I got into hairdressing and moved from Dorset to London, where I got an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon. This was around '83 or '84. I was working on South Molton Street, which was then the epicenter of all the shops. It was like a catwalk. So I did my apprenticeship there, but I wasn't successful.

I wasn't as confident and creative in the beginning as I am now, so it was all very safe. But I was building my work, and it took me a long time. For a good five or six years I was just kind of bobbing around, doing everything and anything.

I must say, Gisele's [Bundhen] got some of the best hair I've ever touched.

I'm very lucky that I've worked mainly with two amazing photographers in David Sims and Steven Meisel.

I'm not giving up on my work. I'm still trying to challenge people's aesthetics and myself.

Even though the industry is very big and there's lots of money, when it gets down to it, whether it's a photographer or a designer, as well as a stylist or makeup artist, you're really only working with maybe four or five people on a project. It's all quite small and intimate.

You may say, 'That's naïve of you,' and maybe it is, but in my mind, I'm celebrating every kind of woman. That's what a creative person does.