John Frieda dies aged 75: the stylist behind the Purdey cut who built a $450m hair empire

John Frieda, the London hairstylist who turned a family trade into a global beauty brand, has died aged 75. His death was announced on Tuesday night in an Instagram post from his salon, which said he “passed away peacefully” surrounded by his family.

The salon’s statement called him “a true icon of the hair industry” and “the person who taught us everything, believed in us, and made us better.” Reports differ on the circumstances. One outlet described a battle with illness, while another noted that no cause of death has been made public.

From family barbershop to Hollywood chair

Born Alan Howard Frieda in 1951, he came from a line of hairdressers. His father ran a salon in Ealing, west London, and his grandfather had been a Fleet Street barber. After entering the family business, he joined House of Leonard, the fashionable salon behind Twiggy’s famous crop, as an assistant to Leonard Lewis. He took the name John because another stylist there was also called Alan.

Work for British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar followed, as did a client list that reads like a cultural history of the late 20th century. Twiggy, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Nicole Kidman and Scarlett Johansson all sat in his chair, according to the reports. The BBC adds Mick Jagger and Sarah Jessica Parker to the roll call.

His best-known creation came in 1976, when he gave Joanna Lumley the bowl cut known as the “Purdey” for her role in The New Avengers. That same year, aged about 25, he opened his own salon in central London. It was reportedly booked up months in advance.

How John Frieda became a household name

The salon made his reputation, but the products made him a brand. Working with the American hair care executive Gail Federici, he launched Frizz Ease in 1988, followed by the Sheer Blonde range in 1998. In the 1990s he stepped back from cutting hair to concentrate on the business, and the Guardian reports that he moved to the United States in 1990 to focus on it.

The bet paid off. In 2002, Frieda and Federici sold the company to the Japanese conglomerate Kao for $450m (about £334m). He kept ownership of five salons, two in London, two in New York and one in Los Angeles. The BBC also notes branches in Barbados and Ibiza over the years.

Family and tributes

Frieda was married to the Scottish singer Lulu from 1977 to 1990, and they had a son, Jordan Frieda, an actor turned food entrepreneur. The Guardian reports that the move to America contributed to the end of that marriage. He met Avery Agnelli, widow of Fiat heir Giovanni Agnelli, in 2002, and they married in 2019. They had two children together, and he was stepfather to her daughter, Asia Agnelli Lagrange.

Agnelli Lagrange shared photographs of the two of them on Instagram, writing: “Today we lost the best man to ever exist. I share this because I know he touched the lives of so many.”

Others in the industry and beyond also paid tribute. Cetera Lamb, creative director of his London salon, called him “a real maverick in hairdressing” who led the salon for 50 years. Colourist Nicola Clarke and the British Beauty Council also paid tribute, as did Trinny Woodall. Model Jo Wood recalled that he did her hair when she was 16 and he was an assistant at Leonard’s, adding that they would go to the pub afterwards.

Speaking to the British Beauty Council in June, Frieda gave younger hairdressers advice that sums up his approach. Rather than thinking about money, he said, they should focus on giving the client in front of them “the best haircut she’s ever had. That is your reward.”

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