Twiggy: 'I would never ever have Botox, it's poison'

“I hadn’t seen it and the first thing I knew was when someone sent a tweet saying, ‘I love your jacket - where’s it from?’

“Most of the time I go unrecognised, but everyone has cameras on their phones now so it’s just part of being in the public eye. If you allow yourself to get upset, you’re not going to go anywhere.”

Born Lesley Hornby in Neasden, northwest London, Twiggy has spent almost 50 years in the spotlight – as a model, presenter, actress, singer and, most recently, clothes designer for Marks & Spencer – so she is used to dealing with controversy. 

“I was blamed for anorexia back in the day, but I always came out strongly and said I ate like a horse,” she says. “I’ve been slim most of my life and never had to diet, apart from the odd time when I’ve felt stodgy after Christmas, like anyone does. But then I just need to stop eating cake and mince pies for a couple of weeks.

“My lovely dad was the same weight when he died at 82 as he was in his twenties and he ate perfectly normally. I’m small-boned like him.”

As for surgery, she’s sitting firmly in the “never say never” camp. “I haven’t had anything done yet but I might wake up one day and think, ‘Oh my God!’ I have friends who have had little cosmetic nips and tucks and if it works for you, I just think you need to make sure you research it properly.”

There’s only one thing Twiggy is adamant about. “I would never, ever have Botox because it’s poison. They say it disappears, but how do they know? What happens to it?”

Of course she doesn’t really need the injections because, in addition to the bone structure that made her a star, she’s gone for what’s known in the business as “natural Botox”, aka a fringe. “I’ve had one since my forties – it softens your look.”

Twiggy’s new role for L’Oréal Professionnel saw her reunited with Daniel Galvin OBE, the legendary colourist who helped create that trademark style in 1966. 

“It will be 50 years ago next year and I only have good memories of working with Daniel,” Twiggy says. 

“I was a very ordinary, little, working-class girl, so when I walked into the salon it was like going in to a palace. What happened to me was almost like Cinderella. I was very shy and intimidated at first but Leonard, who did the cut, and Daniel were so lovely. I didn’t know then that they were as working class as me.”

It took about seven hours to transform her mousey locks into the blonde crop that grabbed the world’s attention. 

“Before Daniel, I used to colour my own hair. I’d buy a dye from Woolworths, bung it on and my hair might have gone a bit green but you just got on with it. 

“I’ve never been very brave with my colour – I’ve had blonde highlights since Daniel did them all those years ago. But they do say blondes have more fun,” she adds.

Then the model, who has been married to her actor husband Leigh Lawson since 1988, reveals something that will make many women of her age – and considerably younger – green with envy. “I’ve got no grey – it’s really weird,” she says. “I only know because my colourist tells me that it’s still mousey brown.” 

With a career trajectory that took her from school girl to overnight sensation, what does she think made her such a success? “When I modelled, it was a lot about my personality as well as my looks, and that’s probably why what happened to me happened. It’s why Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss are so big today. There are loads of pretty girls, but it has to be the whole package.”

It’s only when she talks about being starstruck that you realise quite what an astonishing situation she found herself in. “I’ve met extraordinary people including my hero Fred Astaire. He was so stylish and I loved his singing voice.

I was invited to tea at his house in the Hollywood Hills when I was there working on The Boy Friend [her first acting role, for which she won two Golden Globes]. I was 20 and he was 72, and he was absolutely divine. We kept in touch and every time I went back, we would go out for dinner.”

By that point, though, Twiggy had been mixing in extraordinary circles for several years. “I was only 17 and a half when Sonny and Cher threw a party for me in LA. Steve McQueen was there and he asked me to dance with him, but I turned him down as I was so shy,” she says.

It’s amazing that such a fast ascent didn’t leave her with a case of the Lindsay Lohans, but there’s one person she credits with keeping her on the straight and narrow.

“I loved and adored my dad – he was an amazing man. He was from Bolton and I always say he’s where I got my ‘normalness’ from. 

He used to say, ‘Now don’t let it go to your head, Lesley. It’s only the papers,’” she mimics in a Northern accent. “He was very sensible and 

I still feel pretty grounded. When I look back at what happened and how I could very easily have gone off the rails, I’m sure it was all down to Dad.” 

The excitement that surrounded her was akin to Beatlemania. “My first big gig was in Paris then a year later I went to New York,” she recalls. “It was 1967 during the British Invasion and I was mobbed. 

“Bert Stern made a documentary about the trip. All the young girls were in knee-length coats and pillbox hats, looking like Jackie Kennedy even though they were the same age as me. I look like an alien being – I’ve got this mini fluffy coat on, my little short haircut, my eyelashes painted on and my little skinny legs, and the girls are getting hysterical. 

“They stop this middle-aged man in a trilby and raincoat and ask what he thinks. He says, ‘Yeah, she’s cute, she’s cute. She’ll last a couple of weeks,’ and that’s how it ends. It’s brilliant. Little did they know!” 

Twiggy is the muse of L’Oréal Professionnel UK Majirel High Lift’s Shimmering Blonde Service, which is available in salons nationwide this month. See lorealprofessionnel.co.uk.

Pictures for L’Oréal Professionnel / Hair Colour: Daniel Galvin OBE / Photographs: BRIAn Aris / BARRY LATEGAN