CHUK June 2019

#HariSalem
KING OF THE
KING’S
ROAD
AND FULHAM ROAD …AND LEDBURY ROAD …AND DON’T FORGET PARSONS GREEN!
LADIES OF LONDON WHO LIKE THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE HAVE BEEN FLOCKING
TO HARI’S SALONS FOR 40 YEARS. BUT NOW HARI SALEM IS LOOKING TO FIND A
SLOWER PACE OF LIFE. HE TALKS TO CREATIVE HEAD EDITOR AMANDA NOTTAGE
ABOUT HAIR LEGENDS, THE JOYS OF BEING ALONE, AND, ERM, BULL SEMEN
BY HIS OWN ADMISSION, Hari Salem is a bit of a loner.
He’s not pally with other industry types, doesn’t do social
media and has renovated a house in the middle of a forest to
escape to every weekend. But that escape is set to become a
more permanent retreat as Hari, the mastermind behind the
iconic west London Hari’s salon group, is retiring. Again.
“You’re either in the fast lane or on the hard shoulder –
you can’t choose your speed anymore. For decades I’ve been
with people all the time. Right now, we’ve got nearly 200
staff. Every day there’s something to deal with and it’s quite
draining. So the idea of actually going there and not talking to
anybody…” he trails off, grinning at the prospect. It’s a world
away from the ultra-modern townhouse in South Kensington
where we sit chatting over coffee and pastries. Hari is a
consummate host, as you would expect from someone who’s
been delivering five-star customer service to an exacting
clientele for so long.
He’s attempted retirement before, and it didn’t quite work
out. “At that point the salons were heaving, packed on a
Saturday, sometimes with clients standing against the wall.
And then I retired and just went and disappeared. But the
business didn’t like that so I had to come back in to work and
concentrate on staff training.”
He’ll certainly be missed once he retires again – while
you might not see him regularly in the press, he is held
in high affection. Lucia Van Der Post of the FT’s How To
Spend It magazine has said: “Hari doesn’t strut and grab
the limelight, but in his understated way he’s as cool and
hip as they come.”
His absolute lack of ego is striking; whether that’s just
down to his shyness is hard to say, but it’s impressive
considering his salon brand is as relevant as ever. This
introversion is something that’s dogged him since his family
emigrated to the UK from Iran, and proved crucial when
he came to choosing his vocation in life. He considered
carpentry, but thought that this would fail to pull him out
CREATIVE HEAD
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