Celebrity hairstylist Paul Yacomine spent 14 years developing his new hair treatment range. He talks to Women's Editor Lindsay Jennings about the search for the perfect formla, Hollywood actress Andie MacDowell and living in a draughty warehouse.

FOR someone who has styled the most beautiful actresses and models in the world, Paul Yacomine is decidedly down-to-earth. There's no public relations assistant by his shoulder, giving him a knowing look if he goes off-message. Instead there's just Paul, dressed in a pair of jeans, a plain brown jumper and laughing loudly as he recounts why his PR isn't with him.

"It's probably because I crashed the car last time she was in it," he says in his native Glaswegian brogue, later pointing out that it was "just a scratch".

Paul is used to straight talking. The Scot was born and brought up in the Gorbals, Glasgow's equivalent of London's East End and a place he couldn't wait to leave at the age of 16.

"My brother used to be a hairdresser in London doing what I'm doing now and I used to go and stay with him," he says. "I used to love it there, the clothes, the music, it was so creative. It was through my brother I ended up getting an interview with John (Frieda, the hairstylist) and he gave me a job."

He pauses to take a sip of his cappuccino in Darlington's Gulp cafe, and breaks into an infectious laugh as he recalls how Frieda had difficulty understanding him when he first started. "He used to say to me 'Paul, you're a fantastic hairdresser, but nobody can understand a f***ing word you're saying,' so I ended up having elocution lessons with Lulu's teacher."

Paul, 41, worked for Frieda styling models and actresses for top fashion magazines such as Vogue and Elle, as well as Nicky Clarke and Anthony Mascolo of Toni & Guy.

But at the age of 18, he secured the services of PR guru Lynne Franks, the alleged inspiration for Jennifer Saunders' character in television's Absolutely Fabulous, and his career took off. Over the next five years, he secured agents in New York, Paris and Milan, and worked across the world. He styled celebrities for film companies and on advertisements for the likes of Aspreys and Harvey Nichols. He worked with leading photographers such as Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier and David Bailey. He also had the pleasure of styling the hair of Hollywood actresses and top models, including Liz Hurley (who's "really sweet") Minnie Driver (who quite likes her tight curly hair to be styled wavy) and Andie MacDowell (who's "really nice, very down-to-earth"). By 25, he was proclaimed a transatlantic hair styling star by the Sunday Times magazine.

But it took a little longer to taste success on his next venture - 14 years to be precise. Paul's signature style involves creating sexy, feminine looks and he says he had always wanted to develop his own hair range. He began when hair serums first came onto the market with the aim of producing a range of products which would not only make hair look good, but improve hair health at the same time.

He started off initially by using consultants, but felt they were only showing him what was available to everyone else. Paul wanted to create a new product, a mixture of science and old faithfuls such as wheatgerm and coconut oils, so he took control. Over the next few years, he oversaw every aspect of the range, from the design of the product to the "trial and error" of the content, using the services of a scientist from Macclesfield to help "stabalise" the formula. If he wasn't jetting off abroad to work on Uma Thurman's hair for a fashion magazine, he was back in London, working on his products. But with any long project there comes low points, and for Paul there were many of them.

Over the 14 years, he spent "hundreds of thousands of pounds, every single available penny" on pursuing his dream. He even sold the roof over his head, a two-bed flat in London, to release capital and moved into a draughty warehouse in an undesirable part of Camden, where he was working on the product.

"I built a little kitchen, it was on a stainless steel trolley, everything was stainless steel, then there was a mezzanine where I slept and where I hung my clothes," he says.

"It was freezing. My warehouse was made out of breeze blocks. I would look at the walls and there'd be coffee cup marks because I used to throw them when things got frustrating.

"It was pressure from start to finish. The healthiest thing would have been to give up, but I couldn't. I just had this fear that if I stopped I wouldn't be able to do anything again. Even when I look back I still get emotional about it."

It was during the darker days, living in the warehouse, that Paul also descended into alcoholism. "I used to keep myself warm by cycling around the warehouse with a bottle of Scotch. It was the worst kind of loneliness you could imagine," he admits.

But the turning point finally came when he landed a distribution deal with hair giant Wella, a deal which took two-and-a-half years to seal.

"That's when I stopped drinking. I knew if I kept drinking, I'd f***k it up," he says with a grin. "I just had to stay sober."

After the deal, he sold the warehouse to the man next door and bought a three-bed flat in central London. He has been sober for three-and-a-half years and his MICRO range has just been launched. Paul has achieved what he set out to do and says the range is comparable only to skin care technology.

It blends the scientific - a silicon serum to coat and smooth the hair shaft - with the traditional - moisturising oils and nutrients. The packaging which took so long to design looks slick and stylish.

"I'm proud of this, I really am," he says. "I wanted it to be different, something that spoke for itself, and it is. I can talk about it passionately because I'm passionate about it."

He is now doing the promotional rounds, and continuing to work across the world. He's "kind of" getting his money back and believes he should have it all back in a couple of years. But for now, there is a new venture to keep him busy. He is working with a chemistry professor, with the aim of creating a product to temporarily curl hair.

It would use acrylics to curl the hair, a bit like perming, but would be something you could wash out, he explains. "I'm very inquisitive and I'm fascinated by chemistry. I want to do things that are different and I want something that's going to wow people. It will probably take a long time though," he says.

* MICRO is available from Wella salons nationwide. For stockists contact: 0800 328 340.