Adem is the new London hair salon you have to try
A new in Belgravia hair salon inspired by nature and Turkish oils is top draw, finds Adam Bloodworth
Posh hair salons are to be Belgravia what posh restaurants are to Mayfair. So how do you stand out in a crowded market? Forget the pomp and ceremony and just do a darn good haircut – or at least that’s the approach of Adem Oygur, Turkish hairdresser who has over 15 years of experience and whose approach is inspired by the Turkish hazelnut farm he grew up on.
Arriving at the new salon one bright summer morning, and sheepishly sporting a mop that hadn’t been tended to for than I’d care to say, Oygur took one look at me and immediately had a clear idea for what he’d do with my hair, in around thirty seconds. Sitting around and having lengthy chats about hairdos works for some, but others just like the expert to take the lead, and this is where Oygur scores full marks.
“I’m excited about this,” the thirty-something Turk said, and within minutes he was hacking thirty centimetre strands of hair off my head like they were particularly pesky overgrown weeds in his garden. Two hours later and I was cut, bleached, dyed a lovely creamy blonde and out on the streets taking selfies. “I do practical, wearable cuts,” Oygur said. “Designed to your face shape, and how you wear it.”
Oygur’s confidence stems from a career haircutting for fashion shows, where he hacks away at models behind the scenes. But haircutting has always been in his blood. After a childhood on the family hazelnut farm, he moved to Istanbul aged 14 to pursue cutting and hasn’t looked back.
Adem, which opened recently, is the culmination of a career’s worth of haircutting in other people’s salons, and at other people’s events. “I wanted to create a breathable living salon,” Oygur says as a pile of hair not dissimilar to a small mammal piles up behind me. “The products are centred around one hero ingredient: hazelnuts.”
By living salon, Oygur is referring to the flora and fauna on display all around his salon. Great towering plants in intriguing shapes are growing quickly in the salon, and while I’m in Oygur has an impassioned chat about how to look after one more tricky fern with the customer before me, a man in his fifties who tells me I’m in safe hands.
This is fuss-free hairdressing that works. I was left with the sort of cut I’ve seen other hairdressers pour over for three times as long. I walked out with some of the hazelnut hair oil and have been using it for texture since. It’s great for those days where you want to give your hair a little lift and make it stand out from how it usually looks. Plus, all the hazelnuts come from Oygur’s family farm. The family connection is one of many lovely personal touches.
To book a cut visit adem.london; call 020 7235 2228 or email [email protected]. 61 Ebury St, SW1W 0NZ, London
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