aturally, you’d expect a hair stylist of Anthony Turner’s stature to have the kind of magic hands capable of conjuring up the most interesting confections with hair, but surprisingly, it’s the creative zeal evident in Turner’s eyes that make him special. You can see it as he works on set, backstage, or on location, that clear, blue gaze intent on the hair as the work progresses, glancing up quizzically when it’s finished to his satisfaction – which isn’t until the last shot’s in the camera or the final girl has walked off the runway. Even then, you can’t help but notice the objective regard with which he measures up his own work against some imagined, superlative standard. “I drive myself mad,” he acknowledges, “I want to keep pushing it, making it better. I don’t allow myself to be too comfortable.” That said, he’s hardly the twitchy obsessive that can’t leave the hair alone, but an assured creative, capable of this heightened level of self-criticism. And he’s so very nice with it – refreshingly down-to-earth in an industry that’s all façade, and a team player in a room full of egos. As with any artist working at this level, it’s not just about pure talent; that came first: he’s drawn for as long as he can remember, strange characters that he concedes are a ‘bit odd’ but they inhabit the world he retreated into as a child and are the starting point for inspiration for his work now, pre show or shoot, at home, music turned up full blast, sketching away until ideas start to take form. But it’s how that talent is applied that gives him the edge. In Turner’s case, he fell into hairdressing by chance. Straight out of school and distinctly non-academic, he needed something that would soothe his creative itch, so found himself at the local Toni & Guy salon who were recruiting assistants. Walking in that door was the beginning of a career to the top which started with discovering the world of fashion hair. Seeing the dark romance of McQueen shows and where fashion was at that time resonated deeply with Turner and made him both obsessed and determined to be the one doing that kind of hair. It was that exposure to the possibilities of session styling that made him follow closely the work of hair legends Guido Palau and Julien D’Ys, whose divergent approaches to extreme hair styles inspired his artistic sensibilities. Moving to London at 20, to the boutique Taylor Taylor salon, his chance came when he found himself one night in the same pub as Guido. Bolstered by a couple of drinks, he introduced himself and 5 weeks later was on Guido’s backstage team for New York Fashion Week (a globally-coveted position that doesn’t get handed out like sweeties). Eventually, he moved to New York to become a full-time member of the team. Having worked closely with one of the world’s most watched and admired hair stylists in the industry, Turner’s personal idiosyncratic approach saw him fledge a career on a fashion industry keen to embrace his particular point of view: one based on diverse, imperfect, outsider beauty that really resonates with our times. It’s Turner’s modern vision for hair, that makes him the hair stylist of choice for premier photographers including Mikael Jansson, Alasdair McLellan, Craig McDean, Glen Luchford, Willy Vanderperre; and for internationally influential designers Prada, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, Dior, Givenchy and Salvatore Ferragamo, among others, for shows and advertising campaigns. Now resident in London, Turner flies between the fashion capitals and across the world for shoots and shows, bringing distinctly British nuances to his work described to Paris Vogue, as hair that is “a democratic way of showing who we are, and our ideas and values”.