Originally published in the North Norfolk News, November 2006. Lightly proofread from the surviving column copy, with routine sign-offs or unrelated asides trimmed. The views, figures and circumstances are those of the period.
Being just a humble guy from Norfolk, I was overwhelmed by the amount of support I had for my haircut at the Celebrity Scissorhands academy two weeks ago.
As mentioned last time I wrote, London is a whole new world compared to Norfolk, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Spending a day at BBC TV centre was a completely different experience, and very pleasant. I spent my time mingling with musicians and relatives of the celebrities from Celebrity Scissorhands, and given as many cups of tea as I wanted! Other celebrities wandering around the building at that very time included Take That, the director general of the BBC, and Peter Andre.
Inside the Celebrity Scissorhands academy despite the initial shock of realising your every move is being followed by many cameras, everyone made you feel welcome. Even 80s pop legend Steve Strange who was demanding an ‘S’ was dyed in the back of his head.
There weren’t many silences with my celebrity hairdresser – Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills – and he even spent time talking to me about my job at the supermarket and my newspaper column! I was unaware that many of my conversations were going out live on an interactive stream on digital television, and the only reminder it was a television studio was the camera in the corner occasionally making a movement.
But the most important question – was I happy with the haircut? It took three hours of efforts from Scott and a little help from his celebrity pals, but by the end of it I was looking quite pleased with it. I had a few doubts after he stuck far too much gel in it, but after washing all that out it actually looked quite impressive. It’s hard to believe two weeks before my haircut none of those at the academy had cut hair before!
In the years approaching the age of 16, us teenagers spend most of our time trying to convince adults we’re not old enough to pay adult rates on the buses, trains and cinemas. They’re all too quick to charge us the extra amount. So it seems you can’t win now at the age of 18 it takes a hell of a lot to prove adults I’m an adult too. When entering club nights at the University of East Anglia or trying to buy a pint it takes a lot of convincing. The ID I have – which can be used in many places as proof of age – isn’t accepted by them as they claim many lie on the forms about their date of birth, and so the only acceptable ID is passports and driving licenses. I don’t drive and I don’t own a passport! I’m pretty sure I look 18, why do I have to go through all this hassle?