Loving Buenos Aires

Yet again I’ve landed in a capital city and been metaphorically grabbed by the scruff of the neck to appreciate what a wealthy beautiful and dynamic city London is.

So many other capital cities look third world in comparison.

People here in Buenos Aires are friendly and there is a vibe but it’s so achingly obvious in everything you look at and feel, that this is a country on its knees economically. Sad, considering only 80 years ago they were the 5^th biggest economy in the world. It’s clearly had little investment in the last 40 years.

The low ceilinged airport terminal has worn linoleum tiles on the floor, with buckets everywhere catching leaking air conditioning units. Walls panelled with cheap melamine over chipboard sheets, are chipped and broken. Outside, small, old beaten up cars fill the streets, and there’s a pervading sense of things not working.

My hotel is lovely though. The Faena is an old refurbished grain store, built just over 100 years ago with bricks from Manchester, in a pretty regenerated area around docks. The main city square is just a pleasant 10 minute stroll across the water.

Good staff, pretty surroundings and views over the river from my junior corner suite. Philip Stark’s playful witty design hasn’t replaced functionality unlike some of his early offerings. Everything in my room works. Downstairs, the breakfast restaurant has a strong underlying theme for the interior, “What Granny sent to the car boot sale”. A kitsch collection of housewares from Victoriana through to Art Nouveau. It’s fun.

The outdoor pool is beautifully contained in a walled terrace garden and lounging and lunching here competes easily with sightseeing. They have a Tango theatre in house where you can dine and then watch a cast run through an hour of classic dance routines. The bar had good live entertainment which runs ‘from’ midnight. The gym is surprisingly large and well equipped and they also have a decent sized yoga room. In fact it was all so accommodating I didn’t want to venture out too often and would happily have spent another week there. Premium haircare doesn’t see too advanced here in Buenos Aires, probably down to the poor economy of recent decades, but I expect things will be better in Brazil tomorrow.

Cotidie

I rather miss Cafe Luc, the Belgian Brasserie at the top of the High street. I turned up one day for an impromptu lunch and they were moving out. The manager told me they’d been bought by an Italian. Bruno Barbieri, a Michelin starred Masterchef wanted to “join the wealth of restaurant talent in London”.

Several months later (surprising, given the decor’s barely changed) the new restaurant Cotidie has opened. It’s a serious restaurant, with complex dishes and rigid staff - an all Italian crew behaving like the French. I expected something more relaxed and engaging from the menu and exuberant chefs shouting risotto recipes at each other.

Instead the tables have thinned out, and in a half full restaurant, a church like ambience seems too precious for the High Street. My partner’s suggestion of a jazz piano in the corner was possibly more than required but I think the atmosphere and format may have to be tweaked to work in Marylebone.

Food was elaborately precise, at times overly complex, but well worth a try.

Cotidie - 50 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HN T: 020 7258 9878

New Look: Colour Studio

We’d been having some problems with insufficient lighting in the studio in the dark winter afternoons. The 17ft vaulted ceilings had confounded more than one lighting designer. It was finally decided that chandeliers would probably be the best option to complement the spots and we are delighted with the new look. It’s stage one of several small changes to the layout and design of the salon which will make it an even more pleasant space to while away the time. Watch this space!          

New Feather Extensions

Try this for Spring. A few super fine feathers weaved into your own hair. Very eye catching and a lot of fun.

See Violeta for a consultation 0207 224 3123

Hair Transplants Explained

I’m flying back from Dublin, having spent a day in theatre with the talented Dr Maurice Collins – probably the world’s leading hair transplant surgeon.

Many clients have enquired about the procedures and I too have a few less hairs on top than in my youth, when my full swinging Bob would attract ‘is he or isn’t he?’ comments as I strode along, a Mickey take on the ’70s Harmony Hairspray ads for those old enough to remember; my brother Nicky was practising on my hair at the time and hadn’t yet moved onto full layers!

Anyway, my only understanding of hair transplants was the old dolly head plug version which left a lot to be desired and I wanted to be updated on just how refined this process could now be.

The purpose built centre in Dublin is state of the art, and oozes a sense of excellence and caring. The underground car park with lift allows total anonymity for high profile clients.

