Going South: Hari's Curl Bar

It’s that time of year again when you need to blow the dust of that old hat, fluff up the silk chiffon dress and pick out some dainty wedges (an oxymoron I know, but we live in hope) and, if you’re over 45, pack some bloody tissues. It’s wedding time, and no one cries at weddings more than the over tired forty something whose squeezed middle is sweating gently underneath the 17 lawyers of elastane she’s had to requisition in order to fit in to last year’s frock.

Along with the dress, the shoes, the tissues and the hat; wedding thoughts eventually work their way up to the hair. Now in the past when off to a nuptials I have favoured one of two different looks which are somewhat inevitably time dependent. The first is obviously the straight-out-of-bed-head, which is the result of bad planning and too many martinis the night before to calm the bride’s nerves. And while it is acceptable to channel the bush-backwards look at most events if you’ve got a couple of groovy piercings and a large Celtic symbol on your right arm, when you’re my age, you just end up looking like Judy Finnigan after a night in a skip.

The second is the WAG wig. Silky smooth and poker straight. This is my go-to default hair do when trying to look smart. Only, if I am being terribly honest, I have kind of had enough of wandering around a marquee looking like Barbie’s mum. When you’re young with cheeks like razors you can afford to have flat hair that flicks and flies. But the more your face turns into Bagpuss the more you need a bit of a do.

So it was with great excitement that I went to see Kim Cowans at the Curl Bar at Hari’s on Kings Rd, SW3. First of all not only is Kim gorgeous and delightful company but secondly she is inventor of a new curl product called Skimdo, a styling conditioning cream specifically designed for curly hair. From Russian and Jamaican descent, Kim spent years trying to find the right stuff for her gorgeous curls, and having drawn a blank she decided to invent her own.

Now, coming from Welsh and Brummie descent my hair is a little different from Kim’s, it curls in the drizzle on school sports day and frizzes on the beach. It doesn’t twist into fat bouncy curls, it just turns into a ginger candyfloss at the sniff of H2O. But Kim was undeterred by such bad source material. She invented her Skimdo product for everyone with so much as a kink in their hair and she insisted that her lovely bouclé curls were not such a great example as it made everyone think this was simply a cream for afro-hair (which incidentally is not what she has).

Anyway, after an hour of twisting and curling and tonging she was finished. I had a headful of rather elegant snaking curls that landed just on the shoulders. It was very Kelly McGillis in Top Gun and I was extremely chuffed. I had a very posh wedding to go to the following day. I had a look I was rocking, black sequin jacket included (get me!) and I had a Temperley shirt: it was a winning combination. I was going to knocked everyone’s spanks off.

Only one thing to get through before I go: a river cruise along the Thames with my father-in-law for his 80th birthday party. I looked fabulous as I boarded the vessel and I was still rather splendid by Tower Bridge. But then the rain came down, the brollie was in the car and sadly by the time I reached the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament it had all gone Finnigan-in-a-skip. God damn it!

So Hari’s curl bar? Highly recommended. Just don’t go on a river cruise straight afterwards.