Stylists, having moved their dryers to create the right harmony and stuck new age messages above their shampoo bowls, are now offering to cut clients’ hair according to the ancient Chinese philosophy of positive energy flow. Feng shui hairdressing promises not only to cure split ends but to balance your “yin and yang”, the constantly changing opposing patterns of life.

Jennifer Lopez, the actress and singer, and Jerry Hall are among the celebrities to have life-enhancing haircuts. Hall, the ex-wife of Mick Jagger, says that her stylist “gets rid of all your negativity and sorrow when he cuts your hair”.

In its original form, feng shui, meaning wind and water, is the Chinese art of arranging buildings and interiors to maintain spiritual equilibrium. In its tonsorial guise, feng shui works on the principle that your hair should be styled in harmony with what it reveals about the roots of your personality.

The secret, according to stylists, lies in how hair grows on the nape of the neck. If it grows evenly and directly to the middle, it suggests a serious and analytical person. If it grows out to the ears on both sides, it indicates a fun-loving personality. Hair that grows upwards towards the crown points to an intuitive man or woman. If it swirls in circles, it singles you out as a non-conformist.

The hairdressers then follow these directions in fashioning a style. Each personality type should have their self- confidence boosted by a cut that follows the shape and movement of their hair.

At his salon in Gloucester last week, John Phelps was cutting bonsai trees in half to encourage creativity among his apprentices. “You have to be a bit potty to be a hairdresser,” he said. “But feng shui hairdressing has arrived in Britain. I have set up my salon on the design of the bagua, the feng shui symbol of harmony.”

He added: “I have cut four different styles of tree as styles in people’s hair and now I want to attempt a fiery dragon.”

Errol Douglas, whose salon in Belgravia, central London, attracts such clients as Kelly Brook, the actress, and Iman, the model and wife of David Bowie, said: “It might sound like mumbo jumbo but I am sure there is a market for this.”

Feng shui hairdressing has come from America where its principal exponent is Michael Motorcycle, who cuts the hair of Hall and her daughter Elizabeth Jagger, the model, for £30 at his salon in Dallas, Texas.

His real name is Michael Kolar but he changed it after a “life-changing experience” in which his water bed burst, he decided to sell his motorcycle as he stood in the mess and minutes later a man banged on his door asking to buy it.

Motorcycle, 57, said: “I can read people’s personalities by the way their hair grows. I read the follicle and how it comes out of the pore. I bring it all together in tune with the shape of the face, the direction the hair grows.”

Hall said in an interview: “He finds out what your hair wants to do and lets it do just that.”

Sylvia Bennett, of the Feng Shui Society’s London group, said: “This is a product of American feng shui which offers magic cures and superstitions. It won’t sit comfortably with British people, who are more intellectual and reserved in their approach to new theories.”

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