How Grace Coddington Is Maintaining Her Iconic Red Hair Color in Quarantine
Grace Coddington is synonymous with red hair. This has been true ever since the early ‘90s, when the legendary Vogue stylist first dyed her lengths a blazing shade of crimson, but was made all the more so upon the release of the 2009 documentary The September Issue, which catapulted her to a new kind of recognizable-on-the-street fame. For years, many a New Yorker has relished the sight of Coddington with that unmistakable shock of russet hair trailing behind her on the West Side of the city.
A few weeks ago, in search of a distraction while at home, I reached for my bright orange copy of Coddington's beautiful memoir to provide some much-needed escapism. And that it did, ranging from her musings on her childhood spent in Trearddur Bay, a small town on Holy Island in Wales, to her casual tales of becoming a model on the Swinging Sixties scene in London, to starting her styling career at British Vogue before moving across the pond to American Vogue. Towards the end of the book, Coddington gets candid about her signature red hair, insisting that she'd be unrecognizable without it and that it's worth the high-maintenance upkeep. As a bottle blonde nursing grown-in dark roots in the time of social distancing, I could relate—and it got me thinking about how Coddington is faring without her longtime colorist Louis Licari. I wondered, was she, like so many of us, trying at-home color or contemplating going gray?
Graciously, she made herself available for answers, taking Vogue through her quiet life in quarantine, legendary hair history, and how she's adjusting to life without hair salons for the foreseeable future.
To start, where are you quarantining, and what has life been like during this surreal time?
My partner Didier and I have had this house in Wainscott for 30 years. Like so many people, we rushed out of the city. There's so much more space [here], and everything is slower and quieter and so on. To be cramped up in an apartment in the city, we'd be killing each other. [Laughs] We're very lucky, and we've had this house for so long. It's really a second home—and jam-packed with stuff, lots of personal things. We've been hanging out here and it's a bit like, 'Oh, this is what it's like if you're retired or something.'
Many are surprised when they learn you weren't always a redhead. Could you take me through the evolution of your hair before going red?
I suppose it started back in 1959 when I first started modeling. I have very good strong hair, and I did a lot of hair pictures with Teasie Weasie, otherwise known as Raymond [Bessone], an English hairdresser that was quite famous. But he cut my hair off, dyed it white blonde, and it looked terrible. It was the time of the beehive and things like that. Very quickly after that, I found Vidal Sassoon, or he found me. I started doing tons of things with him. You know, notably stylized haircuts and particularly, the five-point haircut. We kind of went on tour together. It wasn't just me and him, it was like a whole load of girls and things. And we toured doing hair shows all over England and Scotland. It was kind of crazy, a bit like a rock band. That was the start of my hair thing. And then I started seeing Leonard Lewis at Vidal Sassoon. I went to him for a long time, and at one point, he cut my hair very, very, very, very short, kind of like Mia Farrow.
Grace Coddington
After that, I cut it several times with various cuts... shorter, longer, once with a little bob like Anna's. One time, I dyed it white blonde myself in the bathroom. That was a bit scary. I had it like that for a year. It was very, very short. I thought I looked like Marilyn Monroe and I thought blondes had the best of time, but I'm not sure that I did. [Laughs] Anyways, at Leonard's [salon], there was a guy named Daniel, who started to do my color. We used to henna it, which was kind of fun. As it grew, we kept henna-ing it and then permed it. I started having the big frizzy hair look thing. Eventually, the perm grew out, but my hair was still curly. Or, rather not so tight that you couldn't get a comb through it like a perm. So I just sort of left it. When I came to New York, it was pretty long and frizzy, but only slightly red. When I went to work at American Vogue, I guess I started being very conscious of my hair again. I was working with Steven Meisel and he kept saying, 'You should really make your color more distinctive.' His boyfriend at the time, Benjamin, used to be a hairdresser, so he said, 'Benjamin can color your hair for you and see how you like it.' So one night we went to Garren's salon and Benjamin did the color for my hair. And I thought, 'Oh, this is kind of great.' So from then on, I've been coloring it red. So anyway, I couldn't keep calling up Steven for Benjamin. So then I started looking for someone that could do the roots, which would be I suppose every six weeks. Phyllis Posnick said to me, 'Oh, you should go to Louis Licari.' So I went there and he's been doing my hair for probably 25 years.
Grace Coddington And Karen Elson
Red hair is notoriously difficult to maintain—what was your regimen like pre-quarantine and how have you adjusted without being able to go to the salon?
Louis is amazing because red hair is very difficult to get right, or to get at all, because each time you do it, it responds differently and it comes out a different color. It's complicated. Anyway, he's just an expert at it. He's really amazing and he fits me in at any time. Before quarantine, I was going probably every 10 days because, if I didn't, then it'd be completely white gray. Obviously being out here in Wainscott with all the hairdressers closed, it's a bit of a problem. [Laughs] But I've been here seven and a half weeks now. It's grown about one and a half inches, something like that. So what I do is, I touch it up with Color Wow Root Cover Up. It's a little trick I learned when I was shooting with Lady Gaga. Her stylist said, 'Oh, you should try this!' because my roots were showing. I was complaining about it and he said, 'Oh, I use this all the time.' And I believe he used it on Gaga because at that point she was wearing white blonde paired up with dark roots. The next day of the shoot, he came with Color Wow in my red shade. He tried it on me. It was so good! It completely covered it up. I mean, it gets to be a little scratchy if you don't wash it off because it's powder, but that's how I've dealt with it. I mean, I don't know, sometimes I just leave it gray because it's okay, really. Other times, like when I did an Instagram Live with Edward [Enninful], I looked at myself and I thought I better do something about it. [Laughs] So I used the Color Wow and even though it's quite a big growth, I think it disguises it really, really well.
Color Wow Root Cover Up
$35.00, AMAZON
In your memoir, you mention that you think about going gray sometimes—has that crossed your mind during this time?
In my head, I would love to be an older person with gray hair. I think it can be very beautiful. But I think gray hair with my skin tone isn't as flattering. I'll just look kind of gray all over. Also, red hair is such a signature for me. You know, I've suggested it several times to people and they say, 'Oh no, don't do that!'
Have you been in touch with Louis? I know that some colorists are making custom kits for clients if they to do a DIY touch-up
I called Louis to make sure he's good and he seems to be good. And he seems to be very positive. I hope everything is going to be okay for him when he can finally open up again. Obviously for people like hairdressers, it's hard to manage how one is going to feel because obviously people have to be in very close quarters.
As for doing it myself, I think I'd just really mess it up and it just wouldn't match, you know? When you have blonde streaks or something, it's much easier to match it up. But red is really, really tricky because there's so many different reds, and even if the color is custom done, how long you leave it on..... I mean, if it goes six months, yes maybe. [Laughs] I think three months I could manage, probably.
What do you love most about being a redhead?
You know, I think on a dull day and if you want to dress in a kind of classic way, it's something that just brightens up the whole look and just makes you feel more kempt or kept to have a strong color as opposed to some wishy-washy color or going slightly gray color. I think it looks good. I tend to work with redhead models, as you may have noticed. [Laughs] It cheers you up. I mean, every time I go and get mine redone, it's like taking a big, deep breath somehow. You feel better. You feel more together.
Grace: A Memoir
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Originally Appeared on Vogue
