Celebrity stylist Richard Ward admits he didn’t know who Kate Middleton was when she first walked into his salon

Celebrity hairdresser Richard Ward is best known for styling Kate Middleton’s hair for her wedding to Prince William in 2011, writes Margaret Hussey.

The 58-year-old has been in the business for almost 40 years, winning awards at his ‘super salon’ Hair & Metrospa in Sloane Square, west London.

His client list includes Elizabeth Hurley, Susanna Reid, Sophie Raworth and Sarah Parish.

He lives in London with his wife and business partner Hellen, with whom he has two children.

What did your parents teach you about money?

My father always told me: don’t borrow money you can’t afford to lose, and I didn’t heed that. Once I borrow money, I will never get it back.

My mother had two hair salons in Folkestone and we lived in the flat above. I remember coming downstairs when I was about four and seeing nothing but couches and couches with clothes dryers. Nobody blow-dried hair back then.

My mother’s dream was that I would go to private school – which I did, to Sutton Valence in Kent. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized it was always a struggle. My parents had to take me out of school after my O-levels because they had gotten into debt. They then invested in a hotel and lost virtually everything in the late 1990s.

Their debts taught me to be financially secure – they gave me the gift of desperation.

Did that lead you to hairdressing?

My mother took me to London when she had her hair done when I was 16, after she told me she had left school.

As I sat in the waiting area it was buzzing with activity – there was model casting and music. This was the eighties. Something came into my head. I got a job in a salon sweeping floors and washing hair, and on my 17th birthday I moved to London.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

When I first started I earned £28 a week, but my rent was £30. I had to survive on tips.

I qualified within two years and started cutting people’s hair after work for £20 a time.

I was staying in a basement apartment in Chelsea with a school friend whose family had a lot of inherited money. I would go to parties and people would say, ‘What are you doing?’ “I’m a hairdresser” would at best be a conversation stopper, at worst they would laugh. It completely drove me to success. By the time I was 25 I had saved £25,000.

Have you ever been given stupid money?

I was once flown to Monaco to cut three people’s hair for £5,000 each – £15,000. We traveled on a private jet and they put me up for a weekend. I was named in that particular client’s divorce because she spent so much money!

What was the best year of your financial life?

Probably when I did the royal wedding in 2011. The salon launched that year, with the arrival of Johnny Depp, Kim Cattrall and Michael Caine.

I also had Tangle Angel, my hairbrush company that I have now sold. I was also more comfortable appearing on Lorraine and This Morning. All stars aligned.

Kate came to the salon before she married Prince William, but I didn’t know who she was. It was just a family that had an apartment here in Chelsea. I still look after the family and the Duchess of Edinburgh.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

An iridescent silver Bentley, my absolute dream car. It cost me six figures but it was stolen outside my home in Fulham last month. I saw them do it.

It was three in the morning and, as many men my age have to do, I had to get up to go to the toilet, and I heard a distinctive vroom.

There was a man driving backwards and a man behind a computer. I thought, if I bang on the window it will draw attention to my house.

I won’t get any more. I don’t drive enough to warrant this. I have a scooter that I use to go everywhere.

What has been your biggest money mistake?

I had two failed hair product ranges before they became a success. We launched the first one at Tesco around 2000. I don’t think we’ve done enough research on it.

Getting it on the shelves is the easy part, getting it off is hard.

A bit above: the Princess of Wales

We launched another one, a high-end one, on QVC. It was at a higher price, but we didn’t do the volume.

We took our mistakes from those two and went to Waitrose. I knew the formulas were great. It’s been there for 12 years and we just took it out and are selling it ourselves.

Best money decision you’ve made?

Tangle Angel, the detangling brush I launched around the royal wedding.

No one else liked it, my wife didn’t like it, but I had a feeling.

Within a year and a half we were £250,000 in the red and we were almost done. But we continued. I got on a plane, traveled the world and sold it.

I went to Australia five times a year. I went to America.

We sold it to our Chinese distributor for a good amount of money, and we profited very well from it.

Do you have property?

We have a small portfolio of properties in London.

We have been very cautious in our investments. Every time we made money, our biggest goal was to pay off those mortgages.

Do you have a pension?

Yes, I’ve been paying for it for years. Nothing material tastes as good as financial security feels.

If you were Chancellor, what would you do?

Reduce VAT in the beauty industry. Hellen, co-founder of the Salon Employers Association, is lobbying for this.

I have a good sense of business, but I’m dyslexic. I wear belts

of information in my head and Hellen is absolutely brilliant at all the things I’m bad at.

We can get the VAT back on our inventory turnover, but we sell people’s time for standing and cutting hair, and you won’t get the VAT back in time.

We employ 100 people and have around 1,000 customers every week.

What is your number one financial priority?

Hold on to what we have. If you’ve had the journey I’ve had, I never take money for granted.

• For more information, visit richardward.com.