Renowned hairdresser John Frieda dies aged 75

Every modern beauty retailer today stocks shelves filled with hair products for curly, coily, and wavy textures. Among the many varieties of “curl custard” and “scrunching jelly” sits the purple livery of the John Frieda Frizz Ease range, which originated from his 1991 silicon-based serum. This was the first care product designed specifically to acknowledge and address the exasperating existence of frizz.

Frieda, who has died aged 75, maintained a deep respect for all hair types, regardless of whether they were currently in fashion. He was known for adding sculpted shape to straight locks, most notably creating the pudding-basin “Purdey” bob for Joanna Lumley in the 1976 television series The New Avengers, which sparked a nationwide fad. He also transformed flat hair into cheeky urchin cuts for clients including Shirley MacLaine and Diana, Princess of Wales, though he arrived at a secretive portrait session for photographer Lord Snowdon without knowing Diana was his subject.

Having entered the profession during the 1960s when Vidal Sassoon’s slick geometry was a radical novelty, Frieda remained considerate of volume and kink. These qualities later emerged as the mussy Big Hair of the 80s, though at the time they were supported only by lacquer or polymer gels. For his own salons, Frieda devised mass-building formulas, and in 1988, Boots approached him to convert these into commercial products. After he demonstrated his thickening lotion on the Richard & Judy daytime television show, Boots placed an immediate order for 1.2m bottles and 860,000 tubs of styling wax.

This event proved to be the defining moment of Frieda’s life and fortune, marking a major turning point in hair history. He began his career as a junior in the West End of London salon owned by Leonard Lewis, known as “Leonard of Mayfair”. Lewis identified the detail-conscious young man as a promising assistant, particularly for fashion shoots, and Frieda adopted his mentor’s philosophy of co-operation between stylist and client, believing one should never impose a look on an unwilling head.

He mastered techniques quickly and displayed inventiveness during an era when cuts were the primary aspect of styling. The Purdey shape, which merged fringe and hair, was Frieda’s riff on the early 60s mop-heads Lewis designed for the Beatles. Frieda also cut the Beatles’ hair and would join them afterwards for a Wimpy and a chat about eastern philosophy.

Frieda remained unruffled by the impressive figures he encountered on Vogue shoots with photographers like David Bailey, Barry Lategan, and Clive Arrowsmith during the late 60s and early 70s. He discovered that, like everyone else, they had image problems he could help solve. While he was quietly sympathetic to anyone sitting before his mirror, and mingled with movie, music, and sports stars, he was unusual in that he did not dish.

His own salon, which opened in 1976 on New Cavendish Street on the edge of Marylebone, was considered a highly buzzy venue despite the area not being fashionable at the time. Although he was booked out months in advance, the premises remained formal rather than “pally”, and his staff followed his example of discretion. What was murmured in Frieda’s stayed in Frieda’s.

Born into the business, he was the son of Isidore Frieda, who owned a salon in Ealing, west London, and had been called to the Hyde Park hotel to shave or style celebrity guests, and his wife, Hannah (nee Docherty). His grandfather, a Jewish émigré from Poland who had escaped pogroms, worked as a barber in Fleet Street. The boy attended King’s school, Harrow, and spent his Saturdays picking up grips in the salon.

At 16, he defied his father’s ambition for him to become a doctor and left education to pursue hairdressing. His father then used his connections to help him skip rungs of the career ladder and secure an apprenticeship in Lewis’s salon. Frieda might have stayed there permanently, as Lewis had appointed him creative director, but he was styling stars such as the pop singer Lulu, whom he married in 1976 with many of the era’s Top 10 hitmakers as guests.

He did not wish to be known simply as “Mr Lulu”, as he wanted a solid empire of his own. Throughout his early 20s, Frieda used his substantial earnings to buy property, including a gold Rolls-Royce, and he continued to accumulate homes and an art collection for the rest of his life. He financed his first salon and later expanded to New York, Los Angeles, Ibiza, and other locations.

After more than a decade of leading and working in salons, Frieda grew weary of individual heads, feeling he had exhausted his tonsorial challenges, making the 1988 Boots order a welcome release. He had met Gail Federici, an American executive in the haircare industry, and in 1989 they formed a partnership called John Frieda Professional Hair Care to explore the market. Because her hair frizzed—which Frieda noted was true for 60% of western populations—she suggested he work on a temporary solution.