From Swinging London to The Beatles: A Hair Icon’s Journey

And I pressed the bell and I thought I'd just take a deep breath,

a housekeeper's going to come in and you're just going to get yourself together and get a little bit of that.

And as I pressed the bell, the door, it was Paul McCartney.

He called me, he's right off, and he said,

hello Leslie, James, for a moment about you,

would you like to come in, would you like some tea?

So within that moment of time, I'm like, can I outside?

I'm having a tea with Paul McCartney in his front room.

I've got off the bases in a psychedelic piano,

I've got a mad dog called Martha, jumping all over the place.

Yeah.

And a bit surreal, they don't seem to think.

Mm-hmm.

And eventually, to say to him, you know, by the way, Paul,

how can you walk your hair?

Welcome to artist icons and entrepreneurs,

the podcast that dives deep into the stories of troblasers

who shape our world.

And with that, let's get started.

Leslie Cavendish was born in East London

and grew up in a large Jewish family in Burnt Oak, North London.

He was a princess to the iconic 60s hairstyle

as Vidal Sassoon in 1962, becoming a stylist

in his own right three years later.

He became Paul McCartney's private hairdresser in September 1966

and soon began to cut the hair of other beetles.

His clientele included Jane Asher, Susanna Lee, The Who,

Bee Gees, Dave Clark V, James Taylor, Tony Curtis,

and many more.

He also intended beetles recording sessions.

Leslie was invited along as a friend and participant

to join the band on the magical mystery tour film.

In 1967, the beetles then financed Leslie

with his own salon in London's King Road, Chelsea.

He was also in the building at Three Civil Roe

for that famous rooftop concert, January 1969.

Leslie also conducts VIP beetles tours in London

and attends many book festivals and beetles

related events around the UK, Europe, and the USA.

He also partakes in lectures at conventions,

universities, TV, and radio about fashion, music,

and 60s culture.

He has two sons and divides his time between London and Spain.

Yeah, actually, I never wanted to be a hairdresser.

I never thought the idea of being a hairdresser was

what I was going to do.

I wanted to be a footballer.

But my best friend called Lawrence Fulk.

He started the first hairdressing salon,

Unisex salon called Crimpers.

I know you're a good friend, Tony Beckerman.

Yeah, he does.

And I wondered why, and I didn't take me long

after a conversation with him that time.

He thought going to work every morning,

styling ladies hair and being surrounded by ladies.

It was all Lawrence Loved all that.

I thought, well, I'm going to follow him.

That'd be a good idea.

He said to me that there's a guy,

I wanted to go and work in his shop

where he was working called Eric Baker Street.

Now, he said, don't do that.

He said, there's a guy with a Delos assume

that Eric goes to twice a week,

covers the new style, then comes back.

He said, what did he go there?

So I made an appointment to see them.

I told my aunt, I said, I'm going to go and see

Videos as soon, a strange danger.

Oh, I know him.

Well, we went to the same clubs together in East London.

When you see him, say hello.

OK, yeah, I'm bound to do that.

I make this appointment and I walked down Bond Street.

I never forget the first time, got out of Bond Street

station and to be honest with you, the diamonds

and the gold coming out the windows from Asprey's Cartier.

This was all new to me, especially where the area

I was brought up in.

I go to Susie when I was expecting a music.

And this is a great big glass front window

with ladies in the window on the reception.

I sat in the reception.

There was this buzz, not of music, but of chatter.

And people were just running around.

There was, I thought, oh my god, what did people start here?

There was rollers and there was a mezzanine

with like space helmet dryers.

I saw ladies with their feet in the buckets

and hands in the buckets.

I had no idea that there was a pedicure or manicure.

And I come in and there, Mr. Gordon, who was the manager,

came up and they said, is that please come through?

You know, you've got an interview here.

I go downstairs to the office.

And I didn't know that I took a wooden bowl

that I made at school.

It was a crooked wooden bowl that I was very proud of

where we had fruit in.

And I was hopeless at painting.

Art wasn't even in my head.

And I thought the only thing I ever made was a wooden bowl.

So I put it in a plastic bag.

And when I was walking through the sun

on a little plastic bag with this wooden bowl, Mr. Gordon,

everybody was Mr. sat down in the office.

He said down, what makes you think

that you could be a hairdresser?

What could you add to Susie's hair?

And with that, I just sort of put the wooden bowl on the table.

And I said, Mr. Lawrence, the way I've shaped this wooden bowl

is the way I can shape women's hair.

And he looked at me like I was nuts.

And I looked at him.

I thought, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

But he said, okay, there was a little smile in his face.

Then we had a little talk.

He said, okay, I'll get back to you.

And then I went left the salon again,

looking around thinking, I can't even hold a comb.

I said, how am I going to do these things?

But anyway, waited two weeks, never heard.

I thought that was it.

And I get a phone call from Susune's.

Would you like to come in for,

would like to start work?

I was 15 years old at the time.

And we've accepted you.

So go there and saw Mr. Lawrence.

And he said to me, Leslie,

when we told Mr. Susune and the other guys here

that you walked in with the wooden bowl

and thought that you'd shape hair.

