Coutts Woman

All in the eyes

New year, new hair?  Not so, predicts Daniel Galvin, hair colourist to the stars.  It’s all about getting a ‘supernatural’ look this year - enhancing the hair’s natural beauty for an even more stunning look. 

To achieve this, Galvin insists it’s all about the eyes.  “When you have an almost perfect hair colour, the first thing people should notice about you is your eyes.  Hair colour does that.  It lifts the skin and really brings the eyes out,” he says.

For the right hair colour, Galvin takes the eye and skin tone into account while working with the natural hair pigment, he says.  “You never fight against natural pigment, because that’s when you start destroying the hair. 

“However, while some people feel that their natural hair colour suits them best because it was the colour they were born with, I disagree.  I really feel that hair was put there as a protection to the scalp, and not necessarily a beauty asset.  I like to make it more beautiful than nature ever intended.”

So, for 2007, Daniel Galvin says it’s antique gold on brunettes, cinnamon touches on reds and beautiful clear blondes – with lots of hair movement courtesy of lighter front sections and ends with rich under-colours giving movement. 

For cuts, the bob - a trend Galvin helped bring back with client Sharon Osborne last year - also prevails in 2007 ‘worn loosely with lots of movement’ according to Galvin’s son James, creative director at the salon. 

On mid length hair, the bob is also updated with graduation and lots of texturing, leaving the front longer (à la Victoria Beckham) with fringes – short, long, heavy or side swept – ‘whatever suits your face’ says James. 

“Group two or three colours together and seeing the hair change was like magic.  I found it much more interesting than cutting”

Predicting and setting trends (of which there is one or two every year) is something Daniel Galvin has been doing for over four decades now.  Beginning his career at his father’s hairdressing salon in Paddington, he says: “I started working for pocket money when I was 13, sweeping the floors and hanging up towels on a Saturday.  I wanted to be a footballer but when I realised I couldn’t be one, hairdressing was an automatic progression.”

He was following a long line.  His grandfather, who died when Galvin was only one, was the number one stylist and manager at London’s top salon between 1890 and 1910.  “Maharajas used to pull up in their horses and my grandfather used to have to wear a top hat and work with white cotton gloves!” says Daniel, incredulously.

With his father in gent’s hairdressing, Daniel’s brother, Josh, went on to become a stylist and manager at Vidal Sassoon for 15 years.  His sister even tried her hand but only lasted three weeks, choosing instead to manage a poodle parlour in the basement of her father’s shop.

Meanwhile, Galvin himself did a two-year apprenticeship in hairdressing and found colour fascinating.  “Group two or three colours together and seeing the hair change was like magic. I found it much more interesting than cutting.”

Deciding to become a colourist, Galvin wrote to London’s top ten salons.  Only one replied, Olofson, a salon frequented by high society.  “I used to pick hair up off the floor in the evening and experiment with it.” This was also where I met his wife, Mavis.

But the competition came beckoning when Galvin was only ten months in the job.  One call came from Vidal Sassoon - a time when they were ‘revolutionising cutting’ according to Galvin.  The other came from Leonard, Vidal Sassoon’s top protégé who had just set up on his own. 

He chose Leonard’s which had a large tinting department, quickly making his name colouring hair for the worlds of rock, royalty, high society, film and entertainment – most of whom remain his clients today.  After four years, he became a director at Leonard’s and later a partner in the company, introducing new highlighting techniques such as henna, vegetable dyes, and the fun ‘Crazy Colour’, which revolutionised the way hair was coloured. 

Establishing his own business in the late 1970s, Galvin set up a specialist colour salon – the first of its kind in Europe – which was so successful it led to him opening a larger salon in George Street in 1987. 

After over 15 years there, he outgrew the premises in 2003, converting a 9,000 sq ft Victorian building also on George Street into his current salon.  This salon now has nearly 100 employees work in his hair colouring and cutting salon, an in-house restaurant offering organic food, non-surgical rejuvenation and Eye-Tec Couture Lash Extension treatment. 

Although in his 60s and recognised with an OBE last year, Daniel Galvin insists he is going no where.  Neither one to lead from the back, or take too much time away from the salon, he insists: “I love pushing the boundaries of hair colour and believe perfection is a journey, not a destination.  Hair is a real passion for me and, like golf is for other people, I hope I’m doing it until I die!”

Top tips for treating your hair

• “Treat your hair the way you treat your cashmere sweater,” says Daniel Galvin.
• Use luke warm water to wash your hair and then rinse it with cold water to close the cuticle. Pollution and dirt comes out of the hair in luke warm water.
• Use the right shampoo.  Louise Galvin Sacred Locks products is free of SLS’s, parabens and silicone – as organic as possible.  It leaves the hair naturally shiny and free from build up.
• When using conditioner, comb it through so that it puts back what you take out of it.

Further Information

For more information on Daniel Galvin and his hair Salon, call 020 7486 9661 or click on www.danielgalvin.com.