You’re a third generation hairdresser, was your entry into the hair world inevitable?

I never decided I wanted to be a hairdresser, it was more that I wanted to leave school so thought I would go and work in my Dad’s salon. He was furious as he wanted me to stay at school and be a doctor, so he said. ‘Go get a job at Leonard’s [of Mayfair].’ Leonard was this genius and the man of the moment. I was so fortunate because after one month, he picked me to be his assistant. So I couldn’t have had better training, I learned everything from him. It was amazing I worked on set with all the amazing photographers of the day and [makeup artist] Barbara Daly [and stylist] Grace Coddington and I were a team. But after nine years I was a little bored so I thought I might go into property. But I had a realisation while on holiday –  I’ve worked in this business for years, I’m good at it, I’d built a reputation. I could work in property for nine years and also get bored. Maybe I should use what I’ve built and create a business out of it. The salon was the start, the products were already in my mind too, although that came much later.

What set the first John Frieda salon apart?

Hairdressing had been quite formal, but the 60’s happened and the breaking down of barriers between aristocracy and the working class. In the top salons the stylists were wearing bell-bottoms with long hair and smoking cigarettes, it was now all very pally. And I thought, ‘No, I don’t want this!’ Service is important. To me the basis of my salon was an incredible quality of work, being innovative and on the cutting edge and making the trends, with immaculate service, but in a more cool and relaxed way.

What elements contributed to its success and allowed you to attract and retain top talent over the decades?

Whatever I set my mind to, I want to do it better than anybody else. Every day when I walked into the salon I would look around, and say, ‘Okay, what can we improve?’ You know, I never wanted to rest on my laurels, even though we were booked up for months. I was not interested in what we’re doing well because if we’re doing it well, then that’s great. I’m only interested in what we’re not doing well and what we can do better.

I also always say, the salon team is like a family, so supporting our staff is really important and it has to be a nice place to work. If you love it, you know it doesn’t feel like work. I mean, it is work, but I always believe if you put your heart and soul into it and you want to do it the best that it can be done, you will always enjoy the work no matter what it is.

We also did things a little differently and even though I was cutting hair, I’d be looking around and seeing things. There was a sort of constant sense of innovation and we’d be coming up with different ideas. For example, for training, we got an art teacher from the Royal Academy of Art to teach the stylists to draw faces.  The technical skills are pretty easy to learn, but the most important thing about being a great hairdresser is what I would call the skills of visual perception and how to understand what suits someone.  We also got those at the top of their game to come in. It was always definitely one of our principles as a business to work with people at the top of their game like Kerry Warn and Sally Hershberger. You would not get those people to come and work in a salon, but we’ve figured out ways to collaborate with them, which is very beneficial to us creatively, but also very beneficial to them.

How has the hairdressing landscape changed in the 5 decades since you started the salon?

One of the differences I see – in the old days if you had a salon, like me, John Frieda, or Oribe in New York or Vidal Sassoon, the salons put names on because of their creative ability and that’s what attracted clients. Now, every stylist wants to do that, but most of them don’t want to run salons, it’s difficult to run a business. They want to be creative, so they’ll work in a salon because they need a chair, but they’ve got their own Instagram and social media. The clients are going to them, as they should. So, individual stylists are becoming recognised rather than just because you work at that salon. That’s a big shift. And I wonder where that will take the industry because people don’t want to necessarily work every day, five days a week, 9 to 6. They want to make their own hours, they want to work when they want. It used to be that if you worked in a salon and you went out on a session or advertising job that money wouldn’t go in your pocket, it went to the salon because they were paying your wages. Now that’s changed, the top people don’t have to have salons now. I mean, look at Sam McKnight, one of the greatest of all time, he’s never owned a salon. He doesn’t need it. I often think to myself, if I opened a salon today, what would it be like? I would think about it quite differently.

With the challenges facing the industry today, what advice would you give to salon owners now?

Running a salon is not easy and my own personal view is you can’t be rigid in anything. You’ve got to be flexible, you’ve got to be open-minded and connected and be very observational and feel where things are going with your business. You know, nobody has all the answers.

However, I think there are certain principles that never change, no matter what the era, such as treating the client with respect, being punctual and always thinking how you can make their experience better. If you’re chatting away, you’re not focused on the job. It’s about professionalism. Clients may want to chat with you, and you might become friends, but ultimately, the reason they’re walking through that door is they believe they’re going to get the best haircut, style or colour. That’s the number one priority that everybody needs to be thinking about. I’m a great believer that being in service is an amazing thing. And it’s something that is sadly on the decline today.

What advice would you give to younger talent joining the industry?

When I started out I had to fold towels, which is a bit of a boring job, but I decided –  if I’m going to fold my towels, I’ll do it better than anybody else who’s ever folded a towel. So, you know, it was beautifully, immaculately done. Leonard saw it ,and when he needed a new assistant, he said,  ‘Who’s that new kid who’s quite serious and who folds the towels really well?’  So if you’re making a cup of coffee for someone, make sure it’s the best cup of coffee they’ve ever had, those are things that make people notice you.

Is there a particular moment, client or cut that changed the trajectory of your career?

I often talk about the importance of having good fortune in your life too,  having the lucky breaks and I was fortunate to have two of those moments. First with the salon, when Joanna Lumley called me after she had seen an image of a cut and colour I had created in Vogue. She wanted a distinctive haircut for her role in the Avengers, she was savvy and knew how important that was. She called me and  said, ‘John, do you think that would suit me?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I’ll make it suit you.’ So she came in, we did it, and it was huge. There were double pages in national magazines, ‘Purdey Mania, the haircut that sweeps Britain.’ It was the month the salon opened and we were booked out for the first six months.

I also got lucky with the product launch. It was like a little startup with virtually no distribution. I got my big break when Boots wanted to trial the products in 40 stores and I did a morning TV show with Richard and Judy. I demonstrated the thickening lotion and the wax and it went crazy. People were calling the TV show and Boots to try and get hold of the products. I had developed the products from working in the studios and they felt new and modern, unlike the 50s and 60s backcombing and hairspray for ‘helmet hair’ as they called it. After all the customer requests, the MD of Boots called me and placed an order for 1.2 million bottles of the thickening lotion and 864,000 jars of wax. I think at some point Vogue called me ‘the founding father of modern styling products.’  So, I certainly can’t have been more fortunate than those two events happening.

Have you considered what you’d like your legacy to be?

To be honest I haven’t really considered it. I don’t think like that. Obviously I’d hope people who love me will remember me fondly. I do think about the continuation and improvement of the salon for the benefit of the staff who work there. We have young people and I’m interested in that and keeping the standard, so if anything, hopefully they’ll continue with the ethos we created at the salon. I guess that could be my legacy, but ultimately people will think what they want.

If you could share a message with the future generation of British hairdressers what would it be?

My dad always used to say to me, ‘John, always remember, there are  two types of people in the world: givers and takers. Make sure you’re a giver, not a taker.’  There’s also a simple philosophy in the Indian Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita, and a couple of really important phrases I used to say to my staff and my assistants. ‘One should act not for the fruit of the action. The real reward is in the action.’ So I would translate that by saying to them, ‘If you have a client in front of you, rather than thinking about the money or what you’re getting from cutting their hair, just think about the action. The reward is giving her the best haircut she’s ever had. That is your reward.’ You know, that kind of dedication and devotion to your work is important and gives you the opportunity to be successful. And with AI we have an advantage – it cannot do hair the way that we can. I’m curious if it will be able to, I may be wrong, but I think I know the answer to that.