frames in all shapes and sizes and I’ve added touches of Mimosa. I love working with my favourite images from films and fashion shoots around me. Clients love to look at them and designers I work with bring me images to fill the frames.

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!

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!

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!

“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.