We started at 7.45 with a full boardroom briefing on the patient who had flown in from Asia especially. The meeting involved the whole team of about 15 surgeons, nurses and technicians. It’s vital that everyone knows the exact programme, as with this sort of surgery you don’t get a second chance.

Everything is carried out under local anaesthetic and the procedure ran like this:

1. In the operating theatre a strip of scalp is removed from the back of the head between 1 -2 cm high and 26 cm across. Maurice was previously a head and neck surgeon. This is the donor piece. This wound is closed with staples and stitching, and the patient moves to the TV room beside the labs where he can sit upright and relax.

2.    The donor section of scalp is then taken to the lab where a team of highly skilled technicians working at banks of Nikon microscopes slice the flesh into 'single hair wide rows. Another group of technicians in the adjoining lab then separate these into the individual hair follicles.

3. The harvest is graded into single hair, double, triple and quadruple hair follicles. The average works out to about 2.2 hairs per follicle, so 100 follicles will yield approximately 220 hairs. 3000 hairs is a fairly standard procedure. This is of course dependent on the thickness and quality of the donor hair at the back. Everything is recorded, counted and posted on the wall for everyone to see. It’s important to know the numbers.

4. Another surgeon has prepared 3 micro scalpels tailored to the depth of the scalp and in 3 thicknesses depending on follicle size. In the TV room he then sets about making incisions into the scalp taking care to adjust the angles so that the hairs lay in a natural direction. Only single hair follicles are placed around the hairline and some are scattered with a deliberate irregularity to mimic nature’s way.

5. A further team of technicians then begin planting the individual follicles one by one into the prepared holes. The full operation can take 10 hours and the patient must stay upright, so cannot go to bed, for 12 hours after leaving.

I sat in on two post op consultations from yesterday’s surgery and I was amazed to see how quickly the healing was taking place. One man was in his 30s the other in his 70s.

I also attended a consultation with a female patient who had been taking Regaine to thicken her hair. I personally don’t like the idea of lifelong drug use but this is mild and externally applied. The results were dramatically different from earlier photographs I saw.

I know as a hairdresser the amazing difference hair makes to self esteem and Maurice is a real artist who’s created an amazing centre. I feel comfortable now recommending clients to him.

Actor – James Nesbitt before and after treatment

Ibiza Cycle Challenge

I consider myself reasonably fit in the old fashioned sense of the word, so quite nonchalantly accepted a 185km mountainous cyclathon invitation thinking it would be as easy as....well..… riding a bike; which I remember doing about 20 years ago. Clearly not! All activities or sports seem to require a specific type of fitness as does mountainous road cycling. Two activities rarely cross exactly. My first 15 minute test in the gym started to get difficult in the first minute.

I insisted the readout must be displaying MPH but the trainer was equally insistent that it was the considerably slower KPH. Oh well, I have 4 weeks to get bike fit for the round the island challenge, all in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. Sam, Lane and Ronan are joining me for this worthy cause on 5th & 6th May 2012. If you can spare a few pounds to sponsor us I would greatly appreciate it.

www.justgiving.com/ibizacharityride

The Diamond Dry Cut

Our unique Diamond Dry Cut Method is the finest way to cut hair, to get the most flatteringly precise look. The diamond refers to the sections that are used to divide the curved surface of the scalp. The prolific inventor, Buckminster Fuller discovered this in the 1920’s with his Geodesic Dome and it’s a principle that architects also follow when building curved structures. Hair cut this way works with the natural texture and fall of the hair so it’s personalised for you, is much easier to handle at home and stays looking its best for much longer.

When I meet a client for the first time, I always see it as a lifelong relationship; that I’ll continually be able to create a better haircut and service for them than any other hairdresser. Our Diamond Dry Cut method helps give me a 99% return rate and clients that stay with me for decades.

Make-Up Service

We have a great make up service in salon. Our team are very experienced at fashion shows, weddings and with salon clients. For casual or formal events we can give you that extra special look and feeling. Pit stop make-up refresher in 20 minutes for £30, and New Season Lessons just £60 for one hour.

New Premium Waxing

Being fair haired and sensitive skinned, waxing hasn’t featured in my life personally. Though I was pinned down about 15 years ago for an enforced chest wax by my partner at the time who thought it would be a good idea, or amusing at least. It was agony, and the redness lasted for days.

