The “Slob” Is The Spring-Ready Hairstyle Loved By London’s Cool Girls

London: home to Buckingham Palace, black cabs, Selfridges, and now, George Northwood’s new salon, which opened this week on Boundary Street in Shoreditch. Known for his work with A-listers, from Alicia Vikander and Claire Foy to Alexa Chung (whose much-imitated bob is his handiwork), Northwood’s second salon in the city (the other is on Wells Street) will make his signature effortless “undone” effect easily available to east Londoners. 

Claire Foy, one of George Northwood’s celebrity clients. 

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“It’s the next generation of George Northwood,” he tells me over the phone. “We asked ourselves what women want from a hair salon and actually, it was simply a nice space with nice textures, finishes and a minimalistic design. We’ve sourced a mix of 20th-century furniture and vintage pieces from 8 Holland Street, so it’s all from dealers that value the stories of their makers. The idea was to create the equivalent of my signature undone aesthetic in the salon interiors.” With Shoreditch House and branches of Le Labo, Aesop and Sunspel as neighbours, the new salon is in good company. 

It is also here, in this edgy corner of east London, that one of the most requested cuts of the year is being shaped on some of the city’s coolest women. “I grew up with the Vidal Sassoon school of cutting – I think that precision cuts like these are coming back, in a more undone kind of way,” he explains. “The modern ‘slob’ is a perfect example of this, and I’ve been cutting in a lot of them over the past few weeks.”