SALON FOR LIFE

During school holidays, I would help out in my auntie’s basement salon in New York and see the difference she made to women’s lives.

Sometimes they would walk in with their confidence on the floor, but leave feeling amazing and looking fantastic. Her ability to transform – even those with alopecia – was incredible. That connection between hair and mental health, and the way a hairstylist could connect the dots? I knew I had to be a part of this.

After college I started at Hype Coiffure in Battersea, which I still call home. Hype was a cutting edge, Black-owned hair salon like nothing London had seen before. Clients laughing, joking, sometimes shouting and arguing, locals selling DVDs or Jamaican patties… but after work there would be drinks and partying together. I look back fondly at the characters and their skills – Michael Campbell, Allan Henry, Sandra Webb, Charmaine Jones, Chester Julian – with owners Anne and Calvin Rattray the driving forces behind it all. This salon became my family and will always be home.

“At the salon, we often take for granted how transformative our work can be – not just with client’s hair, but their lives, too”

One salon client told me that she was going to be in a girl band, Mis-Teeq, and did I want to work with her? I had no experience in TV or music, but it was a yes! For the past 20 years, I’ve been a stylist for big names such as Kelly Rowland, Jennifer Hudson and Mel B. Over the past four years I’ve worked closely with Alison Hammond, helping transform her from a daytime TV presenter to a household name.

But people often ask me why I still work in the salon, seeing my regular clients. Yes, it can be exhausting but no amount of money can buy those reactions I see, how I make them feel. Clients share such personal stories – one client told me she tried to commit suicide two days before her visit. We cried together, planned how we were going to move forward… and that was two years ago. She’s a huge fan of Alison Hammond, and experiencing a little bit of Alison through videos I share brings her such joy and comfort.

At the salon we often take for granted how transformative our work can be – not just with clients’ hair, but their lives, too. We all appreciate how deep a Black woman’s connection to her hair runs. To make someone feel comfortable, and to have that naturally run from your heart into your fingers, is really a beautiful thing.

Still maintaining salon life when you’re a celebrity stylist is quite rare. But it’s those conversations and real face-toface interactions that allow people to talk to each other that keeps me there. Post lockdown, people can be so insular – clients working from home, interacting less. Everyone needs those real life human moments of interaction.

There’s been so much discussion about going freelance, but what happens in the salon, that community, working together as a team, it’s so powerful. If I’m working on a shoot, I know I have a team I can trust with my regulars.

I know a lot of freelancers that have thousands of followers, but they don’t necessarily get interactions and engagement with people. I don’t care about numbers; I care about authentic connections. I get offers to work at spaces that look beautiful, offering a high level of service, and as a celebrity stylist it would make sense to be based there. But is my soul going to be happy somewhere like that? That’s important. I work in a salon for the love of it!