We thought you had so much hutzma to do that

that you employed.

So that was my day.

That was my, how I got in there.

It was interesting, you know, because there were people there.

As I said, there was no music.

There was this sort of chatter.

And there were people there early in the morning

that I, they walked down an hour and a half, two hours later.

And they were famous, you know,

the people like Mia Farrow there

and Joan Collins, the Shirley Bassian.

All these people that you see,

but you don't see them with wet hair

with no makeup in the morning.

And, you know, it was exciting.

You know, you started off as a junior,

you sort of did three months with one

and then you went round

and then you went into the Trichology department,

then you went into the Tinting department,

tried to draw everything there.

And it was great fun.

And the personalities there, you know, the day I started,

you know, I didn't know.

I worked for a guy called Ricky Burns.

I don't know if you've heard of Ricky,

but he's one of the funniest men I ever met.

He was a comedian, foreign comedian.

And he would, you know, do hair

and people would walk in with a Vogue magazine

and say, Ricky, I would like my hair like this.

And he actually said to the madam,

I'm a hairdresser, not a magician.

Well, you know, and I'd look at him thinking,

oh my God, how'd he get away with that?

And they would laugh.

And then he'd done the thing.

He would say, Madam, this is a combed or wand.

And it was just so funny.

And the humour of this particular guy, I loved it.

I loved it.

They're not going to someone serious, Roger Thompson.

Sirius.

Christopher Sirius.

Maria Fabulous.

And you had John, who was serious.

Then he had Mark his brother.

He was completely different, talking cheese.

And he used to work with Mark a lot.

And there's hair dresses, there's a stylist

and there's hair cutters.

And Mark, particularly, he used to do dusty screenshots,

you know, the hair, back combed hair.

And he used to do Lulu's hair.

You know, these are sort of big names in the music business.

And he would back comb it, and he would wash it.

And he was not the greatest cutter.

But he used to shape hair, which was brilliant.

And he used to be able to put hair up in a shignon.

He used to be able to put food species on.

And this and that.

Whereas Roger would just cut hair.

And he was precise.

He was so slow, Roger.

I mean, after three months working with him,

he asked me to stay on longer.

So I stayed with Roger for about nine months and made every,

you know, I used to make sure his clients had treatments

and things and had to apologize for the hop-up state client

with Sunday.

The hop-up night client would be the 10 o'clock client.

And all during the course of this day,

he would be running behind.

Eventually, it turned out he did me the biggest favor

in the world by doing that.

I was so glad that Roger was so slow.

Because it led me to actually get in to do the Beatles hair.

So, you know, through his client, Jane Asher.

One of the questions I'd like to ask you, Leslie,

and I'll preface this by saying that I asked it of Christopher.

I asked it of Tony.

I've asked it of Leon.

So, you know, everything we do, we take a part of that with us.

What do you think is the best thing you learned or gained

from the time you spell it, Badell says soon?

Now, the first thing I learned was,

and we were told, respect the person that you're in the mirror

is your client, respect.

You can joke, you can have fun.

Or as you remember, she's a client.

That was very important.

So, respect, discipline, and hairdressing.

And you can't sort of just sort of muck about the things.

There was a guy there that, you know, when you cut,

when it's as soon as haircuts, that you had to go a model night

and watch the stylists doing these five-point cuts,

or one down this side and the fringe and everything there.

Then that's the corn bouquin and things.

You couldn't afford to make a slip up by your ears.

I remember being upstairs with a guy called Stephen.

Not Stephen way, another guy called Stephen.

A really nice guy.

And he was very nervous when he cut hair.

And I remember him cutting the hair,

and this one was low-boss.

Now, if you pinch your nose, feel it.

It's impossible.

You squeeze it, you can't feel it.

And I'm holding the hair there and he slipped.

And the blood was pouring down.

And I'm thinking, so I had to do this

and he had to tell the client afterwards what he did.

You know, she went to put her earring in,

it's weird.

And you know, so you had to concentrate.

And I learned that.

And I also learned as well that you could be yourself.

You don't have to be a robot.

You know, as I say, as long as you respect the person there,

you can do what Ricky Burns did, have a laugh

and a giggle with somebody.

Also, the del often tortoises, you know,

don't forget they are a client.

You know, basically don't start dating your clients.

It's a, you know, I'm not sure why it sure he followed

his own rules, but there's a, there's a time, there's a time.

And there was a hairdresser there, one toughener.

Never forget I helped one.

Good-looking guy, very, very smart.

And then the client would come in and he would know the clients.

So I just sort of started, you know, the very pretty ones.

He said, Leslie, go to around the corner

and there's a florist in bookstreet called Compton Spray.

Now, happen to be the royal florist.

I said, why should I go there?

So go down and get a rose

and just put it on my account.

So I could leave the salon, go around the corner, go to Compton Spray.

I said, could I have a rose, please?

And could you put it on Mr. Warren's account?

So I walked in with a rose.

I had to put it in a vase and there was a private room downstairs

at Bond Street and the client would be in there with the rose.

And Warren was brilliant.

