Nicky Clarke's Number Plates

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It really does seem that it is the sheer fun aspect that interests Nicky, rather than any urge to show off or demonstrate his success with his number plates. That emphasis on fun and enjoyment is obviously a prime motivator in Nicky's professional life too, and he is still very much hands-on where hairdressing is concerned. The passion for his craft clearly remains, and is reflected in his preference for the youngest, rawest recruits when training new staff. As he opens more salons, Nicky obviously find himself in need of top-notch stylists, but he would rather train from scratch than try to force people to unlearn the techniques taught by other stylists.

"It's not like a KFC franchise," he says. "It's not a situation where I can say 'Here's the recipe, now off you go!', so I can't have just anybody doing it. I prefer 16 year olds to train: it means I get them raw, and I really do like being able to mould them. There is no past training to overcome."

So is Nicky's approach to styling really that different?

"Yes. That's why I prefer to train from raw. If someone has been trained in another method and they suddenly move between companies, well then there is generally just slight tweaking to be done. Moving from that to what I do is a major shift - a real change.

"For one thing, my method involves dry-cutting in a way that makes it quite an unusual thing. There's not been too much of that in the last 30 years, just a few of us doing it. I do what I call my 'rough sketch' wet, but all my fine-tuning is done dry. It's like a piece of sculpture: like you're chipping away at something until it's absolutely right. The attention to detail is much greater. It's a hard thing to teach en masse because you're basically trying to show someone how they really have to use their eyes. They've almost got to breathe it and live it. "So I have assistants working with me very closely, and I suppose from the outside it looks very grand when you're doing it.

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