About

The Client

Someone walks in and ask for a cut and colour. How do you go about it?

Seriously? It is never just a cut and colour. Well, it is, but, hey, I love what I do, and for me it is the whole person, the whole look, and creating a style and feeling rather than executing a cut and colour.

How do you work that out?

I look at the way that person dresses, how you put yourself together, what kind of lifestyle you have, what you aspire to.

So, you try and reflect that?

Not exactly. It is difficult to explain really, but it is about co-creating a style for you that makes you look more like the person you really are. I am a professional and I respect what a person says they want.
But I encourage you to be adventurous, open-minded, and then we can really work together to bring out different features of your personality and sense of being.

Are you asking for a level of trust in that process?

Yes, there is definitely an element of trust. The magic happens when the right cut and colour brings out parts of you that you never knew were there. It can be a subtle, personal process, or dramatic. Either way it is exciting, it is needs to look ‘chill’ yet classy. That’s why the shop is called Taboo – we both go where we need to go to get that magic happen.

The Techniques

What types of techniques are you working on at the moment. I notice you have a Barber’s Chair.

Ah, yes, I have been perfecting a technique I love for both men and women that involves all the classic barbering skills: razor work, comb-over-scissor cutting, texture cutting. I call it ‘Reinventing Barbering’. The effect is one of hair flowing more freely, a wonderful, disconnected, textured looks casually structured. I like styles that can be manoeuvred into different looks for different occasions and moods. And that don’t need a lot of ‘work’ to keep looking good between cuts.

What about colour? What role does that play?

Colour adds texture and depth to your look. It brings out different aspects of you. At the moment I feel that freehand colouring techniques, like balliage and ombré really suit our climate and the current fashion stakes.

Do you have a team working with you?

I work solo by choice. Working one-on-one with a client, and getting that look right in the way I describe is what I really enjoy. That is something I can’t teach or ‘manage’ in someone else – and it can’t be a ‘policy’.