Fortunately, the time I finished with him,

at the time that maybe six months later,

he didn't have any clients left.

Now, there comes a time where you've got to sort of behave yourself.

So I learned that as well, you know.

There were lots of funny things that went on.

You know, one of the guys, I don't know if Tony mentioned it,

there was a lovely guy there called Alan McHughan.

Now, Alan and I started at the same time.

He eventually left hairdressing and married Tracy Ormond.

OK.

And he took her to America and they had the Tracy Ormond show.

But we used to have a good laugh, you know.

And this is how you get to, your personality would come out.

And, you know, so you used to banter.

I still love bantering, but with Alan.

We had two ladies coming.

One was blonde and one was at dark hair.

Took the style he said, taking to the backwash.

Was they, well, I'm talking at eight o'clock in the morning.

OK, this was an early call.

And I'm washing his ladies hair and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Nothing's happened and go back to the stylist.

And while they're doing their hair, she's doing this makeup.

She, she's really made up to the hill.

Their makeup, mascara, lipstick, everything.

Looking beautiful, you know, slightly sort of open top there.

I'm at the same time.

There's another guy.

Woman with black hair is doing the same thing.

We finished and the stylist said, would you take the client

to the reception, please?

And we left at the same time as this other client.

When I get to the reception, there's a black rose voice outside

with a sofa opened the door and brought them in.

They sat down in the car.

Now we're talking about 915.

They finished.

I didn't realize the following day that they were going

to the old Bailey.

Because their name was the Christine Keeler affair.

The Keeler affair.

And where Christine Keeler was having an affair

with a Russian attache while having an affair

with the British defense minister at the same time.

It was known as a dissimilar affair.

And you know, things like that.

It was just really funny.

So there's only been a good day.

There's been a good time.

Good luck.

Which makes me to the next question is, how did you get started

on doing celebrity hair?

Well, it started actually with Roger.

I learned a lot from Roger, except I always wanted

to be like Mark.

Not quite, because Mark used to turn him out literally.

He could do three an hour, three, four an hour.

I mean, he really could.

Roger could do one every hour and a half, you know.

One of the clients he had in was Jane Asher.

Now, getting back to what's so soon always taught us,

remember, they're a client.

Obviously, you knew that she was going out with Paul McCartney.

So you're not going to say to her, oh, by the way,

health, poor, or how the Beatles, you know,

don't say anything.

She's actually a serious Shakespearean actress.

So she would talk about she's doing films.

So when I used to wash her hair, I used to take her.

She had very long, strawberry blonde hair,

a really thick hair.

I used to go to the back wash, wash her hair,

and then say to Roger, I finished.

He said, could you start blow drying it?

So I started the known blow drying.

It started from the very bottom and working my head

way through to the top and turning under

or turning over whatever the style was.

I would take me about 40 minutes, 35 minutes.

Roger still doing his client.

And then I say, Mr. Roger, I finished now.

And they quickly just say to the client, excuse me,

one minute, he had come over.

Hello, Jane, blah, blah, blah.

Just touch her hair, do this.

Lose these back mirror.

She say, thank you, Roger.

It's...

He's the boss, you know, it's fair enough.

When I became a stylist, she came down.

And we used to sort of, someone used to come in

just for a comb out.

I don't know if they still use that term now.

Where you didn't make an appointment,

but you just wanted to blow dry it, you know?

But just fine.

I sort of started just taking...

I was doing a lot of the models.

There's a place down Bond Street called Lucy Clayton,

which was like a modeling finishing school for debut arts.

So I loved my clientele was that.

Although they were very pretty,

they used to get a 50% discount.

So you used to work and never really make any money.

Yeah, that's how you started.

And Jane came down one afternoon

or one morning, big apartment.

And Roger couldn't do her hair.

So the receptionist said,

Leslie, Roger's a bit busy at the moment.

Oh, really? What's this behind, is it?

Could you just do Jane's hair?

And the first time that was fine.

You know, I knew what...

So to me, washing her hair now,

someone else washed it, and I did that.

And when I showed her the back mirror,

she said, thank you, Leslie.

So, you know, things have moved on.

That was fine.

Second time she came down again, Roger couldn't do it.

Now I'm thinking to myself, Roger,

you're a bit stupid here.

She's a really good client.

You know, just make time to just...

If you're going to keep anyone waiting,

don't keep her waiting, you know, just don't do it.

Three times she did it.

And on the third occasion,

the receptionist came down and said,

Leslie, Jane's in again, she's really upset with Roger.

Again, he can't do it.

Will you do it?

And I said, yeah, it was a Saturday morning.

And we used to work half day.

The last client was 11.30, 12 o'clock, if I remember.

And I said, yes, of course I do it.

And the same thing got someone to wash it.

I started her and drying it.

And then I finally finished it.

And then she just said to me, completely out of the blue,

what are you doing this afternoon?

And I said, I mean, you know,

I was going to football actually.

And I said, why is that, Jane?

And she said, I've never forget it.

The classic words, have you got time

to cut my boyfriend's hair?

No, I know who the boyfriend is.

