Ever since having that hair colour done at the beginning of this year, I’ve been incredibly biased towards one London hairdressers.
Taylor Taylor London is, quite possibly, the most pleasurable experience your hair can ever endure – and this, coming from a hair-phobe like me, is high praise indeed for a salon that’s been opening its doors for little more than three years.
I’m painfully fussy, self-confessed and signed. I’m the girl who pays to have her hair done only to go home and rewash it to style it the way I like it. I’m the girl who gushes ‘I love it!’ through gritted teeth, hands over too much cash and promptly leaves the salon mumbling expletives all the way to the tube. I’m the girl who hates hairdressers.
But when I popped into Taylor Taylor a month back to have my hair re-done (and to see if my first impressions were just a fluke – I told you, I’m a cynic) I was, to my surprise, even more impressed second time around.
But I digress. This isn’t a hair review, nor the main reason I visited Taylor Taylor last month. You see, the salon has unveiled its new collection and, as I presume you are, I was plagued with intrigue.
Inspired by the decadence and glamour of the Forties, a series of sophis shots line the black floral walls of the spiral staircase, each expertly styled to an editorial level to suit the ‘do with welcomed subtlty (I’m so bored of seeing over-styled, experimental hair shots in your average salon that are neither wearable or attractive).
Wearability, as it goes, is key to the new collection, Bradley Taylor, Taylor Taylor London’s creative director, tells me. He wants women to take once glimpse at these images and feel inspired to try it themselves; it’s the measured fusion of fantasy and attainability that makes this series sit so well. That and Bradley’s adorable Spaniel, who crops up in several of them.
As Bradley showed me around his small but exquisitely-crafted space (he does all the designing himself, I’ve half a mind to ask him to my home), it dawned on me this is what every salon experience should feel like: an afternoon pamper with fabulous friends you’ve never met but who are more welcoming than egg nogg on Christmas eve.
I bet if every salon had a Bradley Taylor, the world of hairdressing would be a very different place indeed.
Visit taylortaylorlondon.com for more.
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Photo credits: creative director Bradley Taylor, art director Sarah Cromwell, photographer Robert Harper.