So when our Beauticians asked to demonstrate a revolutionary new waxing to me and on me I didn’t jump at the chance. They claimed it massively reduced the pain to something bordering on pleasant and eliminated the post redness even on sensitive skin. It also left the newly bare skin soft, glowing and polished. After some resistance I tried it and now I believe it. It is quite amazing.

Vanity or Social Responsibility?

I remember as a kid my dad dressing up even when going out to buy a newspaper. He’d always put on a suit and tie. I always admired his sartorial self-respect, but in today’s dressed down, dumbed down society he’d be seen as quaintly old school. He came from an era where communities regulated themselves and front steps were scrubbed religiously.

Chatting to a friend recently, an ex eco-warrior, I was accused of not having a proper job, but just appealing to people’s vanity! I’m not sure what a ‘proper’ job is, but I suggested that one person’s idea of vanity is another’s sense of generosity and consideration for others.

I think we’re all public presenters of sorts (hermits excepted) and cannot help inflicting ourselves on a defenceless society. Hence I feel it’s socially responsible to make the best efforts we can with our personal grooming. The positive health benefits of good self esteem are also well documented.

How we feel about our hair has a big impact on our moods, confidence levels and self-esteem. So I also pointed out to her, the positive health benefits of good grooming and it being a pillar of proactive self-care; others of course being a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise. So it’s not about vanity, but more about social and personal responsibility. “Hmmm”…said my friend, and changed the subject.

Local Restaurants This Month

Le Relais de Venise L’entrecote , 120 Marylebone Lane W1, 020 7486 0878

The landlords are putting a lot of effort into Marylebone Lane and it’s developing as a quirkily interesting little shopping street. Of the many small restaurants, one offers a French version of fast food……..a sort of Michelin star McDonalds, on the back of a formula that’s worked in Paris for 50 plus years. This is a useful local restaurant though not one I rush back to despite the lengthy queues that form around 7.00pm - you can’t book.

It’s a set meal of salad – with a secret dressing recipe, steak with a secret sauce recipe & chips, and one of those meals that despite enjoying it whilst eating, at the end I feel no desire to repeat it. That may just be because I forget to decline the second helping they hold off to the side. Service is Parisian.

Invisible Haircuts?

A full page article in last week’s Evening Standard talked about a ‘new’ way of cutting which avoided the chunky lines and choppy steps created by most ‘try hard’ stylists these days. The Invisible Haircut. Initially I thought someone was at last catching on to something we have stood by for years, just beautifully refined and understatedly perfect haircuts.

When the article continued on to say how it was vital to hold some hair and make quick upward snips at three times per second and miss bits out to achieve the ‘metodo’ (Italian for method), I knew I was reading yet more gimmicky marketing by someone that doesn’t understand the principles of a achieving a great haircut.

Great hair never has screamed, ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ at the expense of the owner. Great hair helps the wearer look beautiful and feel confident, and an observer shouldn’t instantly know why. It may occur to the observer that the hair looks gorgeous. It may then appear that the haircut and style is just right. If they continue to wonder, they may conclude that a very talented hairdresser has been there. In that order it shows good taste. Less professional hairdressers want their creations to shout from the rooftops. The very best hairdressers are happy for their work to play a vital supporting role to the real star, the client.

One of my high profile television personalities, whose diary doesn’t always link in with mine, once said to me, “You know Michael, when other people cut my hair it feels like I have something on my head. When you cut my hair, it just feels like it’s part of me.”

I thought that summed it up rather well.

LFW: World Peace Through Personal Beauty

I often find myself in the middle of a conflict between prospective apprentices, desperate to go into hairdressing, and their concerned parents wanting them to take a more serious career path like law, medicine, accountancy or banking. “Well let’s face it…..isn’t the fashion and beauty industry along with those other creative types, a bit……… shallow?” My feelings of indignation passed years ago. I feel what we do with personal grooming and visual health is important individually and socially, and exceptionally skilled. It engenders higher self esteem and is aligned to proactive self care and wellbeing, so also links in with the healthcare aims of medicine, but without the gory bits. People who look good feel good. People who feel good do good. I rest my case m’lud.

