Royal warrant for the long-serving hairdresser to the Queen
Hairdresser Jo Hansford's Mayfair salon is among seven companies granted Royal Warrants, as ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship reports.
Queen Camilla’s long-serving hairdresser has been describing how she still gets the senior royal in and out of her salon without anyone ever noticing.
Jo Hansford, who runs a high-end salon in London’s Mayfair, has been colouring Camilla’s hair long before she was queen, and long before she was officially anything royal.
This week, Jo’s business was granted a Royal Warrant by Camilla – one of just 7, issued by the Queen Consort.
Royal Warrants are granted for up to five years at a time as a mark of recognition for supplying goods – or in this hairdresser’s case, services, to the Royal Household and senior members of the Royal Family.
The Queen’s main dress designer, Anna Valentine, was also awarded a warrant.
Jo Hansford says the Queen wants a bit of “normality” when she steps into her hairdresser and wants to hear about other people’s lives – rather than chat about her own.
So, she leaves talk about a State Banquet at the office, and instead chats “about normal things to normal people," Hansford said. “And we are all normal people here!”
Hansford denies she was nervous about being asked to colour the Queen’s hair for the Coronation service in 2023 because nothing compared to how many nerves she had about Camilla’s wedding day in 2005, when the then Camilla Parker-Bowles became the wife of Prince Charles and was known as the Duchess of Cornwall.
“I was nervous for her," Hansford told ITV News because Camilla was also so nervous about that day when her life would change forever.
As for the Coronation, when a Queen Consort was crowned alongside a King for the first time since Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1937.
“She looks glamorous and it’s my job to keep her looking glamorous," Hansford said.
A total of 400 Royal Warrants have been granted, 386 of them by King Charles.
They had to be reviewed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and include some surprising entries.
One company, Command Pest Control, which could also be nicknamed the Sandringham Royal Rat Catcher, was granted a warrant for its work on the Norfolk estate.
Another is the retail chain Dunelm.
Whilst the King and Queen might not be regularly spotted at one of Dunelm’s out-of-town retail parks, the business was granted a warrant for being suppliers of “linen drapery and soft furnishings” to the Royal Household.
Despite being a high-profile Royal, it seems an early start is the key for Camilla to get in and out of Jo Hansford’s salon without being noticed.
Hansford described how police outriders stay out of sight and the Queen comes first thing in the morning so that she is out before she’s drawn any attention to herself.
But this salon has been serving Camilla for so long, Hansford remembers the less happy times when Camilla’s popularity was rock bottom and the paparazzi were chasing her for unflattering pictures.
According to Hansford, in those days, staff did have to look out the front door and check no photographers were hiding in wait.
As for the hair colour, it has been “warmed up” as Camilla has got older and Jo Hansford is pleased that the Queen still comes to her as, apparently, you can’t do a proper job of it at someone’s house (even when that house is a palace).
So will the Queen keep coming here?
“I hope so”, Jo Hansford replied, “we are lifelong friends now!”
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This is Talking Royals, our weekly podcast about the Royal Family with ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship and Royal Producer Lizzie Robinson