Creative HEAD May 2017

CHARLES
Celebrating three decades in business, hairdressing legend Charles Worthington MBE
took us on an incredible trip down memory lane at Salon Smart
HAIRDRESSING WAS NEVER the plan. Young Charles
would make his way over from his home city of York to the
bright lights to Leeds, modelling on occasion for a young
Tim Hartley of Vidal Sassoon, but the plan was architecture.
But there was so much maths and all his hairdresser friends
seemed to be having so much fun, had so much passion…
And so Charles Worthington changed paths, starting at
London’s Robert Fielding before moving to Stage Door,
where he was one of the first stylists to start combining salon
work with session styling for London Fashion Week, thanks
to client Betty Jackson.
Within a couple of years, Charles and partner Allan
Peters set out to find the perfect location for Charles’s first
salon – an old fish shop in Fitzrovia that had to be gutted to
eliminate the pong! They had just £9,000 to make it work,
and so embraced a minimal aesthetic. “You always want a
wow factor when you walk in,” says Charles. “I would get up
at 4am Monday and go to New Covent Garden Market to buy
flowers and do the arrangements myself. We were serving
trays with fresh biscuits and cafetiere coffee, which was
unusual – back then you were lucky to get a mug of instant!”
Two more London salons followed, as did the iconic
product line with its elliptical bottles (a result of Charles
doodling on a pad while thinking there was a gap in the
haircare market), which at launch sold 10 times more than
Boots had forecast. Then he opened the incredible New York
salon to help push his product line in the US: “It doesn’t
work if you just dip your toe into the US – they want to see
you there,” he explains. “We were in THAT moment – the
Sex and the City girls, Madonna, Britney.” He even won over
American Vogue editor Anna Wintour in the process, and got
a double page spread in the issue and an invitation to the
Met Ball, where he was serenaded by Diana Ross!
Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Bafta styling
followed. Charles and the team would set up a Charles
Worthington pamper zone in the Hollywood Hills or at The
Savoy to style the stars. There are terrific tales of Cybill
Shepherd and a roll bag of diamonds; a Thierry Mugler dress
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