As for ‘serious careers’….being able to express ourselves in our own version of beauty is also vitally important to a healthy self image which in turn affects how we relate to others. When this freedom is suppressed, it can ferment a deep discontent with potentially tragic consequences. You only have to look at the world’s war zones, where there is no formally established fashion and beauty culture. As far as I’m aware there is no Iraqi Cosmopolitan magazine nor Afghanistan Vogue and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Perhaps the UN planes should be flying teams from London Fashion Week into the world’s conflict hotspots.

Firewalk

Training and development is one of my greatest passions and nothing gives me more pleasure than helping our team grow and realise their best selves. This Spring we’re sending 7 of them to the Excel Centre for a challenging 4 day seminar of self-discovery with the world’s leading personal coach Tony Robbins. One of their tests on this ‘navel-gazing’ extravaganza is to walk barefoot over red-hot coals. Having managed that, they should be able to handle the scariest client (just kidding!). The greatest thing about these seminars is how it opens up a whole new world of thinking and opportunity.

It helps our young apprentices question their assumptions and realise that their thinking has largely been fed to them by their background environment; TV, newspapers, peers etc., often not in their best interests. This realisation switches people on to further exploration and learning which is essential to living a more fulfilled life in the modern world.

" Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense". Buddha

Do Trophies Matter?

At the hairdressing industry’s glittering Oscar nights, our team set a new British record by winning seven major accolades. Four British Hairdressing Business Awards and three Most Wanted Awards from the top two publications. We loved the celebrations and the attention from our peers, but the next morning it really was back to business. I do tell our younger team particularly, that these trophies are symbols of our past efforts and the future needs to be earned each day.

What really matters to us are our working relationships. I’m most proud of the ongoing journey we have with our clients; several hundred for more than 20 years and more than 50 special clients for over 30 years.

The other day one of my clients told me a very touching story. She said, “When I first started coming here I was always impressed by the respect and care you showed to your older clients. Now I’m one of them.” Actually she has been coming for about 25 years and she really isn’t old at all.

We love having 3 and 4 generation families all coming to see us. We really appreciate their loyalty and look forward to the future together. So yes, our trophies do matter as a wonderful reminder of past successes. And today we are focused on them.

Click here to see our winners’ interview at the British Hairdressing Business Awards.

Did you know?

Your hair shrinks in winter.

Cold dry air outside, warm dry air indoors; this seasonal pincer movement rips the moisture from the hairshaft leaving it thin, brittle and up to 3% shorter. Dryness also makes hair less flexible and difficult to manage. We wanted to test the amazing moisturising qualities of our 3 More Inches Treatment System in one of nature’s coldest driest toughest environments; 8000ft up and -25˚C at the glorious Amangani in Jackson Hole...

Top Travel Destination

Steeped in Zen stillness and vast majestic landscapes, the Amangani in Jackson Hole enters my top five world picks. Arriving pre beginning of the ski season meant a wonderfully quiet resort and a hotel where we really were home alone for half our stay –except the 50 staff to look after us.

On one evening they had their own Xmas staff party event in the town which left 40 rooms to ourselves in this vast log and stone mountain mansion with just two staff. Jack Nicholson in The Shining did cross my mind.

Highlight has to be a 6.00 am swim in the 100ft outdoor pool surrounded by the massive Teton mountain range, and icy hair in the minus 25˚C atmosphere. Our 3 More Inches Treatment System performed brilliantly of course, leaving hair full, flexible, shiny and easy to manage.

The Big Rocks

It's that time of year again where we focus on new resolutions. How many of us expect to still visit the gym in February? We hope we'll commit to better behaviours, healthier lifestyles and drop some of our less helpful traits. Here's a short story which helps me remember to plan the important things into my calendar.

The BIG Rocks…

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz,” and he pulled out a one-gallon, mason jar and set it on the table in front of him.

He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class yelled “Yes!”

The time management expert replied, “Really?”

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He then asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied.

He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and gravel.

Once more he asked the question, “Is the jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted.

Once again he said, “Good.”

Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.

Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

An eager student raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point.”

The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.

What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life?

Time with your loved ones, your faith, getting your hair and nails done at Michael Van Clarke (sic), your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at all.

So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question:

What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life? Then, put those in your jar first.