Mention that you’re having your hair done by Daniel Galvin, the King of Colour, and you tend to lose friends. But when your transformation into a blonde vision looking like an early, and curly, Brigitte Bardot is imminent, it’s probably time to update your mates for more stylish versions.
Arriving at any hairdresser’s with a barmaid-blonde, frizzy bird’s nest on top of your head is embarrassing. Going to see Galvin at his fabulous new George Street salon, should have been excruciating. I was apprehensive about letting him even see me, let alone run his hands through my very dry, post-beach hair.
But Daniel Galvin is a funny man. After falling about laughing over his joke with his receptionist, he tells me my hair is in dreadful condition. There is no instant fix, but if I see him a few times he’ll make it perfect. When DG says something you believe him.
He is obsessed with hair colour. He grasps a few strands of hair and stares — transfixed by something that only he can see. “There’s a lot of ginger in here.”
There is also none of that “all the foils off at once” business here. No. Because he highlighted the left side first, that was washed first, then a little wait for the right side, then the front. The results are worth waiting for. I have never left a salon so pleased.
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The 9,000sq ft salon is a calming monument to minimalism: silver bowls of lone orchids line windowsills, a wall of water falls alongside the stairs and collects in a feng shui-esque pond underneath the stairwell, and the paintings reflect night skies glimpsed out of aircraft windows. The ground floor is dedicated to hair colouring and the the lower ground to styling. There is a snack and juice bar, and beauty treatments are also available.
SARA LAWRENCE
Half a head of highlights with Daniel Galvin from £300. The £149 Summer Sun package includes half a head of highlights with a Galvin-trained colourist, hair cut, blow dry and refreshments.
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The Daniel Galvin Salon, 58-60 George Street, London, W1. 020-7486 9661