Liverpool’s going Posh

Sep 18 2008 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

The ‘patron saint of hairdressers’ has turned heads and hairstyles. Emma Johnson reports

HOUSE prices were tumbling, inflation was soaring, the stock market was facing meltdown, and airlines were packing away the duty-free perfumes for good, but when Victoria Beckham debuted her new haircut at New York Fashion week last week, it was the only story that mattered.

The former Spice Girl’s decision to swap her bob, or the “Pob” as it was more commonly known, for an elfin crop, hoovered up newspaper inches the world over.

“Victoria Beckham shows off Peter Pan cut,” “Posh is top of the crops,” the front pages screamed. Whether you call it a “Poxie”, a “Pixie” or a “Pop”, there was no avoiding the fact there was a new cut in town.

And a week later, wouldn’t you know it, where La Beckham leads, the women of Liverpool have been keen to follow.

Already the region’s top salons are reporting clients going for the chop. And the new style has won over some of our most famous hairdressers.

“I was in our Chester salon the other day and overheard a client asking to have her hair like Victoria’s,” reveals celebrity stylist and two-time British hairdresser of the year Andrew Collinge.

“I actually quite like it,” he continues. “I think it is a welcome change. It has made her hair look very thick and it has really enhanced her features.

“It is a great cut and it shows that short hair can be feminine.”

Many commentators have compared Posh’s new do to Audrey Hepburn’s famous gamine crop, but Andrew is not so sure.

“Audrey Hepburn is my all- time favourite icon. She had a style all of her own. I think it is more the cut of Mia Farrow, with the colour of Audrey Hepburn.”

When he first started out in hairdressing, Andrew says it was unheard of for clients to come in asking for him to copy a particular celebrity’s haircut. These days, however, it is commonplace.

“Back when I started out, you didn’t have celebrities, you had stars and they all had long hair. They didn’t really have contemporary haircuts,” he explains.