James Brown's Supermodel Salon

How did you end up getting into hairdressing?
When I was eight, my sister used to go to a salon every Saturday and have her hair blow-dried, and then she'd come home, wash it herself, and redo it. After watching this for about a year, one day I asked why she did it. She said "Women go to the salon, that's what they do. But I don't like how they do my hair". So I said I'd do it. And she let me, so that's how I started.

That's a trusting sister, to let her eight-year-old brother loose on her hair.
She was so glamorous, I'd just sit and watch her getting ready, and watch how she did it. You learn a lot about hair from just watching, so I already knew what to do. Plus it was only a brush and a hair-dry, I wasn’t doing brain surgery or anything.

Did you set out to become a celebrity hairdresser, or did you just like cutting hair?
I just liked cutting hair, absolutely.

So how do you go from being someone who just cuts hair at the local salon to working with supermodels?
It all happened by accident, really. I was working in a salon in Croydon, and had a day off. I came up to Covent Garden just to walk around the shops, and I saw a sign in a window saying 'Apprentice wanted'. I went in and got it, so I went from this old grannies' salon in Croydon to this salon where everyone's wearing Vivienne Westwood. It just inspired me and got me focused. Then the rest sort of followed on - I did a Vogue cover, and that propelled me into a world that I didn't even know existed. Until then I didn't know or care, I was quite happy in the salon. So it all happened by accident, really.

You're best friends with Kate Moss, but that's nothing to do with your work, is it?
No. She's from Croydon as well. In a small area, everybody knows everybody, and she's the same age as my younger sister, so we used to see each other around. It just came about from that, really.

How often do you see each other? She crops up in the film a lot!
We see each other most days. We live about two minutes apart, so if I'm passing, I'll pop in. If she's passing, she'll pop in. So yeah, a lot - work permitting. I'm flying all over the place, she's flying all over the place, though not as much now because of her daughter, but we see each other as much as we can, really.

You've got this great friendship, and you've now gone into business together - Kate's a partner in your new hairdressing salon. Were you worried about mixing a friendship with business?
No, I wasn’t. Not with Kate. I'm just doing what I do. It wasn't like we were stretching ourselves or moving into new territory. Every project she does, I'm involved with, and vice versa. We're just involved in each others lives, like all good friends.

James Brown's Supermodel Salon follows you setting up your salon. Why did you decide that it was the right time to set up your own salon in the middle of a colossal economic downturn?
Well, I started my hair products business first, and I had this stupid idea in the middle of it all of doing a road trip from London to Scotland, stopping at every single Boots store along the way. I wanted to see the women who were buying the product, and talk to them. And in the five days that I was doing this trip, literally every other woman asked "Where's your salon?" So, by the end of it, on my way back, I decided that I needed to open a salon. People didn't relate to me being a session worker, they didn’t really know what that was. But everyone can relate to having a salon, so that’s how it came about.