And I'm saying also, have I got time

to cut the boyfriend's hair?

Bloody sure, I have, right?

I don't want to cut his hair.

And I said, yeah, yeah, of course.

When would you like me to come?

She said, what suits you?

So I did actually push my luck.

I went to the football game and I said, half past five.

And I thought, I wanted to go and see the game,

but I pushed my luck.

Because she said, actually, I thought in the next hour,

I would have done it.

And she said, that's fine.

So I went to my football match.

I didn't tell anybody again.

And I'm thinking, when the game's over,

I'm going to go over to McCartney.

But before that happened, I said, Jane, by the way,

where'd you live?

As you wrote down on a bit of paper and said,

Devon Cavadish Avenue.

And I said, Jane, that's my surname.

And she said, well, maybe it was meant.

That was weird, just to follow the art.

Well, I tell you what, is it more weird of that?

When I got to do John Lennon's hair,

the PR guy, Derek Taylor, who was like the fifth beetle.

I said, Leslie, and Lennon wanted to go down to his house.

And Paul lived in London in Sir John's Wood,

which is not that far from town.

The other three beetles, if down in Sonnydale,

down in Wabrid, well, they had this big country mansion,

blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

And I said, this occasion, and he said,

yeah, John wants you to cut his hair,

possibly next week.

And I said, okay, where does he live?

And he says he lives down in Wabrid, in Cavadish, close.

Can we talk?

So I had two Cavadishes, one there, one there.

So that was it.

So anyway, I ended up going from a football match

over to McCartney's house.

And that's when I started thinking, what am I doing?

And that's when it all started happening.

That was my first November, no September 90s.

Wow.

And your life changed forever?

Well, it did, because lots happened in September 60s.

Paul McCartney was supposed to be dead, you know?

They're the big, the big conspiracy thing.

Paul McCartney's dead.

But his shoes took over.

I had to do a lot there because around that time,

I was asked many times

when interviews, how do you know it's a real Paul McCartney?

When doing hairdressing, everybody knows

that with hair, if you push it back,

you know, you have a little piece,

there's a break somewhere.

And that's how you can identify somebody, you know?

You can't fake it.

And I remember doing McCartney's hair.

And this is the biggest conspiracy thing.

Art is dead and the people are saying

he died in a car crash

and they brought someone else in.

Like Jane Asher, wouldn't know, right?

Yeah, right, exactly.

And Lennon wouldn't know.

Oh yeah, they said a different guy

writing the same songs, yeah?

And I remember washing his hair at his house,

and I used to do it in a basin.

Don't forget, this is not a sad one.

I'm talking about a normal sink basin with some water,

like this going over his head, you know?

Seriously, this is Paul McCartney, you could afford anything.

And I remember saying to him,

he was in the news and I said, Paul,

I was thinking to myself,

what happens if his hair doesn't fall in that right spot?

What actually would happen?

Maybe it's not him.

So I had the, I remember his hair being completely wet

and I was pushing it back.

And I thought, right,

just give it a little push forward to see if it breaks.

And it did break.

He's watching all this, by the way.

He's got no idea what I'm doing.

And we have a conversation about,

he doesn't know how my head is thinking about that.

And it did fall into that place.

They said, Paul, I got somebody to tell you.

And he said, what is it?

I said, you're not dead.

He said,

I need somebody to confirm that, thanks Leslie.

Well, there were things like that, you know?

And what the great thing is, you know,

when I actually went into the front door of his house,

which was another weird thing

because the housekeeper, when I pressed the buzzer,

said, oh, yes, Miss Asher's told me

that you were coming this afternoon, that's fine.

And I walked through the first thing I saw was an astrum,

green astrum marting on the left-hand side.

And I thought, oh, my God, James Bond and McCartney.

I mean, this is when you make it big time.

When I got this one door, I sort of, you know,

my sister's got pictures of Paul McCartney

in the north front room, right?

So, you know, and I happened to be a Beatles fan as well.

I'm not as if I'm going to somewhere

that I've got really interested in.

And I pressed the bell, and I thought,

oh, right, just take a deep breath.

Housekeeper's going to come in

and you'll just get yourself together

and I don't know what to do.

And as I pressed the bell, the door,

and it was Paul McCartney.

Cook me, he's right off.

And he said,

hello Leslie, James told me what about you.

Would you like to come in?

Would you like some tea?

So within that moment of time, I can't go outside.

I'm having a tea with Paul McCartney in his front room.

I've got off the basis

and a psychedelic piano.

I've got a mad dog called Martha jumping all over the place

and a bit surreal, they don't seem to think.

Then eventually, you have to say to him,

you know, by the way, Paul, how do you want your hair?

Now, my timing, you couldn't get better timing

for me to cut my heart this hair because I told you,

it was September 1966.

And the last concert the Beatles ever did

was at Cabal Stick Park in San Francisco in August,

August of 27th, 28th, the end of August anyway.

So we're talking about three weeks later

that he is not a Beatles, he's Paul McCartney.

Although he's a Beatles, he's not really Paul McCartney.

So when I saw him, he was unshaven.

He had a little bit of a staff unshaven like you do.

