HAIRY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Celebrity crimper Steven Smith tells Hannah Stephenson what really goes on behind the scenes in the crazy world of showbiz hairdressing
HE’S cut and styled the hair of celebrities in London and Hollywood, from Katie Price, Tamara Beckwith and Denise Welch to John Travolta.
As an insider to the world of celebrity, Steven Smith has seen the best (and worst) of showbiz people – the drug-fuelled parties, the tantrums and triumphs, as he rose to fame as a makeover artist during the late-90s.
He worked on the Lorraine Kelly show, transforming GMTV viewers into their favourite stars, even making over Lorraine herself, transforming her into movie legend Elizabeth Taylor. But his speciality was blondes. “I used to be known as the ‘blonde transformer’ and it became a joke that if you stood next to me, you’d turn blonde,” he said. “I was good at transforming people into blondes and doing big, glamorous hair.”
Many of his showbiz anecdotes are featured in his book, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Hairdresser.
He’s reluctant to reveal the worst celebrity he’s ever styled, though.
Steven said: “It often depends on the mood they’re in. I did Britt Ekland and she was appalling. She clicked her fingers at me and asked me to tie her shoe. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I said, ‘Certainly, your majesty’ and everybody in the room burst out laughing but she didn’t understand why it was so funny.”
He also recalls his encounters with a young Katie Price, then known as Jordan, who had a foul mouth and forthright attitude, and battled with him over her hairstyles.
He said: “One day, I did this look for her which looked like RuPaul’s love child – it was so big – and she loved it. She liked big hair, not a girl-next-door, softer look.
“Katie’s wonderful. She managed to take straw and spin it into gold,” he added. “She took exhibitionism and very little talent and it made her a huge star. Working with her was interesting, because you never knew who you were getting.
“There were two different personalities – one minute she would be adorable and the next Jordan would kick in, the exhibitionist would come out and she’d want attention.”
He recalls styling Denise Van Outen’s hair during her early career, when she was on The Big Breakfast, only to be blanked by her at an after-show party when he went to congratulate her on her first night as Roxie Hart in Chicago in London’s West End.
Another time, he recalls being asked to do the hair of some of the stars of Baywatch, including The Hoff. Steven said: “David Hasselhoff was incredibly two-faced. One minute he was calling himself a vegetarian and the next he was calling for a full English breakfast.”
After working in numerous London salons, Steven spent eight years in Los Angeles, in upmarket locations including Rodeo Drive, going to celebrity parties where he’d mix with the likes of Madonna and Kelly Le Brock, and living a glamorous life. He said: “I blow-dried [Barbra] Streisand’s hair and John Travolta’s. I hung out with a lot of them.” He says the attitude to hairdressing in Beverly Hills was completely different to that of the UK. “We were very technical in the UK. We were interested in the graduated bob and how the hair was going to condition. Over there, if you said to a high-profile client, ‘It’s going to be a graduated bob with some soft highlights’, they’d go, ‘What?’ They just wanted to show you a picture of Flamingo Road or Dynasty, and that was what they wanted.
“There’s a saying, ‘It’s a comb, not a wand’. They might pull a picture out of Demi Moore in Ghost and say, ‘I want it cut short like that’, but it was at the time that Roseanne Barr had the same haircut. They never pulled out a picture of her.”
For Steven, hairdressing has become a science now.
He said: “You see these girls on TOWIE and other reality shows, and the hair is a coiffured masterpiece. They’ve got hair extensions that have been bleached within an inch of their life. It takes hours to put them in. Then they’ve got colour. It’s become a completely different craft.”
Steven might be a part-time hairdresser now but there is one woman whose hair he would love to cut – Theresa May.
“I’d give her hair a good razor cut, make it look a bit more approachable. If you put some lowlights in and created a softer, sexier look, more people would warm to her.” It Shouldn’t Happen To A Hairdresser is published in paperback by The Book Guild on August 28, £8.99.