LOOKING BACK ON A SPECIAL ENCOUNTER
NICKY CLARKE ON WHY EVEN A DOWNPOUR COULD NOT DIMINISH DIANA’S GLAMOUR
From royalty to rock stars, A-listers to politicians, Nicky Clarke has met them all, cutting and styling the hair of the great and the good for more than four decades. But one client in particular holds a special place in his heart.
In July 1991, he was asked to cut the hair of the Princess of Wales ahead of her appearance at Pavarotti in the Park in London, an open-air charity concert that saw the estimated 125,000 crowd left rain-drenched in a downpour.
Nicky, 63, who has tended the tresses of Elizabeth Hurley, Jemima Khan, Diana Ross, George Michael and Baroness Thatcher, had crossed paths with Diana at various fashion shows.
“In the early 1980s, she always wore British designers and would come along to the fashion show rehearsals when I’d meet her as I was doing the hair,” he says.
“My eldest son Harrison also went to Wetherby school, the same school as Prince William, so I’d see her at the school gates, where we were on nodding terms.”
But it was while he was styling the hair of the Duchess of York, who was a regular customer, that he was invited to do Diana’s hair.
“It was literally a last- minute thing, with Sarah saying: ‘Can you do my mate’s hair?’” he tells us.
“I remember we were in Diana’s apartment at Kensington Palace,
‘Diana was reading hello! and looking through her outfits, saying: “What was I doing wearing that?”’
in William’s bedroom, and she was reading a copy of hello!.
“There was a retrospective in the magazine of all her outfits and she was looking through them all, doing the usual: ‘Oh my God, what was I doing wearing that?’” he adds, smiling. “It was all very informal. I think she may have even made me a sandwich at some point.”
RAINY DAYS
Nicky’s handiwork on the day didn’t last as long as he would have liked, however. After the heavens opened, Diana was photographed soaking wet, her hair ruined, yet still looking glamorous.
“I like to think [ the hairstyle] lasted long before it collapsed,” Nicky says.
“I’ve still got a cartoon that was in the papers and it’s a picture of me standing outside the salon, chucking s buckets over every client’s head, with one of my assistants saying: ‘It’s bad news, Nicky, she’s ditched the wet look.’”
Having worked with A- listers considered “the biggest divas in the world” – and receiving an OBE for services to hairdressing in 2008 – Nicky doesn’t get anxious before a job, but he says it helped that Diana was so approachable.
“There was a naturalness about her. You were aware she was an HRH, but she was the sort of person who went out of her way to make you feel comfortable.”
Nicky, who has son Nico, four this month, and 20- month- old daughter Cecee with his partner Kelly Simpkin, as well as two grownup children from his first marriage, says the lockdown has given him a new appreciation of his own industry, which he once considered rather frivolous.
“I’ve changed my view. Whether it’s the beauty or fashion industry, yoga or Pilates, it’s all
about feeling good about yourself,” says Nicky, who launched his own range of eco-friendly hair products, Azure, last year.
“You might think something else is more worthwhile, but you could also be someone who thinks: ‘Actually, it’s really important that I get my hair done because it makes me feel better.’”
ROYAL HOPES
After cutting the hair of Diana, are there any other members of the royal family he’d like to get his hands on?
“Would I be able to put my mark on the Queen? Of course I would. Would I want to? I don’t want her to be that modern, frankly,” he says.
The Duchess of Sussex has already been a customer at his salon in Mayfair, although he wasn’t the one cutting her locks – “It was a week before everybody knew her name. I only found out afterwards” – but it is the Duchess of Cambridge who would be his ideal client.
“I’d love to work with her,” he says. “You want to do anyone who’ll wear your work well.”
For more on Nicky’s Azure hair range, visit nickyclarke.com.
‘Would I be able to put my mark on the Queen? Of course, but I don’t want her to be that modern’
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