Twiggy reveals how a haircut changed her life

Twiggy has explained how a haircut unexpectedly changed her life.

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Twiggy has reflected on her rise
Twiggy has reflected on her rise

Twiggy's life was changed by a trip to a hair salon.

The 77-year-old star was initially discovered in improbable circumstances, after a fashion editor saw a photo of her in a London hair salon.

Twiggy told People: "It was mad, really.

"I couldn’t have planned any of it. If I’d gone to a modelling agency and said ‘I’d like to model,’ they’d have turned me away. I was too short. I was too small. I just didn’t have the measurements."

In 1966, Twiggy headed to a hair salon in preparation for a night out.

The iconic star said: "It was serendipity, because I went to that salon to have my hair styled, and Leonard [Lewis, the celebrity hairdresser], saw me and said, ‘Can I cut your hair?’

"The funny thing was, I didn’t want my hair cut, because I was a mod, and I liked it long and parted in the middle.

"[But] because I was so timid and in this posh Mayfair salon, I was too shy to say no to him!"

Twiggy ultimately walked out of the salon with her iconic pixie cut, and she now admits that the distinctive look changed her life.

She said: "The photographer, Barry Luttigam, that was the first shot he did of me, which is amazing really, because it became the most famous shot. He just pulled me in front of the camera and said, ‘Look in the lens, which is what I did."

A fashion journalist subsequently spotted Twiggy's photo hanging in the salon, before reaching out to her to offer some modelling work.

Twiggy added: "I didn’t look like anybody else at the time, which is why I think it all happened."

Meanwhile, Twiggy previously admitted that she never planned her career in detail.

The model had ambitions of becoming a fashion designer during her teenage years - but her career took her in another direction.

She told Harper's Bazaar magazine: "I was so young when it happened to me. I hadn’t even thought about a career. I was still at school. My vague ambition was to become a fashion designer, as I loved making my own clothes. But then the world had other ideas…"