A recent trip to London allowed us to go Under the Dryer at Asphair hair salon, located at 224 Brixton Hill.

Owned by the charming Olive Miller, who remains a proud Jamaican after 20 years in the United Kingdom, the ultra-swanky salon is operated in a super-efficient, professional manner by her and niece Aisha Brown. So impressed were we that after a quick wash-and-style ahead of leaving for Milan Fashionweek, we made a mental note to return.

Indeed, we did. This time, to find out a bit more about the industrious, peroxide-blonde, low-Afro-wearing Miller.

Miller, a 1984 graduate of the Jamaica School of Drama, whose tutors were Pierre Lemaire and Hortense Lindsay and whose classmates included Rosemary Howard, Alton Ellis and Kingsley ‘Ragashanti’ Stewart, was eager to show off her acting skills in the United Kingdom. She did in fact perform in the stage play, Dead Lef, and was part of the Blue Mountain Theatre Co. Miller soon discovered that she would have to contemplate a career change or continue packing boxes at global grocery and general merchandise retailer, Tesco. Her knack for hairstyling (a skill developed in Jamaica) led her to college as well as to become a trainer with L’Oréal. The rest is now a success story Miller is proud to share, especially the part about having to finance her elegant salon from her own pocket when the financial entities were unwilling to lend her money.

It’s now five years since she’s moved into her state-of-the-art salon that now boasts Asphair Skin Deep Treatment Rooms where technicians offer Danné Botanical Skin and Body treatments.

Asphair

224 Brixton Hill

Brixton

London SW2 1HE

Tel# 0208 671 5550