Celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke was pictured carrying his possessions out of his closed Mayfair salon today into a rented Zipcar van – after he sparked a backlash by suggesting that WFH culture has caused many workers to become more lazy and entitled.

Clarke, who has cut and styled the hair of thousands of high-profile clients including Princess Diana, Fergie, Thatcher, Brad Pitt, Elizabeth Taylor and David Bowie, this week told devastated staff that his salon would be closing due to Covid lockdowns and rising rents.

When MailOnline called Clarke’s salon today, an automated voice message said that the shop had closed after more than 30 years of business.

In a dig at the WFH culture which has taken root after two years of on-off restrictions, the 63-year-old fashion icon told GB News hosts Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster that many hairdressers now expect to be ‘paid the same for less’ work.

Clarke, whose hands were famously once insured for £1million, said: ‘The thing that the pandemic has changed, not just in terms of the clients coming in and not wanting to be in Mayfair, also I think, attitudes of the workers. You’ve got so many people really, that are wanting to do less days and, being paid the same amount of money, but I think mostly it was the fact that we set a standard that was at a very high level. We did something very, very new… and we weren’t really able to continue at that level.’

But trade unions have now blasted Clarke and urged the hairstylist to ‘get real and appreciate the struggles working people are facing’ during the cost-of-living crisis. They also claimed that hairdressers were ‘amongst the most badly affected workers’ during the pandemic and two years of on-off shutdowns. MailOnline has contacted his representatives for comment.

GMB National Officer Nadine Houghton said: ‘The pandemic showed us all who the essential workers were – ordinary working people who kept the country going through unprecedented times. Their reward afterwards is a cost of living crisis. 

‘They are struggling to get fair pay. They are dealing with bosses with the same disrespectful attitudes as Nicky Clarke. Working people put in the hard graft to keep our country going. They shouldn’t have to work all hours for the very wealthiest like Mr Clarke to give them a crumb of respect. Mr Clarke needs to get real and appreciate the struggles working people are facing.’

Richard Lambert, chief executive of the National Hair & Beauty Federation, added: ‘I have to strongly disagree that stylists and staff have become lazy. 

‘The pandemic has had a huge effect on everyone’s lives and hairdressers were amongst the most badly affected workers. The pandemic accelerated the industry shift towards self-employment and many people are leaving hairdressing for better paid work in other sectors. 

‘Our latest report demonstrates how these, along with a number of other factors have come together in a ‘perfect storm’ to create a skills and employment crisis within hair and beauty. These need addressing now to ensure the long term success of our industry.’

Announcing the closure of the salon, Clarke said: ‘This prestigious salon has been in Mayfair for over 30 years and has been a huge part of our lives, both personally and professionally. However, the last two years have been the toughest we have experienced, with Covid-enforced, long-term closures, rising rates and overheads making the salon no longer economically sustainable.’

Clarke, whose business empire was said to be worth £60million before Covid struck, added: ‘This was not an easy decision to make, we have spent months exploring alternative solutions to keep the salon in business but unfortunately these have not come to fruition.

‘All staff impacted will be paid fully and all our obligations to them fulfilled. We’re incredibly grateful to the dedication and hard work of every single member of staff.’

A haircut with Clarke, whose hands were once insured for £1million, costs £650. On one occasion, he was booked by L’Oreal to style film star Isabella Rossellini’s hair. 

‘I did three blow-dries for £12,000,’ he explained.

He founded the business with long-term girlfriend, Lesley Clarke, 68, thanks to a £20,000 loan. But the pair, who have two grown-up children, split up after Nicky had an affair with Susie Bick, a Vivienne Westwood model. However, they continued as business partners. 

Lesley told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s heart-breaking. I’m really sad. It’s something I never thought would happen, but the pandemic took its toll on us.

‘The lack of footfall in Mayfair, the rents, the rates, no travel because we have a lot of international clients. Mayfair isn’t a residential area any more – we couldn’t even rely on passing trade. It was a joint decision.

‘We tried very hard to keep it going and we both put our own money in. It’s like losing a child. The staff are like a family.’

Clarke has said he’s committed to keeping his salon in Birmingham open, as well as his electrical hair tools business.

