Nicky Clarke - a cut above the rest

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People sometimes think 'Oh he's being such an arse, he needs someone holding the hair for him!', but what they don't get is that there are two very real reasons for it. First of all my attention to detail: some sections can be that delicate, so I have somebody holding so I can work on that detail. Secondly, that person who is working with me is learning by actually doing, living it and breathing it, so the method of training is much more fast-track. They are literally on top of it and seeing everything that I do."

Journalists have misunderstood this close-up training style in the past, and articles have depicted Nicky's process as a conveyor belt, and him as pretentious and, as he puts it, 'swanning around'.

"Oh, I've had a that a few times, because I generally have at least two assistants with me all the time - sometimes I use three. But, you know, I'm juggling. I'll do one wet and while that's being rubbed dry, I'm on the next one. So, I suppose it's easy to think it's a conveyor belt, and for people to think I'm being very grandiose, but actually there's a method in my madness, and it means I can give more people personal attention." Do Nicky's stylists in all the salons follow the same fundamental technique that he has been telling us about?

"Yeah, oh absolutely. I know that everyone has their own take on it, and there are some people who don't necessary do it exactly as I do, and that's always the way. I mean, if you're employing a hundred and fifty people they're always going to have some of their own methods, but the one thing that stays constant with us is the emphasis on that kind of detail, on that finish that makes it part of our house style.

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