Celebrity hairdresser Richard Ward — crimper to both real royalty and the showbiz variety — started to get panic-stricken messages quite soon into lockdown.
Even from afar, he could sense that the colour had drained from his loyal clients’ faces, if not yet their hair, as the new reality hit home.
‘Lots of our clients started emailing, even texting me personally, saying: “What can I do, Richard?” Some were desperate. One of the things they were saying, which is quite funny, was: “But my husband has no idea I am grey!” ’
Oh dear! Lockdown has changed the landscape in unimaginable ways. But whoever thought it could threaten the role of our hairdressers as keepers of all our secrets?
Richard Ward, of course, keeps the secrets of quite an army of famous names. His most famous client is the Duchess of Cambridge. She trusted him with her hair on her wedding day, and he has been credited as the man responsible for her trademark gloss. She still pops into his salon for her fabled Chelsea blowdry, his signature ‘do’.
Richard Ward (pictured), of course, keeps the secrets of quite an army of famous names. His most famous client is the Duchess of Cambridge
Or she did until lockdown, when everything closed, all staff were furloughed and even Kate was left to go it alone. He is also used to tending the locks of our most famous newsreaders and TV presenters.
Fiona Bruce is a regular at his salon. Ditto Sophie Raworth and Sian Williams.
In the olden days, when Corona was just a beer, Richard had only to switch on the TV to get a surge of pride. There, whether reading the news or making it, would be his glossy clients — walking, talking adverts for his expertise.
Now? Let’s just say that all the old certainties are gone. Every A-lister in the land is doing their own hair. As the weeks of lockdown continue, they are also contending with the issues the rest of us are struggling with: to cut that fringe, or leave it? To attempt a home-dye job?
Roots — says Richard, darkly — have become the bane of lockdown life. Little grey spirals springing up to wave at you in your own bathroom mirror is bad enough; to have them on show while you are presenting the news is another thing entirely. And yes, Richard confirms, some of his newsreader ladies are fretting about it.
‘I was on the phone to Sophie Raworth the other day. We’ve been looking after her for 20 years. She said she’s been getting creative with touch-up products, but they are all having to do their own hair before they go on air, which they aren’t used to.
‘She’s doing a brilliant job, but to get hair — particularly hair that needs a trim and a colour — looking good is hard even for a professional.’
Some are measuring lockdown in days; Richard is measuring it in regrowth. Normally, some of his clients come in for colour touch-ups every ten days. He sees those whose job involves looking groomed every four or five weeks.
Newsreaders are particularly on the ball because their hair tends to be short and precise, like their sentences.
Pictured: Liz Hurley – How does she do it? Liz always looks cool. She even looks cool with roots. I think they suit her. 9/10
Sophie Wessex It needs a trim but this is a great effort. She has put it behind her ears, which is a good option if you usually wear it up. I think we’ll see her quite quickly when we reopen. 8/10
Pictured: Claudia Winkleman What can I say? Let’s be honest, lockdown or no lockdown, her fringe always needs a trim. The colour needs brightening, too. 2/10
‘This means that most newsreaders are needing their colour done by now,’ he says. ‘Even those who rushed in during the days before lockdown will have passed the point where they’d normally have had a cut, too.’
Last week, he tuned in to see brunette Fiona Bruce on Question Time.
‘I would definitely have seen Fiona before this,’ Richard says. ‘Her hair is about three inches longer than she likes to wear it, and it’s less groomed, but it still kind of works.
‘What will be really interesting to see, when this is over, is how many people stick with a new style they’d never have tried before. They might like it longer.’
We truly will be heading into unprecedented times if we see our newsreaders with cascading locks or — dare we say it — greys galore. Would he advise any of them to embrace this opportunity to ditch the colour? He shudders.
Pictured: Trinny Woodall – AH! A fashion pro and true style icon. Her hair will look how she wants it to look, lockdown or not. No hair falls in waves in that way, so she will have used a heated appliance. I’d guess she’s done her own regrowth too. 10/10
Kate’s DIY Blowdry Fantastic. Any professional would be happy to put their name to this. It’s sitting beautifully. It’s smooth, elegant, and it looks effortless. 10/10
Holly Willoughby I’d say she’s had an all-over tint rather than highlights, and I suspect she has retouched the roots herself. 8/10
‘No. People do say that grey can look brilliant, but they are thinking of people who are 80, 90, 100 per cent grey, which is basically white. That shock of hair looks amazing on the likes of Judi Dench or Helen Mirren, but for everyone who still has a lot of dark in there, I’d urge caution.’