He didn't have to, because the Beatles

for the last four or five years

were dressed in Chelsea boots and suits

and white and tires and things and now.

And if all their hair always looked immaculate

because they had people from the TV studios there.

When he came when I saw him, his hair was not quite as neat

as the rest of the Beatles are on stage.

So I said to him, how would you want your hair?

And he said the greatest thing, which is great.

They happened to all three other Beatles,

do it as you see it.

Well, what a nice thing to say, do it as you see it.

I've got my hair in a very similar situation to him.

I've got long hair and I'm gonna do it the way I see it.

And he didn't mind.

So that's how I actually worked.

And it was a very nice, there was no one around,

no managers or stunters saying to me, right,

we wanted it like this and you've only got half an hour

to do it, you know.

It was great.

It was a great intro to it.

Had it been at a salon, it would never have been the same.

So it would have been talking to him in a mirror

and it would have been thank you very much.

Back mirror, thank you very much.

So yeah, that was my first intro to Paul McCartney.

Do you have maybe one story that you could share with us

kind of that little back behind the scenes things,

silly things to go on that maybe?

Yeah, I could tell you four thousand, five hundred stories.

I was hoping.

No, I'd tell you a couple of stories that would include me.

I made my mind up.

That I never was going to ask the Beatles for an autograph.

I was never going to take a look at their hair, okay?

Because I, as I do say, I didn't want to be a one-cut wonder.

I wanted to cut an album.

I'd quite like that.

But what I did want to do was,

was to go and watch them record or rehearse.

So, you know, he did that.

He allowed me to, I used to go to Abbey Road,

which actually was called EMI Studios

before Abbey Road, he one came out.

So I used to go there and I used to,

then if you ever been to Abbey Road,

but you've got Abbey Road's got two studios,

a big enormous studio, which is Studio 2,

which would take an orchestra.

They have Studio 1, which is the smaller one

where the Beatles used to record.

So when I was went to Abbey Road,

or EMI, I keep saying Abbey Road,

it's actually EMI.

Road manager, going from May 11th,

said, yeah, why did you go in Studio 2?

When I went, okay.

And I was there, there was George Martin,

the producer, there was Jeff Amorick, the engineer.

I sat on the corner.

And I looked over and there was this big orchestra.

And there was McCartney conducting it.

And say, no, no, to the violin,

as you do this, do that.

No idea what he was doing.

When eventually their new album came out,

it happened to be Sergeant Pepper.

I was watching a rehearsing of a day in the life,

which was quite amazing, which was nice.

And the other one was, I couldn't talk to Paul McCartney,

or any of the other Beatles about football,

because for some mad reason,

they worked that into it, and Liverpool Football Club,

at the time, with the European champions, one everything.

I mean, it was a very proud time to be a liver puddle in.

You had the football team, you had the Beatles,

you couldn't have got better than that, okay?

Well, they didn't really talk about it.

So what do you talk about when you sit there with someone

after a while?

Have you written anything lately?

Then you went, yeah, what did you think of this?

And you sat down at the piano,

this is all after I finished this hair, by the way.

And just sort of clotted on the piano,

went,

ooh bloody, ooh bloody,

like,

la la la la life goes on.

And I thought that that was him just muckled about

on the piano keys,

because he didn't sound like a song.

Again, when it came out,

suddenly, ooh bloody, but our life goes on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's something when, oh my God,

you played that to me before you knew it.

So there were all these little perks for me.

They were good at the stories.

Yeah.

What a memory to, to be able to say that

that you did the Beatles hair, you know,

you did Paul McCartan's hair.

And you wrote, you also wrote a book called The Cutting Edge.

Can you explain to the viewers what's that's about?

Yeah.

So again, I learned to keep my mouth shut.

That's what was the soon or they said,

I never told anybody that I cut the Beatles hair.

I was, I went to football with my mates that day

and never told them,

guess what I'm doing and I'm out of capulgan.

Just keep quiet, you know, you never know.

Never know when it could all be over.

You know, so I don't want to let it be over naturally

rather than me being fired.

And the press used to ring me up

because they knew I became Paul McCartan's head

just after a while.

It was, it was, it was told in the press.

And, and I sort of said, yes, I remember that

towards the anniversary of an album

or when Lenin got killed.

And I got all these stories that I remembered.

When I was at Apple, which was the Apple offices,

that was like my second hairdresser's studio

because the Beatles opened up a hairdresser's son

off of me in the King's Road Chelsea.

But their main offices were in several rows.

I used to go back to the Fords, you know,

always cutting new artists hair and whatever, whatever.

I went up there one time that I said before,

Derek Taylor, the press officer.

I remember going in there one afternoon

and there was sax fools.

It was like being in Father Christmas's front room.

There were sax of powder near off to the ceiling.

And I said, Derek, what is that?

And he said, they're all the press cuttings from the Beatles.

We get them all over the world.

I said, that's quite amazing.

He said, yes, there's, believe it or not,

there's, I said, how'd you do that?

He said, there's a company called Associated Press

that'd be paid a fee and every time you name it out there,

they get all the press cuttings.

