Daniel galvin's hairdressing career in pictures

Fifty years ago a young Daniel Galvin was starting his career with one mission on his mind: to make hair colour as popular as hair cuts.

Working at the renowned Leonard salon in London, his eye for creating stunning and visual colour collections soon saw his work splashed across the pages of fashion bible, Vogue - and the rest as they say is history.

"Colourists were seen as the underdog and I always wanted us to be recognised as much for the work we did as cutters," he explains.

Now, colour is one of the most popular services and colourists are recognised in their own rights, with awards dedicated to the speciality.

So, half a decade on, what does the future hold for Daniel? He's as passionate today about raising the standard of colour as he was when he started, and investing in the future is top of his list.

"You are as old as you feel - age isn't important apart from when you are born and when you die. Age is irrelevant - you can do anything you set your mind to.

"I have a fantastic team at my London salon and it's important I offer them as many opportunities as I can so they can grow and develop as they are the future of the business."

These are some of the images from his hairdressing career and the memories they evoke. 

• "This image was shot in 1971. There were two houses in hairdressing at the time - Leonard and Vidal Sassoon. Most people wanted to work with Vidal as he was making a name for himself, but I loved working with Leonard as I was specialising in colour and he encouraged that. At this time colour was only used to cover grey rather than to enhance the cut. So, I decided to create something that would shock people. I used Crazy Colour for this look which we shot for Vogue magazine. It was Guy Fawkes night when we shot this image - Crazy Colour goes with a bang!"



• "This is one of the first images I created using Crazy Colour. The response was amazing and everyone was talking about it. I had Janet Street Poter, Susie Quattro and Zhandra Rhodes asking me to create it to for them which was unbelievable. In the early 70s my ambition was to do to colour what Vidal did to cutting. My passion has always been to raise the level of respect for colourists from clients and colleagues. Creating looks like this showed the world that colour could be exciting."



• "This was taken in 1972 when I worked with model Grace Codrington. I wanted to bring Henna back into fashion and after this shot appeared in US Vogue Henna became huge again."

• "In the early 80s I wanted colour to sound exciting so I came up with names such as Icelandic Blondees and Viking Reds in a bid to get clients excited and realise there was a colour to suit them. At this time I also launched colour to the Japanese, and it was like starting all over again. Black hair is seen as beautiful, so we had to be careful to enhance it rather than cover it up; soften it and work with their make-up and clothes. Now, it is the biggest colour market in the world."



• "My salon in George Street, London, measures 9,000 sq ft which was the biggest salon in Europe when we moved here in 2003. Unusually for a salon, the colourists are based upstairs while the cutters are downstairs. Traditionally it has always been the other way round but I wanted to give colourists the recognition they deserve and get them out of the basement. I work five days a week in the salon and have had many clients for more than 20 years. One of the features in the salon is a large waterfall down the side of the stairs. I was inspired on my visits to Japan as water features are a big part of their décor. It gives a real feeling of tranquillity and serenity to the salon."

• "I worked with Twiggy on a shoot with photographer Barry Latagan, which launched her career as a model and is one of the iconic images of the 60s. I put highlights through her hair which took hours as I used the brickwork technique, which was new at the time. I wanted to push the boundaries whenever I could and get my name and colour as much publicity as possible. We had no idea how big this image would be."



• "Everyone knows colour will make their hair more beautiful - hair is the ultimate accessory that is never taken off so it's essential it always looks at its best. Colour is about making what nature gave us better. This shot illustrates all the beaut iful colours clients can choose. It was part of a campaign we ran in 2007 and was very successful for us."



• "I was the first hairdresser to receive an OBE in 2006 for services to hairdressing. It was a privilege to receive this honour and going to the palace was one of the most emotional days of my life."