There are winners and losers in the hair lockdown stakes. Interestingly, the newsreader who has most impressed Richard with her lockdown hair isn’t his client.
Step forward Emily Maitlis, the reigning queen of everything — hair included.
‘I am an avid Newsnight watcher, and she’s not my client but even so I was watching her, thinking: “Wow!” Obviously, like everyone, she needs the colour done, but that is a good example of a very professional-standard job.’
When it comes to regal hair quality, how does he reckon his most famous client — the Duchess of Cambridge — is faring? First, can we establish that she is doing her own hair? When she appeared on the steps of her Norfolk home to clap for the NHS last week, Kate looked as though she’d been styled for Vogue.
Pictured: Shirley Ballas The problem with being dark is that roots show quickly, but the parting is to the side rather than the centre, which highlights roots. But she could do with breaking up that colour. 6/10
Pictured: Emily Maitlis – She’s a natural. That is a cracking blowdry, lots of body, and the colour is still great, even though it needs to be done. She’s very well-groomed. Top marks. 10/10
Pictured: Fiona Bruce RICHARD’S VERDICT: Good effort. She’d normally be slightly more groomed and, yes, her hair needs a cut, but it’s not at all bad. And considering how busy her job must be right now, she’s done brilliantly. 7/10
‘I can guarantee no one would have done that for her,’ says Richard. ‘She’s very good at doing her own hair, and her styling on her Zoom appearances has been good. In one, there was a lovely 1950s wave going on. It was quite relaxed, but that’s the key to a good blowdry — it looks effortless.’
Actually, to the clueless-with-the-curling-tongs among us, it looked anything but effortless.
Would she even have used tongs? ‘I would imagine so,’ he says. ‘There would have been appliances involved. But where many people go wrong is in using them too quickly. First you must get that blowdry sorted.’
Inevitably, if you have spent the past decade having your hair done professionally, you will have picked up tips. While Richard is the maestro at offering pointers, for a Kate-level blowdry you need a nozzle on your hairdryer.
Plus serum and volume spritz. Plus patience — he reckons the Duchess’s skill lies in knowing her limits.
‘The trick is not to try something that is going to be a challenge. ‘She has gone with styles she knows work and that she is confident with.’ He also thinks that, knowing Kate (as he calls her), she will be enjoying not being primped and pampered.
‘The fewer people around her, the more she likes it. She’s really down to earth, and not the sort to be fretting about not having someone around to do her hair.
‘I think she looks the best she ever has. She’s a long-haired girl, like a lot of women are.’
Isn’t he at risk of doing himself out of a job? He does point out that all his clients are fortunate to have helpers at hand — not hairdressers, but appliances and magic potions such as root re-touchers.
‘They are not of the quality you would get in a professional setting, but they all aid the consumer hugely, in a way we simply wouldn’t have had ten years ago,’ he says.
Are men fretting as much about their hair as women, though? Richard suggests not. It’s only his female clients who have been phoning him in distress.
‘The men don’t really care. It’s been a bit of a laugh for them.’
He puts himself in that category, too, admitting that he looks ‘a state’.
‘My wife has offered to cut it for me but I’ve said no,’ he says. His wife, Hellen, is a hairdresser, too; they started their business 27 years ago.
‘No excuse, but I’m rather enjoying going feral. I only shave every four days, too.’
Richard is at home, with his wife and teenage daughters, and, like most of us, lurching between feeling as though he is on an extended holiday, and being seized by utter terror.
Despite all those celebrity clients clamouring to be back in his capable hands, his business is as vulnerable as any.
‘I still have moments when I think: “Is this really happening?” ’ he says. ‘Hellen and I have been trying to work out how we can adapt when we do get the go-ahead to reopen, but it’s all so difficult. We’ve never had to think about these things before.’
His business, in prime position in London’s Sloane Square, is one of the largest privately owned salons in the UK, with 110 staff and 45 hairdressing ‘seats’.
He voices the concerns of probably every salon owner in the country when he despairs at the impact of implementing social distancing measures when they do reopen.
Pictured: Zoe BALL Oh dear! Fringe and roots issue. She’s platinum blonde which is pretty unforgiving, but she’s done her best. 4/10
‘We could take half the clients and space them out, but financially it will be disastrous. We can halve the number of clients, but our overheads won’t halve.’
For now, though, his clients keep phoning. He laughs as he thinks of his well-heeled customers.
‘Some husbands will look at their bank balances at the end of this and wonder why they have so much money. They had no idea what their wives were spending on their hair. But they’ll know now.’