Darren Read
Our Director Darren Read has been a stylist for nearly 30 years, training at the London College of Fashion, working at Peter Jones in Sloane Square, John Freida in Mayfair, John Carne and Sean Hanna. He has worked on London Fashion Week and on numerous photo shoots for magazines such as Vogue, Elle and She.
Darren has also worked with L’Oréal as a ID artist, launching their colour collections in London, and going on to complete a L’Oréal Colour Specialist Degree, making him one of only 900 colour specialists in the UK.
Which hairstyles or colours do you love creating? I love doing colour correction and I love working with curly hair which is my passion. I find a lot of clients with curly hair have never been told about graduation cutting when dealing with curly hair.
What do you love about being a hairdresser? I love making people feel great about themselves and exceeding their expectation of a hairdresser. I also love teaching clients how to style and care for their hair when they’re at home.
Have you won any hairdressing awards? I have been a regional finalist in the prestigious L’Oréal Colour Trophy seven times and was a finalist in the Fame Team for the Fellowship of British Hairdressing.
Which celebrity hair would you love to get your hands on? I would love to get my hands on Margot Robbie’s hair. I think she is stunning and could do with a colour change from blonde to something a bit more natural to suit her skin tone and make her eye colour ‘pop’.
What inspires you to create fabulous hair? Things that inspire me are fashion shows – I’m always looking at all the shows and seeing what the trends are. Vogue is my bible and I’m always watching people showcasing their talents on YouTube, Insta and Twitter. People I follow are the Sassoon artistic team, Andrew Heasman who is a friend of mine and has just become London Hairdresser of the Year at the British Hairdressing Awards.
If you had to live on a desert island, which three products could you not live without? The 3 products I would take with me on a desert island would be Kevin Murphy Restore which evens out the porosity and moisturises and deep cleanses the hair of any build-up instantly. I would take Maxi Wash Shampoo to give my hair a great cleanse after swimming in the sea and Night Rider Paste to keep it looking fresh.
What is your ultimate ambition? My ultimate ambition is to get everyone on the planet combing their conditioner through with a Denman carbon cutting Combe DC04. The benefits are life changing.
How would you describe yourself in three words? Passionate, professional and perfectionist.
Tell us something surprising about yourself… Something that would surprise others is I am really in to space and how the cosmos works and am obsessed with rockets.
