I once took a picture from a magazine to
the hairdresser, it went horribly wrong . . .
I don’t find that a bad thing because if
you said: “I want my hair curly”, do you
know how many ways there are to curl
hair? There’s perming, tonging, rollersetting, steam-curling – now which one of
those are you talking about? So if I get a
picture I know exactly how that was done,
whether it was a perm or if it was tongs
or if it was roller set – I could tell from the
picture. It may not be the style you want
but the type of curl, I would say.
And what’s the best way of appeasing a
disgruntled punter?
First, if anyone’s not happy with their hair
in here, I don’t want their money. I am not
going to charge you for something you
don’t like. That’s rubbing salt in the wound,
to be perfectly honest. I’ll try to reverse the
situation by saying: “Please come back to
us and we’ll try and rectify it or give you a
couple of free haircuts to get you back to
what you perhaps wanted”. I think that’s all
you can do. I can’t make it grow but I can
at least offer. Put it this way, if somebody
left here and I’d cut their hair and they
didn’t like it they might say: “I really don’t
like what he did. But mind you, he didn’t
charge me for it”. It doesn’t change a thing
but it actually just makes somebody feel
that they haven’t been ripped off and paid
for something they didn’t want. If you buy
a garment then take it home and think:
“No, I’ll take it back”, and they said: “No,
you can’t bring it back, no, you can’t have
your money back”, you’d think: “That’s not
good customer service”. And that’s what
I feel.
What are your interests apart from
hairdressing?
None really, other than I like to still
pick up the pencil and pad and sketch
every now and again. That’s about my
only hobby – and it’s not even that, just
something I do when I’m bored. My
real hobby is eating. When you live in
London, you’ve got every restaurant at
your beck and call. I eat out three times
a week but every Friday my wife and I
have a date night. We have a shower
and put on our fancy clothes and off
we go to different places every week.
The other week, we went to the Ritz for
cocktails, which was a lovely experience
and we went to a restaurant called
Langan’s which used to be Michael
Cain’s restaurant and it’s been there
for years – so that’s an example of our
date night. The cocktails are quite pricey
though - £20!
So, what is it you like about Sussex?
I have always said I will never open a
shop in a place that I don’t want to go
16
to. Sorry Scunthorpe. I’ve always loved
Brighton. It has all the bits I enjoy - a mix
of people from universities and Bohemian
types to people with money and then
everything in between. It always reminds
me of when I was a kid going on holiday
with my mum and dad to the seaside
and sometimes - not every time; I’ve put
enough weight on as it is - we go down
the seafront for some cheap fish and
chips and, you know… that’s why I like it.
It’s as simple as that.
I didn’t do any research. I just thought
well, let’s have a look at Brighton. I
have a shop in Hampstead High Street,
which is a lovely area. I’ve just opened
one in Richmond, another lovely area
by the river. I have one in Manchester
but made a big mistake with that one.
I spent three quarters of a million
pounds on that salon and a week after
we opened, I turned the news on and it
said: “Britain’s going into recession”. I
thought: “I wish you’d told me that a few
weeks ago, I wouldn’t have spent three
quarters of a million quid”. And I’ll tell
you, it was a grind. For four years we
were losing money up there because
the north really battens down the
hatches. It’s quite different to London.
And the other thing, and I was stupid to
think like this but I thought we’re going
to take London to Manchester. You
know what? Manchester doesn’t want
London. The north is the north and the
south is the south.
The other thing is, funnily enough, our
products. The biggest-selling Boots
store we