Inside Victoria Beckham's favourite salon
Friendly, unassuming, great: step inside Lockonego, Posh’s favourite salon
The state of a person’s hair is an excellent indicator of many things, including prevailing economic conditions. I knew trouble was on the horizon when my friend Simone (motto: never knowingly undergroomed) telephoned to say she was cutting back her blow-dries to just one a week. Crikey, I thought, things really must be on the slide.
In truth, as with most markets, a correction has long been overdue. We’ve had our fill of egomaniacal celebrity hairdressers. People who care more about their profile in Grazia than your half-head of foils are just so un-PC (post-capitalism, that is). I couldn’t care less if my stylist is the genius behind Paris Hilton’s pooch’s topknot. Question is: can he or she give me a fabulous cut that will last beyond my next mortgage payment?
I stumbled across Lockonego on a rainy Saturday when, reckless fool that I am, I made an unscheduled stop at Tantrum, a children’s salon on the Kings Road (I know, it’s absurd, but they have these cool converted toy car chairs) to see if they could trim my daughter’s fringe. Fully booked. And so I tried Lockonego, three doors down, a small, steamed-up shop packed with people and wet umbrellas. Give us half an hour, came the cheery reply, so we repaired to Starbucks for babyccinos and cake.
Thirty minutes later, the fringe had been painlessly dispatched, all offers of payment refused. Partly out of guilt and partly out of curiosity, I booked myself an appointment for the following week. But there was something nagging at the back of my mind. Lockonego, Lockonego; the name was weird and yet familiar. And then I remembered. Ben Cooke from Lockonego: Posh’s hairdresser.
This realisation surprised me. If asked to point out Victoria Beckham’s snipper in a line-up, this unpretentious little salon would have been the last place I’d have gone for. No extravagant lighting, no waiting list, no preening staff. No clues at all, in fact, that therein beat the heart of a famous hairdresser.
Lockonego (394 Kings Road, London SW10; 020-7795 1798) straddles the two worlds of hairdressing: the glamorous, photo-shoot universe; and the more mundane business of sending people like me out into the world looking halfway decent. This is because Jonathan Long, Cooke’s business partner, is not only good at his job, he also understands that every pearl starts out as grit, and treats clients with equal care regardless of status or looks.
With new arrivals, such as myself, he errs on the conservative side, aiming to build up a long-term relationship rather than going for a one-hit wonder. He is friendly, he listens and, crucially, he doesn’t boast: during all the time I sat in his chair he didn’t mention the P-word once. Lovely cut, lovely man, lovely place – and only one, relatively modest, chandelier.
Sarah Vine