And I just said, that's great.

Can I go on that?

And he said, yeah, he put my name down.

Yeah.

Next thing I know, I'm getting all these press cuttings

all around the world, wherever my name is mentioned.

So I got, so I made a scrapbook of it.

We all on, but I got to, I was living as,

you know, I live half my life in Spain

and half my life here in London, that is.

And I was just suddenly thinking, after a while,

that all these people are asking questions,

the Beatles are coming back in, the two Beatles have died.

McCartney is on tour.

I got all these lies stories.

I started writing them down

and I started checking with my press cutting book.

As if, you know, people say, if you remember the,

if you, if you remember the sixes,

then there's a summit wrong,

but I did everything wrong

and I still remember these mixes.

Mm-hmm.

So I started looking at the press cutting,

but I, where are we going to ear my students?

I remember this, I remember that.

So I started doing sort of writing it down

and it became like a Beatles, my Beatles book.

But then I realized that's not really what I want to do

because there's much more to it.

There is the culture factor of guys as the students.

See in the revolution in hair.

See in the revolution of people, you know,

of homosexuality.

You know, I was at the students, there were guys there.

I was at the students, 1962, I started there.

And I didn't know, I mean, Tony would tell you this,

we, you know, as you see, Tony at a club in London

and there, yes, girls, girlfriends

and guys, he's sitting at the changing room

and say, did you have a nice weekend?

And you say, oh, you know,

he's all I met, this lovely girl, whatever.

And we would say that.

Why no three of the guys, even to this day, would gay?

But they couldn't tell us.

That must have been terrible for them.

During the course of the book, with 1967,

it became legal, then you had the Vietnam War,

and then you had the, you know,

what was going on this whole culture thing,

especially in England as well, I developed the story

and that's how the cutting edge came about.

And that's something that was funny enough.

Believe it or not, it's all you're there for.

Yeah, and I just ordered that book through Amazon.

And of course, it has a command, so I'm anxious to read it.

It is just, you know, so I decided that all these stories,

you know, I'm 77 now and I wrote the book in 2017,

so five years ago, whatever.

I gave it long enough.

I kept quiet long enough.

And there's nothing shocking it, you know,

there's nothing sort of my God.

Remember, when I used to come out of my car in his house,

you know, they used to offer me money,

you know, the Sunday newspapers, you know,

can you tell us a little story?

And I had to say, what type of, you know,

and I'd say, no, go on, tell us something.

I said, Beatles, take drugs, what will that,

but we know that.

I said, well, what do you want me to tell you?

Should the song be more?

No, thank you.

No, thank you.

No.

You know, he just tries the biggest amount of money

that I could have made was when I,

I actually caught Paul McCartney's hair.

That, that short, I actually gave him a skinned haircut,

my face.

And that came about when I was doing his hair,

and I happened to say to him,

I haven't seen Jane for a while.

And he said, no, she was filming.

She was actually filming with Michael Cain film.

And I think it was Alfie.

And I said, what a shame.

I said, well, no, you're not,

no, you're not touring anymore.

Maybe you'll go down to the studio and see her.

Meanwhile, I'm still doing his hair, right?

And he said, no, I can't do that because,

because we just stopped touring,

the whole thing about the beat,

be about the Beatles is not fair and Jane.

I thought, okay, fine, that's, you know, carried on.

I said, so when she finishes the film,

you're gone, hold it, you take it.

I said, we're loved to, but the,

but the press will be everywhere.

So that's not possible.

And as I'm holding his hair,

I sort of said to him, what a shame.

I said, why didn't you go in disguise?

And he said, like how?

Right, it no like how.

I didn't quite know what I'm saying.

I didn't say put on a clown's outfit.

And as the hair was in my hand,

I just said, one on a coat with your hair off.

Now, he had hair down to here, you know,

and we were not there yet, long hair.

He had beat there, right?

And then he's just knocked him in the mirror.

And I said, go on and do it.

I said, no, just do it.

He said, yeah.

So I started cutting hair from the back.

So he don't go right from the front.

I started until I eventually saw,

he saw his ears and then he didn't flinch at all.

Cut it that short.

I thought to myself, my God, you've blown it.

Now you have blown it because what happens

if Brian Epstein gets a phone call from an American promoter

because don't forget the Beatles, they just stopped drawing

that they said, well, give you a billion dollars

for the Beatles to do an appearance.

And I'm thinking, oh my God,

and Paul McCartney's got hair that short.

It'd be, you know, no, no, no.

Anyway, I didn't hear anything for about six weeks.

And then the newspapers, big article,

Paul McCartney comes back from Safari Holiday

from Kenya, left the Roby Airport to get into Heathrow, London.

Actually, it was called London Airport at the time.

And when they get there with his girlfriend,

now fiance Jane Asher, and his road manager, male evidence,

so when they get to the other end,

someone shouted out on the press, Paul, Paul.

You know, my God, you didn't recognize you.

What happened?

And his male evidence turned around and said,

oh, he's probably Leslie Cavadish did it.

Thank you, L.

You know, can you imagine I could have gone to the press

and said to them,

never guess what I did.

