REED ALL ABOUT IT By Zoe Richards
He’s loved by the beauty press, in demand for shows and session work and has become part of fashion’s front line. Now focusing on his eponymous East London salon, we find out how hair and fashion have been the abiding threads that have run throughout Adam Reed’s remarkable life and career It was always hair. There was never a doubt or a second thought about pursuing another career. From as far back as he can remember, Adam Reed recalls visiting a small salon in his hometown of Minehead. Enraptured by his surroundings and intoxicated by the smell of Elnett, he would clean rollers and sort drawers while his grandmother had her hair set. In what would become a lifelong love affair with hair and all that went with it - fashion, skincare, perfume, beauty - this young boy from Somerset was in his element. These days, Adam Reed is a name synonymous with session work, editorial shoots and successful salons. He’s part of fashion’s front line – a stylist who’s broken through the ranks and whose work is just as likely to feature backstage as front page. He’s mingled with supermodels, rock stars and fashion legends. He’s styled the hair of practically every beauty editor in London. And yet, it’s unlikely you’ll meet someone with less of an ego in today’s hair world. At the age of 13, Adam had his first taste of working in hair. “I got a job as a salon assistant at Something Else in Minehead,” he recounts. “Then, for my 13th birthday I asked for three blockheads and I’d practice on them at home in my bedroom.” School was not a happy place and instead he sought safety and sanctuary in things outside. Perhaps it was prophetic that his most notable academic achievements were his two final essays on Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier. Apart from that, school was merely a waiting game and he left when he was 16, mind set on making it in hair. Indulging his love of fashion, Adam would travel from Somerset up to London on the bus at weekends, eager to soak up the buzzing scene of the King’s Road and Covent Garden. His mum even paid for him to have his hair cut at Trevor Sorbie for his 18th birthday. He dreamed of securing a job in the Capital and already had the strong work ethic that meant he’d absolutely get there. Meanwhile, he was completing his formal training at college in Taunton, nurturing all the skills he’d need, 14
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practicing relentlessly on friend’s hair and gathering an enviably exhaustive kit bag. “I’ve always had an obsession with kit,” Adam confesses. Like a magpie, he still takes great joy in discovering new tools and products. No surprise really that this enthusiasm would be matched by an emerging talent. While still at college, all his projects were meticulously executed. Adam also invested in a £35 camera and entered every hair competition he could, “I never got through, but it never got me down.” This unwavering resilience and ambition led to his first big career move, which Adam confesses was quite strategic. As a result of his talents, he’d won a place at a Redken Symposium and it was there that he first came across Charles Worthington and Allan Peters. “It was 1995 and Charles Worthington was a brand that was on the up. I felt I could grow with them,” Adam says. His launch into London life was in Worthington’s legendary Fitzrovia salon. Whether strategic or a fortunate turn of fate, Adam couldn’t have picked a better place to cultivate his career goals. Glamorous days on the salon floor were countered by evening and part time jobs to make ends meet. One such role was for renowned couturier ‘Mr Pearl’, where he beaded corsets for the likes of Christian Lacroix, Thierry Mugler, Antonio Berardi and the then unknown designer Alexander McQueen. It was while working here that he was introduced to British aristocrat and fashion icon Isabella Blow. “When I first met Issie, she seemed quite shy, but she had a huge personality,” Adam recounts. “She started coming to me for colour and cuts and she was so generous with her introductions. Through her I got to know Lee McQueen, Sophie Dahl, Tristan Weber, Honor Fraser and so many others. I can remember her taking me to places like the Royal Academy for tea and she’d generously give me clothes. The buzz of those times was incredible.”
It’s clear how much of a profound influence Blow had on Adam. He credits her for feeding his creativity and allowing him to believe his dream of becoming the hairdresser ‘that does it all’. In the years that followed, there were spectacular parties, astonishing opportunities and a fizzing social scene that allowed Adam to mingle with the fashion elite and fuel his flourishing reputation. “I was like a sponge, soaking it all up,” Adam confides. He describes a supportive community where haircuts were traded for clothes, and networks were forged over drinks and elaborate dinners. Equally, Charles Worthington was flying as a brand and affording Adam some golden opportunities along the way. He would tend to the A-list from the salon based at The Dorchester Hotel and when Worthington set up in New York, Adam was sent out as part of the team to launch its salon there. He remained in the USA for two years, mixing with a new fashion crowd and ensuring the big names of Hollywood were perfectly groomed at the Oscars and Golden Globes. So far, so showbiz. And while Adam could undoubtedly drop enough famous names to fill the pages of a celebrity glossy, his true motivation was far more elementary. “Ultimately, I’m a salon hairdresser,” Adam says. Sure enough, he headed back to London in 2007 and over the course of the next 10 years set up two booked-out salons and a best-selling global product range with fellow hairdresser Paul Percival. Percy & Reed were an indomitable partnership who won a whole raft of plaudits and provided the hair for major TV shows such as The X Factor. Fast forward to today and Adam Reed is going it alone. After parting company with Percival, Adam decided to take a different path and is finally fulfilling the ultimate ambition of having his
