Hair-raising maestro
Meet the extraordinary Philip Kingsley, hair consultant to the stars
Having a bad hair day? Call Philip Kingsley, hair consultant to the stars, and you’ll never shudder despairingly at your locks in the mirror again
HE DOESN’T DO highlights or trend-setting haircuts yet all the stars from Renée Zellweger to Sigourney Weaver flock to trichologist Philip Kingsley’s discreet Mayfair hair clinic. So what is it about this particular trichology business – which in hair terms offers the Rolls Royce of treatments – that makes it stand out as an industry leader? To understand its success, you need to understand the personal touch of its creator. Philip Kingsley is everything you’d imagine a legendary “hair doctor” to the stars to be: hugely knowledgable, immaculately dressed and a soothing, authoritative presence. And the hair! The hair really is something else: lustrous, expertly coiffed, and evenly dark-hued for a man of 71.
Frankly, Kingsley could afford to pulp his popular series of hair care books, abandon his high-profile columns, and pour his eponymous line of premium hair products down the plugholes of his London and New York clinics, and he would still have the best credentials in the business. The icing on the cake when it comes to promoting his business is to simply point at his own glowing locks and wave his birth certificate around. “I do have fantastic hair for a man my age,” he concurs. “And that is despite my genetic history; no-one in my family had good hair. It is because I am absolutely fanatical about looking after it. I always have been.”
And absolutely driven. Kingsley has built up a multimillion-pound international business by persuading enough people that he can preserve and enhance their hair’s appearance too. He says he wanted to be a doctor but although he excelled at science at school his parents could not afford to pay for him to study medicine. Instead he worked at his Uncle Jack’s hairdressing salon in London’s East End. “That’s where I got the idea of being a doctor of hair. I love hair and I love people.”
He set out his stall as a trichologist in London 50 years ago, at least a couple of decades before hair treatments became fashionable – “I helped put the profession on the map” – and 20 years ago he opened a second clinic, on New York’s Upper East Side.
Although he admits that due to the relatively recent advances in science “I could only do cosmetically for the first 25 years what I now can do physiologically,” his genuine passion for his calling earned him a stream of celebrity clients. Spanning the past five decades, those matinee idols of the silver screen who needed to preserve their virile locks were believed to include Laurence Olivier. Audrey Hepburn was another, though she booked her consultation under her married name Dotti. His reputation was sealed with a breathless Vogue article in 1975. Suddenly the man who “everyone has to see when they’re in London” (Candice Bergen, Barbra Streisand and Jerry Hall were clients) was living in New York, and regularly being whisked to LA to plump up the hair of Hollywood stars.
THE MAJORITY OF Kingsley’s clients are women who are concerned about hair thinning – the last great taboo, and an area in which Kingsley has invested much research. He also “improves” the hair of fashion models before stylists get to poke and prod them around and actresses who need to change their hair rapidly for roles. Kate Winslet was dispatched to Kingsley when her hair was traumatised making Titanic and she openly enthused about his bestselling hair mask, Elasticizer. Another Hollywood client is Kirsten Dunst, a redhead gone blonde, who regularly requires reddening for roles. He says that he treats all clients the same, whether they are royalty, movie stars or ordinary folk.
While hair loss might be a great leveller, the prices of treatments aren’t. An initial 45-minute to one-hour consultation with the maestro costs £175 (or £125 with one of the other five trichologists working at his clinic). A follow-up treatment session costs £55, and clients often book courses of 10 sessions. Shampoos and conditioners start at £8 for the travelsized products. Every new patient has iron levels checked, blood pressure recorded, thyroid readings taken. And diet, lifestyle, allergies and general health are all assessed. “Hair is protein,” he explains. “Despite most people knowing far, far more about nutrition these days than the previous generation, what they recognise as a healthy diet is not a healthy hair diet.”
When he is not soothing anxieties face-to-face, he educates the public via his books, syndicated magazine columns and daytime TV chat shows: “Forty years ago I came up with the phrase ‘Bad Hair Day’” – something that has now entered our vocabulary. When he’s not on the air or with clients, he can be found in his basement laboratory, developing new potions and lotions destined for the retail market. Kingsley started his own product line in 1982 – just when the premium hair care sector was taking off. Initially it was a great success as a niche product, but in 1999 Kingsley sold the licence to the aggressively expanding US beauty giant Alberto-Culver, whose roster of brands include Alberto VO5 and the St Ives body cream line. This was a far less successful venture. “They didn’t know what they were doing with it, and wouldn’t listen to advice,” he says, looking back at that time.
In November 2005 he bought the licence back and, although the products have remained the same, they have been rebranded and re-priced “at a more accessible level”. Starting from £4.95, the retail range is currently carried by the sort of upmarket stores you would expect, but also in around 250 UK hair salons. The plan is to have it in around 500 by the end of this year. Retail sales account for an estimated £3.5m a year. And Harrods’ Urban Retreat is a very successful outlet for him.
Despite his success, Philip
Kingsley still sees clients
in the salon
The catchphrase Kingsley is currently trying to get off the ground is “Happy Hair Days”. It’s got a good ring to it so I would hazard a guess it’s the title of his upcoming book. “Happy Hair Days are so important because they represent a big psychological boost – particularly for women. If your hair looks terrible when you set out in the morning, you’re liable to feel terrible all day, shying away from mirrors, praying no one will pay attention to you,” he shudders. “If your hair is looking great, you’ll be supremely sure of yourself throughout. Science is at the heart of what I do and I’m constantly in the lab developing new products, but helping individuals to feel good about themselves is definitely also an art.”
Equally revealingly, he admits that if he hadn’t been blessed with such good hair himself, he might not have had the self-confidence to succeed in his chosen field. He briefly permits himself to wonder if a balding trichologist could have enjoyed such a lengthy career, then brightens with the realisation: “I never wanted to look old but now it works in my favour.”
Walking to reception, where his most recent book – The Hair Bible – is displayed, he passes his next appointment. And although he has been doing this for years, the understanding and interest that he has in hair remains as fresh as ever.
Philip Kingsley Trichological Clinic, 54 Green Street, London W1; +44 (0)20 7629 4004; www.philipkingsley.co.uk