I've just got home, I can't miss hair off.

Mm-hmm.

And so, yeah, there's loads of little stories like that

that make me laugh and actually happen.

I've got the test cards to prove it,

just in case in my own head.

I thought, did that really happen?

Yeah, I've got loads of press cuttings.

Remember, you heard it here for some of the icons

and entrepreneurs.

Leslie Cavadish, the inter-circle of the Beatles family.

Wow, wow.

Pretty special.

So was that one of the photographs you sent to us?

Yes.

That's a comic card, and yeah, you cut this hair very short.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I had another one interested.

It lots of funny, lots of things happen with hair,

with me, with the Beatles.

So I'm sort of a, I thought I was a street wise kid.

I'm 21 years old.

I've got my own salon in the Kings Road,

with the Beatles financed.

I'm going every rock star of his up the Billboard

and all these people, who, James Taylor,

and there's people coming into my life there.

It's really fun and going to nice parties.

And this girl, this journalist,

never, I still remember her name, Caroline Boucher.

And we had two magazines, big music magazines,

NME, new music, express, and disc, and echo.

And she was the chief writer for disc, and echo.

Great big publication.

She said, Lesley, can I ask you about the texture?

We went out and had a coffee.

Can I ask you about the texture of the Beatles hair?

So I said, yeah, no problem.

I'm sitting there all cool, and everything.

Mr., Mr., Mr., what can't this hair like?

Great, really lovely thick hair.

I can maneuver it around.

And George Harrison's terrific.

He's got longer hair, and that is fabulous hair to draw.

Ringo, I said, well, Ringo's hair is great.

I said, I don't actually do a lot of his hair

because his wife, Maureen, is a hairdresser, OK?

But I did do it, and the KG, I did it for a couple of films.

He did it, and what, anyway.

And then I said, yeah, but his hair is superb, you know?

And John Lennon, so I said, it's OK.

Oh, there was the mistake that I missed the call,

didn't even know what he said.

And I said, yes, so she picked up and said,

well, what do you mean it's OK?

No, well, you know, his hair is OK.

She says, it's not superb, but it's not great.

So are you telling me he's got the thinnest of the hair?

Well, not the thickest of hair.

And I said, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I spoke so.

Do you know?

OK, she's very cool this girl.

And she said, so let's just move it on about 20, 30 years.

Do you think she would be the first beat

to lose all this hair and go bald?

And I said, well, no, I said, don't be so serious.

She said, well, he makes sense, doesn't it?

That if he hasn't got the hair of the other three

and he's got the thinnest hair, and you just say it was OK,

didn't you?

Oh, yeah, I just say it was OK.

Then that one could possibly happen.

And I said, well, I could possibly happen,

but he's not going to happen.

And I left it at that.

We had a tough, lovely coffee, little chat, blah, blah, blah.

And I'd thank you for the interviews.

And thank you very much.

See you soon, Lesley.

I go back not thinking, I think.

I get a phone call from Disky Derek Taylor again.

He wrote, it's helped me all through my people career

because if you wanted an interview with the Beatles,

you couldn't do it without Derek Taylor.

He was the man.

He really was a fifth, fifth, sixth, Beatles.

He rings me up in the evening.

I don't normally get a phone call from Derek Taylor

in the evening.

Lesley, what have you said?

Said what, Derek?

It's in the newspapers.

And in the radio address, the John Letters

go and bald.

I said, don't be so stupid.

He said, you better sort it out.

So I couldn't sleep that night.

I went to the news agency the following morning,

really went early.

And I lived just off the King's Road.

And so my son was at number 1, 6, 1, King's Road,

nine lit in Chelsea, Manistreet,

which is literally two minutes, two seconds away

from where the shop is.

And there was a news agent I used to go to.

I said, can I have the disconnect, please?

He said, yes, that's the answer to me.

And there it was, front page or top.

Beatles had just a Lesley Caron,

and he said, John Letters go and bald.

Like, what?

I opened up the center page.

And there's this great big full page.

John Letters go and bald.

With my name in it.

Right.

So if anyone's, you know,

can you imagine Teddy someone,

if I thought you say I was going bald,

Letters must have thought, why didn't you tell me first?

Okay.

I go to the salon.

I know I'm going to get a phone call from John Letters.

Phone rings.

I could tell his voice.

I grew up in a Lennon Liverpool action.

I went, hello, Lesley.

So yeah.

And then I went into John.

I said, I'm really I'm sorry.

I'd never said that you were going bald.

She totally took me out of context there.

And I'm just blubbling and blubbling.

It sounded like I was going on and on.

Must have been for about 20 seconds.

And he actually said, just shut the F up.

I think he said, don't talk to me about being taken out of context.

Look what the FNL happened to me.

I said that we attract more people than Jesus Christ

at our concerts.

They're doing church.

And then he said, so don't worry about it.

About being taken out of context.

I went, oh my God.

That's unbelievable.

There's tours in America where they said

the people were bigger than Jesus Christ was mega, really mega.

And so I suddenly thought, oh my God,

his whole attitude has changed.

He totally understood.

