STYLIST ALL SET TO GET TONGS WAGGING
HIS career started in his local salon in South Wales, and just over a decade later, after styling the likes of Gemma Collins, Abby Clancy and Natasha Hamilton, he is making his comeback to the valley he calls home.
Nicholas James Tucker was 16 when he joined hair salon CF40 in Tonypandy, before moving onto Bonds & Co, the salon that famously gifted a young girl burnt in a horrific accident with new hair.
The 29-year-old from Clydach Vale made his intentions of making it big clear from the start, and was soon hooked up with celebrity hairdressers Royston Blythe and Nick Malenko.
Ten years later and Nicholas has since worked with a number of celebrities, regularly styling the women on ITV’s The Real Housewives of Cheshire, as well as Gemma Collins.
“That was my extensions she went in there with!” Nicholas joked about the GC’s infamous outburst claiming her hair was being frazzled by hair straighteners while in the Big Brother house in 2016.
The Only Way is Essex star was seen crying to Big Brother in the diary room: “My hair, this is very expensive hair, it’s f***ing frazzled because you have only got straighteners in here, you haven’t got heated rollers, so you can pay for me to have a new set of extensions. The f***ing hair is frazzled. Straighteners are what f***ing weirdos use on their hair.”
It was one of her biggest diva moments on screen. Reminiscing about the moment, Nicholas said: “I remember on the day they had their stylist do her hair when she went in, they made it massive. She knows what she is doing. She is an incredible girl, she is great with me.”
Glamorous celebrity hairstyles, extensions and precise cuts are Nicholas’ trademark.
After years of working as Roystone Blythe’s head stylist, he has decided to make the leap and go on his own and has also been made Gemma Collins’ personal hair stylist.
“I will now be splitting my time between London and the Rhondda,” said Nicholas, who spent the first lockdown at home with his family in Wales.
“I spent the first lockdown in the Rhondda and I realised how much I loved home. I love being with all my family and my friends, and that is where they all are. I have a new partner too now. I just feel it’s the right time to be home.”
From June, Nicholas will be returning to his former salon in Tonypandy, Bonds & Co, with dreams of opening his own salon in the next few years.