A touch of colour?

Downing Street was riddled with speculation at the weekend. But this time it was on matters less public than the recent internecine fighting over the date of Blair's leaving do; indeed, matters had moved on to the shade of the Prime Minister's hair do. And whilst this is not the first time the Administration has publicly denied claims of a bottle blonde Blair, there has been surprisingly little media coverage beyond a single weekend story in the Guardian. Which only leads us to assume the roots (of the story) have been well covered up.

Nevertheless, the Labour ranks have no doubt been gossiping over the water cooler about their boss's recent penchance for hitting the bottle (of peroxide). And whilst it is tempting to digress into a psychological deconstruction of what such an image update is meant to manifest, project, or simply correct. We will refrain; partly because the uncoloured sideburns speak for themselves, and partly because the weekend booby prize already went to Andre Agassi for his shameless blubbering.

But then I am not well disposed to speak of Agassi's image, I still see him as a 16-year-old petulant teenager in long hair, denim and DayGlo. What the former great, Ivan Lendl, once called "just a haircut and a forehand." Which I acknowledge is unfair as the balding icon has been defying his age for years now, prolonging the inevitable through sheer will and periodic spinal cortisone shots. Only to admit in recent interviews that he was starting to appear "more ordinary" than he wanted, and he would rather walk away than be ordinary.

And then I remembered the famous three words that Andre brazenly declared on billboards back when he was hairy and denim-clad: Image Is Everything. And whilst I still blame Agassi for leading us down the dangerous path of denim shorts and pink spandex, his image undeniably had an impact from start to finish. Some people will remember Andre as a pigeon toed shuffler and others as a graceful master of court, but everybody remembers him, even after the finish line.

But for Blair, the race hasn't stopped. With nearly ten years of practice, he is still balancing his egg on the spoon. And while he may be refusing to fire the starting gun, that hasn't stopped would-be successors from getting into the blocks. It's not, as Charles Ryder says in Brideshead Revisited, what one would have foretold. But with a looming Tory contender on the right side of 50, Britain's Prime Minister is trying to win as a blonde.

If your image (or fringe) needs a touch up:

Check out Taylor Taylor, London's trendy, friendly hair salon, that recently opened it's London flagship location off of Brick Lane. With rave reviews from Vogue, Time Out, and the Evening Standard; and with celebrity regulars including James Blunt, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Zoe Ball, and KT Tunstall you should emerge sharply shorn. With superior service, competitive pricing and Sunday trading it should attract Spitalfield market shoppers as well as hungover heads looking to update their multi-layered mullets.