Hair for the Season: How to Wear Your Hair to Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and Henley
The London social season is the one stretch of the year when everyone we know suddenly needs hair that holds up under a hat, a heatwave and a long lens. Royal Ascot opens Tuesday 16 June with Ladies Day on Thursday the 19th, Wimbledon serves off on Sunday 29 June, and Henley sits in between.
If you've got tickets to any of it, the appointment to book is the one before the day, not the morning of. Here's how we're styling our clients for each event this year, and what to ask for when you book.
Royal Ascot — the hatted chignon
Ascot has a hat. That single fact dictates everything about the hair underneath it. The look that works — and photographs — is a low, sculpted chignon that sits at the nape, leaves the crown smooth enough for the hat to perch cleanly, and doesn't crush down to nothing by Thursday afternoon. We build it on dry, prepped hair with a heat-styled wave first for grip, then a low pony at the nape, twisted into a soft figure-of-eight and pinned. The trick that separates a polished Ascot chignon from a wedding-guest bun is the front: we leave a millimetre of softness at the hairline and around the ear so the look reads finished, not pulled. Bring your hat or fascinator to the appointment. We will absolutely sit it on your head before you leave.
Wimbledon — the polished pony
Wimbledon is hotter, longer, and you're outdoors for hours. The hair that survives Centre Court without going limp is a polished, mid-height ponytail,
think Kate Middleton on finals day rather than off-duty Bella. The base is glossed and smoothed with a small flat iron, the ponytail sits just below the crown (high enough to look intentional, low enough to lean back against a seat), and the tail itself is loosely waved so it doesn't read severe. We finish with a section of hair wrapped around the band to hide the elastic — small detail, completely changes the photograph. If you're going for several days in a row, book a refresh blow-dry on the morning of finals.
Henley — the loose summer wave
Henley Royal Regatta is the most relaxed event of the three. The dress code is strict (blazers, longer skirts, no mobiles in the Stewards' Enclosure) but the hair is the opposite — soft, undone, summery. Our Henley brief is almost always a loose tonged wave with a deep side parting and the ends left airy rather than curled tight. We use a 32mm tong, wrap away from the face, and break the curl down with fingers and a little texture spray so it looks like the wind has been at it (in a good way). If your hair is finer, we'll add a few clip-in pieces around the back for body — they come out in two seconds and nobody will know.
Booking the right appointment, the right way
The single biggest mistake clients make in season is booking too late. If your event is on a Thursday, book the styling appointment for that morning or the afternoon before — fresh styling holds best in the first twenty-four hours. If you need colour done for the event, book that ten to fourteen days in advance: a freshly toned blonde or copper photographs better with a few days to settle. Tell us on the call which event you're going to. Ascot hair is built differently from Wimbledon hair, and the chair time we block is different too — a chignon with hat-fitting needs ninety minutes; a polished pony is forty-five.
A note on your hat, your hair, and the wind
One genuinely useful tip we've learned from doing this for years: bring kirby grips. Even the best-set chignon will benefit from a few discreet grips through the hat band on a windy day at Ascot, and a strong gust on the lawns at Henley will undo a wave faster than anything. We send clients off with a small handful of grips and a travel-size hairspray. It is not glamorous. It is what saves the photograph.
Both Gusto salons are booking up fast for the season — Ladies Day at Ascot is filling at Covent Garden already and Wimbledon finals weekend is filling at Oxford Street. If you've got an event in the diary, get the slot in now and we'll plan the hair around it. Bring the hat, the dress code notes, and a picture of how you'd like to feel walking in. We'll do the rest.