So I went, oh, okay, don't thank you.

He said to me, mind you.

He said, I need to know something.

Oh, what's that, John?

He said, am I really going F in bald?

Yeah.

No.

We better come over and sort me out.

So I had to go over the funny story.

He could have literally gone the other way, you know, he didn't.

So there's the humor of when people talk about Lennon.

Yeah, he was a, he was a difficult character at times, you know.

But they used to go into the offices in several row.

You get Ringo going in, hi everybody, you know,

the two receptives were, hi man, peace of love.

And the cardboard was going, you know,

that would choose to just slow in, yeah.

And then when Lennon came in,

it was like the schoolmaster KB, you sort of sit back in your chair

because you didn't know what mood he was in, you know.

And that's what he was like.

So he was, you know, I can only say good things about him

because the times I met him and the times I'm dealt with him,

he was great.

So that was a, so that was a ball story that was someone going bald

and someone being a skinhead.

Oh, there you go.

When you must have also done a lot of other celebrities

because of your connection with the Beatles.

Yeah, well, funny enough, my book is dedicated

to my rock and roll spaniel called Ernie.

And Ernie, I used to take him everywhere.

And I did someone's hair.

I did the sofa of the Bee Gees.

Well, Barry Gibbs, right?

And he said Barry only lives up the road, right?

So he lived in Eaton's, Eaton Square,

which was at the top of the King's Road.

And he said, you like to cut his hair.

So I went around to Barry Gibbs' hair house with my dog.

And so I did say to this guy,

he could not be my dog would be.

He said, yeah, Barry lovey, he's got a dog.

So I'm going to go in there.

He's got a dog called Barnaby.

There's a great, big beautiful mountain,

Peer and ear mountain dog.

And if anyone's a Bee Gees fan,

there's a great Bee Gees song called The First of May.

And The First of May is Barnaby's birthday.

So you've got Barnaby's birthday

and you've got Martha my dear,

which is former carton, it's, oh, sweet dog.

So my dog actually was the biggest group here in Rock and Roll.

I think he was.

So I got to do the Bee Gees Barry Gibbs' hair.

I used to go around a lot in the evenings,

not doing it here, I used to play guitar.

This was before he was married, by the way.

I'd go around the one day,

there was a guy called Richie Havens,

who wrote that Woodstock.

I met Richie Havens at the Apple offices.

And I'd be sitting there like a groupie,

sitting there in the room,

and they're playing acoustic guitars.

Robin Gibbs, I used to do his hair a lot.

The only one I didn't do was Moise,

and he happened to be married to Lula at the time.

I found him a bit aggressive, it must be honest,

so I didn't go too well with him.

But then I realized he was an alcoholic,

and he had his own problem,

so I forgive him for that one.

But yeah, people like that.

My, one I'm most proud of is really for my mum.

Where my sister had former carton's hair,

if my mum could have a wall decorated,

she would have Tony Curtis,

and that was who my mum, she thought he was, he was it.

And we get a phone call on 1968,

the Boston Strangler he did,

and he was staying in London,

and I get a phone call from his manager saying,

oh, could you please come over to the door, just a hotel,

and which is the number one hotel,

and he would like you to do his hair.

I could remember going, I think, oh my God,

my mother fell, if I get the Beatles, this is,

Curtis, and I go there,

and I said, I've come to see Mr. Curtis,

he said, yes, he's in the penthouse suite,

and I never forget it was, you know, this was,

I was more excited seeing him, you know,

then Beatles will forbid,

and I go out, it's a incredible penthouse there,

and I've got to admit that the place

was stinking the dope up there.

It was just,

it was none of the dope up there, which was nice, actually.

And he was, did his hair met him,

and I said, look, I said, it's, it's quite,

I was telling about my mom,

I said, my mom, you know, he said, yeah,

can you tell me about the Beatles?

You know, no more about you.

And I said, it's not often, I said,

you've actually even had a hair count named after you,

which is the D-A.

Do you know that what the D-A is?

No, D-A was with Tony Beckham,

and if you're listening, you're not.

Oh, yeah.

You push your hair coming back,

through it in the middle, and it's called a D-A,

which at once lays it to a ducts bottom,

but we lose, I was being polite then.

And yeah, so Tony Curtis with a quiff and a good looks,

that was exciting, that was a very exciting one.

So yeah, I met so little people like that

that I sort of went, wow, interesting.

I missed out on one person that I always wanted to,

I would, you know, I cut the Beatles here

and I cut Tony Curtis's hair.

I'd love to have cut Jesus Christ's hair.

Wow, so before your time.

I mean, known as Jesus Christ's hair dresser,

it's just a good one.

Why would it be very cool?

Ha, ha, ha.

What?

What?

Wow, what an episode that wraps up another exciting edition

of artist icons and entrepreneurs.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We hope you're leaving inspired and ready to chase your dreams.

Don't forget to follow us on social media

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Over at youtube.com, slash artist icons entrepreneurs,

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And don't forget to visit our website at

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Until next time, keep dreaming big,

creating boldly and making your mark on the world.

Thanks for listening and take care, everyone.