With a career spanning over 50 years and a name that has become synonymous with professional hairdressing, Trevor Sorbie is responsible for establishing techniques that have shaped modern hairdressing. His development of ‘scrunch drying’ (“every woman on this earth has scrunched her hair at some point”) ‘the wedge’ and ‘the chop’ hairstyles transformed women’s hair in the 80s. The first hairdresser to receive an MBE, he has mentored the industry’s most in-demand session stylists including Eugene Souleiman and Angelo Seminara. It is therefore no surprise that Sorbie is widely regarded by the industry as ‘the Godfather of Hairdressing’. But Sorbie is frank about admitting that life as a successful hairdresser has not always been easy. At his lowest point, his struggle with depression led to his hospitalisation. “Everyone thinks the road to the top is a smooth ride,” he says, “but I want people to understand that there are bumps in the road to success”.

Leaving school at the age of 15, Sorbie followed in both his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps by entering the barbering profession. He spent 5 years at his father’s 2-chair barbershop in Essex, before enrolling on a course at the Richard Henry School of Hairdressing. Following this, he continued his training at Sassoon’s, eventually becoming art director aged 23. 

Sorbie’s first salon opened its doors in 1979 in the heart of London’s Covent Garden. Punk had hit and Sorbie was firmly under its spell.