Just a short walk from Bayswater Station, celebrity hairstylist Gustav Fouche has been ministering to the locks of Londoners in his sleek Westbourne Grove salon since 2019. Originally from South Africa, Gustav moved to London in 2011, after training at the Sassoon Foundation in 2006.
With its luxe-minimal decor, the salon makes you feel that you’re in safe hands from the moment you enter its doors. Wooden parquet flooring is complemented by grey walls, bronze accents and lush greenery, all of which contribute to a calming ambience. Invited to take a seat while I wait for Gustav, I’m offered a refreshment and opt for still water. If you’ve left home in a hurry and need an energy top-up, the street has a number of food and drink options, ranging from healthy to indulgent.
Although he’s a celebrity hairdresser (he’s worked with the likes of Kate Hudson and Leanne Rimes, as well as with designers such as Oscar De La Renta) Gustav, dressed in a black NICCE t-shirt, couldn’t be more friendly and approachable. As I sit in front of the salon’s large, round, bronze-rimmed mirrors, he works his fingers through my hair and asks me what I like and, conversely, don’t like about it. This is the basis from which he’ll work.
It’s a welcome approach, especially when many hairdressers are eager to impose their own ideas upon you and, when in a chair, gazing awkwardly at your own reflection in the mirror, it’s encouraging to have a professional give you space for your own voice. I tell him that I like my curtain bangs, but feel that my last stylist made them too blocky, and that I’m trying to grow my previously waist-length brown hair back – so I don’t want to lose too much length, but do want to lose the ragged, brittle, orange-tinted ends that my hair has developed over the summer.
He asks me about my experimentations with colour and I admit that my hair has been through a few permutations in recent years which, he says, goes some way to explaining the damage and unnatural colour at the ends.
With that, I’m off to the basins, where my hair is washed with a GF Fabulosity shampoo and my scalp is treated to the most sublime head massage I’ve ever experienced. Gustav’s secret to healthier-looking locks? Milking: the process of working conditioner into sections of the hair in a downwards motion (imagine milking a cow) for a good ten minutes.
The GF Fabulosity range has been created by Gustav himself, and is all natural, organic and completely silicone-free. Its hero product? The Hair & Scalp Recovery Elixir, which is packed with Ayurvedic ingredients and has been designed to instantly nourish and hydrate the hair, whether worn as a hair mask overnight, or used a weekly treatment.
Next, it’s back to the chair, where my hair is thoroughly dried and brushed. It already looks glossier and healthier than I’ve seen it look in months.
Yet the scissors haven’t even made contact with it yet: instead, it’s about to receive Gustav’s signature 3D Dry-Cut. Dry-cutting, Gustav tells me, gets better results than cutting hair when wet. This is because you get a much clearer idea of how hair falls and sits when it’s dry – which is, after all, how hair is naturally seen in public (unless you’re at the beach or pool!) By working on dry hair, Gustav says, you can better gauge how to flatter and frame your face.
After my cut, my hair is blow dried and styled with some lightweight styling product. The result? The best and most ‘myself’ I’ve felt in ages. To think that I was considering colouring my hair again. Turns out, I didn’t need a new colour – I just needed the Gustav Fouche touch.
Ladies’ cut and finish priced from £95 to £175
82 Westourne Grove,
Notting Hill, W2 5RT
