My Journey with a Remarkable Tree

One night in early 1968 age 14, I watched a chat show; a young Vidal Sassoon draped in gorgeous Jean Shrimpton-esque models talked about the highlife of the fashion and arts movement coming up from the working class. Blimey, it was cool to talk the way I did. Almost as an exclamation I said, 'I fancy being a hairstylist.' My mum got me a Saturday job with 'Etienne' in suburban Walton that week but before long I was working in London's Knightsbridge and Chelsea with the most fashionable of the day. It was the start of my education; for the next twenty odd years while I styled I talked to people from diverse walks of life and was blessed with conversations that widened the narrow perspective of my childhood. I spoke with Film Stars and Scientists, carved first wave Punk Mohawks and styled Princesses. For a while I got lost in an ambition to grow my own status but the answer was not to be found in the kudos of my clientele or in any of the commercial achievements I have attained since putting down my scissors in the early nineties. I've learnt that we can be what or whom we want to be; the real challenge is being the genuine article. I'm honestly trying.