the fab FOUR

Colourist Charlie Double told me she didn’t go into hairdressing to become famous, but if the testimonials on the FOUR London salon’s website are anything to go by, she won’t stay under the radar for long, with celeb clients including notable brunettes Claudia Winkleman and Nigella Lawson. Yasmin Le Bon was there the last time I went, and Englebert Humperdinck had just been in for a blowdry! They describe their approach to colour as ‘diagnostic’ and that’s certainly what I got. Never taking the easy option, on each visit Charlie analysed my existing colour and decided a colour removal and change was in order. This took away the brassy, grown-out highlights I’d got fed up with and instead she worked towards integrating more of my dark brown natural colour with scattered caramel lights throught the front to break it up, topped off with vegetable colour to even everything out and add shine. I loved the result, but it did take a couple of visits to get to where Charlie envisaged my colour could be. And that’s what you get with a salon that’s been set up by former employees of colour supremo Jo Hansford - the vision to see how to bring out the best in everyone's colour - natural or not. It’s built up a busy customer base including beauty editors (always discerning about where they’ll go) and working mothers are looked after with wifi, baby-changing and no-nonsense post-colour blowdrys. With the fabulously-named Dr Duve facials in the downstairs beauty salon, FOUR London feels like it’s been part of the premium beauty scene for years, even though the salon is less than two years old.