The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

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Meet Matthew David
Filled with dread and anticipation prior to their visit, Rachel Moore and
Anthony Quin both find their experience at bespoke hair salon Matthew
David quite a pleasant one.
If I were to say to you ‘Mayfair
hairdresser’, I could imagine many
of you thinking, ‘not for me, too
expensive, too swanky.’ I would have
agreed with you before paying a visit to
Matthew David on Duke Street. Let’s
rewind a minute. I’m one of those girls
that always start my haircuts or colour
with an apology, ‘sorry I’ve left it too
long again. I know I’m meant to come
back every six weeks, but sorry I’ve
blinked and it’s turned into six months,
and there’s split ends and roots a go
go!’ So with this in mind, I quite often
change hairdressers so that they don’t
know of my lackadaisical approach to
hair maintenance until at least a few
visits. So when my editor mentioned a
Mayfair hairdresser, I was immediately
anxious, imagining the perfectly polished
marble interior, mirrored surfaces and
backhanded comments about who last
did my hair.
Well imagine my surprise when I arrived
at Matthew David and was greeted by
Rosa, chatting away, asking me how my
day was, where I’d come from and about
the last episode of TOWIE vs Made in
Chelsea! I was immediately relaxed. But
wait a minute; I still had to meet Matthew
himself. I was in the chair, feeling nervous,
anticipating the arrival of the hairstylist
himself.With a virtual lifetime experience
working alongside London’s elite celebrity
stylists, I was expecting to meet a perfectly
manicured, slightly aloof, embodiment of a
top Mayfair stylist. Once again I couldn’t
have been more wrong. The first thing
you’ll notice about Matthew is how
engaging he is. It’s like you’re in his front
room, which I guess in some ways you are,
as his salon and his team really feels like
a family. Born and raised in Derbyshire,
Matthew cut his teeth in his local salon
at a very young age. Deciding to head to
London at the age of 17 on a wing and
prayer he hasn’t looked back since. After
15 years in a top salon, he decided it
was time to go solo, building up his top
team with people that followed him, or
supporting others through the transition
from their home towns to the bright
lights of London. So back to the haircut;
Matthew starts off with getting a bit of
history (no mention of the split ends and
roots luckily), how I normally wear my hair,
what I’m looking for, followed by some of
his own suggestions, and what he think
would worked best.
I explained I’m a bit of a hair traditionalist,
repeatedly going for the same style over
and over again, afraid to deviate in any
way. Taking all this on board, he decided
to keep me in my comfort zone, well
mostly. Sticking to a similar style of
cut, but adding more layers at the back
to add volume and the swoosh factor
(think Salon Selectives) I was happy to
go with this. I didn’t notice time ticking
away, or the hair dropping away as we
chatted about everything from where
we were off to later that evening, celeb
spots around the salon, and his new
range of products due to launch within
this year. Born out of necessity, Matthew
has developed his capsule collection of
essential products with function not
form in mind. For example, a shampoo
that doesn’t necessarily give lots of
lovely fluffy foam (the foaming agent
has been removed and replaced with
a natural derivative) but leaves hair
lovely and clean without stripping or
coating. So haircut done, its time for a
blow dry! This part often fills me with
dread. There are rollers involved, and I
leave feeling like a Barbie doll with stiff
sprayed in curls that are the opposite of
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