Beatles hairdresser Leslie Cavendish was on Private Passions, a BBC radio show where guests discuss their lives and favourite pieces of music, on 5 July. Cavendish left school and got an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoonâs very fashionable salon in Bond Street, which is where he met Jane Asher:
I used to wash Janeâs hair. She had very long strawberry-blonde hair, very thick. This particular guy, the artistic director of Sassoonâs, in fact, Sassoonâs no. 2, Roger Thompson - he was the slowest hairdresser, but he was fantastic. He was somebody I - I wanted to cut hair like him. But he wasnât like Sassoon, [who was] the Nureyev with the movements of the hair. His scissors were quieter than Sassoonâs. He was very patient. He used to take ages and ages. I used to go wash the hair, come back, sit Jane down, get the blow drier, brush it, do it section by section, I would then go over and say, âMr Roger, Miss Asherâs waiting for you, sheâs finished.â Now, Iâve done most of the hard work! But then he comes over, and he would look at it, and put his fingers through it, and there would be a little hair, that much there, heâd give it a little trim, and he would go like that, and sheâd say, âThank you, Roger.â Which is fine. Thatâs the way it is.
I then become a stylist. And two - three - on the fourth occasion when she came in, the receptionist said to me, âCan you do Janeâs hair?â She was a little bit upset that Roger, again, hasnât got time to do it. I said, âSure.â We all knew she was going out with Paul McCartney. We all knew she was doing a film, Alfie. Sheâs in the papers the whole time, so no one asked anything about anything. If she wanted to talk, she used to talk about filming.
And she said to me, âWhat are you doing this afternoon? Have you got time to cut the boyfriendâs hair?â Well, I know who the boyfriend is. And I said, âYes, I have got time to cut the boyfriendâs hair!â
And she said OK, and I said when, and we arranged a time in the afternoon, and I said, âOh, by the way, Jane, where do you live?â And she said, â7 Cavendish Avenue.â I said, âJane, thatâs my surname.â She said, âMaybe itâs meant.â
Roger, who ended up opening Sassoonâs in New York, the first big one there - he never forgave me. He should have cut the boyfriendâs hair. So unfortunately, I regard Roger - bless him - as the Pete Best of hairdressing.