Glastonbury 2023: Hair salons and beauty bars – how festival has gone from grime to glam | Ents & Arts News

There as soon as was a time, not so way back, that the one sort of tub you’d get at Glastonbury could be a mud tub.

Over 5 or 6 days, the very best the typical hygienic camper may hope for was a faucet rinse or wet-wipe wash and a hide-all bucket hat – however actually, anybody getting the true Worthy Farm pageant expertise needed to go away grand notions of wanting glamorous again at dwelling.

Images of significantly moist and dirty years – corresponding to 2005, when some tents have been submerged – have been half and parcel of the Glastonbury expertise, as have been wise waterproofs, sturdy boots, and long-drop rest room horror tales.

Now, nonetheless, whereas the bathrooms may nonetheless be an ordeal, the pageant seems very completely different. Thank Kate Moss and her micro shorts. And Sienna Miller and her boho belts, Alexa Chung and her PVC skinnies. It began with the celebs, and filtered out to the 200,000-ish non-famouses who now attend every year.

Glastonbury has moved with the occasions, and it isn’t simply concerning the outfits. In 2023, festival-goers is perhaps sleeping in tents, however are capable of appear to be they only stepped out of a salon, due to hairdressing and wonder pop-ups on website.

On the Blowfest stall, not removed from the Pyramid stage, you’ll be able to deal with your self to something from a easy hair wash for £15 to a inventive blow-dry and styling for £60. Bookings opened in March – and similar to the sale for tickets for the pageant itself, demand was so excessive that the web site crashed.

On website, the queue had began to construct by 8.30am on Friday.

Natalie Walton, 29, from Kent, joined the road snaking outdoors to get her hair washed.

“There isn’t any higher feeling as a lady,” she instructed Sky Information. “I simply hate the sensation of sweat in my hair… there needs to be extra tents [like this], I believe, personally. There’s so many ladies right here that want their hair performed.”

At dwelling, Natalie straightens her hair on daily basis – and sleeping in a tent means too many kinks.

“I have been as soon as earlier than and I received it final 12 months as nicely,” she mentioned. “I recognize it.”

Due to social media, festival-goers wish to look their finest. Gone are the cellular phone-less days, when what went on at Glastonbury stayed at Glastonbury.

Nevertheless it’s partly right down to the altering climate, too. It has been a couple of years since Glastonbury has seen the torrential downpours and mud-wading of significantly rain years corresponding to 1997 and 2005. Sunshine equals summer time garments and, for many, higher hair.

For Amy Roberts, 27, from Liverpool, that is her fifth time on the pageant. At dwelling, she solely washes her hair as soon as every week – however Glastonbury requires extra effort.

“I wakened this morning and there have been spiders in it and every thing,” she mentioned. “I am probably not a glamour individual, however… I wish to look good. I do not wish to look a multitude.

“The primary time I got here right here I used to be solely 19, I did not wash my hair… it was on and off raining, [my hair] was terrible.”

Rachel Bacon, who runs the stall, is right here for the second 12 months after big demand in 2022. The salon gives primarily washes and blow-drying, however can embody trims as nicely and a barber’s service.

“Friday and Saturday will at all times be pretty busy,” she mentioned. “I believe final Saturday [in 2022], individuals waited about as much as three hours simply to get a hair wash.

“I believe with the way in which that life is altering, with social media and digital camera telephones and the expertise that we have got now, everyone needs to look good on a regular basis to have the ability to take photographs and submit them on-line. So if that features being at a pageant and having fabulous hair you simply simply go together with it.”

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Blowfest even had purchasers on the primary official day of the pageant on Wednesday – when music followers had solely simply left their properties and clear loos – after rain earlier within the day.

“Folks simply needed to come back in and dry their hair off or restraighten it,” Rachel mentioned, “even on Wednesday”.

Whereas some might say hair washing and blow-dries are a world away from the Glastonbury of previous, the demand is there – and what’s flawed with wanting your finest?

“There is a little bit of a blended feeling in direction of, you understand, ‘oh, it isn’t a hippie pageant anymore if individuals are going to get hair washed’,” Rachel mentioned. “However everyone’s particular person and everyone needs their very own factor.”