Blogs, News By Warren Holmes

Warren’s Blog: A girl called Shozna

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There is a girl who goes by the name of Shozna.

I had just come back from doing the hair for Jessica Lowndes of ‘Beverley Hills 90201’ and had a message from Ben, my PR: ‘You’ve been asked to do the hair for a personal invitee of Prince William for The Royal Wedding. Her name is Shozna. She’s a former homeless girl from the charity Centrepoint whom Prince William is a Patron of, it’s a really good cause, right up your street….do you want to do it? Problem is it will clash with what you’re already booked to do for the Royal Wedding, it’s one or the other.’

My initial reaction was ’No chance. I’m all for charity but I’ve been booked and was all set for what I was doing that day and it’s a really good gig.’

I thought, I’ll read her story and see what involvement she had with the charity. I Googled it and it turns out Shozna’s story had already gone worldwide so there was lots of information for me. What a brave girl and a moving story. Before I’d finished the first paragraph I called Ben and insisted I was going to do her hair no matter what.

Shozna, after being well educated as a child, had a stroke and lost the feeling in the one side of her body and lost part of her speech. She lost her job and ultimately ended up homeless whilst going through such difficulties. The charity Centrepoint intervened and helped Shozna back onto her feet.  Prince William is a patron of Centrepoint and first came across Shozna when she spoke at an event for the first time since gaining her speech to an audience.

Turns out we were asked to do it because of my work with Princesses’ Beatrice and Eugenie and the history the company has with the Royal Family. Once Nicky and Lesley Clarke found out they turned the volume up on the whole thing. They offered the full use of our Mayfair Salon on the day for Shozna to get ready, be picked up from and to do all her press appointments from.

I first met Shozna at our Mayfair salon on the Tuesday the week of the wedding – coincidentally, Princess Eugenie had been in earlier in the day. Shozna came with a PR, dress designer and film crew…at this point it had gone big time and she was so nervous. We chatted about her hair, got to know each other and I cut it there and then.  We filmed for ITV and my interview went out on the 6pm and 10pm ITV London Tonight News, there was such hype around her and us doing it.

Shozna’s hair was just above shoulder length with red pieces through a heavy fringe. It hadn’t been cut for a long time and had really short pieces throughout. Initially it was a case of balancing it up without losing too much length. Shozna’s one request was ‘I want long hair, I want to look like a Princess’ and I had one request ‘can I get rid of that Red?’

I cut Shozna’s hair on Tuesday, got her in for colour by Advanced Colourist, Terri Rayner, and I cut it again. What I didn’t want to do was give her a haircut that was just easy for me but when she goes away also easy for her. To achieve the long fairytale hair she was requesting I had to use extensions: big thanks to HAIRAISERS who submitted a great selection of 18 and 14 inch pieces.

I wanted decadence and elegance; all the things a woman should aspire to at a wedding but still maintaining a youthful approach so we don’t lose the real Shozna. More importantly, she had to look as though she had come from a Vogue shoot, or else the extensions would just look fake and tacky…not exactly what we want! I was up until 2am colouring, prepping and tonging eight packs of extensions ready for Shozna’s arrival at 5:45am.

I got picked up at 5am. Driving through London I’d never seen anything like it; it could have been midday Saturday afternoon, great buzz about town… nobody does it like the British! We got Rockin and Rollin immediately! There were two film crews already filming at the salon. Nippon TV doing a documentary for Japanese television and ITV whom had documented the whole gig.

We went out on ITV’s Daybreak, they showed me talking about the hair so it was an exciting start to the day. The salon was amassed with journalists, photographers and film crew. As the morning went on I could actually see Shozna growing in stature. This timid girl I met on Tuesday was now the centre of attention and didn’t look out of place at all.  She would later waltz down the staircase to an audience of 30+ people soaking up the adulation, something she wouldn’t have done three days previous. Without sounding too girly, I was genuinely moved.

My day wasn’t finished. When everybody had gone I had to do interviews for the Daily Mirror, Elle, Telegraph, Daily Mail, OK!, Hello, BBC, ITV as well as trade.

Shozna’s story is tragic, brave and moving. What she has gone though and come out at the other end is truly remarkable. She touched Prince William so much so that she was one of the only attendees to the wedding that wasn’t either a friend, family, Royal or Celebrity.

Now there is a girl called Shozna whom everybody knows about.

Says Warren Holmes, International Creative Director, Nicky Clarke

Posted By Warren Holmes on 30.Apr 2011 under Blogs, News