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Hot to Trot - Chris Appleton
Date Added: 2010-01-11
The first person to get a Chris Appleton haircut was his little sister Louise. It’s difficult to imagine any woman in her right mind would need bribing to let the new BBC Young Hairdresser of the Year transform her locks, but back then, it was a different story. By Kara Dolman.
Being fascinated by hair for as long as he could remember – and well practised on his sisters’ Barbies – aged 11, Chris Appleton decided he was ready for his first ‘real cut’.
Armed with a pair of kitchen scissors, a pocketful of sweets and spare change, he set about bribing his then three year-old sister Louise.
Sweets and pocket money changed hands and he went for it. But soon after, Louise was promptly whisked off to the local salon for an emergency realignment of her ‘asymmetric’ bob.
"It wasn’t bad," Chris insists, "Just a little wonky on one side. You think something like an asymmetric bob would be easy, but it’s always the basic stuff which is the hardest to master."
15 years on and it’s now Chris accepting bribes from his sister – just one of many women – in exchange for a haircut.
In what seems like a heartbeat, Chris has become the poster-boy for the next generation of leading stylists, and thanks to his recent success winning the Beeb’s Young Hairdresser of the Year, he’s all set to become commercial hot property too.
But if viewers watching Chris accepting his trophy on the BBC3 show (judged by Beverly C and Adee Phelan) thought he’d achieved overnight success, they were way off the mark.
He might be just 26, but it’s been a long, hard graft for this lad from Leicester, who’s hugely proud of his roots. (When Salon Business ran into him at the Fellowship lunch he was getting over Leicester City’s 5-1 thumping by Nottingham Forest.)
The middle child in a close loving family – he has two sisters and two brothers – Chris still felt a little different from the rest. Dyslexia meant school was no walk in the park, but he soon discovered he had skills to take him far further than the confines of the classroom.
"I was always very visual and passionate about things," Chris recalls. "Especially when it came to hair – I was absolutely fascinated by it, the shapes you could make and how it can completely transform someone and the way they feel.”
After years of ‘messing around with people’s hair’ (including the infamous asymmetric bob incident) Chris’s Mum decided to get him a Saturday job at her local salon, Remy of Leicester, where he was schooled in the basics.
"I loved the environment and started to get to grips with simple techniques," says Chris. "Just things like learning how to give a real, quality blow-dry to create that sexy, boudoir hair. I love that look and you can see how it’s come back round again, especially with the popularity of Cheryl Cole."
Aged 15, Chris, now a dab hand with a brush and blower, moved to up-and-coming Leicester salon, George’s. Just three years later he was made retail manager and by the age of 20 Chris was a director of the company.
He admits his rise was head-spinningly quick. "Yes it did all happen quite fast but I always had my goals and was constantly working towards them. For me it wasn’t a chore – I love what I do, I’m always excited to learn and try new things."
A genuine passion for styling led Chris to put together his first collection at George's. Titled 'Red Raw', the elaborate work was inspired by 50s glamour and clearly conveyed three qualities which, in his own words, sum up Chris’s ‘strong, textured, beautiful’ hair.
And with one of his looks making a 2008 magazine cover, Chris was thrust into the industry spotlight. “I was forwarded an email from Vidal Sassoon, the man himself!” Chris exclaims.
“It said: ‘I just want to say to Chris Appleton I thought his collection was beautiful.’ Oh my God, I couldn’t believe it. I’d always been ambitious, but having a man of his stature – someone I’d always thought of as an idol – say that, it really put fire in my belly.”
As Chris puts it, after that ‘it all kicked off’. L’Oreal Professionnel quickly snapped him up as an ID artist and soon Chris was touring his region educating stylists on the most bang up-to-date cutting and colouring techniques. But it was his next triumph that would see him catapulted into styling stardom.
2009 saw Chris being chosen to join the Fellowship for British Hairdressing’s FAME Team. Handpicked from a flood of applicants and after being subjected to rigorous skill tests, Chris became part of the elite team which gets the benefit of having talent and skill honed by the best in the business.
Chris says: “The FAME Team has been a life-changing experience, it’s been incredible. We’ve all learnt so much and having been able to work at London Fashion Week, I can understand why they now say ‘back stage is the new front row’. The hair is amazing and there is so much prep involved. Watching Eugene Souleiman in action was inspirational. I’d love to be in charge of my own show one day.”
That super session stylist ambition is no pipe dream. Having been crowned the BBC’s Young Hairdresser of the Year and recently being named as Racoon’s Young Rising Star Ambassador, it looks as though there is no stopping this Leicester lad.
With so much success, it’s easy to assume Chris has had some serious help along the way from industry big wigs; but the reality is somewhat different. Despite being just 26, he’s already spent more than 13 years working his way up the ladder.
Thanks to his talent (supported every step of the way by the George’s salon team, his girlfriend Katie and their two young children Billy Kai and Kitty Blu) Chris is now on the cusp of realising his wildest dreams.
He says: “Young people like me coming up through the industry have had incredible people – such as Vidal Sassoon – to look to up. I know how the quality and precision of his cuts and decadent, gorgeous hair have influenced my work. I think we are about to see a new wave of hairdressers to inspire the next generation, and I just want to be part of that.”
