This year’s Festival will be juried by

Rick Owens

Renowned, visionary American independent designer

Nan Goldin

Legendary photographer

Maria de Medeiros

Actress & film director, best known for her role as Fabienne in Pulp Fiction

Eric Tong Cuong

Founding member & president of La Chose brand content agency

Éric Troncy

Art critic & curator, co-founder of FROG magazine & Documents sur l’Art, collaborator with Beaux-Arts magazine

Laurent Goumarre

Host of “18/20” radio show on France Culture & culture editor for Têtu Magazine.

Hélène Ségol

Producer & head of the music video department at Wanda Productions

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Don’t forget Walter Show on September 21 at MILK Concept Boutique 118 ½ Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JN

Sitting astride a pair of black stockinged legs, cocktail in hand, I gulp as long pink arms proffer underwear, pearls, a feather boa. “We call this the Kama Sutra mirror,” Hari Salem tells me with a grin.

No, this isn't a nightclub or a burlesque night. It's a hairdresser's. Launching tomorrow, Hari's Kings Road is part gallery, part beauty palace.

For 30 years Hari has been running an A-list salon. Fans of his bijou Knightsbridge space include Sienna Miller, Jemima Khan, Goldie Hawn and plenty of ladies who lunch.

But Hari is passionate about making a visit to the hairdresser fun for all Londoners. His window displays are legendary - from Art Deco to bricolage. “When I first opened the shop in Brompton Road, people stood outside and took photographs,” he says.

To decorate the new sister salon on King's Road, he approached some of London's craziest sculptors and designers. Walter Raes, who creates artworks from recycled trash - the late Isabella Blow was a collector - has come up with the Kama Sutra mirror, plus a vintage red telephone box with a chair made of Yellow Pages, a Sixties Mini and an upright piano (the stool is made from musical instruments, including a trombone and flute).

Chelsea glass designer Adam Aaronson's bespoke mirror is adorned with free-blown glass pieces. There's even a Jackson Pollock work station.

There will be late openings on Thursday and Friday nights and a resident DJ and live music on Sundays. You can get a drink at the bar as they blowdry your hair (Dutch courage before a date) or do your make-up.

Beauty and style editors love Hari. You know you're in the hands of a grown-up. In the words of the Financial Times's Lucia Van Der Post: “He doesn't strut and grab the limelight, yet in his understated, unshow-offy way he's as cool and hip as they come. Dear reader, he's the man who managed to grow my hair for the first time in 25 years.

Over the years, he's pioneered some wild and wonderful treatments - from beluga caviar to nourish dull and dry hair, to a Japanese white-clay facial made with nightingale droppings (the tabloids had a field day).

But he also talks knowledgeably about art, architecture and politics.

He arrived in the capital from Iran at the age of 12. “I went to boarding school and was completely lost in the system. So I ran away when I was 16. I started hairdressing because I was so shy with women - still am,” he laughs.

Hari started off working for Sixties crimper Leonard, with models of the day Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton. “In those days you weren't allowed to address your clients unless they spoke to you, and you had to call them madam.” Later he opened his own salon in Sydney Street, Chelsea, decorated with gothic church furniture. “We had Bianca Jagger, the Rolling Stones and Margaret Trudeau,” he recalls. “I think they liked the fact it was so cosy, almost like a club.” Twenty years ago he moved to the Brompton Cross site. Today, more than 90 per cent of haircuts are repeat clients because staff inspire such loyalty. “I hate places that are intimidating. Intelligent people will see through you and not come back. Treat people with respect.”

Hari lives near the King's Road salon in Sydney Street with his wife Katharine. Many hairdressers' marriages break up under the pressure, but they are still together after nearly 30 years, with a son and daughter in their twenties. They've converted the ground floor of the Georgian house into a huge minimalist kitchen/living space and throw dinner parties that are legendary, often serving traditional Persian cuisine.

Today the Hari signature look is red- carpet glamour, but he insists: “Customers don't come to the hairdresser to be ponced up'. They're short of time and they want a great cut that really suits them, not some standard formula that is supposed to be the look' of the moment. They want something that they can live with afterwards, with a bit of edge' but doesn't need hours of grooming to get it looking right.”

Londoners are incredibly cosmopolitan about grooming, he argues. “The 22-year-olds in my salon have been to more countries than me,” he laughs. “And I've been around.” As a hairdresser you need to be an expert in psychology. “Always look at the shoes, and the jewellery. Whether it's glitzy or low-key or wacky, it gives you an idea of where to go with the hair.” With the new shop, he hopes to bring a different energy to King's Road. “During the punk era of the Seventies it was absolutely buzzing. Then, after that, it completely lost it. It was a real shame because it became a high street full of chain shops.”

Hari Kings Road is located at the top end, between Chelsea Town Hall and World's End. “From the traffic lights onwards it all belongs to one trust fund, and they're trying to change the whole persona of King's Road. They're keeping the shops empty until they find the right people to get in. It's really nice because they're looking at everything long-term. Whereas at the moment all the landlords are so overstretched financially, they're trying to get every penny out of the tenants.”

“That's what's killing London,” he adds sadly.

“Look at Westbourne Grove, all those lovely quirky shops, they can't last. If you go to Paris or Barcelona, and you get lost in the back streets, you find all these amazing shops. In London everyone's playing it safe.”

He cites the example of Terence Conran, Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, who rolled out formula concept restaurants in the Eighties and Nineties. “They're all doing badly now. I like to think it's coming to an end because it's killing businesses.” The best restaurants in London are the ones where the owner works on site, he argues, because you pay less and get better quality. “I don't see why anyone needs to pay £150 a head for a meal at Ramsay's.”

What makes London hair prices so expensive, he reveals, is keeping staff. “No one's investing in the apprenticeship system any more, so when you open a new place you have to headhunt somebody from another salon. Between the rent and the staff, you have to charge £150 for the haircut, which is ridiculous.” He compares the situation to Premiership footballers. “Recently, a few hairdressers have come to me from other salons to a them how much they want, and they're talking about 70 per cent commission. What's the point? What am I going to make out

To keep prices down, he's been training up a team of new stylists, including his own daughter. “I've spent two days a week for the past three years training them. It's been so successful I'm hiring someone to do it permanently.”

People want to feel special and they want value for money, he insists. Prices at the new Hari salon will start from £40 (rising up the

The trick is never to repeat yourself in a long career. He talks admiringly about the hunger and enthusiasm of his young staff and says no one should sit on his or her laurels, however experienced. “Look at footballers again. You buy those big players and they're so bored all the time. I was watching Man City, with £120 million of players on the bench, and they're all half asleep because you can't keep that momentum going.”

Not that he'd want that level of fame. He often turns down TV work. Hairdressers may be extroverts in the salon - it's a form of live theatre - but many are painfully We are the worst people to get stuck with at parties. I've discovered our conversation lasts for half an hour. lost. ”

Hari's Kings Road, 233 Kings Road, SW3, 020 7349 8722; harissalon.com