The hairstylist, who was raised in a London council flat, received an OBE in 2008 and was the first crimper to appear in Who’s Who.

He says he’s committed to keeping his salon in Birmingham open, as well as his electrical hair tools business. Last year, he married fashion designer Kelly Simpkin, 40, with whom he has two young children. They met 12 years ago when Kelly was a stylist in his salon. 

Clarke admitted to finding being an older father challenging, saying: ‘I should be driving Ferraris, not changing nappies and getting up at six in the morning.’

His interest in hairdressing started when he was a teenager and he began cutting the hair of his friends and classmates. He started cutting hair professionally when he was just 16, landing a gig as an apprentice at House of Leonard where John Frieda worked.

An early bloomer, Clarke his first Vogue shoot at the age of just 17 in 1976. He and John later left Leonards and set up a salon of their own on Marylebone Road, taking most of the clientele with them. He was working as second in command to John, and together they created the famous Purdy cut.

He met his long-term girlfriend Lesley through David Van Day, one half of the singing duo Dollar, whom Lesley was dating at the time in 1982. The other half, Theresa Bazar, had her hair cut by Nicky. 

But it was then the hairdresser developed an addiction to heroin while embroiled in the New Romantics music scene of the 1980s. He was part of a crowd that included Boy George and Steve Strange, who both almost died from drug addiction years later.

It was only after Lesley, threatened to ‘kick him out or call the police’ that Clarke was forced to face his demons.

In 2013, he finally confessed to the secret addiction, telling the Daily Mail: ‘It’s my biggest regret, and it horrifies me even now, but I have been in rehab for heroin addiction. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken about it.

‘It was a very short period of my life and I went in with a small but regular heroin habit that I had for a year. I am sickened when I look back.’

He said: ‘Mine had been a very private habit, it was small but regular. I never mainlined heroin [he smoked or snorted it] – I can’t bear all that dirt.

‘I was there [in rehab] for ten weeks and they gave me nothing, so I had to go cold turkey. I absolutely hated being there. I was silent and huddled for a week. I felt like my life was being taken over because everything you do becomes psycho-analysed, and I just had to get out of there.

‘When people came out they would go to those narcotics anonymous meetings. I went to about four and I hated it. It was a lot of euphoric recall, and it was so not me.

‘I never touched it ever again but I can’t erase the past. Just remembering the smell made me feel sick.’

After getting clean, Clarke returned to working in John Frieda’s salon when a series of rows saw him leave the salon in 1991.

By that stage, Lesley had given up her job in fashion to devote herself to being a full-time mother.

However it was Lesley who came up with a rescue plan for the family and set about finding a salon so Clarke could branch out on his own.

He and Lesley took a huge risk, taking out an £20,000 loan to fund their first Mayfair salon, which they filled with borrowed antiques. 

Meanwhile, Lesley – also self-made, and the daughter of a milkman – was raising two small children Harrison, and daughter Tellisa, while working full-tilt. She has recalled that at home they sat on deckchairs on bare floorboards because they couldn’t afford furniture or carpets.

Clarke swiftly accrued a high society clientele, becoming one of the most sought-after hairdressers in Britain with royalty and rock stars clamouring for appointments.

In 1997, he and Lesley bought a £6million house, but shortly after they moved there, Lesley discovered he was having an affair with Susie Bick, then a Vivienne Westwood model. Their marriage ended after the affair and Lesley was so devastated that she suffered a nervous breakdown.

Lesley explained in an interview: ‘Nicky had an affair and when I found out, he stopped seeing the woman [Susie Bick, then a Vivienne Westwood model] immediately. There was no confrontation. But the damage was done.’

Even in the rancorous aftermath of the split, when Lesley felt ‘pain was raining down on her’, they did not contemplate severing their business links and she remained CEO of the family business as she had been for 29 years.

‘The business was always going to carry on,’ said Lesley. ‘It’s like a third child and you don’t abandon a child if you split up, do you? We built it from scratch with a £20,000 loan together.’

The business garnered a veritable Who’s Who of clients over the years including Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Moss, Brad Pitt, Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher.