A cut above the rest

But handsome redhead Mark Woolley, creative director of Brighton-based Electric Hairdressing, is very relaxed about the megastars he styles, about popping in to the home of the Layer Cake actress for a cup of tea before tending to her tresses and waxing lyrically about how “lovely” his regular customers are. His regular customers happen to include the models Sophie Anderton and Daisy Lowe, Miles Kane, the former frontman of The Last Shadow Puppets, The Three Musketeers actor Luke Evans, Eastbourne band Toploader, Scottish Eighties rockers Simple Minds and Status Quo singer Rick Parfitt, well known for his shaggy blond mane.

Just a few weeks ago, award-winning Mark was backstage at The Rock Ball at The Hurlingham Club in trendy Fulham with his Electric Art Team as official hair stylists to Sophie Anderton, the model Olivia Inge, who's a descendant of 19th century British prime minister William Gladstone, and Italian model-turned-swimwear-designer Melissa Odabash. Other big names with big hair teased into shape by him include supermodel Elle Macpherson and colourfully coiffed American basketball star Dennis Rodman.

“The celebrity thing has only come about in the last four or five years,” says Mark, a Yorkshireman born and bred and a married father of four who lives in Brighton. “I can't even remember who my first celebrity was but it all came about because the creative work really took off. It's interesting to discover that the more famous someone is, the more normal and nice they are.”

As he casually brushes aside these celebrity snippets though, it's clear that it's not the celebrity connection that excites Mark Woolley. It's the shockwaves that Electric Hairdressing is sending through the hairdressing industry, a creative revolution that has its roots in Brighton, home of his first salon a decade or so ago. Now the entrepreneur has salons on Marylebone High Streeet in London, in Oxford and in Reading, plus a photographic studio on a lower floor beneath the Brighton salon in Ship Street where photo shoots for top fashion magazines take place.

But don't make the mistake of putting Electric Hairdressing in the same category of other hairdressing salons you see up and down every High Street across Britain. “We don't want to be another High Street chain,” says Mark. “We're different. My philosophy is that you walk into an Electric salon and feel you are in the coolest salon in town. Each salon is in an interesting building, often a townhouse, including the one in Ship Street and also the salon in Oxford, which gives the salons character.

“And our staff are a cut above the rest. For starters, clients are greeted by front-of-house staff who are trained by professional baristas, and we have a full working wine bar, with wines, Champagne, blended fruit juices, coffees.

“Our stylists are trained for at least three-and-a-half years, compared with the standard two years, and to the highest standard in colouring as well as cutting. The two things fuse together to create a tailor-made look.”

You'd think that being at the cutting edge of his industry and his relatively fast elevation into the world of celebrity would have gone to his head, but Mark remains remarkably down to earth. “I really enjoy the entrepreneurial side of the business,” says Mark, who began as a 16-year-old Saks trainee and took on a Saks franchisee before launching Electric Hairdressing. “But I enjoy people as well, and I think that is what makes Electric successful. I was told recently that everyone in the hairdressing industry is talking about Electric, and it really is all about Electric, not Mark Woolley.”

His role model is Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin king of conglomerates. “He's the ultimate,” says Mark, named Business Director of the Year 2010 in the British Hairdressing Business Awards. “I love the fact that he has been able to approach different industries and that's just what I plan to do.” Indeed, his Electric brand is expanding. In addition to the Electric Studio, which opened seven years ago, there's an Electric Education Academy, the Electric Art Team and the recently launched Electric Hair Care range of products, sold in the salons and at Fortnum & Mason and Harvey Nichols in London. And watch out for the next Electric salon in East London, pencilled in for early 2013.

“I want everyone to know the brand,” says Mark. “And as a British company.”