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The flamboyant Lee Stafford is one of Britain’s busiest celebrity hairdressers. From his determined beginnings cutting hair in his mum’s dining room to having salons as far-flung as Norway, Lee is constantly in demand – whether it be from regular clients or TV appearances – and his exciting salons are designed with artistic flair and styled with passion. The TV work has included This Morning (when Richard & Judy were at the helm), Weakest Link Celebrity Special, plus two series of his hugely successful fly-on-the-wall The Hairdresser on Living TV which followed his action-packed, non-stop life.

After all the hard work, Lee has gone from his first salon in Hadleigh with two stylists to now running three very successful trendsetting establishments with a team of 70 people, as well as having his own range of haircare products. And he was born in the same year that England won the World Cup, which may explain his winning streak.

But with everything the Essex entrepreneur has achieved so far throughout his fantastic voyage, Lee Stafford is most definitely cutting it…

iN) Hello, Lee. What was the idea for getting into hairdressing?

LS) It was actually a complete fluke. I didn’t want to do hairdressing when I was younger, I wanted to be chasing girls and playing football. But when I left school I started cutting people’s hair at my mum’s so, effectively, I set up shop in my mum’s dining room. I was about 16/17 at the time; I did that for six years.

iN) So how did that progress into what we see now?

LS) Soon after I started cutting friends’ hair I was encouraged by my mum to get off my backside and get a proper job as a hairdresser; she even got numbers for me and sat in on the interview. I got through the interview and started the very next day at Neville Daniel in Kings Road, so I had to travel from my mum’s in Benfleet to Chelsea every day.

iN) Did that give you the training you needed?

LS) No. I only worked there for a short space of time, there wasn’t much training going on there – not for what I wanted to be doing.

I wanted to be in the thick of the action, learning loads, styling, cutting; it wasn’t really happening there for me, so I left and decided to get myself on every course going. I became a real course junkie. I went to all the major ones like Vidal Sassoon, Toni & Guy, Trevor Sorbie… I travelled all over the place to learn everything I could.

iN) How did the first salon come about?

LS) After all the training courses, I finally stopped cutting hair at my Mum’s – I think she was really determined to get me out of the dining room! – then opened my own salon in Hadleigh near Leigh-on-Sea, which I ran with two stylists. This was the first Stafford’s, called The House That Hair Built. It grew strongly over the next six years where we worked hard to achieve the popularity and the clientele; eventually we had ten stylists and a receptionist.

iN) And then you moved the salon to Leigh?

LS) We moved to Leigh, worked on that, then in 2000 I opened my flagship salon in Wardour Street. I’ve also got one in Brighton and now two franchise salons in Norway.

iN) Who were your role models when you were training and running your first salon?

LS) It would have been the likes of Vidal Sassoon, Stacey Broughton, Trevor Sorbie – they all have great talent that stands out from the competition. I wanted to be as individual as they are. And now, Stacey is the first Director of Training and Education at LSS, which I’m immensely proud of.

iN) Do you have any favourite clients?

LS) Ronnie Wood. He’s brilliant. And I’ve learnt a lot from him, lots of lessons in life.

iN) What was it like working with Richard & Judy?

LS) It was a really good experience; it’s fascinating being in that world. Everything had to be done right there and then, and with it being live TV it was very challenging. I did that for the last year of their show. Naturally it was great publicity for me and my team.

iN) Finally what are the future plans for Lee Stafford?

LS) I want to have a salon in Russia, ten in Norway; I plan to franchise salons around England too. My ideal location would be Miami.

Anything you ever wanted to know about Lee Stafford but were afraid to ask, go to http://www.leestafford.com and discover your hairdressing fantasy in all its future glory.