A hair colour disaster calls for expert help, and there are none better skilled to take on the task than Clare Lodge at Jo Hansford’s Harvey Nichols salon
“Clare… help!” So began what has become my lifelong commitment to Clare Lodge, genius colour specialist at Jo Hansford’s Harvey Nichols salon. I am now loyal to Clare in a way that would put many marriages to shame, as she saved me from a fate worse than death: a bad colour job. Allow me to explain.
I’d made the decision, some months before, to embrace my inner starlet and dye my previously un-coloured hair copper. A VERY specific shade of copper; basically the colour of Judy Garland’s glorious locks in Meet Me In St. Louis (if you have to look up that reference we can’t be friends, sorry). It suited me perfectly and was an excellent decision. Still, because I am someone who doesn’t often make excellent decisions, I naturally then sabotaged myself, by being lured into my local cheap’n’cheerful chain salon, tempted by their cut-price cut’n’colour package deal (the cost of colour maintenance being what it is). And like Eve and the apple, all of the world’s horrors were rained down upon me, namely: an inexperienced but over-confident (a potent combo) colourist giving me the exact colour that I sported in 1994, with dye bought from Reena’s on the High Street, and that got me seriously grounded. Fast forward thirty years and I actively longed to be grounded, so no one would see the dark-red-verging-on-plum colour about which I have 1994-based PTSD .
Clare was recommended to me by a dear friend, who has magnificent hair and makes impeccable life choices, so I set off to begin the Herculean task that is colour correction. I had no idea how scientific this process is; strand testing for the suitability of different chemicals and products, counterbalancing natural – and often invisible – pigment. Clare talked me through her plan, and much as in actual science lessons, I nodded and smiled whilst understanding very little, but counting, with blind faith, on her being right.
The multi-stage job required an epic six hours in the salon
The multi-stage job required an epic six hours in the salon, which was no hardship due to the fact that Clare has the warmest, naturally easy manner that makes time spent with her a joy, and I was treated by the wider team like Royalty – fittingly, as Jo Hansford MBE has recently received a Royal Warrant, Queen Camilla having been a loyal customer for over thirty years. There was still a moment of nerves, though, as the final treatment was washed out. Accurately lightening hair that’s been dyed darker – particularly mine, which is very porous and prone to clinging on to any molecule of red and turning it purple – is way more difficult than us non-hairdressers realise. Even Clare, with all her science, couldn’t guarantee the outcome, so the wait to see if I would once again be living my best flame-haired life was nail-biting. Happily, my blind faith paid off and hair fit for a Queen was mine once more. I swished my way home feeling utterly jubilant, with a life lesson firmly learned, and – most importantly – with Clare on speed dial.
