I'm not saying that everything I do is always tasteful - and maybe it's not always the normal idea of beauty - but hopefully it's always an empowering idea.

I didn't do great in school. I didn't have many options. I mean, I'd like to have gone to art college, but I didn't have the grades. I didn't have any qualifications. But I had some friends who were hairdressers, so I just thought, Well, I'll have a go at it.

To be a good hairdresser, you have to understand what the vision is of the designer or the photographer and then sort of add your thing.

I worked at a bunch of other salons, and at one, this girl was going out to do a photo shoot for a women's magazine and brought me along to assist her. I remember going on that shoot and thinking, "God, this is great. It's creative, and you get to work with all of these other creative people." At that point I decided that hair would be my in to fashion and all the things I thought I would enjoy - and did enjoy.

I think now because of this whole social media thing, people obviously felt these things [about cultural appropriation] before, and they comment on everything.

Fashion was a very insider industry then - it was very closed. So I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

As the older ones, to understand that it is a different time, and young people look at fashion in a different way . . . It's just different. If we harp on about it, they'll feel like we're just old fuddy-duddies, so I just kind of get on with it. I still feel I've got things to say.